Foto Friday – Back in a FLASH!

Whaddya know, sometimes those classes really pay off! I’m back from DC with two cameras full of photos to comb through, and it hit me – looks like I’m learning something!

I’ve sat through Stan’s “Know Your Digital Camera” class more times than I can count now – so many that I’ve taught it myself.  But like everybody, just because I KNOW the information doesn’t mean I remember to USE it…

I was pleased, therefore, when I found myself reaching into my “Know Your Digital Camera” bag of tricks and getting great results!  We had plenty of photo challenges on the trip, from dark and rainy days, to night-time visits to the monuments.  Even the bright, sunny day we spent at Mount Vernon presented shadow/sun challenges as in the photo of our DD at left.  The fill flash kept the dappled shade in this first photo from being all dark and no light.

The WWII Memorial was stunning at night, but impossible to photograph.  Aside from the large number of people around, it was so dark it was hard to get a good photo.  So I tried all the ‘tricks’ my hunny’s been banging into my head all these years:

1. Set the camera down – you can’t possibly hold it still enough in this light, so put it down on something.  I found a spot with a wall at a good height, and while it’s not exactly level, it still worked.

2. Check your settings – I always leave my camera on Program (P) not auto.  Usually that does the trick.  But this time I was not seeing the rich golden colors in the camera that I was seeing in real life.  Then I remembered that if you use the night setting WITH the flash, the flash will expose the foreground, and the night setting will leave the aperture open long enough to correctly expose the background.  And it worked!  I got KT standing in front of the fountain, with a beautiful golden fountain in the background!

3. Keep still – when you can’t set the camera down – elbows in and hold your breath!  To take this photo of KT by the Tennessee pillar, there was no good place to put the camera down.  So I looked through the viewfinder (no using the screen on the back of the camera), tucked my elbows into my body, one hand under the body of the camera, and held my breath.  While this photo is still a little soft, it’s useable!  And the night setting really paid off too.

You can see more of our photos on our Flickr stream here.

It’s good to be home; I’ve almost recovered from all the walking and all the teenagers.  It’s a real treat to get to spend time with my daughter and her friends.  I’m impressed with these kids and am thrilled to tears at how they are growing into such lovely people.  Soon I’ll tell you about the AMAZING coincidence that rocked our world on our last full day there…

Happy Scrapping!

Jenn

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