Little Cat Photography

As Promised

2009-03-25T20:51:00.011Z

A selection of photo's from this last week.

The daffodil and the next photo were taken in my parents garden on just about the windiest day of the year! I purchased a Hoya close-up set (+1, +2 & +4) and just couldn't wait for a nice, still day to try them out.

A beautiful yellow rose from my Mum's Mothers Day bouquet.

I think this is my favourite of the flower photo's. Again taken outside in the garden on Sunday in high winds, but I love the way it looks like it is reflected in the bottom part of the image.

Another of Toby, this time showing his playfulness (and sharp claws!).

Teatime gathering. Pigeons on the roof of my parents house just waiting for mum to put out the seed.

The next few photo's are my son, Riley, just after getting in the bath ... note the chocolate still around his mouth :o)

And after a good scrub up ...

Meet Toby

2009-03-22T22:04:00.003Z

One of my better photo's from the weekend. I do have some more to show this week, including some flowers taken with the close up set I purchased recently.

Landscape Panorama

2009-03-15T21:25:00.001Z

This weeks homework was to create a landscape panorama, so we went out to a local park today and I took a series of shots then put Photoshop through it's paces. This is what I came up with (clickable).

The Dummy Monster

2009-02-10T20:49:00.007Z

I haven't had any coursework to show you since the depth of field stuff as it's been mainly theory, but I did take a few shots of Riley this weekend I thought you'd like to see. They're not the greatest - in my defence, we've not covered portraits yet, but I had fun taking them and Riley just loved posing ... for a max of 5 seconds then he was off onto the next thing so I didn't really get to 'set' any of these up.

Please excuse the dummy. The young monster totally refused to take it out, and yes I KNOW his hair needs cutting badly!

all photo's are clickable for a better view

I'm quite disappointed with that photo. I was hoping there would be enough light coming in (a bright sunny day) to stop that area being so dark. I just love the fact that I caught him mid-jump and it's such a shame it's so dark and 'noisy'.

And below is my favourite ... the 'Jail Monster' :o)

Week 4 - Depth of Field

2009-01-31T20:15:00.007Z

Week 4 and we're off automatic mode. This week we learned about Depth of Field and took some practice shots in the classroom using little Lego type people. Here are a few of my shots from that session using the Canon 18-55mm kit lens. All photo's can be clicked for an enlarged view.

With this one I was trying to get the front two people in sharp focus and the little guy at the back in soft focus. It worked, but the depth of field was still pretty deep.

These next few shots get a little better:

Then it was time to set homework, go home and have a little practice. After reading through my notes again and looking at some other photo blogs, I decided to change the lens. For these next shots (my homework!) I am using my Canon 50mm f/1.8 (Dad, it's the one I got for Christmas). The camera is set to AV mode.

These have been taken in quite poor light and show a bit of noise. Even so, I was pretty happy with them as I seem to be getting the hang of this weeks topic. I wont ramble on, so take a look at my homework below and let me know what you think.

The Course - Week One

2009-01-07T20:40:00.011Z

I got my new printer on Saturday (thank you Alan xxx). It's a Canon Pixma IP4600 and it's great. I printed off a photo or two of Riley in the park last week and they've come out lovely.

While my parents looked after Riley for a couple of hours, Alan and I took the cameras out for a walk around Stockport Market Place. None of the photo's I took jump out at me as great. Here are the best two of a bad bunch.

Looking through the arch from St Mary's Church at the newly refurbished Market Hall

St Mary's Church

Monday evening was cold. VERY cold. Something like -9C and the roads were treacherous, but Alan and I still made it to our first photography lesson.

It was interesting, although no actual photography took place this week as it was all about understanding the basics. Most of it I already knew from the reading up I did before and just after buying my camera. It was stuff like types of camera, image sizes and mega pixels, explaining film speed etc.

We got homework! Now here's where I think our lecturer is a little insane. Listen to this .... he wants us to take our camera's OFF AUTO and take some shots! Mad! And oh dear, we have our orders to thoroughly read our camera manuals too :o)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T16:32:00.011Z

Happy New Year everyone! This year is holding great promise for this budding photographer and her hubby. Not only did Santa gift me with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens and leave me an IOU for a new photo printer, which should materialise in the next couple of weeks, he also left Alan speechless on Christmas Day by leaving him his very own DSLR!

Santa did give me a sneaky nod a couple of weeks before Christmas Day to let me know he'd got Alan's camera organised so that I was able to book him onto the Photography course as well. Our first session is on Monday and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Today we took advantage of our new cameras and the frosty weather to get out and about and take some photo's. Want to see?

I have first uploaded the original photo and then my final version after a little playing around in Paintshop Pro. I am still at the tampering stage with PSP and I'm not sure really whether to really study this piece of software or save up and purchase Photoshop Elements and learn the ins and outs of that one instead.

Please let me have your comments on my pics. I'll never learn if you aren't prepared to tell me they're crap when they are! ;o)

A frosty day in Woodbank Park, Stockport

Riley refusing to say 'cheeeeese'

Did I get this 'rule of thirds' thingy right with this one?

Woodbank Park Nursery

I thought this one looked more interesting without all that grass at the front and I tried to add a little more colour to the dreary grey sky.

Oooh, this is kinda cold

Wishing you all a safe and happy 2009!

Photography Course

2008-11-27T20:06:00.002Z

I am signing up for the course I want to do next week. It starts in January so come back and visit me in the new year to see how I get on.

Have a lovely Christmas everyone!

Sundays Snaps

2008-10-19T22:29:00.003+01:00

The lighting is still bad with this one. I need to get this sorted out and soon!

A water fountain in Vernon Park, Stockport.

Riley examining a grid in the park.

Ok, so I've had a look around at some other photo blogs and I know I need to start including some information on the settings I've used. I will sort this out for the next batch I publish.

Make Over

2008-10-18T21:37:00.002+01:00

What do you think to my snazzy new look? Much more 'me' than the one I was using. I love it and I'd like to thank Gemmak at Gemmak Designs for a creating this great new 'one of a kind' look for me :o) Thanks Gem, you've done a smashing job!

You'll notice there's a space in the sidebar for my photo gallery and other stuff. At the moment there isn't a link as I don't have one, but once I've got a few more photo's in my novice's portfolio, I'll create a gallery somewhere. Umm, now that's a question ... where would be the best place to set up a photo gallery? Probably not a place where all the experience photographers show their work as I'll look like a right numpty!

The forcast for tomorrow is bright with showers and I'm hoping to get outside for a while and take some shots NOT using the automatic mode.

I'd like to thank Rob for the great advice he gives me in his comments. It is all read and re-read and then read again. I am taking it all onboard and hopefully tomorrow will see some improvements.

Silk Flowers

2008-10-16T21:21:00.002+01:00

I took this photo on Tuesday at my parents house. Their house lets in so much more light than mine. I'm still waiting for a dry, bright day to get outside and try out some of the other settings.

First Photo's

2008-10-10T22:30:00.006+01:00

I didn't really get a lot of time today to investigate all the settings on the camera. I took these using the Auto modes. Yeah, ok I'm chicken LOL, but I need to find some time (during daylight hours) to have a proper play with the settings. I haven't made any changes to these photo's apart a bit of cropping.

The pear at the front was extremely juicy and yummy ;o)

Alan bouncing Riley's ball. I took this one using the 'Sports' mode. I thought it'd stop the movement better than this, but I'm not sure what I need to change to make this happen.

I need to find out what sort of size I need to resize the photo's to for web use. I think these may be a bit too big. Also, does anyone know if it's better to turn off the auto rotate on the camera and do it manually with the software? I heard that there were better/worse ways of doing that to save the quality of the photo, but I don't know which is the better way.

A slight change of plan

2008-10-09T21:52:00.003+01:00

For the last two days I’ve been waiting for the phone to ring and Jacobs to tell me that my camera is there waiting for me to collect. Well today the phone did ring about the camera, but it wasn’t Jacobs, it was our friend Rob.

Rob and his family emigrated to Australia in November 2006 and we don’t get to speak to them as often as we’d like because of the cost of the phone calls, but why I didn’t think to speak to Rob when I decided to buy a camera I don’t know. Rob is a photographer. He phoned specially as he’d seen this new blog and didn’t want me to go ahead with the purchase of the Sony A350. An hour and a half later and with tons of information and advice spinning around in my head, I put the phone down to Rob and rang the camera shop.

I told Jacobs that I’d changed my mind and had decided on this other model. The guy checked and said that they did have one in stock and he’d put it aside for me. An hour later I had my sweaty little mitts on my very first DSLR camera.

I am now the proud owner of a Canon EOS-450D! Thanks for your help and advice Rob!

Now I have to pluck up the courage to get this rather expensive piece of equipment out of it’s box and actually TAKE A PHOTO! ;o)

Got to start somewhere

2008-10-07T23:37:00.004+01:00

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to learn about photography. I have owned a ‘point and click’ camera of one make or other since I was about 10 years old, but now I want to produce more than just the odd mediocre snap. I am planning on taking a Digital Photography for Beginners course starting in January 2009 and possibly taking it further after that, but in the meantime I am hoping to teach myself some of the basics.

Today Alan and I handed Riley over to his Grandma and headed out for the day with the intention of going around a few photographic shops to get some information and advice on digital SLR's. I wasn't going into this totally blind. I have spent the last few weeks pouring over 'What Digital Camera' magazine and a couple of books about digital photography, so I had a very basic idea of the kind of questions I needed to ask. What I wasn't planning on doing today was actually purchasing a camera. Today was just to check out the cameras and get some advice on a good make/model for a beginner.

Photographic shops are pretty few and far between around here. I spent some time last night looking on the internet and in our Yellow Pages and found just 4 shops within a 20 mile radius of our home. The first one we stopped at was a very small shop in the next town. Unfortunately this shop no longer stocked SLR's. It just wasn't viable for his business anymore as he makes very little profit from them. He did however, highly recommend a shop in Manchester city centre, which I didn't have on my list. As Manchester was a lot nearer than the other three shops on my list, Alan and I decided to go there first.

The staff member at Jacobs in the city centre was excellent. He listened to what we said and brought out two cameras for me to try that he thought would best suit my needs and our budget. He went through the differences between them and showed us some of the basics. He let us hold them and have a go ourselves and he didn't rush us. When we asked him which 'he' would choose if he was in our position, he told us without hesitation, and it wasn't the most expensive of the two either. Alan was so impressed with the knowledge and service that he told me to go ahead and order it.

Later this week we'll be heading back to the store to pick up my Sony A350 18-70, a Sigma telephoto lens (I can't remember which model), case and memory cards. I am so excited! I can't wait to start exploring my new camera and taking my very first photos.

I decided to start this blog as a diary of my learning journey. A log that I can look back on over the coming months and years to see how my photographs and techniques have improved.

Your comments on my photographs, both good and bad, will be much appreciated, as will any help or pointers you can give me. My email address is at the top of my sidebar if you wish to contact me. I would love it if you came along on this exciting journey with me.