Opportunities to improve

"Ask and it will be given to you,

seek and you will find,

knock and the door

will be opened to you."

~Matthew 7:7 NIV

Back to basics:

What does ISO really mean?

I get a lot of questions about this "photo stuff", so here are a few tips.
The letters ISO can scare a beginner off! Thus begins the challenge to learn. Along with the learning, comes the opportunity to really improve the quality of your photography. I have found in my experience that the same principle applies to digital as well as my old film camera. That seems to be the best way of understanding ISO to me. Just think of ISO as "film speed". In the digital camera then ISO is your camera sensors' sensitivity to light and how it affects your images.

Keep it simple:
If I have my camera set for ISO 100, simply put, I have 100 opportunities or possibilities to gather light. When I change the ISO setting to 200 I now have 200 opportunities to capture light. The sensor can now gather the light that comes through the lens twice as easy, and make an image.

If we continue to compare ISO 100 and ISO 200, with the lens aperture (opening size) set at f/5.6, the same volume of light will be coming through my lens at each setting, but at the ISO setting of 200, I will record the image the quickest, since I have have twice as many opportunities to gather the light. So, the more I need light, I can compensate for the need with a higher ISO setting.

Then shutter speed comes into play! Why is shutter speed important? If I am trying to photograph a mushroom on a cloudy, overcast day: With a setting of ISO 200, 1/250 sec. is pretty close, but for ISO 100, I will need more time, or 1/125 sec. ~ a longer exposure is needed to capture more light.

You can do a simple learning exercise by writing down the indicated shutter speeds required at different settings. Try setting your ISO to 200, and your aperture to f/8. Focus at a subject and adjust your shutter speed until a correct exposure is indicated. (Usually the indicator lights stop blinking!) Write down the shutter speed. Next adjust up to ISO 400, keeping the aperture at f/8, and point the camera at the same subject. Now your light meter is indicating a different shutter speed for a correct exposure. Write it down. Do the same procedure at ISO 800 and again for 1600.

What have you noticed? When you change from ISO 100 to ISO 200 your shutter speed changed: from 1/125 second to 1/250 second or perhaps something like from 1/160 sec. to 1/320 sec. See the pattern? Each shutter speed is close to, if not exactly half as much as the one before it.

So, changing from 1/125 sec. to 1/250 sec. is half as long the exposure time. When you set the ISO to 400, you went from 1/125 sec to 1/500 sec.

Just as each halving of the shutter speed is called 1 stop, each change from ISO 100 to ISO 200 to ISO 400 is considered a 1-stop increase (an increase of opportunities to gather light).

You can do this same exercise by leaving the shutter speed the same, for instance at 1/125 sec., and changing the aperture until a correct exposure is indicated in the viewfinder; or, if you choose to stay in auto exposure mode, select shutter-priority, set a shutter speed of 1/125 sec., and the camera will set the correct aperture for you.

Yes, new opportunities exist. Try "knocking on the door" of a new way of doing photography ~ you will just be as amazed as I have been! Maybe we will discuss this basic stuff again! My best advice: try it, and don't quit. It soon will become second nature to you!

For now ~ Love to all, Norm

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The right Light

"No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place

where it will be hidden, or under a bowl.

Instead, he puts it on it's stand,

so that those who come in

may see the light."

~Luke 11:33 NIV

He is the light.

The amazing truth parallel here is the fact that photography is all about light! Most professional photographers will readily agree that the exact right light will make all the difference in any situation.

If I have a hard time seeing my subject clearly, I must step back, and check my focus, or make sure nothing is blocking my lens, or vision.

The sermon by our pastor today focused on this subject. I think it is amazing sometimes, as a photographer, that not always am I in the right frame of mind to capture all the beauty that was intended for each shoot. Sometimes there can be things that block my view, and cloud over the "light".

I know, the same applies to our lives. As pastor said, we need to not focus on the stresses and ugly things in our lives, or that will be all that we are able to see.

Try this: do a back yard, or other, photo shoot with your mind focused on the "proper light", and you will be as amazed as I am in the difference it will make. Do the same thing when we go out into the world each day, and see how His light will shine the way!

Love to all, Norm

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"Then you will know the truth,

and the truth will set you free."

~ John 8:32 NIV

The character of a man.

This doorway to the building that housed several of the classes that I took in collage had this inscription above every head that passed through it. Although I admit, I passed through several times without noticing, or looking up, this has become one of my favorite verses.

I take strength in knowing, as I did in my long passed school days, that these words mean what they say. He died for me and no matter what I am going through, His truth remains for me, and anyone who keeps the faith.

It has got to be hard for us to keep walking the path He has set for us, but just knowing that if, or more accurately, when we stumble or get off course, that truth will remain.

Character is our signature. What we do and say does matter. The people we touch, or that touch us in some way, will become a part of us. Our best asset in life is that signature we wear. That part of us that knows the good truth about our Savior will guide us through those tough times.

Help someone to realize the "truth", and you have helped the world.

Love to all, Norm

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Each man should give

what he has decided in his heart to give,

not reluctantly or under compulsion,

for God loves a cheerful giver.

-2 Corinthians 9:7 NIV

Giving back!

       I am not sure why, but I love to help those who have a real need.  I guess it makes us feel really good inside to know that we have said the right thing at the right time, or been there to just listen when they needed to tell someone about their "life lesson" moment.

          She was an elderly lady - mid 70"s most likely.  She was very pleasant as I walked up to the cash register where she was about to check out my small load of purchases at the local store.  As checkers do, she asked if I found everything ok, as I proceeded to pile everything from my shopping cart to the check-out moving treadmill.  I replied that all I needed to find yet today was a little more time.  You see, it was almost ready to rain outside, and I was wanting to get home to do some painting.

          She said: "you and I have them all allright"!  I thought she was referring to my small boatload of purchases.  But then she said: "yes sir you have all 24 of them"!  She was referring to all 24 hours, when I finally understood what she was meaning!   I said; "actually, I need more time before the rain starts to do some painting outdoors".  "Oh well", I said, "we always need the rain".

          Then her face got very sad looking, and she told me that sometimes she did not like the rain any more.  She related how it was raining the night her husband died in her arms at home.  She had to listen to the driving hard rain storm as she waited for the ambulance to arrive.  She just knew that it was too late, and it seemed like a very long time before the rescue unit came.

          That will always remind her of the saddest time in her life, and all I could do was listen.  Several people had piled up behind me in the check out line, and all of them were watching me listen to a sad story that brought tears to an elderly lady, as she released some needed tension to a total stranger!  No one said a word, and I was very aware by then, that they all were beginning to almost tear-up too.

http://nicholsonphotoimages.com/site/#/gallery/clouds/016/

          I then finished up my purchases, and gave her a small hug, and a pat on the shoulder, as I said "I will say a special prayer for you".  She said "thank you for listening to me, and I want you to know the next week for his funeral, it stopped raining.  He even sent His rainbow to remind me that He would always be there for me!  You know, today was his birthday".

          I am thankful for the lesson he gave us in the check out line that day!  It could have been different.  People behind me could have complained.  I could have rushed on home to paint.  I could have missed His rainbow "life lesson"!

Love to all, Norm

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Thank you.

I am praying to you because

I know you will answer,

O God. Bend down

and listen as I pray.

~ Psalm 17:6, NLT
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First time!

Along time ago, my Dad taught me to use a hammer! 

There is a certain nack to it.  You remember the first time

you tried it, don't you?  First, as I remember it, I was not very old,

and the hammer was ment for an adult.  He taught me to pick

the right tool for the job, and the correct manner

to hold the hammer. 

I know now that it must have taken alot

of patience for him to watch

me do it wrong so many times,

and not say much. 

I flash back to that lesson now when ever I

pick up a hammer, and remember, sometimes

after I hit my thumb, the correct way

to drive a nail, and the proper swing

to use that will produce the best results!

Practice helps, and if you are like me,

and don't drive nails every day, you need to

get the hang of it, and then get into the groove

before you make much progress. 

Prayer must be like that too.

God is so patient with us.  Sometimes he must

just laugh at us in anguish, as we think

we have it all under control.

All we need to do is ask our Father for a little help!

Love to all, Norm

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37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors

through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither

death nor life, neither angels nor demons,

neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God

that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

- Romans 8:37-39

Together forever!

The annual cousins family reunion was this past weekend. 

We enjoyed meeting a new little addition to the family.

Family is so important to us.  No it never works for everyone

to be there each time at this annual event, because, you see,

sometimes they have family plans also. 

I am reminded of this bible verse that no matter what gets in the way,

God still loves me, and nothing can separate me from his love.

The same goes for family.  We have busy lives these days,

and it seems we never have enough time to spend with each other.

But, nothing can separate us from the love of one another.

Love to all, Norm

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Trust in the Lord always,

for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.

~ Isaiah 26:4, NLT
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Country Churches

I love to photgraph country churches.

There is something so right about the setting, I guess.

Some of the churches seem

to be the one thing in the picture that relates our faith

to what God has painted before us.

The typical country church stands as a beacon to all who pass,

guiding them "home" to his love and forgiveness.

As we head out to get in the last "fling till spring" this

Labor Day weekend, let us not forget to glance up

once in a while, and be thankful for what we enjoy in this great country.

Enjoy, and be safe. 

Go Big Red!

Love to all, Norm.

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1There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven:

2a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

4a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war an a time for peace.

Eclesiaties 3:1-8 NIV

A Time for Everything

Fall season is approaching.  We see the crops drying and maturing in the fields,

and leaves starting to turn.  Life is like that.  Seasons come and go. 

That makes us aware of our own bodies, and the mortal humans that we are.

I look at my own children, and observe how they have matured

into responsible adults, and my grandchildren, who are

all changing before my very eyes.

I look at my father and step mother,  who are into the later stages of this life.

Dad has been such a guiding beacon to me in so many ways.

The photographer has such an opportunity to capture this annual turn of events!

I look forward to this time of year so much.  My wife knows it is my favorite time of year.

I may take longer walks with God, or her, or both! 

The crispness of the air.  The color changes that take place so dramaticly and quickly.

The combines and trucks rolling.  The football games.

The bon fires and family cookouts.

All favorites of mine.

Then there is the chilli soup!  I married her for that you know!

Love to all, Norm

Oh, and Go Bearcats!

 

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