Two for the price of one. I’m still new at this photography thing (15 hours total in the pilot seat, maybe), so pretty much everything I do is experimental. For the two shots above, however, I went clear across the country and shot in conditions I’ve never shot before.

First shot? H.E. bought me a light and umbrella set so I can learn old-fashioned light modelling. There was actually another purpose to his buying it; he wanted to get a good portrait of his old professor and the professor’s wife. So while he took those pictures, I took a picture of the umbrella and the photographer in process. We were indoors, and I used the available light. So no automatic flash. I’m slowly weaning myself away from all the auto features on my Nikon D50.

Second shot? On the last night in Maryland, H.E. drove me around in the new-fallen snow, and again I shot using available light—no flash. Experimental for me because I’d never really done night shots before the trip, let alone shots of snow (we have no snow in Southern California!). It taught me to keep a steady hand and to use whatever I had available to help keep it steady (my knee, the rental’s window frame, etc.) because the tripod was already completely packed away in one of the check-in bags. This is one of the more artsy-looking blurry shots, but I did get a few sharp-looking shots as well.

I’ll post some of my better shots tomorrow.

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