Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 4 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Saturday class

Hubby found a camera class which was held yesterday down in Anza-Borrego state park, so off we went at 7:00 a.m. yesterday! It took me an hour and a half to drive there. Gosh, let's see...we haven't been to A-Borrego since...??? Over 15 years? And, it isn't that far away! I've been reading about some hikes there and since we got there early, we were able to visit the visitor center. The morning class was about macro photography and the first thing the instructor said was, "Turn your camera to MANUAL and LEAVE it there all day!" ACK! What? I have a Nikon D40x, which I use for my landscape photography, but I just put it on the mountain setting and point and focus and shoot, or the flower for closeups, BUT I've NEVER used its manual setting and getting an inch away from the subject! She saw my face and said, "Don't worry, we'll help you!" :-) My hands were sweating, my heart was beating quickly... She showed us some of her photos and they were GORGEOUS! Then she talked about lens extensions, light diffusers, and hoods (so you can see your photos in bright sunlight)...my head was swirling! Then, she sent us off! I found this salvia which was blooming and decided to TRY to get a photo of it. I only took 7 photos in the 2 hours we were out and about. That's a near record for me (so few...). Anyway, this is one of my first attempts to get a macro photo with my camera. I'm heading up to the horses today and I'll take some along Highway 74. We did panoramas in the afternoon and since I wasn't into that, I wandered off and took pictures of ocotillos. But, it was a great class and we loved the couple who hosted it and will definitely take another class with them in the future! By 4:30 p.m., both hubby and I were WORN OUT and exhausted from hiking rocks, scrambling up cliffs, and being in the sun all day (I DID have my hat on and my sunscreen!) :-) It was a worthwhile class and I'm itching to get out today and find things to photograph! Look out, Quad, Scout, Cali, Gigondas, and Sunni. Gigondas won't hold still long enough, but Quad, Scout, and Cali will...not sure about Sunni.

4 comments:

Linda said...

Was there an answer to how the feeder got knocked over? I thought we were having a guessing contest!

I need to go to a photo class, too. I want to take pictures like that where the background is blurry but the focus is on the object. How did you do it?!? Did she tell you which manual settings or did you just have to figure it out? I do the same thing you used to do--put it on the mountain setting.

Cheryl Ann said...

Linda, Scout ALWAYS knocks over the feeder! She is a BRAT!!!
To get your subject IN focus, but the background dark or blurry, you use a wide aperature and focus in on the subject. I just deleted about 40 photos from this morning's visit to the Living Desert...I got a headache just trying to figure out manual settings, so I just switched to mountain or flower mode...almost ALL of my manual modes ones were AWFUL! I need to practice, practice, practice!...sigh...

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

The class sounds like fun. Was it only for people with big expensive cameras with extra lenses? Or could folks with little point and shoots join in, too?
I almost always use auto-focus. I think I'd be the same as you if someone said to switch to manual all day. lol!
I chose my camera, though because I'd read that, by using the manual feature, the quality and control of the photos would be very close to what a professional camera would be.
Now if only I would use that feature. lol!

~Lisa

Míriam Luiza said...

Gostei da foto!