SnapShots

Snapshots, photography, pictures, whatever you call them, I love doing it! I welcome you to my gallery of images! Here you’ll find an assortment of some of my favorite photos I’ve taken throughout the years and some tips I’ve just learned about taking a good picture.

I’ve always had a thing for taking snapshots and taking lots of them! My love affair with the camera began when I was in elementary. I used to ask my mom for disposable cameras to take to school on holidays like Halloween or Christmas. The only pictures I ever took were of my friends, and most of them weren’t very good. A lot of them were blurry and too dark. But I have so many pictures of them from elementary up to high school; I can’t bear throwing them away.

Amateur Images

Phone cameras have made it much easier to take the right image. These two snapshots are from Jr high and high school taken with a disposable camera, and as you can tell, faces are blurry, and they’re dark, but they are some of my favorites! I consider myself an amateur when it comes to photography.

Basics

Although I’ve taken a lot of snapshots, I don’t consider myself a photographer. I didn’t have the slightest idea of taking a good picture until I learned the basics, and even then, I have a lot of practicing to do. I go with what I like seeing through the lens then I snap away.

A couple of months ago, I bought myself a DSLR camera. A Sony Alpha A6000, to be exact. A starter camera, which is perfect for me. I love this camera, but there is a lot to it.

So I started learning the basics from SkillShare; An online community of creatives to learn a new skill or grow a talent. They have tons of courses available on everything! It’s a great resource, especially right now during Covid, to learn something new!

So, like everything else, I’m a work in progress when it comes to photography. I know it’ll take some time, but I’m hopeful and excited to learn the ins and outs of taking a good picture—all of these pictures I took with a regular cheap camera or a phone.

These are just some photos I’ve taken throughout the years. I have so many of them; it’s pretty ridiculous. I should start printing them out and putting them in albums, but I haven’t. My kids are my guinea pigs when taking snapshots, especially now with the new camera I got.

If you love taking pictures or have recently started photography like me, below are some tips that have helped me out. You can also check out SkillShare. They usually have a free trial, and as I said before, they have a million courses available.

Basic Photography Skills

Exposure is how light or how dark you capture images. You want to think of ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed as a triangle working together to get the right exposure.

Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed-is a measurement of the time the shutter is open, shown in seconds or fractions of a second picture. The faster the shutter speed, the easier it is to take the image without blur, and the smaller the camera shakes. The optimal shutter speed for a handled photo is 1/25 seconds or faster.
- The higher the shutter speed, the less light you’re letting in the lens, the faster your speed.
- The lower the shutter speed, the more light you’re letting in, and the slower the shutter speed.
- Freeze Slow Motion: Moving subject (your friend walking): 1/250-1/500
- Freeze Fast Motion: (car, someone riding a bike): 1/1000-1/5000
- Sight Motion (Blur): 1/25-1/60
- Smooth Motion Blur: (making a waterfall look smooth): 1/2-1/5
- Night Photography/Light Trail: 1/15-1/30

Aperture/f-Stop

Aperture or f-stop-the opening of the lens diaphragm through which light passes.
- The higher your f-stop, the less light you’re letting in, the smaller the opening on the lens, the sharper your image will be all around—Deep Depth of Field.
- The lower the f-stop, the more light you’re letting in, and the bigger opening on the lens, the blurrier the background will be—shallow depth of field.
- Portraits: F1.2-F3.2 for a crisp, sharp look, face in focus (everything else blurred out)-focuses more on a person’s emotions.
- Landscape/Group Photo: F5.6-F8 through F11.
- Nature Photo (Big Scene): F22-F18
- You won’t have to go above F11, even for nature scenes).

ISO

ISO sensitivity is a measure of the camera’s ability to capture light. This should be your last resort when you’re in manual mode.
- Keep as low as possible. The higher you go, the more digital noise or grainy texture you’ll get.
- The lower the ISO, the less light is coming in, the darker your image will be.
- The higher the ISO, the more light is coming in, the brighter your image will be.
- Outside: keep at 100
- Inside: keep between 400-800
- 1600 is the max to get a nice image
- Tip: On your DSLR, set it to manual mode, half-press the shutter button. When you look through the lens, on the bottom, you should see a scale. If it goes to the left, (negative), the image will be darker. If it goes to the right, (positive), the image will be brighter. You always want it to be in the middle of the scale.

Spot Focus

Spot Focus: What spot you should focus on when taking pictures:
- Portraits-Eyes
- Group of People-Middle Person
- A person on Street-Aim for Chest
- Landscape-1/3 of the way into the image

Example picture setting: Shutter-1/200, Aperture (F stop)-F2.8, and ISO-250.

The more pictures you take, the easier it is to remember how to use the functions on the camera. I have to practice what I preach and start snapping away.

Regardless of what camera I use, I love doing it and will continue to do it whether I become better at it or keep taking photos like these, but I”m secretly hoping I’ll get better! After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 😉