Welcome to the August edition of the Wandering Camera linky party.  Thank you so much for the lovely comments and for sharing your photos.  I love visiting your world through photography.

A little introduction for newcomers – This year I started taking one photo per day.  I also started hosting this photography linky party at the same time.  On the first Thursday of every month I share my monthly crop of photos here, along with a few photography tips and I invite you to link up your photo posts from the previous month.

July was insanely busy for me, with very long days and weekends.  Usually, my idea of relaxation is to play with a bit of photography, but I didn’t feel like doing much of that after those long days.  Last month was also exceedingly hot, so I didn’t feel much like driving out either.  Most of the photos of this month are therefore taken in close proximity of our house.  It made me look at simple and familiar things differently, which, of course, is the purpose of taking one photo per day.

I had also been wanting to fiddle with astrophotography a bit and I finally got most of my equipment properly set up for that.  In July I took my first set of photos of Mars and Saturn by connecting my camera to my telescope.

Here are my photos from the month of July in chronological order –

1. My first Mars photo

2.  Saturn the next night

3. Black Eyed Susans always make me stop and admire them

4. Every sunrise is different

5.  He is a very happy kitty when he sits on my desk like this

6. Last couple of plums still hanging on the tree

7.  Rising balloons.  Reminds me of my last month’s finish – Floating At Dawn

8.  A very ornate Victorian house

9.  House right across the street from our favourite cafe

10.  The Star Vega – I love the star flares on this photo

11. Morning at the park

12.  A Zinnia up close – another flower is starting to bloom within it

13.  Bookmarks and booklets made for the Christmas In July blog hop

14.  Field of gold

15. Basking in the morning sun

16. A beautiful doorway

17.  We pass a lot of these restored houses on our walks…

18.  and these blue flowers that are still blooming in the park

19.  Playing with the macro adapter – these thorns are extremely sharp

20.  One of many

21. Perfect peach

22. That power pole was his usual spot until the blackbirds chased him way.

23. A really beautiful and large window

24.  Jasmine

25. Backlit yellow thistle

26. My first two blocks for the Lego Harry Potter Quilt

27. We were running a bit late that morning.  These flowers only open up this much in full sunlight.

28. I had to run up the hill to capture these clouds before the sun peeked over the mountain.

29. Glowing grass pods

30.  I went back to this house to get another photo of the upper level

31. Some houses let local bands perform in front of their houses on Porchfest Day.  It was a cool and breezy Sunday.  We walked around a lot and stopped by several houses.  In the evening we went out for dinner and a movie.  It was a great way to end a month that had left me exhausted.

Since I am more than ready for a break, I wanted to share a couple of things with you before I disappeared for a while.

Introductory post with information and dates

Many thanks to everyone who left a comment on the very first Lego Harry Potter Quilt Along post.  It really made my day.

Since quite a few people have written to me afterwards, I could not keep my resolve.  I will post the first two patterns one more time when I publish the next two.  This way, latecomers can catch up / join in.

As I was writing, the postman delivered a package containing these charm packs.  They came from my fellow Christmas In July blog hop participant Paige Alexander.  I usually shy away from leaving comments on giveaways, but I had to let her know how much I loved her project.  Imagine my surprise when I won!   Thank you so much, Paige!  Please pay her a visit at Quilted Blooms.

Let’s move on to talking some more about photography, specifically White Balance.

White Balance

You will notice that sometimes your photos have a noticeable blue, orange or yellow colour cast on them.   That is due to the surrounding light source, which causes white to not appear as true white.  The White Balance control removes that colour cast, so white appears truly white.

Digital cameras use AWB (auto white balance) to achieve this.  Most of the time it works very well, but sometimes you end up getting those colour casts anyway.  In those cases, you can remove the colour cast by setting the White Balance manually.

Almost all digital cameras come with a few White Balance presets for different light conditions.  They are daylight, shade, cloudy, tungsten, white flourescent and flash.  If you see your photos having a colour tinge, then either change the white balance to match the light source or continue to change it until you see the desired effect.  In most scenarios, the preset WB settings are more than enough.  You can also be a bit more adventurous and set a custom white balance.

So next time your photos have that unwanted colour cast on them, you know how to fix that!

Now it’s your turn to share your photo posts. I always look forward to seeing them.

Badge to share on your post and website

You can add any number of links to your posts from the previous month. The posts should have photos in them, with a story or anecdote. Your project photos (quilting, sewing, painting, knitting, etc.) are most welcome. You can also write a new post to link up. Please do not link up posts that are older than the previous month, they will be removed.

Please make sure to include the badge or a text link back to this site on each post that you link up. You can also add the badge to your blog. I am happy either way as long as you link back :-)

Spread a little encouragement amongst each other.

Wandering Camera is a monthly event that will run on the first Thursday of every month.  If you follow me via email, bloglovin or facebook, you will get a reminder.

Have fun!!

I am also linking up on Photo Friday, Life Thru The Lens, Through My Lens, Our World Tuesday and Friday Photo Journal along with with other linky parties on my sidebar.

Welcome to July’s Wandering Camera linky party. Thank you so much for sharing your photos, and also for leaving such lovely comments.

The month of May ended with me caring for my post-surgery kitty Taffy, and that continued into June. The first couple of weeks I was home with him the whole time. We cuddled together;  he purred, while I worked or read. He healed exceptionally well and fast. Thank you so much for your well wishes!

We had some spectacular cloud formation in the early part of the month. It was wonderful to be outside working in the yard under the canopy of passing clouds. I also visited my beloved park to be a bit closer to the trees and plants. At first glance it looks like the summer dryness is all-consuming, but I keep on finding new plant life every time I look closer.

It was also a busy month for me, designing custom patterns and working on the events happening here. I mentioned them on my earlier Summer Events And Finishes post.

It was nice to take a break here and there with the camera in my hand.  So here they are – photos for the month of June in chronological order –

1. First flower of the season on my mini-rose plant

2. Glass lights on my neighbour’s patio, lit up by the afternoon sun

3. New mittens, I have been wearing them regularly

4. Eve’s Pudding – our new favourite!

5. Wonder what story the cloud-quill will write

6. My new paintbox, a gift from my husband

7. Taffy sticking his tongue out at the world (or at me) after his stitches were removed.

8. Blooming teasel. I have yet to find one that is completely covered with the white blossoms.

9. Even on overcast mornings, these flowers are bright blue

10. It’s always a pleasure to see Montague relaxing. He had a hard life before he joined our family.

11. Iridescent clouds

12. Found a new park with beautiful big trees

13. Moon and a jet

14. Violin watercolour sketch

15. Dry straw, new flowers

16. Dew-covered buds warming up in the early morning sun

17. My husband is off to go racing for the weekend

18. Bowl of cloud

19. A touch of cloud-softened sunlight on the rose

20. Charlie! ( I have no words to describe this )

21. Floating At Dawn, a June finish

22. Coming around the dark corner for some sunlight

23. Backlit grass ( I’m still playing with grass photo composition )

24. Yarrow everywhere

25. Afternoon walk

26. Growing roots on a cut Basil

27. Twin Suns of Tatooine

28. Charlie trying to cause trouble!

29. Above the clouds

30. Gently waving in the morning light

Since this is my first post in July, I thought I’d mention the two events that are coming up this month.  Sarah from Confessions of a fabric addict is hosting a Christmas in July Blog Hop.  It will be running from the 14th – 24th with lots of fun projects, big and small.  My day is on the 18th.

Then the Lego Harry Potter quilt along starts on July 28th.

Exposure Compensation

A lot of times I find myself taking photos when light isn’t perfect. That typically results in over-exposed or under-exposed photos. I am not very fond of being sloppy on the field and then covering up my mistakes during post-processing. I would rather at least try to take a good photo to begin with. For that reason I use the Exposure Compensation feature of the camera all the time.

I talked about ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed being the three pillars of a well-exposed photo. Your camera picks a combination of these three that should theoretically result in a good photo. That is often not the case.

It may pick a high ISO resulting in photos with too much grain/noise. Aperture may be too low, so parts of the image may be out of focus. If the shutter speed is too low, you get a blurry photo of moving objects or even a blurry photo of stationary objects, if you find yourself without a stand.

Sometimes, the camera simply gets it wrong and picks settings that result in either over- or under-exposed photos.

So I pick my own settings by using the exposure compensation as a guide.

This is a picture of exposure compensation on your camera.

Although the mark at 0 works most of the time, it is not always right.

If your photos are overexposed, then you probably want to take photos 1 or 2 notches under 0 to avoid that.  I find that to be true in broad daylight.

In low light, you would want to go a little over 0 to get all the detail.

Cameras with full manual setting

You will see something similar to the exposure compensation picture above, either through your viewfinder, or on your LCD screen. You can move the notch by changing your ISO, aperture and shutter speed.

If I am doing landscape photography where I don’t really care about the shutter speed, I typically set a low ISO value to avoid grain, a high aperture value to get a fully focused photo and then I set the shutter speed. Of course if that value is too low, I use a stand.

For moving objects such as wildflowers, I start with a high shutter speed, then set the aperture and lastly move the ISO to get a well-exposed and focused photo.

The order of settings changes depending on your subject matter.

Point and shoot cameras

Most cameras nowadays have a setting for exposure compensation. On Canon cameras it is typically denoted by a +/- switch.  Check the manual of your camera to find the specific setting.  Use that to change the exposure.  That will make a huge difference, believe me!

Couple of extra tips

If you are not getting enough shutter speed even after setting high ISO and low aperture values, you can set the exposure compensation to 1 or 2 notches under 0. That will increase the shutter speed.  Although you will get a slightly under-exposed photo, you can increase the brightness and contrast using a basic photo-editing software.

For snow photos, over-expose a little.  That will result in photos with dazzling white snow.

On cloudy days, over-expose a little to avoid dull photos.

In bright sunlight during midday outside, under-expose a little to avoid bright spots.

Take multiple exposures if needed.  You can always delete the extra photos.

I hope you find this helpful.  As I have been saying, play with the settings to see the difference.  Once you get used to it, you are going to love it!!

Now it’s your turn to share your photo posts. I always look forward to seeing them.

Badge to share on your post and website

You can add any number of links to your posts from the previous month. The posts should have photos in them, with a story or anecdote. Your project photos (quilting, sewing, painting, knitting, etc.) are most welcome. You can also write a new post to link up. Please do not link up posts that are older than the previous month, they will be removed.

Please make sure to include the badge or a text link back to this site on each post that you link up. You can also add the badge to your blog. I am happy either way as long as you link back :-)

Spread a little encouragement amongst each other.

I will leave the link-up open for two weeks.

Wandering Camera is a monthly event that will run on the first Thursday of every month. The next post and link-up will be on the 4th of August. If you follow me via email, bloglovin or facebook, you will get a reminder.

Have fun!!

I am also linking up on Photo Friday, Life Thur Lens, Through My Lens, Our World Tuesday and Friday Photo Journal along with with other linky parties on my sidebar.