Guest Post: Hubby's Crash Course-Photography Lesson 101

I hope you guys enjoyed your weekend!  I sure have- I had the whole weekend off, even from blogging.  The post below is another guest post from the hubby.  I am incredibly biased, but I love when he steps in and shows things from his own perspective.  This post is another recap from our recent trip and I love his new skill of photography and am so happy to share it with you.  I hope you enjoy this post.
 
Hello Friends! While One Healthy Apple has already done a great job recapping our recent vacation to Australia and New Zealand, there is one other dimension to the trip that is worth sharing. This dimension is our (well, mostly mine) evolution in photography skills. The trip provided a great opportunity to familiarize myself with the new and relatively advanced camera, the Canon Rebel we recently purchased (after standing out at the recent Foodbuzz conference as what seemed like the only couple not taking food photos with a professional camera).  In addition to breaking in the camera, I also brought several photography books with us that I tried to draw upon throughout our trip.  After taking more than 800 photos on the trip, it is still unclear whether I have learned anything and whether I have any artistic ability when it comes to photography.  However, given the beauty of some of the places I was able to capture (please don't judge HOW they are captured - I'm still a beginner), good photographs were not difficult to take (or at least trying to take). I started with these in Sydney.

These photos made me question if I am better at capturing certain elements more than others. Am I a nature photographer? Do I have an eye for an urban theme? In New Zealand I tested my skills with nature shots.  I was especially impressed by sky and water.  New Zealand sky had a lot of character - dynamic, with clouds reflecting sun light and colors constantly changing, mirroring the diverse landscape of the island. Clouds were very low hanging and provided a dramatic look, covering the peaks of various mountains and hill tops. The sunsets sparking the New Zealand sky were even more beautiful. The views were so stunning that the photos (at least my photos) do not tell half the story, but here are a few anyway.

Water impressed us the most in New Zealand.  Whether in the ocean, inner lakes, or glaciers, its color was striking turquoise, one of the brightest colors on the island.  Its clarity allowed great reflections of the landscape around it, which I tried to capture.

I also tried taking artistic photos of One Healthy Apple or photos of us together.

On our trip, I learned as much about using light, exposure, and aperture, as I did about the two countries' history, culture, and culinary landscape.  But even after taking 800+ photos, the one lesson I learned, is that I have some stiff competition with One Healthy Apple's artistic photography level, and have admired her photos the most. Here are some of my favorites.

 

It's me again- see you later this week for some more regular posts.  I am participating in the Vegan For A Week Challenge, hosted by Morgan of Life After Bagels.  I'm excited to see how living the vegan lifestyle will work!