Photo Challenge Day 6-7-8: A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

I think that I have a love-hate relationship with this photo challenge.  I want to learn how to really use this fancy camera, but trying to prioritize the lessons and tasks is a bit difficult.  My problem is that I always bite off more than I can chew.  Always. I've been trying to work on this recently (as in, since the beginning of last year, when Honey pointed out I was in a vicious circle -- I planned to-do lists that were way too long and then would get upset with myself for not being able to finish everything on the list).  I've also been trying to add more tasks and scheduling to my day.  Don't ask me how these things are all supposed to work together because I don't know yet -- it's just been one week.  What I do know is that I haven't always made it to the day's photo lesson and challenge, which is why I am merging three days into one.

The photo lessons were about aperture (again), depth of field (i.e., what's in focus) and "the exposure triangle" (a bit too much math is involved in this for my little non-math-y brain), and the photo challenge for the three days was a picture of fruit, something from a low angle, and a bad habit.  So, how can I merge these concepts?

A bad habit...from a low angle

My top shelf of the food "pantry" (also known as the place in the laundry room where we store food above the wine) always contains these wonderful crackers.  Oh fishy crackers, how I love you!  Of course they are not really a good habit, especially when one is trying to lose a bit of weight.  Thankfully, Costco now carries fishy crackers with individual serving packets, so Honey and I can split one, I get my salty, cheesy goodness fix, and I don't feel too guilty.

A low angle, f/20 (high f-stop)

 All the leaves are visible and there is great detail -- so I've figured out that "more 'f' means more focus." Good to know.

A low angle, f/4

 Soon it will be spring and I will probably spend many evenings outside taking pictures of flowers, blurring the background so that no one can see the rest of the messy yard.

Fruit...from a low angle

Fruit...higher f-stop (more in focus)

Fruit, lower f-stop

This month I learned a new word, bokeh, which basically means that one thing is in focus and the rest of the picture is a bit blurry.  I like the results.  I have no idea how to pronounce the word.


I am not the only one having fun with the camera.  Honey recently discovered that he can take the tripod from his cheap telescope and use it with the camera, which allows him to take pictures at night.  This was a bit of last night's sunset.