Interesting tip I learned this week

When you have the sun in your shot, using a small aperture (like f/18 - f/22) creates a "star burst effect". Basically when your aperture is wide open the hole is more like a circle. However, when it is closed, the blades of the aperture create a polygon. This shape is what what creates the sun burst.

Here is a sample of one I tried this out on today. (shot at f/18)

Phototips - Pioneer Woman Photography

Simple, basic tips for shooting and for Photoshop: Phototips - Pioneer Woman Photography
Her style is quite light and humorous and she approaches it like she is sharing information with a peer which is nice.

Speaking of tuts ("toots"). I watched the curves tutorial last night and it is pretty good. I have some shots I took over the weekend I need to go through so I think I'll play with curves then. Come to think of it. Liam is in those shots so playing around with the information on making eyes pop might be fun to play with too.

Tooting my own horn...

My fiancée and I attended the Foothills Camera Club banquet last Friday. The food was great and the photography was even better. The top photographers in the club were honored with a variety of different awards. I ended up getting third for the Foothills trophy which surprising since neither of my entries ribboned. (I guess cumulatively they were good enough to get considered for the trophy though). My photo essay, which I spent a lot of time on, managed to get an Honorable mention which is not too shabby considering it was my first attempt at doing a photo essay.

Water Valley Stampede

I decided to head out to the Water Valley Stampede today to get some shots for "The Cowboy" challenge which was announced to allow the DP Challenge communuty to honor JawnyRico (Sean Matos) who passed away last week. I had a lot of fun with this shoot. Here is a small portion of the 200+ shots I got before the rain chased me away.