A Stroll in the Park

After days of non-stop rain, Mr. Sunshine has decided to show his beautiful and warm face. Jake and I visited the University of Kentucky Arboretum for an Arbor Day celebration. Of course I took my beloved camera (and canine) with. I am pretty proud of my pictures today...looks like my photography practices finally paid off a little.

f/5, 1/800, ISO 200

f/5.3, 1/500, ISO 200

f/5.3, 1/400, ISO 200

f/5.3, 1/1000, ISO 200

f/7.1, 1/400, ISO 200

f/5, 1/1000, ISO 100

I love taking pictures of flowers because no matter how bad the pictures turn out, the flowers are still beautiful. The pictures capture the short lifespan of these full-bloomed flowers. They are the perfect subjects for photography.

f/5.3, 1/800, ISO 100

f/5, 1/320, ISO 100

f/4.8, 1/1000, ISO 100

f/5, 1/800, ISO 100

Stomy Weather

It has been like this:

f/10, 1/125, ISO 800


and this:

f/10, 1/200, ISO 800


and this:

f/10, 1/80, ISO 800


and more rain...

f/5.6, 1/250, ISO 1600, +0.3EV


For the past five days.

I am tired of watching the weather channel like it's my job to track the thunderstorms and tornado warnings...

f/4.5, 1/13, ISO 1600

...and having a skittish wet dog who is scared of the sound of wind, thunder, and sirens.

f/4.5, 1/10, ISO 1600, +0.3EV


I guess all I can do is sit patiently and wait for the storm to past.

f/4.5, 1/8, ISO 1600

Horses

f/7.1, 1/30, ISO 800

While I was at Keeneland last weekend for the horse race, I visited some race horses in the nearby stables.

f/5.6, 1/40, ISO 800

Aren't they gorgeous? Like muscle machines, ready to bust out the race gates.

f/5, 1/8, ISO 800

It's even better when you see names like "Dixie Union Tropical Punch" or "Star While It Shot".

f/5.6, 1/25, ISO 800

Each of them has an unique personality.

f/6.3, 1/60, ISO 800

Some like to nib on your hand while some enjoy the attention and pets.

f/6.3, 1/50, ISO 800

Beautiful.

f/5.6, 1/30, ISO 800

Vegetable Gardening, Part III

Here is some updates on my little balcony garden.

Miss Cherry Tomato

f/5, 1/13, ISO 400

New pole beanie babies. Pole beans, that is.

f/5.6, 1/15, ISO 800

The older pole beans we put in three weeks ago.

f/4.8, 1/40, ISO 800

Hey there, Mr. Zucchini

f/5.3, 1/25, ISO 400

Itsy, bitsy spinach

f/4.5, 1/13, ISO 800

The tomato bunch family

f/5, 1/10, ISO 200

Little peppers

f/5.6, 1/13, ISO 800

I can't wait for all of them to grow up!

Happy Friday!

Shutter Speed

There are four ways to adjust the settings on a SLR: manual, aperture, shutter speed, and program. You can choose either of the above and the rest will adjust itself. I always uses aperture because I find it easier to understand. When I find the aperture I want, the camera automatically adjusts the shutter speed according the light it senses. So while I was in Keeneland on Sunday, I decided to experiment with shutter speed.

By choosing shutter speed as the priority setting, the camera will select the appropriate aperture that will produce the optimal exposure. Faster shutter speeds like 1/2500 will "freeze" moving objects while slower shutter speeds like 1/10 will create a blurry look. Notice how the pictures I took from the horse races were kind of blurry? You see, I tried to change the shutter speed to as fast as possible but this also means there's less time for light to enter the camera and therefore darker picture.

f/5.6, 1/1250, ISO 100

f/5.6, 1/1250, ISO 100

Even though I took both pictures on a bright and sunny day, they still came out looking dark. But I was able to capture the motion.

I adjusted the shutter speed so I would get the best light. Somewhat blurry.

f/11, 1/100, ISO 400

Then I tried the "Sports" setting on my camera. The ISO changed to 400 and I could get a better freeze motion picture with fast shutter speed. Slightly better.

f/5.6, 1/1250, ISO 400

f/6.3, 1/1600, ISO 400

Hmmmm....what a dilemma I have here. I am not sure what else to do, perhaps changing the ISO to a higher number or adding flash?

Keeneland Race Sunday

The track

f/10, 1/1250, ISO 800

The crowd

f/16, 1/50, ISO 100

The gate

f/6.3, 1/1600, ISO 100

The bell rings
The gate opens

Here they come!

f/6.3, 1/320, ISO 100

f/5.6, 1/320, ISO 100

f/5.6, 1/320, ISO 100 (Mind the head in the corner, I did not get a good spot)

The crowd cheers!
There's excitement in the air!
And the winner is number 2!

I put on my fancy Sunday dress and heels on and went to Keeneland Horse Track with a few friends to watch horse racing. I knew nothing about placing bets, and needless to say the race horses. I learned that win is first place followed by place and show, second and third place, respectively.

I placed two dollars on number 5 Delago

The victory lap

f/6.3, 1/320, ISO 100

f/10, 1/120, ISO 100

I loved the excitement and the cheers that fills the air in that short 20 seconds of racing. I watched three races today and I could do it all day.

The best part was that few seconds when the gate opens up and the horses bust through with jockeys sitting up high holding a whip...it gave me a rush of adrenaline and I jumped up and down hoping my horse would win.

But my horse did not place

Spot Metering

I learned a cool trick today. It's called spot metering. Most pictures are taken in the matrix (or multi-zone)mode, meaning all aspects of the scene are taken in by the camera. When you set the camera to spot metering, the camera will only select a very small area of the scene. This works very well in very high contrast scenes. I am still trying out with spot metering but here are a couple examples.

f/5.6, 1/80, ISO 400

f/5.3, 1/100, ISO 1600

Happy Friday!

This Week: A List

This week my life has been taken over by the 10 page research paper. I knew about the assignment since January but I chose to start the paper about 5 days ago. Good move. But I am happy to tell you that I am writing on page 9 and I still have 24 hours until the deadline. Meanwhile, I managed to accomplish the following things:

1. I ate half of a cantaloupe in 3 days.

f/5.3, 1/13, ISO 200

I am not the only who loves cantaloupe.

f/5.3, 1/30, ISO 1600, +0.3EV

2. We were in Petsmart yesterday and someone (it wasn't me or Jake) got so excited that she peed in the store. For a well potty-trained dog, it was a big O-O-P-S.

f/7.1, 1/25, ISO 1600

I wonder if she is still embarrassed by it.

3. I watched the leaves grow by the second. I hope it would eventually cover up my naked neighbor across the street. (The latter is somewhat true)

f/20, 1/40, ISO 200

4. I made Mexican lasagna.

f/5.3, 1/50, ISO 1600

5. I had homemade butter biscuits with real strawberries and whipped cream every night for dessert.

f/5.3, 1/30, ISO 1600, +0.3EV

6. Most of all, I wish for a nice afternoon nap.

f/10, 1/400, ISO 200

Have a good week!