Welcome to the Magic of The Ranch

After our introductions to our instructor, David Julian and the members in the class, we began to get to the technical parts of taking photos. We talked about composition (rule of thirds, symmetry and the importance of shadows as well as reflections). That was fallowed by a discussion of the consideration of a sense of time in images that are illustrated through light, exposure effects and panning for speed. This lead naturally to a discussion of the three main elements of a camera: aperture, shutter speed, ISO.

Our first exercise was to work on dealing with shutter speed / aperture settings. I wanted to try and begin to understand how to take those amazing flower photos like Larr does - the ones with the shallow depth of field.

These prayer flags hang in the ceramics lab. I really like them.


Lupines - one of my favorite flowers. The wind was blowing and that meant that the top of the flower was not in focus. I will likely give it another try.


These interesting bead hang in part of the clay room. I suspect that it is where hand building with clay takes place. I thought they were really interesting, but very hard to photograph as the light was funny. I will try this one again.


I'd like this Columbine to be more vibrant, but I am happy with how it came out.


Aspen Leaves in the sunshine - an iconic image of life in the Rockies.