A friend of my wife wanted to participate in a one month survey for trying out some new skincare products they produce here in Amami. She asked my wife if she wouldn't do it with her so my wife agreed to. The company that is doing the survey had everyone participating get together at the Amami Cultural Center for a brief seminar about the survey and to test the participants' skin before beginning. My wife tried to explain to me about the products and what they are made from; it just went in one ear and out the other... I probably would have been more attentive if it was a survey for car racing. Since I didn't have anything better to do, I tagged along with her and took my camera along to shoot something as I waited for her outside.
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/4.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Rusty Old Post Box
They had plenty of things to photograph around the area. I decided today that I want to learn how to use my Sigma 30mm f/1.4 better so I left my other 2 lenses at home on my desk. It is a challenge not having a zoom.
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/4.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Standing Tall
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/250 sec, f/4.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
9 Post Takakura
A takakura is sort of like an old style storage unit. The items being stored are kept up inside the portion where the roof is, sort of like an attic. If you plan on storing heavy items, you need more posts. Most of the ones you see are 4 or 6 post takakuras. There are places here in Amami where people still use these.
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/1250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Wedged In
When joints get loose, say after a typhoon comes through and shakes it up, you can pound these wedges back in to sturdy it up.
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/2000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Old Style House
This is a house they have off in the corner used to display what the houses used to be like back in the "olden days".
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/60 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
The Living Room
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/30 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
The Kitchen
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/15 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Cooking Fire Pits
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/5 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Inside Roof Construction
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/4000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Coral Wall
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
One Legged Cricket
As I was waiting for my wife to come out, I found this little guy hobbling along by.
I mostly use my Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for indoor low lighting occasions. I don't think I've used it out in broad daylight and I think it's sort of a habit to keep the aperture nearly wide open. The shots I wanted to get a thin depth field turned out the way I wanted them to using the wider apertures, but some of the other shots I could have adjusted the ISO and shut the aperture or just shut the aperture, but I wasn't paying attention some of the time and some of the photos are screwed up. I just need some more practice till I start thinking about these things more.
I spent quite a bit of time this week studying how to use Lightroom 2. I subscribe to Lynda.comand they have some nice video tutorials that explain the essentials for loads of different applications. I watched most of all the videos (some more than once), to get a better understanding of how to use Lightroom 2.
I also studied up on my camera's Focus Modes and AF-area Modes. I feel I learned quite a bit about what I was doing wrong and how I can do things better.
After learning more about my camera, I'm finding out more about the pros and cons of the D60. If I only knew then what I know now about photography and cameras, I would have chosen a different model to buy. But that's water under the bridge. I'm not saying I don't like the D60, I'm just learning more about what I want from a camera. All in all, I think the D60 was a good way to start learning photography.
So those are some of the photos I took outside the Amami Cultural Center trying to learn how to better us my Sigma 30mm f/1.4.
I'm still testing Zenfolio. I found a workflow that I think I'm comfortable with. I also found a few drawbacks. They have a share tab for each of your photos that has a set of links for smaller sizes. The only problem with this is the edge length for landscapes type photos and portrait type photos are different. So if I uploaded one copy of my photos for the larger photos that link to the smaller photos in my post and use the smaller size links to use in my blog post, the portrait and landscape type photos would be different sizes and not seem very uniform. So I end up uploading 2 sizes of every photo. I guess this really isn't a drawback because I do the same thing in Photobucket. It would just be nice to upload one large photo instead of one large and one smaller. I'm still looking around so we'll see.
2 comments:
The cricket seems to have at least three legs, not just one.
:-}
True!~
What was I thinking? Jiminy Cricket only had 2 legs... Should have called it "One Hind Legged Cricket". lol
Post a Comment
Keep the language clean please. I have family that see this. Tell us what part of the world you're in.