12 Weeks to Better Photos Week 7: Shooting Outdoors

All 12 lessons can be viewed here . This tutorial was originally offered through the 2 Peas in a Bucket scrapbooking/photography website. Show them some love here.

Week 7 is Shooting Outdoors
I will admit I was somewhat perplexed by what they were asking for this week. Since few lenses are "macro" lenses, I didn't really get the instruction. Regardless, here is what they asked:

Challenge: The Close-up
This week we're going to experiment with macro mode. The good news is that this is a great challenge to try with your point & shoot camera!

1. With your point & shoot camera -- We want to see the difference between macro mode & another mode, so simply take a picture of an object after selecting macro mode on your camera. Move as close to the object as your camera will allow. Then take the picture again in a different mode.

2. With your SLR/ dSLR camera -- If you have a lens with macro, use it! (Use a tripod for more control and ease of use.) Unfortunately, if you don't have a lens with macro, the macro mode setting will just give you a shallow depth of field for your photos. You can still take a photo using this mode, but it's not the same as having a lens with a macro. To compensate, you could try "imitating" a macro shot by taking a photo and then cropping it very closely in a photo editing program.

Here is the chain link on my complex swing set. I was drawn to the "S" for my alphabet gallery too, but then realized I already have a lovely S in the collection.

settings:

Exposure Time:	1/1600
Aperture:	f/2.8
ISO:	800
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

for perspective, here is the whole swing, complete with a toddler:

same settings

next up: motion!