Suburban Girl : November 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Panning Tutorial

No, I am not referring to panning for gold,

but that would be exciting!

I am referring to capturing the feeling of motion

in your still photo.

Definition

Here is the Wikipedia description:

In still photography, the panning technique is used to suggest fast motion, and bring out the subject from other elements in the frame. In photographic pictures it is usually noted by a foreground subject in action appearing still (i.e. a runner frozen in mid-stride) while the background is streaked and/or skewed in the apparently opposite direction of the subject's travel.

Example:

I took the photo below from a ferry.

I steadied myself along the edge of the ferry

and using a slower shutter speed

I followed the jet ski as it passed

with my camera.

You can see the splash is blurred

as is the water -

caused by the slower shutter speed,

Yet the action of the

jet ski seems stopped -

cause by following it with the camera.

If I had a second chance,

I would have slowed down the shutter speed some more.

But they were not aware of my pleas to circle around again!

Practice:

Here is a great way to practice...

as long as you don't get too dizzy.

Go to a playground with one of those spinny rides.

I don't know what they are called,

but you push them and they go round and round.

Sit on one side,

have someone sit opposite of you.

Keep your camera steady by bracing your elbows against yourself.

Spin the ride and snap your photos.

Here is an example.

Note the blurred background from spinning.

Technical:

So how do you achieve that slower shutter speed?

Option 1:

If you shoot in manual (M)

or shutter/time (S or TV) priority,

you can set your shutter speed.

How slow depends on what you are shooting,

how fast it is moving, and how far away you are.

In the above photo,

the speed was 1/25.

But if it was a race car I was photographing

and I was relatively close

I might have used 1/125.

The great thing about digital is you can experiment

and see which way you need to adjust.

To control shutter speed

Nikon users select M (Manual) or S (Shutter)
then use the appropriate dial on your camera to select the shutter speed.

Canon users select M (Manual) or TV (Time Value)

then use the appropriate dial on your camera to select the shutter speed.

If you select S or TV the camera will choose the other settings.

If you select M you will have to make those adjustments yourself

until you achieve proper exposure.

Option 2 (Possibility):

I am not sure if you can trick a point and shoot

that does not have manual (M) or shutter priority settings (S or TV)

into doing this or not.

I would start by choosing the landscape/scenery preset on the camera,

usually indicated by the Mountain icon.

That will let less light in the camera

forcing a slower shutter speed.

But the camera might outsmart you and

raise up the ISO too much

and not achieve a slow enough speed.

But you can always try!

Inspiration

For examples or idea inspiration

do a Google search of Panning and select Images.

I hope this gives you something new to try.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The Pinnacle Hike via the Blue Blazed Trail

There is a classic small town in Berks Co., Pennsylvania named Hamburg

where you can find a hike to a mountain overlook
view of the beautiful countryside below.

The area is popular with day hikers

but because it overlaps part of the Appalachian Trail

you'll find serious through hikers as well.

Our choice was to reach The Pinnacle Side Trail

via the Blue Blazed Trail.

Near the start is the Hamburg Reservoir.

Hubby always takes the lead...always.

A Pinnacle Tradition...
stack your rock on the pile.

Our friend, and trail guide, Marty
checks out the Appalachian Trail Log.

Usually when we hike with Marty,
something exciting happens,
like when my husband fell in the waterfall.
Read that humorous account here.

But today's hike was uneventful.
How nice!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Red

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Baby Boy Blue

I can't think of anything better in blue

than baby boys!
I am so glad I had one too.
But this baby boy is not mine!
I just got to photograph him.

One of my faves from this set is on my photo blog here.
Happy Thanksgiving to my American Friends!

Adoption Reunion

This is such a heartwarming story!

And I am so happy that as part of the re-union

of the children,

I was asked to take their photos.

The text below is from

Adoption Associates Newsletter, November 2011

I interspersed my photos throughout the text.

A Sibling Reunion

Kelley and Andrew were having a fairly uneventful and positive experience with their Russian adoption. They were on course for adopting Ulyana and Irina in early January of 2008. But when the couple arrived back in Russia for their second trip, suddenly their journey became even more of a miracle.

The consultants in Russia informed them that the two girls they were planning to adopt had a brother. They received no further information at that time; however, on their third trip, they learned that the brother had been adopted from the same orphanage from where they were adopting their girls. Unfortunately, he had been adopted before the girls ever arrived there. They never had the chance to meet each other.

After bringing Ulyana and Irina home there was much celebrating with first meetings with family and friends. It was a joyous time! But when things calmed down, Kelley contacted Adoption Associates to see if she and her husband could gain further information about where the girls’ brother had been placed. They found out that he had been adopted by a family from the U.S., which was promising since trying to find him would have proven very difficult if he had been adopted anywhere else. AAI did some research and discovered which agency he had been adopted through, and then sent the family contact information for that agency. Once they contacted that agency, the caseworker contacted the little boy’s family with some of the biological information the family had received for their girls. It took several months, but out of the blue one day, the little boy’s adopted mother emailed Kelley.

“It was a leap of faith on their part,” Kelley shares, “and I will always remember the day that I sat down to check my email, and found one with an address I didn’t recognize. I was so relieved that it didn’t go into my spam folder! I was pleasantly surprised and ecstatic to find out who it was from!” Ulyana and Irina’s brother’s name was Nicholas. Kelley began corresponding with Nicholas’ mom, exchanging the small amount of biological information they had on the children’s family, and found that the names they had been given matched. Over time, they sent pictures of their kids to each other and saw that there was a family resemblance.

Nicholas’ parents told him about his sisters just before the following Christmas, and Kelley and Andrew told Irina and Ulyana about their brother at Christmas. They showed the girls a picture of Nicholas and it wasn’t long before they were talking about a meeting sometime in the future.

Both parents loved the idea and planned a summer meeting. Everyone was a little nervous as each set of parents were unsure how the kids would receive their newfound sibling(s). In preparation for the trip Nicholas sent the girls a hand-drawn picture of him waiting in his front yard to meet his sisters. After weeks of preparing, the big day was upon them. At first the girls were a little shy, but it didn’t take long and they were playing together in Nicolas’ backyard on his swingset. Both sets of parents couldn’t imagine it having gone any better.

Both families hope their meeting opened the door for a lifelong relationship. Both sets of parents feel as if they are one big family. Nicholas has an older brother (his adopted parents’ biological son) and he was equally excited to have two new sisters (and vice-versa!)

Kelly shares, “I truly believe this was a gift from God to be able to allow these children to meet. We are so very fortunate and blessed that his family took that leap to contact us. What came of our initial ‘push’ with Nicholas’ adoption agency was truly a wonderful thing. I can’t say enough about AAI’s wonderful Russian consultants who shared with us that the girls had a big brother. Our lives were blessed exponentially by their honesty and sincerity!”