Photography

Last night Gavin and I decided to celebrate spring break = no ceramics class (if you can call trying to think of something to mask our disappointment celebrating...) by heading over to Disneyland for the evening. Actually, the main reason for the trip was to check out a Champagne bottled only for Disneyland that we are considering for the wedding. This aspect of the trip was somewhat disappointing. The wine was fine, although nothing particularly special in my opinion, and the service was quite poor. Everyone has off days, even Disneyland.

As we haven't made it over recently, we headed to California Adventure. California Adventure is home to one of Gavin's favorite rides ever, ToyStory Midway Mania.


The line was a bit long, and since we forgot to reset our watches, it was the only ride we were able to squeeze in, but we were also able to see them filling, and presumable testing the new fountain show "World of Color". The entire thing looks like it will be amazing. I took quite a few pictures of the various things you could see through the construction screens, but by far my favorite is this one of the new Ferris wheel:



It was formerly the sun wheel, but I greatly prefer it in it's current configuration. I am now quite excited for the new show.

I've noticed that what type of pictures I see around me, and what I like to photograph is greatly impacted by my mood. The bright vibrant colors against the darkening sky fit perfectly yesterday. I am currently quite frustrated because I can see the pictures I want, but can't necessarily get the camera to show it to me. I know what settings should achieve what I'm looking for, but haven't mastered them yet. Sadly, I still frequently end up shooting on auto. Hopefully with practice, this will improve. I've started reviewing my auto photos to understand the settings used that achieve the results I'm looking for. It's a slow process as out of 100 auto shots, maybe 3 or 4 actually do what I fully intended. But currently, it's actually much faster for me to shoot 100 auto shots because setting manipulation is still quite slow for me and switching between settings often means I missed resetting something, completely ruining the next set of shots. All of this mostly serves to remind me how lucky I am to be learning on a digital camera where the 97 other shots only cost me frustration, not $.

An unexpected perk of photography has been looking at things around me differently. I won't say artistically, because I don't think I've made quite that much success. The book Basic Photography, as recommended by a friend of mine, has helped as has just slowing down and paying attention. I joking told Gavin the other day that I might even develop an architectural style if I keep it up!