Frustrating Photos

Okay, I went out this past Friday (I had the day off) and headed over to a reserve at 8:00am to capture some shots of the Eagles they just let loose from rehabilitation. The day was perfect, it was very early in the morning, and not a soul was in site. The lake was calm and everything was coming to life. Butterflies, geese, birds, dragonflys, eagles, osprey, blue heron. I was in wildlife heaven, shooting photo after photo, after photo. Two hours later I headed home with some beautiful shots. You could see birds preparing to descent to catch fish, an osprey grabbing a fish from the water, a blue heron skimming the lake inches about the water. It was amazing and I was so proud that I had captured it all on film.

Coming home I was so excited, and tired. But I immediately began to download my shots. Photo after photo was blurry, out of focus. I was so upset and so frustrated. I just couldn't believe it. So I began to research the problem. And in a nut shell, here is what I learned.

1) Taking good shots is going to take time, patience and study. You can't rely soley on Automatic Focus. There are too many variables when it comes to capturing movement. In fact, there are three things that come in to play: Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO. I could go into detail about it, but I recommend that you head over to this site: digital photography school read up! They are a wealth of information. They give good tips on all sorts of subjects. Photography at night, photographing kids, photography for children...and more.

2) Blurry photos can be fixed. I found this plug in FOCUS MAGIC that works as a plug in with Photoshop elements and while it looks easy, my first day of practicing its use was a little daunting. I will post more on it as I practice. It costs $45 so seemed reasonable enough. They let you have 8 free edits to try before you buy, but since I didn't read the instructions prior to trying, I didn't have much success. I broke down and registered for it, so I now have alot of practice time. I will keep you posted.

The great thing about Digital photography is that you can keep going back and taking more pictures and trying again. Its frustrating when you think you got the perfect shot, and you want to see it, frame it, send it out to all your friends!

As you can see, they are quite blurry, but they are very clear in my mind. Here's the thing, no matter how many times I go back and take that picture it will never come out right if I don't take the time to slow down, learn something new, and take a few risks.

And with digital, I can do it again, and again and again! Wish me luck! If I master the blurry corrections on these photos, I will post them to show you the differences. Are you learning something new? If so, please share it with us. This is what its all about!