Photography

dSLR Education: Full Frame versus Crop Sensor

If you’ve been friends with me or followed this blog for a while now, you’ll know I love photography. If by chance you’re new to these parts, let me tell you now, I love photography. Now you’re up-to-date :).

I bought my first dSLR September of 2009 before I really even knew what a dSLR was. In fact, I had to research it after my first photography class I took because they were talking about it in the class and I didn’t know what dSLR stood for. Sad but true. I feel like I’ve come a long way since then, but I’ll tell you that there is still a ton more to learn.

Photography is one of those things that newbies and oldies can learn something new, if nothing else, a different camera and how it works.

A couple years ago when we were looking to upgrade my Nikon D90 I couldn’t decide between a crop sensor or a full frame sensor. I knew nothing about the difference really. I did some research but I really didn’t know the difference still. Finally I came to the conclusion through my photography, a camera body was more expensive or a lens was more expensive. Other than that…. I didn’t know the difference and couldn’t decide what to do.

After weighing all my options I decided to go on to get another crop sensor camera. I upgraded to the Nikon D7100. I truthfully didn’t feel like I got jipped by going with the crop sensor, really you just compensate for it. I can tell you my D7100 has a crop factor of 1.5. So if I shoot with a 50mm lens, it’s like shooting with an 85mm lens, to get more like a 50, I’d have to back off to a 35 mm lens. I’m still not sure what that 1.5 means, I can just tell you that’s what it is.

So with a full frame, if you shoot with a 50mm lens, it’s like shooting with a 50mm lens. Wow, like that explanation?

So what does all that mean, really? Again, I wasn’t sure. A friend of mine had a Canon Mark 5D Mark II. It is a full frame camera in the Canon series. So I sent her a text asking if I could come play with her dSLR sometime to get the difference. She told me to come on.

Before I made it out there, I actually got to shoot with a Nikon full frame, it is the D610. Upon a little more research, the D610 is extremely similar to my D7100 except well, it’s full frame. So let’s let some pictures tell the story.

(more…)

365 – January – Photos 123-153 – Take 2

Oh where oh where did January go? Seriously, how is it February already? I mean didn’t we just celebrate Christmas and New Years? Anyway, I’m still plugging away on my 365 project… although I really should call it 365+1 or 366 since this year is a leap year…. just a thought.

123/365 – This is the way to bring in the new year… SCUBA diving!

124/365 – I now have a teenager on my hands… Yikes! And those boots are only a size 7… don’t be fooled by the picture! Happy Birthday Tbug!

(more…)

365 – November – Photos 62-91 – Take 2

62/365 – Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband! We love you!

63/365 – The other day our neighbors cows thought it would be fun to romp through our field. Turns out it wasn’t the neighbors cows I thought they were because I heard the neighbor on the other side screaming when they were putting the cows back in.

64/365 – I love beautiful sunsets! Probably cause I’m not a morning person so I don’t see sunrises nearly as often

(more…)

My Social Book – Project 365

Last year I started on my Project 365 journey. I felt like I set myself up for failure, but I didn’t fail, I succeeded! Woot Woot. Do people really say Woot Woot…. ha!

Anyway one of my goals was if I completed my Project 365 I either wanted to print all pictures and place in a photo album or I wanted them printed in a book. I didn’t care which but I didn’t want them to go to die on Facebook, my blog, and my computer.

When I completed my project, I went on the hunt to print my pictures. I had the hardest time trying to decide which program/company to use. Then I heard about Social Book.

I hooked them up to my Facebook page, to the exact folder I wanted and bam, my book was ordered! I could have chosen a time frame, etc, but I wanted just my Project 365 printed.

I made mention the other day we were fighting with our mail person… Well, this kind of started it. My dogs eat packages. I’ve mentioned this as well… ugh!

So when my first book showed up in the mail, it was placed where my dogs could find it, and bam, they ate it. Luckily it was insured or something because the wonderful people at Social Book were willing to replace my book and FINALLY it showed up!

(more…)

The Day I Got Chased by a Turkey

Two Turkeys

Once upon a time I was doing an engagement photo shoot. We were walking around this little “faux” town that is near where I live. We were dodging another photographer so that we didn’t photobomb them and they didn’t photobomb us (although I’m not so sure they were being so decent).

There was a dog that ran up to us eating a dead chicken. Yuck! It stunk! So we were avoiding the dog and the dead chicken too, just so we didn’t have nasty things in the photos.

Then we walked over to the chicken coop. The chickens were okay with us and we were pondering using a building right beside them. Then………

The turkeys came.

At first we were talking to the turkeys, then they started gobbling at us and coming at us. We all wound up on the other side of a rock fence. We found a new way around the rock fence and they were still coming at us so we moved on.

And that is the story of how I was chased by a turkey.

Maybe not so scary, but we weren’t sure what the turkey’s might do to us in the moment.

I can now cross off being chased by a turkey on my life’s list as well as being flocked by a goose. I’m on a roll! By the way, Did I ever tell you I was flocked by a goose?

365 – September – Photos 1-30 – Take 2

At the end of my last Project 365 I debated if I would do another one or not. Part of me really wanted to and part of me didn’t. I had a few friends encourage me to continue on. So then came the question, do I take a month or 3 months off (3 months = the first of the year… SCARY!). I continued to take a photo every day so if I chose to back date I could.

Then around the middle of the month I decided to just go for it, so here’s round 2 of my Project 365. Wish me luck, especially this fall because… well you know what’s coming up the 29th of this month…. (hint: comps).

1/365 – Addermeister didn’t want me to forget her while I was at school so she gave me the monkey flashlight to take to school with me.

2/365 – Midweek Pancakes. Um… yes please!

3/365 – This little fish LOVES the water. Now this winter she’ll spend time in the hottub and the bathtub so we can keep this love of water up!

(more…)

Tips & Tricks: Help with a 365 Photo – a – day Project

Let’s do a Project 365. Wait, what is a project 365… So glad you asked! It is a challenge to pick your camera up at least once a day, every day for a year.

What kind of camera do I need? Do you have a dSLR? Super! Do you have an iPhone or Android Camera? Great! A Point and shoot camera? Fabulous! That’s all you need!

A year ago I set out on an adventure to do a 365 Photo a day project. Truthfully I didn’t think I’d make it. In previous years I’ve tried to do a 52 week Photo project and while I accomplished this, it was soooooo hard. Then another year I thought maybe, just maybe I could do a 365 project that focused on me. Well turns out I’m not that self centered, or at least that’s how it felt taking that many pictures of myself! Oy! And I’m guilty of taking a lot of selfies. Sometimes that’s the only way people know I exist because no one really ever takes my photo, but that’s another story/rant for another day.

So back to that 365 photo a day project… last September I decided to start it. Most people choose to start their photo journey on January 1st so that they have 1 year and it’s a calendar year, however I decided to start on September 1 because if I was going to do it, I was ready to commit and I needed to get it started.

That’s all it takes. The commitment.

Let’s start off with the Q&A session:
So what’s the purpose of a 365 Photo a day project?

  • It is a way for you to enhance your photography. You have a starting place and an ending place. Hopefully your ending place is better than where you started. And this is an opinion of yours, not of other people. Keep that in mind!

So what do you take pictures of?

  • Anything you want. You can start out and take a photo a day of the exact same thing, choosing something that you will have on you or have access to for 365 days. In fact on flickr there are groups that focus solely on taking a photo of the same thing, ie dog, sunglasses, sky, yourself, (the sky is the limit…).

(more…)