Let Me Introduce Myself...

Hi, I'm Cheryl and I am very excited about the Photography Club in Culpeper.  I never really paid attention to all the buttons, knobs, or function keys on any of my cameras through the years and I have SO much to learn!

I used instamatic cameras until our 4th son was born 23 years ago when I finally invested in a Canon Rebel G 35 mm.  Eventually I bought a longer lens as the boys became active in sports and I needed the range.

Then in 2004 one of my sons showed me his digital camera – I was amazed!  I loved the instant gratification of seeing the photo right away.  I finally purchased a little Canon PowerShot that I could slip into my purse and take anywhere!  Later I was in the 10th row at a concert and discovered the camera only had a 4x zoom (silly me – I should have done more research!).  I was satisfied with just a few of my photos and they were the ones I had walked up to the 4th row to take.  I already needed a bigger digital camera!

I purchased the Canon PowerShot S2 IS and later the S5 IS (both of which are now obsolete) and have been extremely pleased with them.  I was content to let the camera do the thinking for me utilizing the ‘auto’ setting almost all the time.  One of my sons challenged me to experiment with the manual settings and I dabbled with them but would often revert back to what I was comfortable with. He also showed me many techniques in Photoshop to enhance, correct, and copyright my work.  There is SO much to learn!!

I’ve been to three meetings of the Culpeper Photography Club and have been gaining confidence in utilizing the manual settings on my camera and experimenting with my photography.

Our current assignment is “white balance” or “color correction” and I have one example of a photo taken at a Jason Michael Carroll concert where they overdid the red lighting on stage (see example below).

I took it to Photoshop and did my color correction there using the color balance tool to adjust the color (see example below).

What I’m hoping to do between now and our meeting in January is to play with the “white balance” setting in my camera and do a comparison of photos.  I can’t always be experimenting with the settings on my camera at a concert.  Practice and experimentation need to be done at home so that I can be comfortable in a more intense situation.

I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with for their “white balance” demonstration.

Happy Holidays!