Welcome to my portfolio of photographs from IMD290 that show some of my best work, and what I have learned over the semester.

Beautiful Granddaughter - 50mm, f/1.4, 1/500 sec, ISO 640

I learned how important in portraiture it is to make sure the eyes are in sharp focus. I think I achieved that here, with the only drawback that the soft-lights my son had set up for me are reflected in her beautiful eyes. I also learned about "filling the frame," and was delighted with the way that this looks good even with part of her head and chin chopped off.

My Man - 50mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec, ISO 1600

Although I had to brighten the exposure on this portrait of my hubby, I did it in order to bring out the focus on his beautiful eyes. That's one of the things I learned, to make sure the eyes on a human or an animal are sharply in focus.

Volunteer Tomato Blossoms - 50mm, f/4.5, 1/250 sec, ISO 100

This year I didn't plant any tomatoes, but this one came up all by itself. I like the look of it with the backlit sun almost at sunset, and the shallow depth of field that shows the hairy stem with hairs both sharp and blurred. I have learned a lot more about focus points, and planning exactly what I want to be in focus instead of just getting lucky.

Lighthouse, Ho! - 29mm, f/29, 1/8 sec, ISO 100

Perspective is everything! This worm's eye view of the St. Simon's, Georgia, exaggerates how tall it is - although we did have to climb over 200 steps to get to the top! I looked for framing, and found it in the live oak tree by the side of the lighthouse. I'm amazed that I was able to hold still enough to take this shot at 1/8 sec, but it was drizzling rain and very dark out.

Spitting Naiads - 50mm, f/22, 1/15 sec, ISO 100

I was practicing with making water look silky in Savannah, and the day I took this shot the weather was also gray and spitting rain at times. I was using my fast lens, so was able to use a slow shutter speed to catch the apparently slow-moving water. I think it's beautiful, also not much of a contrast with the background.

Golden Hour LightHouse - 50mm, f/16, 1/13 sec, ISO 200

This shot of the St. Simon's, Georgia, lighthouse portrays my love for shooting during golden hour. It was a rainy day, but the sun popped out for a quick shot, contrasting the lovely color of the rocks, trees, and lighthouse against the gray of the sky and sea. The lighthouse is just left of center and so is the big tree, so the composition is not super, but this shot speaks to me. Maybe my head is sygoddlin'!

Scotch Thistle - 50mm, f/8.0, 1/30 sec, ISO 100

Early on in the class, I was in the British Isles trying out some of the techniques our teacher wanted us to learn, and this one is fill-the-frame. I have fallen in love with this technique, especially as if you are using an aperture that blurs the background a bit. This is an iron statue of a Scotch Thistle, the national flower of Scotland, and it is located in a lovely garden belonging to a motel in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England.

Budding Okra - 50mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO 250

We had frost for three mornings in a row, but this intrepid okra plant had a blossom that was determined to make a baby okra. I like the way that a larger aperture blurred the background a bit and made the blossom pop. I liked that trying for a more macro shot resulted in some sharp hairs on the stem and some that were blurred. The stem itself rests on the left grid of the rule of thirds.

Abstract of middle of hydrangea

Aurora Borealis - 11mm, f/1.8, 11 sec, ISO 500

I can’t describe the joy I felt for the two nights in October that God sent an aurora my way. Out in my backyard, I snapped, and snapped and turned the camera and snapped some more. I tried many different settings to see what seemed to work best in the viewfinder. I used my new wide-angle lens, and it did not disappoint. My biggest problem was getting the stars in focus so I knew that I also might get the aurora in focus, and I think on a few of them I achieved that. Hard to focus when you are dancing and jumping up and down in excitement.

May not need this box