Lake Tahoe Afternoon

Today was a monumental day for me in terms of photography!

Let me explain. I have "played around" with photography all of my life. But I never really understood all the boring stuff . . . you know, ISO, shutter speeds, aperture settings, etc. I loved Polaroid cameras because you just pointed the thing and shot the picture. When programmable film cameras came out, I bought one of the first ones. I just put it in "P" and went along happily. So, when my daughter became interested in photography, I thought that I could just tag along and learn something. But as soon as she started explaining all the boring stuff to me, I tuned out. I truly just wasn't interested. Then, in July I spent two weeks with her and her best friend, both photo-hounds, traveling around China. I saw how similar, yet different their photos were to each other and to mine (from my little point and shoot). Theirs were decidedly better than mine, but different from each other. I kept asking why. That was when they gently started telling me about exposure. I still didn't get it but I became interested.

Behind the scenes, my daughter is telling my husband all about my new found interest in photography. When I came home, I was all excited from the trip and sharing my thoughts with him. And I started seriously blipping. And you know the rest of the story. He bought my D7100 for my birthday (a couple of months early), and life hasn't been the same since.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get to the point!"

Today, I put the D7100 in Manual mode all day (with no cheating!) and shot over 100 photos with almost all of them with perfect exposure. Yes, I have an amazing camera that can think for me and create amazing photos. But, until today, I would never have been able to explain how. Oh, I have shot manually before today, but not all day with every single shot - not in shutter mode, not in aperture mode - fully in manual. What a revelation!

Thanks go to two men who I have never met - David Busch and Bryan Peterson. Many of you may recognize their names as great photographers. When I got the D7100, I knew what a dunce I was. So I bought David Busch's book on the D7100. It has helped so much. And my daughter's friend (and mine too) who you know as Worldlens suggested Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. I haven't finished either one of them because they are more "workbooks" than easy reading. But both of them have helped me immensely.

So, I'm celebrating! I don't think my shots will ever be the same again.

And, yes, my drive to Lake Tahoe was beautiful. I hiked for a while, had a brief encounter with a male black bear (sorry, no photos - my eyes were glued to the bear who was only about 35 feet away), then drove to Squaw Valley (1960 Olympics) and enjoyed the Oktoberfest for a few hours, then home.

I hope you all had a lovely day!