Two Sunsets

I found these two photographs very interesting.  They are taken of the exact same location, approximately one minute apart.  The first one was taken with a flash.  When I saw how dark it was, I turned off the flash and took the bottom one which came out looking like what I saw when I took the camera off my eye.  To me, it is very interesting that the flash--which is supposed to make things brighter--made this photo darker.

Anyone have an explanation for it?

04DEC11

Today is just gorgeous.  It rained like crazy the first half of the day and--now--the rain is gone except for a few sprinkles here and there.  What is left, however, is these lovely dark clouds which will probably bring us some more rain--we really still need a ton.

I happen to really love cloudy, cool days.  In the Autumn especially, they make for such a lovely view.  I couldn't help heading outside late this afternoon to take several shots of the landscape around our house.  I know that the first photograph is the same focus as the two I took and posted earlier today, but the look of this photo versus the other two is completely different.  

For whatever reason, the monochromatic grays in storm clouds against the colors of Autumn leaves (or really even the regular old green of Spring and Summer) just looks like the most gorgeous picture that ever could be.   I can't help wanting to photograph this kind of beauty.   

This one was effort on my part of accomplish a certain kind of look.  I think, perhaps, I failed.  I liked the vertical lines of the porch and tried to "frame" that little orange tree with the columns and make the space between the columns equi-distant.   That wasn't really possible if I wanted the whole tree to be between any of the columns.  I wanted to add the porch swing which Pop's grandson made for him, but I'm not sure the photograph is balanced.  Any thoughts?

This would have been great if I had noticed that white truck was there and waited a few seconds! All those different colors make me so happy.  Check out those grays against the greens?  Lovely, yeah?

Two Trees

I went outside this morning to put the dog out--she wouldn't go cos of the rain. While outside, though, I noticed that the rain made everything kinda pretty, so I decided to take a photograph. The photos are in chronological order. I thought that the second one was a more balanced photograph and more interesting because of the rain puddles and the fact that there was more to see cos I was standing further back and bending down to get more into the photo. As most of you know, I am just a beginner in the art of photography, so any insight, CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, or praise would be welcome!
Which photo do you think is better and why? <3

04DEC11 Oh, Christmas Tree!

Here is our Christmas Tree, put up last week by Pop's son. What a grand job he did! <3

03DEC11

Well, I upgraded my camera y'all. Remember that Kodak Easy Share I got last year for Christmas from Pop? It died Tuesday. :( So, I had to invest in another camera. I could have just gotten another point and shoot, but I figured that every new camera should be an upgrade until I get the one that I am happy to have without wanting to upgrade. Make sense? I'm not even sure it does to me, but we'll move onward. I still don't even know what in the world I'm doing, but I figure I've got enough down to be able to take a picture. This one is the first one I took after I formatted the camera/memory card. I was eating McDonald's so I hopped out the back door which heads out to the playground and took this one while there was still light out. Not award-winning, I know, but it works for a first photo. :) Oh, I guess I should tell y'all which kind of camera I got--It is a Canon EOS Rebel T3. Does anyone know what EOS means? ;-P

24NOV11--Thanksgiving

The sunset in Baytown, Texas on Thanksgiving evening. Beautiful! :)

Experiment # 1-Megapixels

I'm trying to learn a few things about photography. Thanks to my nephew, Sam, I discovered some of the little details of my Kodak Easy Share. For example, I can take pictures which are 1 MP, 2 MP, 3 MP, 6 .MP, 9 MP, 11 MP, and 12 MP. I decided to do an experiment. I took a photograph of the same item, in all 7 varying sizes and will post them so that I--and you, if it interests you--can see what the difference is between each size. One thing I discovered is that each size can be different in regard to its 'shape.' For example, 2 MP and 9 Mp hold a 16 X 9 (I think?) shape and the rest hold some slight variation of a 4 X 3 shape. Those two more rectangular shaped photos have the bottom of the flower wreath cut off whereas the other photos seem to have been taken from further back. The fact is that the camera was held in exactly the same position for each photo. Clearly, I have no clue as to WHY these changes occur, but they sure are interesting. The next order of business is just to look at the photos and see if we can tell a difference in quality of the photos in reference to their size. If you have any comments or bits of wisdom, don't hesitate to pass 'em along, y'all!

12 MP

11 MP

9 mp

6 MP

3 MP

2 MP

1 MP