Dolce Pics - Digital Photography Tips

Frog

laura — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:48:50 +0000

focal length: 55 mm (on a Sony NEX-5)
shutter speed: 1/50
aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 1600
flash: none

We went on our annual winter trip to the Vancouver Aquarium today. This little guy, as small as it was, caught my eye against the brightly coloured leaf. It was so nice to have the little NEX-5 with us today instead of my big, heavy DSLR. These tiny mirrorless cameras are so great!

Happy New Year!

False Creek Vancouver

laura — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:16:54 +0000

Yet another pano with the Sony NEX-5.

Little Photographer

laura — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:15:10 +0000

My little budding photographer. She’s not afraid to get down on one knee to get the shot.

Cinderella Castle at Night

laura — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:20:52 +0000

focal length: 18 mm (on a Sony NEX-5)
shutter speed: 1/15
aperture: f/3.5
ISO: 1600
flash: none

Beautiful by day. Mysterious by night.

Central Park

laura — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:20:49 +0000

*Click to enlarge

focal length: 18 mm (on a Sony NEX-5)
shutter speed: 1/250
aperture: f/11
ISO: 200
flash: none

I’ve been busy teaching high school photography and haven’t had a chance to share any new photos from my trip to New York City, so here’s one to start. I’ve really been enjoying the panorama shooting mode in the Sony NEX-5. Who could resist while standing on top of Rockefeller Center facing Central Park in Manhattan?

A is for Awesome

laura — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 03:06:08 +0000

Sunny mornings, crisp fall weather and awesome families remind me how great it is to be a portrait photographer. This morning, I got to hang out with fun people who love each other so much, they made my job easy.

See? Look!

Not only are they fun… they are beautiful.

I absolutely love autumn in Vancouver.

Thanks for being awesome!

In-Camera Panorama

laura — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 07:04:56 +0000

*click to enlarge

focal length: 28 mm (on a Sony NEX-5)
shutter speed: 1/250
aperture: f/11
ISO: 200
flash: none

I created this panorama on a recent trip to Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia with my new travelling camera, the Sony NEX-5 with 18-55mm lens that has a great in-camera panorama shooting mode. After just a few slight adjustments for colour and contrast in Lightroom and a little magic to clean up the stitching imperfections with the spot healing brush tool in Photoshop, we have the final image. It’s not perfect but it’s not bad for a just a few minutes of my time.

Extreme Close Up

laura — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:33:59 +0000

focal length: 50 mm (on a Nikon D50)
shutter speed: 1/80
aperture: f/1.4
ISO: 400
flash: none

Don’t be afraid to get up-close and personal with your subject, as long as they don’t mind, of course. Just be mindful with your focusing, especially if you’re shooting wide open as I did for this shot. Take advantage of your shallow depth of field, by focusing on the closest eye and leaving the rest soft.

At The Shipyard

laura — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 04:00:39 +0000

focal length: 70 mm (on full frame)
shutter speed: 1/200
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 320
flash: none

The OAC Photo Club met up for a photo wander at Britannia Heritage Shipyard in Richmond the other day. I really loved all the textures of the buildings and the pretty blue sky was a bonus.

Victoria Inner Harbour

laura — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 04:00:16 +0000

focal length: 24 mm (on full frame)
shutter speed: 1/30
aperture: f/3.2
ISO: 2000
flash: none

From my last post, you may remember that I don’t carry a tripod with me when I travel, which makes night photography very difficult. For this image, I set my camera on a stone fence facing Victoria’s Inner Harbour and played around with some settings and took some test shots. Again, this situation was not ideal since the surface my camera was resting on was rocky, so I wasn’t able to use a longer exposure, and my composition choices were limited. However, using what was available to stabilize the camera did help.