
Ok, so I was a bit rusty. Fair enough. I pulled my trusty Canon out on a recent trip to Traverse City to try to get my photography groove going again. I picked up the groove again pretty quickly. Found some great subjects, and lined up what I thought were some fairly good compositions. I had my ‘Nifty Fifty’ on and dialed the aperture open to get some nice DoF and light. You might think that the shot over there on the right is a decent composition, a little different and washed but interesting. The reality is that it was all I could save with Lightroom.

The reality is, I had blown it…. just take a peek to the beauty over there on the right… the entire trip’s worth of shots. Well there are a few there that are ok and I still need to run them through ‘the lab’, but by and large I screwed up. Don’t be like me. Always remember the the cornerstone of lighting for your composition: Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO. I typically shoot in aperture priority unless I am shooting moving targets, so the shutter speed is taken care of by my Canon in Aperture mode. I set the aperture accordingly – based on what I am looking for. What do I forget? ISO. I got home and realized my ISO was dialed up to 800. Major facepalm moment. I must have been shooting low light the last time I had the ole Canon out and this was my reward. Always check your settings, especially the ones you don’t change that often. Also, don’t take a trip’s worth of shots without previewing at least a couple to see if you are missing something.