Heather & Chopper's Wonderful World of ...
Musing, ramblings, and photographs from the lives of Heather and Chopper Johnson.
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Happily, I’m finding that I’m not as frustrated with my little point-and-shoot camera as I have been. There’s a limited program mode where I can set, at least to some degree, ISO and exposure, although I can’t control shutter speed or aperture directly. I shot with the automatic bracketing on today, and I’m pleased with the results.
Today’s photo is of the fence in front of the John Rutledge Inn on Broad Street. Sony Cybershot DSC-P10, ISO 400, F3.5, 1/30, 14 mm, slightly underexposed.
Tags: a photo a day, charleston, photos
Part of my desire to get the Photos section of this site back up and running is that I have a cool project to share. During the month of October, I’m shooting a photo a day to document the month. It’s likely to be some humdrum stuff but I’m hoping that the rigor of having a mini-deadline each day will help me get some interesting shots, too.
Since I’m obviously behind in posting these photos here because of the technical difficulties, I’ll go ahead and share the first five days worth of photos. I’m shooting with two cameras: my beloved Nikon D70 DSLR and my small Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P10. If you go to the album itself, choose Detail mode from at the bottom right to show EXIF information.
October 1
The first photo of the month was one of those “interesting shots” I’m hoping to get. I was contemplating what to shoot, and then I spotted a tiny intruder on our kitchen table, running laps on Chopper’s wedding ring. Nikon D70, ISO 1600, F4.5, 1/60, 70 mm, exposed according to the meter.
October 2
A palmetto tree and street light outside the Harris Teeter on East Bay Street. Sony Cybershot DSC-P10, ISO 100, F5.6, 1/80, 8 mm. Slightly underexposed -1/3 EV. I took an overexposed shot at +1/3 EV and liked the detail I got in the light filament better in the underexposed one.
October 3
The floor in our living room, which is original heart pine. Nikon D70, ISO 1600, F4.5, 1/20, 70mm, exposed according to the meter.
October 4
A pile of my gadgets. My personal laptop (bottom), work laptop, iPod, Palm TX, work Blackberry, and my cell phone. Nikon D70, ISO 1600 (and you can definitely see the grain in the larger version), F4.5, 1/180, 50mm, underexposed according to the meter with fill-in flash.
October 5
Sony Cybershot DSC-P10, ISO 120, F2.8, 1/30, 8 mm. My photography class instructor would say “soft focus.” I say “out of focus.” Wish I’d had my Nikon but we were walking to dinner at Jestine’s and one cannot always have a DSLR and multiple lenses.
I have to give some kudos to MidPhase, our web host, for their very speedy response to my (eventual) request for aid on the broken Gallery2 installation. I’ve been very happy with them as a provider, so if you’re looking for a host, I really recommend them.
Tags: a photo a day, charleston, nature, photos
I know it’s spring because I have just eaten several of the first strawberries of the year from the Charleston Farmer’s Market. Never mind that the high today is supposed to be 49 degrees. It’s the first Saturday in April, and that means Marion Square is full of vendors selling jewelry, photos, local produce, crepes, lemonade, and just about anything else you can think of. Oh, and kettle corn. Mmm.
So I’ve spent my Saturday morning in the way I prefer to – wandering down to the farmer’s market, people watching, eating some kettle corn, and picking out some fruits and veggies. In this case, that means three pints of strawberries, some of which I might even share, and some skinny, very long asparagus that is fantastic sauteed with just a little butter and salt.
I get to do this every Saturday I want to until December. It’s a fantastic life.
Tags: charleston
Chopper and I went out to Charles Towne Landing today in our continuing enjoyment of our Be a Tourist in Your Own Town passes, and I shot about 130 photos, some of which I’ll use for my photography class assignment this week on depth of field. When I came home and reviewed the photos, the ones I intentionally overexposed came out fairly normal, and the ones shot according to the meter were dark. So, much to my chagrin, I realized that I’d shot the entire day with the exposure compensation set to -2EV.
Dang. But, I’ve learned a couple of things. First, where the exposure compensation is on my camera and how to use it. Second, to double check my basic settings before I start shooting. And third, I now have a logical explanation as to why everything was dark. I’ve uploaded the photos I’ll use for my class assignment and will go back and upload some others from the day at a later time.
As a side note, if you look at these photos (or any others on our site), you can see the EXIF information including aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, and the dreaded “exposure bias value” (exposure compensation) by choosing Detail as the display mode. If you look at this, that means you, too, are a geek. And I love you for that.
I did get some photos that made me happy, including the flawlessly symmetrical camellia I included here and two bird shots, one of an anhinga and the other of an egret.
I am happy. I have an excellent camera, two pretty versatile lenses, two batteries, and 3 gig of storage space. I suspect I can get into a good bit of trouble from there.
Tags: charleston, nature, photos
Did you know …
One of my Christmas presents from Chopper was a pair of Be a Tourist in Your Own Town passes, which we did a few years back and really liked. The passes give us access to a number of local attractions and restaurants during the month of January. We took off for the Charleston Tea Plantation on Saturday, where the local favorite American Classic tea originates. The plantation is lovely even in January and we had quite an enjoyable tour of the grounds and tea processing equipment. We are now the proud owners of a tea plant seed and husk, which I have no idea what I will actually do with.
On our way back, we stopped at the Angel Oak, not officially on the pass but one of the most remarkable sights anywhere in the area, if not on the continent. The Angel Oak is a tree, specifically a live oak that is approximately 1400 years old, making it the oldest living thing east of the Rockies. It’s amazing. I took a ton of photos and none of them really show the scope of such an enormous tree. The branches dip down and even come back up out of the ground – it’s almost more like a cave than a tree. I felt very small, and very humble.
I also had the compelling desire to go back after I’ve finished my photography class and retake some of the shots …
Tags: charleston, photos
Netflix – at home