Thursday, January 13, 2011

Still musing on "internal" factors...

This really has me thinking--this question from Kat about why we love photography. I love the spontaneity of catching a moment in time that never existed before and never will again. I love the technical side of using the camera; I love it when everything works together just perfectly and a shot is just gorgeous. Admittedly, that works for me infrequently, but it's working more than it used to. I love being able to look at what I want to shoot and judging the correct settings to use on my camera, taking the shot, and having it turn out the way I saw it. I was determined when I got my first good camera last year to keep it out of automatic modes and to learn to take photographs in manual right away. Learning the nuances of lighting has been trickier. But I will practice this week. And next week. This level of instruction and mentoring is inspiring! And it's great to see a few familiar names from Tracey Clark's "Picture" classes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtnviewpottery/5351379661/
The lighting in this little cafe was lovely after a fresh snow outside. A friend of mine and I stopped by for lunch on Tuesday and I took some quick photos.

In an effort to save photos to an external hard drive and to DVD's, I deleted just about every picture I've made since last Spring. I don't know exactly what the damage is yet, but no pics remain in my laptop, well, very few. I'm going to work tonight on pulling some together for my inspiration file. I've known this since before the holidays, but I'm just now really processing what it means. I just don't know how many I saved to other DVD/CD's, and what saved to the hard drive. I thought that the thumbnails in PSE9 meant that the pics were saved, so I deleted the folders containing the originals. Hard way to learn a lesson!

3 comments:

  1. Hi Jan:) So nice to receive your comment today.

    Regarding "Why we love photography" -- simply, i can't imagine life without my lens. capturing those moments. and, seeing things i overlooked in the moment, but are clearly present in the photo. all about discovery. and miracles.

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  2. Hi Jan,
    I love this cafe photo and the moment you captured the lighting from the snow reflection really makes the atmosphere I just got what I call a "big girl camera". I am inspired by your thoughts on starting out not in auto but in manual mode right out of the gate. Love it!

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  3. So wonderful to read your motivations! I love how clear you are about why you love photography. I'm sorry to hear about the potential loss of your images - ouch. I've done that before, moved photos around and ended up deleting some favorites. Think of it this way: The memories are still in your brain, even if the photos aren't on your hard drive. It's the experiences that are the important things in life.

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