Stowe Landscape Gardens

If anybody is looking for a place to take some shots of beautiful scenery, I thoroughly recommend
Stowe Landscape Gardens in Buckingham owned by the National Trust. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stowe/  which has undergone a big refurbishment recently.   It has lakes, temples, woodland to name but a few highlights.   It is a really enjoyable walk and a wonderful place to have a picnic if the weather is nice and the children have their own trail they can follow which can include playing pooh sticks on one of the bridges.     I believe they even run some photography courses for National Trust members.

I took some photographs there recently.  Here are some examples

Beautiful Children's Photography

As my interest is in Children's photography I was looking for some inspiration and came across 

http://www.mattpereira.co.uk 

His baby portraits are beautiful in their simplicity.   It's all in the eyes.   Also take a look at his family portraiture.  They are wonderfully heart warming, a mother kissing her daughter, a father crouching down to look at whatever it is his toddler son has in his hand.   There's some fun ones too,   I particularly like the one of the mother and her three daughters during a family baking session with all of them licking the spoon!    He seems to capture all that is good about family life and the characters of his subjects shine through in every image.    He is certainly someone to aspire to.  

Learning Photography

This is my first ever blog.   I've just embarked on a Photography Diploma Course with www.melencourses.co.uk.  The purpose - to kick start a new career for myself after 20+ years of working at the BBC.   

I'm off to a good start and for anybody out there who's just bought a DSLR and wants to learn more about photography here's a few things I've learnt. 

There are three things that make up exposure.   These are Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO. 

 Shutter Speed controls how much time the light has to hit the sensor.  Set it fast and you'll freeze the action and set it slow and you'll blur the action.  See examples I took whilst on the course which show the effect of shutter speed when your subject is water.    If you have a very slow shutter speed you will need to use a tripod to avoid camera shake.  

Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens and affects how much of your image is in focus (depth of field).   A large aperture gives a shallow depth of field i.e blurry background like in the example below. 

and a small aperture gives a deep depth of field where everything is in focus.  

ISO   is the light sensitivity setting.  Set high for dark conditions and low for bright conditions.  The below example was a high ISO setting showing the interior of a domed ceiling. 

So what makes a good composition?
 

If you've ever heard of the Rule of Thirds here's an explanation of what it means.  It's all about how your eyes most naturally view an image.   Imagine a grid across your image dividing it into nine equal squares.(My Nikon D7000 can display it in the viewfinder for you which is handy).   The idea is that when you compose your shot you line up the key elements along one of the horizontal lines or at the intersection.  Placing something slightly off centre also appears more pleasing to the eye.  

Leading Lines  If you have some shape in your image,  for example a pathway or some striking architecture you can compose your shot so that these lines lead you into the image and  draw your eye inwards such as in the example below. 

Watch out for background   Look at every outside edge and make sure you have nothing in shot that you don't want.  Think about colours too.  If your subject is a light colour you might want it against a dark background to make it stand out. 

What's your Vantage point?  This is where you position yourself to take the photograph.   You might want to crouch down low or shoot from a high angle to get a more interesting shot.   

I've learnt loads more such as  Lighting, White Balance,  Exposure Compensation, Digital Editing but I think this is enough for my first blog.  Watch this space.....!!!