Welcome to this month’s Wandering Camera linky party – the April Edition.  Thank you for sharing a little bit of your world with us by linking up in March.  I am also loving those photography and camera experiments you are doing.

I kept the link-up open for little over a week the last couple of months, but my wonderful friends posted about Wandering Camera even after the link-up was closed.  So, to give ourselves a little more time, I am extending the link-up to two weeks.  I can’t thank you enough for your support!

March was a month of rain and wind with intermittent sunshine.  Spring came early for us and I discovered the world of wildflower photography while enjoying being outside. However, by the end of the month, I was brutally reminded of my allergies.  It will get a lot worse as Spring comes into full swing, but I will try to keep myself distracted with photography as much as I can.

The latter part of the March photos is concentrated around wildflowers.  They are so pretty, you can’t blame an outdoor girl like me for admiring them.   Here’s my photo set from March in chronological order.

1. Lord Vader is unhappy with my Lego progress

2.  Brownies

3. First signs of spring

4.  Rain-soaked fence

5. Wine field in the rain

6. Street light reflecting on the wet sidewalk

7. Rain clouds make for beautiful sunsets

8. New pencil case with my little Viking penguin Olaf

9. Start of a herb garden

10. Charlie cuddled up on a rainy day

11. Downpour

12.  Flooded creek

13. Sitting beside my relaxed friend while listening to the patter of rain and reading

14. End of our walk

15. Pink wild radish

16. Redwood Violet

17. Spring Vetch looking like pink butterflies

18. Old Man Of Spring – I love his crazy “hair”

19. Home-made granola for those long hiking days

20.  Captured raindrop

21. Coming down again

22. March knitting

23. Strange red-yellow sunlight filtering through the clouds

24. Teasel

25. Yellow Owl’s Clover – they are tiny!

26. A happy and healthy Montague on his new quilt

27. Larkspur – I call them pixie hats

28.  Sun dog

29. Western Blue-eyed Grass flower

30. Painting of a Stone building

31. Found a duck pond during a lunch-time walk

Can’t help but share a little sneak peek at my new block

Spring has either arrived for some of you or on its way to the more patient among you, bringing more flowers in April and May.  I have learned a few things about flower photography over the past few weeks, so I thought I’d pass them on to you.

Wildflower Portraits

If you have just a few flowers blooming here and there like I had in March, it’s nicer to take portraits of them.

The Flower

Try to pick a flower that is unblemished and not damaged by bugs.

Lens – Zoomed-in

Start with zooming in to take a photo of a flower stalk, you can photograph pretty flower clusters that way.  If you wish to aspire higher, you could try taking photos of a single flower using macro photography.

You can set your point-and-shoot camera to the macro setting which is often marked by a little flower icon.  That will enable you to get closer to your subject, in this case the flower.

Lens – Macro

For those of you with cameras capable of using interchangeable lenses, you can purchase this Macro adapter from Opteka for approximately $25.00.  It screws on in front of the lens and turns it into a macro lens.  It’s a great and inexpensive way to get your feet wet in the macro world.

Even with auto-focus turned on, use your eyes to find the plane (surface) of focus while using this adapter.  Try to focus on the centre of the plane as much as you can.

Aperture

This one is for cameras with manual settings.  You want to use a really high aperture value if you want sharp photos.  Set your camera’s aperture value between F11 – F16.  Higher the better.

Shutter Speed

With manual setting cameras you can set the shutter speed as well.  When you are looking through your lens you will notice that the flowers move A LOT with the gentlest of breezes!  So you want to set the shutter speed to at least 1/250.

ISO

Since you are restricted by the need to set your aperture and shutter speed really high, the only thing you can play with to get brighter photos is the ISO value.  Move up the ISO if you need to.  In good light hours you can use 400 or even 800 to get nice photos without any noise or graininess.  (Read more about ISO on the March post)

Light

Petals are translucent, so you might battle with over-exposed flowers if the sun is behind the flower.  If the sun is facing the flower, then you will cast your own shadow on the flower since you are sitting between the sun and the flower.  Try to find a flower facing perpendicular to or at least at an angle to the sun.

Flowers in partly-shaded areas work well.  Overcast days are also great.  You will need to go up on ISO, but every angle is open to you.

Time

On windy days you will need to be especially patient.  There are pockets where the wind slows down enough for you to focus and take sharp photos.  Take multiple shots.  Many of them will be out of focus or the flower will have moved out of the frame by the time you press the shutter.

Use the zoom-in feature while reviewing the pictures on your camera to make sure you are happy with your work.

Now you should be all set to go out and capture those lovely colours and shapes of the Spring wildflowers around you!  Don’t get bogged down in the details, remember to enjoy the flowers and have fun!

Now it’s your turn to share your photo posts.  I always look forward to seeing them.  Every photo is special because it suspends a moment and everyone sees the world around us differently!  So don’t compare and contrast, just have fun and see the world that only your eyes can see!

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 :-)

** Linked posts not including a link back will be removed in fairness to other participants. **

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 5th of May.  If you follow me via email, bloglovin or facebook, you will get a reminder.

Have fun!!

Welcome to the March edition of the Wandering Camera linky party.  We had a great start in February with so many of you linking up and visiting each other, thank you so much!  It was a lot of fun seeing your photos and reading about them.

February tossed me a few hurdles.  I got badly sick from the flu and couldn’t go outside for a while.  A couple of days later my husband got sick too.  We also had to visit the vet a few times for the kitties.  One of them is spending this week at the hospital.

I found solace in long walks, and in taking photos to find little joys here and there looking through my lens.  So here are my photos from the month of February.  They are in chronological order, 1st – 29th of February.

1. I love the velvety texture of sage

2.  New silvery treasure from the kitchen store

3. Warming up after a long walk in the rain

4.  Hiking at sunset

5. Old theatre in Sonoma

6. Sunset at Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

7. Comforted by old friends while sick in bed

8. Sneaked out to the backyard for a little bit

9. Bringing the outdoors to me by painting the Sierra trees in acrylic

10. Charlie soaking in the sun

11. All the buds bursting into bloom within just a couple of days

12.  Enjoying the first evening out of the house

13. Earthquake-damaged old post office – it will probably be demolished

14. Another beautiful building in Napa – also quake-damaged

15. The purple house by our favourite cafe

16. White flowers and blue skies

17. Pensive Montague

18. Treasuring my new watercolour paints

19. A wee dram

20.  Setting sunlight coloured these flowers a vibrant red

21. Art gallery

22. Moonrise

23. Not snow but flower-flakes

24. Late afternoon walk at a local Park

25. A beautifully restored Victorian house

26. Showing off his orange fur

27. My first Madeleines

28.  Delighted at spotting wild iris during a hike

29. Distracting myself by writing notes on possible future travel destinations after leaving Monty at the hospital

 
I am using a newly-acquired camera for these photos.  It behaves very differently from my other camera which is of much better quality.  I am learning a lot about the new camera as I continue to take these photos.  One of the settings I love to play with is ISO.

ISO Setting

In February I talked about different kinds of light.  Cameras will always do really well in well-lit settings, but the automatic settings do not always work in low light.  The ISO setting of your camera is great for those situations.  ISO values can be set on most cameras, including some point-and-shoot cameras.

You can change the light sensitivity of your camera by changing the ISO .  Light sensitivity means the amount of light needed for a well-exposed photo.

ISO And Shutter Speed

Lower ISO requires more light.  Under bright light you can take a photo quite easily using a fast shutter speed and a low ISO.  With the same ISO and less available light you will need to use a longer shutter speed for a photo.  That is quite impossible without a stand and may not be desirable for a moving subject.

Pro – Higher ISO = Faster Shutter Speed

Similarly, higher ISO is more light sensitive, therefore needs less light for a good exposure.  So a higher ISO value enables you to use a faster shutter speed.  Using a combination of higher ISO and faster shutter speed, you can take that elusive photo in low light.

Con – Higher ISO = More Noise

Then why not use a high ISO all the time?  There is a caveat.  The higher the ISO number is, the more noise or grain your photos are going to have.  That means photos are not going to look smooth at higher ISO numbers.  How noisy it is going to be is completely dependent on the camera.  In automatic mode, your camera sets the ISO for you.  If you want finer control over shutter speed or noise level, you want to set the ISO yourself.

My usual ISO settings

I usually use 100 – 200 on clear, sunny days.  I go up to 400 on cloudy days, early mornings and late afternoon hours.  From 800 onward, it completely depends on the camera I am using.  On a couple of my cameras I can go up to 1600 or 3200 without adding much noise.  On my point-and-shoot camera, anything over 800 causes so much noise that I don’t like using it for most photos.

That must-have photo

If, however, the option is getting a photo vs. not, then you want to go ahead and use that higher ISO to get a faster shutter speed.  That way the photo might be grainy, but it will be in focus.

The best thing to do is play with different ISO settings at different light conditions.  One last note –  Always set the value back to your usual ISO once you are done taking photos in those exception situations.  That way, the next time you use your camera, you won’t end up taking a bunch of photos with the wrong ISO value by mistake.  I usually keep mine at 400.

I hope this encourages you to learn your camera a little more this month.

Now it’s your turn to share your photo posts.  I always look forward to seeing them.  Every photo is special because it suspends a moment and everyone sees the world around us differently!  So don’t compare and contrast, just have fun and see the world that only your eyes can see!

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 a whole week.

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 7th of April.  If you follow me via email, bloglovin or facebook, you will get a reminder.

Have fun!!

-Soma