I joined Flickr!

It seems like Flickr is the place to share photos online, so I created an account. You get 1 terabyte of storage, which seems insane, but I'll take it! You can find me here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/129646373@N04/

My inaugural photo is a macro closeup taken of a rusting grill at Lake Jordan near Raleigh, NC. What stands out to me the most is that what I saw in the preview screen on my camera is not nearly what it turned out to be when I downloaded it to my computer. The depth of field is extremely narrow and there is very visible curvature throughout the picture which I'm guessing is due to the zoom and closeup nature of the photo. I thought much more of the center of the picture would be sharp and clear. Still, I like the idea and would like to keep working on this sort of style.



This was taken with the Nikkor 18-140mm kit lens that came with my D7000 and I did some contrast and color touchups with Picasa.

/r/photography

I've been a reddit user for years now, and of course they have a large photography subreddit located at /r/photography. I find that it's a great resource not just because it's a constantly updated source of photography related information, but also because it presents me with answers to questions that I never even considered asking. The tri-weekly questions thread is definitely worth a look.

Reddit is also also where I found this video that perfectly and simply explains the three basic aspects of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. If you are a complete beginner, this is where I think you should start:


The Three Basics of Exposure and Photography from Matthew Gore on Vimeo.

What the bokeh is bokeh?

I've seen this term tossed around on photography forums and assumed it was some incredibly technical term related to lenses that I didn't need to know as a beginner. Turns out, it actually is something incredibly common that we've all seen in photos without actually knowing what we were looking at.

Bokeh is the quality of the out of focus portions of a picture, often produced when using a narrow depth of field or just being totally out of focus. What determines bokeh is the lens itself and looks different for each, and for this reason, lens reviews often mention bokeh as a point of consideration. When photographing points of light, this produces those round orbs that I'm sure you've seen before. Here's an example from Wikipedia of a Christmas tree:

And yes, bokeh is a Japanese word. There was no way I was going to figure it out without looking it up.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

Introduction to photography

Photography, at its most basic level, is the creation of an image through the recording of light. The word originates from Greek roots with photos meaning "light" and graphos meaning "drawing", together meaning "drawing with light". Typically, this is done using a device in which the light is focused through a lens in order to create an impression on some form of medium, such as film, in the case of "traditional" photography, or an electronic sensor, in digital photography. This "photograph", depending on how it is stored, can then be printed or archived in any manner of way.

But that is just the physical mechanism of photography. Photography captures moments more vividly than our memories ever could. It is also art, allowing for self-expression that frames the world in a way that is not always how we see it, but how we actually feel it.

For me, personally, photography is a chance to learn something new and have some fun. This is a hobby for me, as I'm sure it is for most of you, and I would like to emphasize from the start that this blog is meant to be a learning experience, so all comments, corrections, and advice are totally welcome.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography