Another Weekend Is Upon Us

 Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

Buddha

Wishing all my friends a great weekend!

I linked up with Skywatch Friday and Photo Friday. 

Friday Photo Link Ups & Happy Birthday to my Guy

This is one of my favorite photos from this summer. I couldn't figure out how I wanted to process it, so it has sat in a folder while I tried to make up my mind. I finally decided on high contrast and sharp tone, hoping to capture the expanse of the sky with it's volumes of clouds from a worm's eye view. 


I linked up with both Skywatch Friday and Photo Friday. 


Also today is a super special day as it is John's birthday!!! He often gets robbed of his birthday with it following so closely behind Christmas but he is much too awesome to not be recognized. Plus, he puts up with Spencer and I! So I am wishing him the best day ever and I hope he knows how loved he is. We would be lost without him. Happy Birthday, Baby!

SkyWatch Friday

Good morning friends! One of the things I missed instantly when I moved to the city years ago was the sky. Just seeing the landscape before me, unhindered by skyscrapers and fog. I couldn't look out my windows and see the clouds rolling by or the deep blue of the summer sky without some distraction in my view. You have a lot of advantages in a larger area but seeing something like this is not one of them. 


The colors a Wisconsin sky can display is something I have not taken for granted since. 


TGIF! Here's to a great weekend for us all.


I linked up with Skywatch Friday.

Wisconsin Autumn Sunrise

I think one of the most overlooked areas in photography may be the sky. It could be that due to the vastness of the subject, most captures rarely pick up what the eye is actually seeing and the photos fail to show the depth of the clouds or the amazingly vibrant colors tend to be flat. 

The sky, just like the weather, here in Wisconsin changes often. Clear blue skies can change to dark clouds in a matter of minutes and then change back as if it never happened. To be honest, I found this a great challenge. At first I was so frustrated, trying to capture color, depth and clarity of what was an amazing sky. My eyes saw so much, my camera processed so little.

After many many many attempts to find the settings I needed, I was finally rewarded with some results. You'd be surprised what a good point and shoot can do once it's user learns a few things. I used my Canon point and shoot for these, not my DSLR.

 I changed my white balance setting to Tungsten (which I rarely use). I disabled my flash and set my ISO at about 800 (to let more natural light into my camera). I also used Landscape focus mode in my manual program settings. That is why the background is more clear (farther away) than the tree branches (closer). 

 Again white balance set to Tungsten, flashed disabled, ISO changed to 600 and Macro focus settings used. Nothing here is really in great focus, color is a little more skewed. Depth is still here but in a much softer way.

Lastly, white balance setting changed to Vivid, flash enabled, ISO 400 and Manual focus used. Everything but the sky is more detailed, colors fairly accurate too.

I did not use zoom on these. I find when taking more of a landscape, sky shot it rarely picks up depth and most often really skews colors.

Maybe some of these tips will help you? I hope so! These settings will also work with a DSLR and most lenses. 

I can't choose a favorite, I like them all for different reasons. What's yours?

Oh and Happy Friday! Thanks so much for stopping by!

I linked up with Skywatch Friday.