Another Busy Weekend at the Farm and Some Waterfall Pictures

The weather was beautiful last weekend and when I wasn't helping my parents getting the farm ready for the warmer weather, I was walking around taking pictures and experimenting with my camera. 

I always used to wonder how photographers were able to take pictures of waterfalls and get a misty, soft shot of the moving water, making it appear almost magical. I've read up on it a few times and learned its due to the shutter speed. When the shutter speed is slower, moving objects become blurred when the picture is taken while motionless objects remain the same. Since we have a small waterfall on the farm I thought it was the perfect oppertunity for me to practice with moving water.

Since the water was flowing and the rocks were motionless with a steady hand I was able to play around with the shutter speed and get my shot! It took a bunch of different adjustments to ISO, shutter speed, and going back and forth between my lenses, but I finally got some I was happy with. I ended up having to wait for the sun to go behind some clouds and that gave me some pictures that weren't so over exposed.

Waterfall with a "normal" shutter speed

Waterfall with a slower shutter speed but still not there

Waterfall with an even slower shutter speed, magical!

In hindsight I would have gone back and switched from JPEG to RAW to try and save some of the white tones,  I didn't realize I had switched it until we were getting ready to go home for the weekend.

I also had a lot of followers throughout the day, the chickens were especially interested in what all the clicking was about.

Julie and Lilly both followed me all around the farm, keeping watch over the chickens and running along the paths.

After all the running, picture taking, and prep work, we took a break on the new deck, enjoyed a bit of the warm weather, and took in all the changes that come along with spring. Lilly is such a ham and enjoyed sitting on the deck with her Mr. Grandpa.

Be sure to follow me on instagram @rocky092 for more pictures and posts

Some Animal Portraits and Our Trip to California Academy of Sciences

One of my favorite things about my new camera is learning as I go and figuring out what shooting on manual is all about. I find myself practicing on pets and animals since that's what almost always readily available and they don't mind if I'm taking my time to figure something out. Here are just some of the pictures from trips, visits, and rotations from the beginning when I was first learning to shoot on manual.

The first couple of pictures are from California Academy of Sciences from our trip to San Francisco. It was a great museum/zoo and they had a bunch of really cool exhibits. If you're going to the area it was a great way to spend the day.

Some of the butterfly pictures really remind me of  desktop screen savers for some reason. California Academy of Sciences had a great walk through butterfly dome/rainforest exhibit where we took all of the amphibian and butterfly pictures.

The rest of the pictures are pets of family members and friends, usually taken spur of the moment or when I'm in between something/ running errands.

Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little Ball of Furrr...

If you watch the Big Bang Theory, chances are you know how catchy the soft kitty song is. Every time Penny sings it to Sheldon I find myself singing or humming it for the rest of the night. 

Anyway, today that song was stuck in my head ALL DAY because we found a kitten!

My sister, mother, and I were coming home from lunch when I saw a little black fur ball sitting in the middle of the road. Since our farm isn't in a residential area, the speed limit on the road is pretty high, 40 at least. As I slowed down, it ran off into the brush that lined the sides of the road. We could see that it was still sitting there, so I pulled onto the shoulder and my mom got out to see if she could catch it. After 15 minutes of crawling through brush, over logs, and into ditches, we were soaked and no closer to catching the kitten. 

We decided to head back to the house and return with a Havahart trap. 30 minutes, 4 people, and a high speed golf cart ride later, we were bringing the kitten back to the farm. 

We unloaded the kitten into a large dog crate and were surprised to find that he would let us hold him in a towel. My dad immediately bonded with him as did everyone else in the family. Knowing he was a keeper, we decided to name him Lucky. 

He's a little cutie and I hope living with us will make him fat and happy. 

Until next time!