His Leavers Day series , it was a series of rather fine portraits of some of the students , mainly girls , wearing autographed shirts - very fine they were too . Now they have vanished and all we have are the white shapes saying that they have been removed or moved

I saw them first time round

Could it be that they [ Photobucket ] thought that they were too young for public display ?

They were cracking shots too

Interesting - having got that sorted they took their revenge on Bwichmawr's portraits

OK - I said I thought I should start a new thread

link

OK - I said I thought that mebbe this should go to a new thread - so here goes.

It goes back a bit - forgive me if I ramble a bit in explanation.

I seriously started to use a camera when I got my Kodak C 703 - a nice little 7.1 megapixel P&S - nowhere near as sophisticated as the Optio P70.

The Kodak was great - I loved it , learned a lot from Photomonk and thoroughly enjoyed using it . The size was very helpful and from Feb 2008 it was with me everytime I went into the Hospital visiting my husband - I kept a record of his admissions - some pics are very heart string tugging , all are very memorable but I got other things as well - a yellow whirly bird landing and the crew sitting waiting , lovely roses in the garden outside the block where my husband was treated all that sort of thing .

Towards the end I was getting frustrated as I felt I wanted to take more control of HOW I was taking photos - but I couldn't go as far as I wanted , or achieve what I wanted - I was frustrated

In July 2009 I was in Belgium using the Fuji S5000 Zoom - a very different kettle of fish . I used it as a P&S but started to look at it more closely and realised I was going to be able to start using different settings on it and taking more control - but this didn't happen as it died on me in August

Soooo I started thinking in terms of a new camera - yes probably more than a simple P&S and I ' talked ' about it with the Photomonk - and slowly I found I was being steered towards a DSLR so I could really take control of HOW I took my photos . So by November I found I was ordering up a K-x !!

Cometh the beginning of December the K-x and I finally met Oh my what a difference - the photos I took , using it on fully automatic were of a very different standard and I was told to go and read my manual The intention was for me to move gently from automatic settings to go fully manual.

As you know I went on a course in January and throughout that I found the emphasis was really on shooting fully manually - I was actually the only one using Av and Tv. So of course I had the impression that to take good photos you shot manually .

I didn't think I was ready until about 2 weeks ago , when I realised I was happily shooting in Av without thinking too hard about what f stop to use so thought the time had come.

So about 2 days ago I started using Manual - yes - switched the lens to M from AF , turned the dial to M, took a deep breath and got on with it . First shots were not great , todays were a great improvement , I really felt much happier . What I posted today were just 3 from a series of 6 - 3 of the Rhodie Bush and 3 of that darn yellow skip - and I really didn't pick the best for you - I just picked 3.

BUT


I felt I needed advice - hence the questions and as a result I know have more questions

How many of you actually shoot manually over 90% of the time ?

How many of you use either Av or Tv for most of the time ?

What are your reasons for not being manual 100% of the time ?

Now persuade me to either stay in Av / Tv or go fully manual

oh - that first one - the snoooooooozing duck.

Just look at the curves in his plumage , and the beautiful shading in the colours - fabulous.

the first iMac - it was coloured and curvy and not a grey / beige box

Aliengrove


Hmmmm - this is rather interesting And I think that it goes back a good while .

Maybe I should start a new thread elsewhere for this . My reasons for wishing to go manual are complicated , I think , and actually go back to my days of point and shoot .

Terry - I'm still working through the manual

I was quite happy using Av and indeed Tv - hence my move to Manual and have been absorbing pages 100 and 101 . I had a quick look at Metering [ page 104 ] and went

That is going to have to come later when I can actually understand it

However there won't be much time to practise anything now till my Daughter and the tribe head South [ they arrive tomorrow ] since we will be filling that skip The last one [ October ] was well filled - the tractor unit was bouncing as it lifted it on - I have a very interesting pic of that

In between the heavy showers today , and a skip being delivered [ which will be filled from my attic again ] I have carried on my practice attempts at shooting totally manually .

I certainly felt happier this time but am left now wondering just how you decide which f stop to use - and from there which shutter speed . Yes I know - the wider open the aperture [ smaller number ] more light gets in so I can use a faster speed . Today the light is not good so I experimented a bit - hopefully the data has been preserved.

Artistically these aren't much good - that bush, as you will realise is virtually all my garden - but it will do for now for practice .

So after looking at these attempts please can you give me a clue ?

All shot with my DA L 18-55

1)

[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/IMGP0989.jpg[/IMG]

2)

[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/IMGP0991.jpg[/IMG]

3)
[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/IMGP0994.jpg[/IMG]