It's almost spring! Not.

Bee brave

So sometimes you need to be a little brave in order to get a good shot, but remember not to put yourself in serious danger. Actually, I was farther away from this bee than it seems, but I cropped it a little in order to remove distracting elements from the frame. I used macro to be able to see the bee and its hive in clear detail.

Backgrounds

The following are three pictures of the same flower, with the change that all three have different backgrounds. The way I see it, this changes the whole mood of the picture and it is crucial that you think about it before snapping away. I know I've said other times that the more pictures you take, the more good pictures will turn out, but it is also true that the more you think about a picture (its light, its shadows, its background, and plenty of other aspects) the more likely it is to be truly great and not merely nice or pretty.

Here's picture number one. Against other green plants and with the lowest aperture settings, I think that it gives out optimism and brightness.





This is picture number two. It was taken against a fence and it looks a lot sadder somehow. Sure, the flower stands out a little against the grayish brown fence, but certainly not as much as it did against the green plants.



And here is a mixture of the two. I found a leaf and placed the flower right on top. On the one hand, I like it because the colors turned out well and it reminds me of a painting, but on the other hand I got the impression it looked a little amateurish.

So I suppose you've guessed that my favorite is the first, but which one is yours?

Wish

In this picture, I also used the lowest aperture settings. By the way, I will admit that I don't know much about aperture and other settings like that, but, like I have done, I would encourage you to stop using the "auto" settings and try new things. At first, your pictures may not be that great but the more you try different settings, the less you will want to use "auto" and the better your pictures will turn out.

Also, for this picture of a dandelion, I used slightly low exposure in order to make the lovely petals stand out more and the background less, something that I also achieved with the aperture, giving the picture a very shallow depth of field, which is what makes those nice little blurry dots in the background, which are called a "bokeh" and really add personality to your images.

More flowers

Vienna Days

He loves me, he loves me not

Since this is the only type of flower we currently have in our garden, I took advantage of it to experiment with aperture. I used the lowest settings in order to have a very shallow depth of field and super macro to be able to see the flower in detail.

Leaves

At first glance these dead hydrangea may not look all that inspiring, but I tore a little bit out, put it against the grass, which I used as a backdrop and then set the camera to super macro to take a few pictures of them. What do you think?

Venice Days II

Beautiful Sky

Another good reason to keep your camera on hand:

you never really know when there's going to be a beautiful sky.

Venice Days

Venice was truly a beautiful city. We really only spent one day there, but it was worth it.
Photographically, it was dream. The sky was perfectly blue, the water made nice reflections, and the way many of the city's streets are not streets at all but channels makes it very unique.The houses are painted in beautiful bright colors, and as you walk around you can see gondolas touring the channels.

Anecdotally, even the trash collector is a boat (rather than a truck). Too bad I didn't take a picture, but it was truly a sight to see.

Stormy Sea

The view of the Mediterranean sea in Salou, Tarragona last weekend.

Andalusian Sights

To make these pictures look more dramatic than the subjects themselves actually looked like, I used the lowest possible exposition and the sepia color settings. I am rather pleased with the feel of these, I really got the impression that this is what Andalucía (the south of Spain) is all about.

Rainbows

For rainbows I like to underexpose just a little to enhance the beautiful colors, and if you have a Canon (like me, I don't know if you have anything similar with Nikons and other camera brands) you can also select a "vivid" color setting, which also helps the rainbow stand out a bit more.

A cool moth

My absence this summer can be explained this time. I have been volunteering at a children's camp, that is why I have not been updating this blog. The good news, though, is that I got a new camera (also Canon) and that I have taken many pictures!

The subject in question is a colorful moth that was by the door of one of the cabins. Bear in mind, though, that this is just a few days after I got the camera, so I probably didn't get the pictures quite up to their full potential.

500

It wasn't that long ago I was telling you about reaching the magic 100 visitors, but the magic 500 has arrived. Thank you for coming to read and for your nice, helpful comments. I'll keep posting and keep taking pictures!
Thank you!

Flowers and bugs

Just another of the many plants in our garden.

A cute little ladybug I noticed.

I loved this bug because it was shiny, and the bright flower as a background works well.

Tiny rose

Look at this carefully before you scroll down to see the actual pictures! It really was this tiny, which just proves my point that you have to look carefully, and you will find beautiful things everywhere. Because there is no need to leave your home or go to foreign countries to take pretty photographs.

And all I have to comment about these is that the macro (although it took me months to figure out what it was for) is what makes me so happy about my canon camera!

Here are some nontips!

I don't really like that word- tips. It suggests limits and rules: here is what you can do, here is what you mustn't do, and if you do this every photo will be breathtaking. But there are no such limits nor rules-

Your subject doesn't need to have his/her eyes open.

Your camera doesn't need to be level with the floor or even close to being level with the floor.

Your subject doesn't need to be doing anything funny, important, serious, amazing, unusual... well, you get my drift.

Your subject doesn't even need to be touching the floor!

To take a picture when someone is moving or jumping and you want to capture a precise moment, what I do is set everything up, take flash off and press the button to take the picture, but not completely. You have to fully press the button on the moment you want the picture to be. Also, you may want to practice that before the moment of the picture.

Just a pretty flower

Mountain beauty

St Jordi

St. Jordi is a celebration that's done in Catalunya, on the 23rd of April, in which we celebrate love and literature. Roses are very typical of this day, as well as seeing the Catalan flag everywhere (it has thin red and yellow stripes) and book stands everywhere. There is also a legend about how St. Jordi killed a dragon to save his princess.