Photography class, week 2

For week 2, we needed to work on using our AV (aperture priority) and TV (shutter priority) settings. 

AV setting allows me to choose how wide the aperture will be on the camera.  The smaller the number mean the wider the aperture. Wider apertures allow more light into the camera and also makes a shorter depth of field.  More narrow apertures allow for an increased depth of field.  A wide aperture gives a nice soft background to a focused object.  Here are my AV photos:

I probably took 100 photos with this setting, but the three best just all happened to be of Lacey.

The TV setting allows me to adjust how long the shutter stays open.  Faster shutter speeds allow the user to capture people and objects in motion without any blur.  Longer shutter speeds allow more light into the photo and are best for low light situations. 

Photography Class, week 1

I am taking a class about how to use Digital SLR cameras at the little local community college.  The college doesn't offer many courses that I would be interested in, but I've had my eye on this one for a couple of terms. 
I finally decided just to sign up for it. 
During the first week, our instructor walked us through the different types of settings and photo composition.  For our homework, we had to take lots of pictures on Full Auto.  We then had to choose our favorites and submit them to the instructor.  She would then share them with the class on the next Monday. 
I submitted mine, but somehow, they got missed.  The instructor didn't have them in time for class Monday, even though I'd emailed her on early Sunday with them.  No big deal.  I have no idea if she will share them now that she has found them or if she will just move on to the next group of photos.
Here are the ones I submitted:

It was a week plagued by bad weather and camera memory card problems.  I lost several photos when my card gave up, but I think I still managed to get some that I like. 

Week 2: Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority, along with a field trip to the beach for sunset photos

Happenings

Joe lost his first top tooth on Tuesday morning, while brushing his teeth before school.  It's the first top tooth lost in the tooth wars between Joe and Tom.  It is also Joe's third tooth lost, which now tied him with Tom.

Of course, Joe then lost his second top tooth on Friday morning, brushing his teeth before school.  He was very excited to be back in the lead.  He looks very different with his teeth missing.

Sam wanted me to take a picture of his teeth as well, since he is the only kid without a tooth picture.  So I did.

Tom also wanted his picture taken, but refused to smile or look happy for it.  Here's the best one.

Tom has managed to chew and break the buttons on three of his school shirts this week.  Now I have to find buttons to sew back onto his shirts.  As you can see in this picture, this shirt is missing it's top button.  By the end of the day, he'd chewed the other one off as well. 

I've been trying to expand some of my photography skills lately.  I wish my pictures could match what I see with my eyes, but they're never quite right.  I think with more knowledge, they could.  I took some night sky pictures and loved how this one turned out.  Our night sky has a lot less light pollution than Maryland and it's breath-taking on clear nights.
Here's my favorite.

I took this picture while standing in the yard by the side of our house and looking back up the hill behind our house.  Behind our house is a reserve so no houses or lights.  It was about eight o'clock when I took this picture and was full dark outside.  I think it turned out rather well.

And last, but not really least, we have adopted a new puppy.  Her name is Lacey.

She is 10 weeks old and is a yellow Labrador.  We did not adopt her just to be part of our family.  For several years, I have thought about training a dog for search and rescue, or to be a sniffer dog of some sort.  So that's the plan.  I am pretty nervous about actually doing this and it all starts in about 6 weeks.  She needs to be 16 weeks old before we can join the various training groups that we need to join in order to learn what we need to learn.  This was not a decision that we entered into lightly as we have two dogs we love back in the States.  There will have to be some adjustments made and some training on Domino and Jake's parts, but we hope it all works. 

The boys love her and can't wait to introduce her to Jake and Domino.  They've told Lacey all about the other dogs. 
For now, having a puppy is keeping me busy.  Lacey is doing fairly well on her house training, though the extremely rainy day yesterday set us back a bit.