I would like a macro lens, Christmas is coming ;)

Today was a pretty nice day, only 99 degrees! I decided to go outside to take some pics of the pretty flowers outside my house. Please note that I do not take care of these flowers; the HOA pays for landscapers to do it for me. If I took care of them, there would be no pretty flowers. Thanks for the green thumb, mom!

[68mm : ISO100 : f/2.8 : 1/325]

And just for good measure, a pic of the mighty Miss A

[40mm : ISO3200 : f/2.8 : 1/125]

Should Be Doing Homework Tuesday

I'm in school, taking a whole 2 classes. One of my classes has assignments due noon on Wednesday. So, Tuesday night is when I do them, since I'm at work at noon on Wednesday. And, I'm a major procrastinator. Instead of homework, I decided to play with my "fancy" camera some more. Hus recently bought a ukelele, which ended up being the subject of my poor camera's torture. I wanted to play with aperture a little, to get a better idea of how it affects depth of field. I know how it works, but I think it's fun to play with. Of course, it's night time, the lighting in my house blows, and I couldn't find our tripod. So, I made my own out of a text book, my laptop, and the lens hood. Really, it wasn't a tripod, it was just a stable surface at a decent-ish height for what I wanted to do. So here's one aperture "project"

You can only kind of tell my house is a cluttered disaster (ISO1600 : f/2.8 : 1/15)

"Hmm, perhaps you need a cleaning lady." (ISO1600 : f/8.0 : 1/2)

"Maybe you need a few cleaning ladies... or guys. I'm not sexist." (ISO1600 : f/22 : 4)

Weekend Shenanigans

So, this weekend I took some time to read up on aperture, ISO, shutter speed, etc. I know what all these things are, I used to sell cameras for the longest time. I had to explain these things to people. I've always been so against using high ISO, because I absolutely hate the noise it produces in pics. These "lessons" I've been reading are geared towards getting you to put the flash away. I'm a flash freak. My house has minimal decent lighting, so I almost always have the speedlite on, ready to help out with my crap lighting. Here are some examples of what I accomplished. I still have a long road ahead of me, and these are nowhere near perfect. They are also unedited, so please be kind ;) Editing will come later in my self-learning.

Body: Canon 40D
Lens: Canon 24-70mm 2.8L
Flash: none (yikes)
Filter: B&W UV Haze

24mm, ISO3200 [yikes], f/2.8, shutter 1/25.

40mm, ISO1600, f/5.6, shutter 1/80 (I also did this one in full manual, for the first time ever I felt comfortableish using manual instead of aperture priority)