The question du jour

OK, so I set my camera (Canon DRebel, old) to use the center as the focus spot. So why, oh why, did it choose her hat to focus on? DRIVES ME NUTS, and happens way too often. Her face is soft, but the weave on her hat is crystal clear. Not what I was going for. Here are the pic specs, in case it's another setting throwing the AF off. It was my 50mm lens, 1/500 s at f/5, ISO of 800 (in shade). TIA!

Another shoot

with Alison, one of the ladies in the photography group. We got kicked out of the sunflower field by a wicked woman, so we headed to the nature center. Meanwhile, we lost some good light. But we experimented shooting with tripods and messing with aperture. Here are my faves from the evening.

Flowers Galore

I need advice.

OK, our friends just bought a cottage, and they are in the process of redoing it. SO far it's absolutely beautiful. So they invited us up for the weekend, and as a thank you I thought I would take some photos of both people, and things I saw outside the cottage, and have some of the pics framed or put onto canvas as a thank-you/cabin-warming gift. So now it's decision time. If they use these in the cabin, the predominant colors are red, yellow, blue, and green. They also have this gorgeous pine, stained a warm yellowish color.

So my question is this. Which pics would you choose, and in what size, to make a grouping? I'm thinking I want three photos together. I'm open to more or less. I was going for some shots that I thought were abstract, and you'd have to look hard to see what it was, and some that are more obvious. Now I don't know what the heck to do.

Here are the choices. The colorful images are the old crouet set the girls were playing with. That's the color of the wood in the cabin. Be harsh, I can take it.

It's been too long . . .

And I have been taking photos. Why am I not posting them? Well, I suppose lazy is the real answer.

I took these last night . . . I lugged my tripod, and then got SO frustrated with it, I just held my camera like I did last year. Tried some in manual, and um, yeah, they didn't work. I did get some with a slow shutter speed, but I like the clearer pics better. Hope you like them!

Crisis averted

OK, not so much luck with the grey card yesterday. It was pretty sunny when I went to take these pictures, and maybe that was why. But several were blown way out. Need to remember the Sunny 16 rule and try it next time. Lots of blur, probably because the focus went on the hat. Need to work on that. But here are my fave three. I know the details are a bit blown on the B&W and sepia, but it's all about the eyes for me. HCC appreciated!!

Wendy - the hat is from Gymboree, the outlet. I'm always on the lookout for cheap hats to add interest to photos. Hope that helps!

Another grey card experiment

Both are SOOC. First with manual settings, second metering off grey card. What a huge difference! I know some people like the darker images but I want creamy skin. That is what I appreciate in a photo. I hate "muddy" photos. I think I'm onto something!