I Shot a gun!

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Jamie

I didn’t grow up on guns.  My dad never went hunting nor did my brother.  Hunting was very popular in Minnesota, but it didn’t run deep in my family.  I just was never around them, and I had a fear.

My SO has grown up on guns, and his family often goes shooting on the weekends.  Granted, being in LA, it makes things a bit more difficult because there isn’t a whole lot of land to go shooting around here, but there are indoor shooting ranges.

One day, I decided to give it a try, and we headed to an indoor shooting range.  I sat back and watched him shoot a few times then he leaned over to me and said, “are you ready?”  I was shaking.  I was literally petrified.  I never thought in my life I would ever touch a gun, let alone, shoot one.  I teared up.  Yep.  I cried because I wasn’t quite ready.

I watched him for a few more rounds, then it was my turn.

He showed me how to load it, how to manuever it, and then I was on my own.  I was able to load the bullets, load the magazine, and shoot.  And I did.

What did I learn through the whole experience????

It is really hard to aim!!!!  I can’t imagine what it would be like with a really heavy gun.

Perhaps, one day, in the future, we will head back to the shooting range, but until then, I’m happy knowing I shot a gun!

 

 


Categories: Life | Tags: , , , | 12 Comments

Figuring Out Shutter Speed!

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Jamie

Shutter Speed is in reference to how fast the shutter is going on a camera.

The higher the shutter speed (1/1000) means the faster the shutter is going.  The smaller the shutter speed means the slower the shutter speed is going (1/30)

It is measured in seconds.

A good rule of thumb unless you have a tripod is to keep your shutter speed at 1/60 or higher to capture the best from your camera.  With a tripod you can go even lower, and that’s where long exposure can also come in handy.  I promise we’ll discuss the importance of a tripod later.

In order to freeze motion, you will want to utilize a higher shutter speed.  If you want your picture to show the blur of motion you will want to utilize a lower shutter speed.

Situations in which you may want a slower shutter speed:

When trying to capture moving water

When trying to capture the speed trails of light

Or when you’re trying to capture the speed of a car, motorcycle, or even a bike.  

Otherwise, if you’re looking to capture a picture with very little blur in it you will want to utilize a higher shutter speed.

So, get out there and start experimenting with shutter speeds, and let me know what you come up with =) They’re a ton of fun!

Another great article on Shutter Speed can be found here: http://digital-photography-school.com/shutter-speed


Categories: Photography | Tags: , , , , | 15 Comments

Picture This.

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Jamie

It’s been awhile since I’ve showed any pictures… so I thought today would be a good day for that:

Remember when I wrote you the story of “How I Met My Man?”  This picture was taken by him during my first initial visit with him.  We were by the ocean.  Ironically, I was looking behind me at the cliffs, lol.

I totally forgot I had this picture of Downtown Los Angeles.  I still haven’t taken the perfect picture of the Los Angeles skyline.  My hope is to take it during winter when snow is on the mountains.  I just need to find the perfect place.

One of my favorite festivals to go to is the Pasadena Chalk Festival.  Last year was the first time going for me, and I was amazed by all the beautiful talent I saw that day.  It was amazing to see the artists work in progress, and how they creations transformed.  And they do it with chalk!  I will also be attending the Chalk Festival this year which is taking the place of June 16th and 17th.

One of the places I visit from time to time with other photographers is Olvera Street.  It is the oldest street around in Los Angeles, and it’s filled with vendors that sell a lot of Mexican inspired gifts which means colorful.  Anything for suns like you see above to toy guitars to the dancing guys and gals on strings.  And there’s some pretty amazing restaurants on the side of the vendors to eat at.  Whenever I visit there I always have to make sure to stop at Mr. Churro to get a churro with filled custard 😉 amazing!  And believe it or not I’ve introduced other local Angeleno’s to this filled custard churro 😉

Sometimes when I’m out and about taking pictures I catch something that you wouldn’t think to see often.  A police beach car chilling on the beach.  By the picture you would think the beach was deserted, but it was actually a really busy beach day.  It’s all in perspective of your picture.

This is the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena.  It’s a true beauty and it’s long.  In the past a lot of people jumped off this bridge to their ending deaths, so this bridge has been coined, “the suicide bridge.”  And as you can see above they’ve now added guard rails making it almost impossible to jump off of.  Sometimes it’s just fun to take some time to capture a bridge.  One of my favorite things to capture.  One day I hope to end out east to capture some of the covered bridges in small towns.

I know this post was kind of random today, I couldn’t really organize it in a way, but I enjoyed going through some of my old pictures and picking out some of my favorites, and it was also a walk down memory lane for me.

 

 


Categories: Photography | Tags: , , , | 13 Comments