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.