Focusing

It's no secret that I love Karen Russell. I think she's the cat's meow. (Or the cat's pajama's or the cat's ass.) She's all that and a bag of chips! 

I'm in the middle of taking her Making the Shoot 3. It's fitting that the course runs at exactly this time,  it's the anniversary of when I met Karen and my 8 other amazing housemates at the Hometown Workshop. The course focuses on FOCUS!

Karen has a knack for pushing people outside of their comfort zones. I'm perfectly happy taking pictures of Linus. But when she said we needed to have cooperative subjects for our assignments, I knew I was in trouble. My kids are not so cooperative.

She also explained Back Button Focusing in terms I could understand and I've been shooting that way for weeks now. 

When Nancy, my hairdresser, called about my appointment she mentioned that her daughter needed some tips on using her new camera. Luckily, she has a Canon. I saw an opportunity for both of us to get what we needed. Win-win. We went to the park and shot all the photos I needed and we talked cameras, got bit by bugs, covered in cotton fluff from those nasty trees. Hopefully, I didn't overwhelm her. Seriously talking about cameras helped me too, it made me stop and think about my settings before using my trigger happy fingers!

*still can't figure out why the odd photo won't line up with the rest. 

For the second assignment, we had to have a subject that was candid and moving. I tried using Linus but that was unsuccessful.  So I asked Kerry if I could go with him on Saturday when he went mountain biking. This meant I had to get up with the sun on my day off.  I realized I was not making it easy for my self. I can't control the direction of the trails, or the trees, or the sun.

We went up to Crawford, in the end we figured I walked 5 km. I wanted to find an area that was more open, and the area that was burned out was the best. It's still sad to see all the dead trees, but the new growth is coming along just fine.

 I sat in bushes, on charred logs, in grass, to get these shots. I checked thoroughly for ticks after too.

In the end, I got some decent shots, and a few might say are pretty good. I have learned so much about what is adequate focus and when tack sharp focus matters. 

Now let's got back in time... a few weeks ago, my cousin got married. I had already committed to BBF for 90 days, what a perfect time to make or break it. 

After reviewing them, knowing now what is adequately sharp, tack sharp, and just plain old out of focus soft, I am proud to say the majority were adequately sharp and tack sharp!

And by the way, the wedding was beautiful.