Photography Practice

It seems like certain things just shouldn't be so difficult. Take, for instance, photographing a juvenile American Goldfinch on a tree limb no more than 20 feet away, at 8am on a cloudy morning. To the naked eye this bird was a very pretty golden color, midway on the spectrum between brown and the brilliant yellow of the adult male. I took 10 photos of him on any number of different camera settings, and none would produce the color I saw when I put the camera down. This photo seems to have the best color of the tree, but the bird just seems brown. Harumph.


Yesterday I was perusing my cherry tomato plant and I came across three separate caterpillars clinging to its stems. I thought this one would be a good subject upon which to practice my close-up skills. Let's just say I'm still very rough around the edges.



I always love those shots of dew-covered plants. Roses glistening with dew drops seem to win all the photography contests, don't they? Somehow green cherry tomatoes and a wilted dying leaf just don't give that same effect.

Oh well, at least they're digital and I'm not wasting film. Perhaps I should actually read the owner's manual and learn what all those different buttons I'm pushing are supposed to accomplish . .