Drawing with Light

A pastoral scene under a lime tree

Some valuable lessons learned yesterday. Every day is a school day, right?

1. The word photograph means drawing with light.
2. Clean your lens.
3 Forget all the bells and whistles on your camera, learn to compose your shot.



I went to a photography workshop with Suzanna Crampton on her idyllic farm in Bennetsbridge Co. Kilkenny. 

In my dark and distant past I did photography in university as an elective subject. I had used an old Canon camera for years and had a "fairly" good understanding of f stops, shutter speeds and iso. But my new "bells and whistles" digital camera was a whole new ball game.

I was grappling with a pile more settings and getting really bogged down. Not seeing the wood for the trees so to speak. Suzanna took everything back to basics. She showed us photos taken with disposable cameras that looked as if they had been taken by a top notch camera. I happened to mention that my iPhone used to take fabulous photos but the quality had really gone down lately. Straight away she asked if I had cleaned the lens. Talk about a "DOH!" moment. It was manky.

Then she told us put our cameras on "programme". This means it does all the thinking for you and you just shoot.

Here are the results.

Hosta

Pepper posed for me

Acer palmatum dissectum atropurpureum (couldn't resist)

Getting arty

All the triangles

Dove

I got it

You're not herself

She's after us - we're for it now

These are a few of the hundreds of photos I took. Many were rubbish but some were not. I had a really enjoyable day because despite the heavy rain overnight it turned out lovely in the afternoon. Of course it helps to have had the following props: fabulous gardens, plants and garden ornaments, dogs, horses, doves, Zwarbles sheep. Oh and a great teacher!

I also bought some black wool to knit (well attempt to knit) a long cardigan.

I'll be back.