Photography 101

I am on a quest to figure out how to make the best use of my Canon EOS Rebel T3  this month.  Our digital camera from before we were married was on it's last leg, and we used some gift money to buy this last November when it was a fabulous price!

I took a couple of photography classes in high school and fell in love with using a manual camera.  I took so many photos back then.  Then everything went digital, and my manual canon pretty much became obsolete because seriously who want to take a roll of 35mm film to the drug store and get it developed these days?  I ended up getting a simple Kodak Easy Share right before we got married and we have used that ever since.

I stopped taking as many photos for many reasons I'm sure, but I know a big part of it was the quality of the photos that came from my point and shoot is nothing compared to photos from a nice camera where you can manually adjust aperture, shutter speed, etc.  I have been wanting a DSLR for a long time, so when we got that gift money and saw an awesome deal I knew we had to get it (and Jon graciously agreed).

I have been using it since we got it, but have basically been using it on the auto setting the entire time.  The quality is still 100 times better than a point and shoot with the auto setting on this camera, so even if I didn't figure this camera out completely I'd say it was a great investment.

Here are some of the photos I've taken that are my favorites so far (on auto setting)

I have been following the tutorial series 31 Days to a Better Photo which has been super great for me.  Today I'm on day 7.  I also have a lot of photographer friends that I have asked a few questions to here and there.

My favorite setting to mess with has been Aperture.  For those of you who don't know much about photography.  Adjusting aperture changes your depth of field, which basically means that you are adjusting how much of your photo is in focus.  For instance, the top photo has a shallow depth of field because only Addy's face is in crystal clear focus, the rest of the photo is not in focus, bringing your eye to her sweet, sweet face.

All of my favorite photos and photographers that I've been stalking have mastered this awesome use of shallow (not even sure if that is right word) depth of field in their portraits.  I'm hoping to do the same for my own entertainment.

The lens that came with my camera does not quite have as low of aperture as I would like so I'm thinking of using my birthday money to get a new lens.

I also must note that I completely understand why awesome photographers charge what they do.  Lenses are expensive.  The lens that my friend uses costs almost $2,000!  Holy moly!  I definitely will not be buying one of those.

My friend Becki uses aperture to the fullest in my amateur opinion.  I just love looking at all her stuff.  I went to college with her and her husband and they live in Redding, CA, but I just had to show her off a bit!

Hoping to be able to update with some new and improved photos playing with aperture in the next week or so!