It was a beautiful evening.  I needed to get out so I grabbed my camera and went to the gardens.

The flowers still look beautiful.  I practiced taking shots that are framed well.

Then I practiced taking shots of running water using a slow shutter speed.  I like how the water looks  using this technique.

Here a shot of the same place, one with  a slow shutter.....

and one with a fast......

It was a pretty good day.

I'm having so many "Aha!" moments in this class.  I had no idea about depth of field and aperture and all the rest.  I still know next to nothing, but I'm starting to see the possibilities.  These first photos were taken at the top of the Teton Pass by Jackson Hole.  The sunflower shots were taken on our way home. 

The photography class assignment this week is on manual focus instead of auto focus. 

Wow!  What a revelation.  This one lesson alone is worth the whole cost of the class.  Last spring I had the perfect opportunity to photograph a flock of wild turkeys.  The tom was all puffed up and looked amazing.  I was just across the road from him trying to take his photo and my dang camera just wouldn't focus.  I was soooo frustrated.  Later I discovered a little button on my lens.  I wondered if I slid the button to "A" instead of "M" if that would make a difference. 

I hate to admit how dumb I was.  I had no idea one stood for Manual Focus and the other stood for Auto focus.

So, I'm a pretty happy shutterbug this week, and had a lot of fun.

This first shot is of a pumpkin blossom which strayed into the raspberry patch.  Then there are a couple of shots of pumpkins.

This pumpkin is of the giant variety.....

......and this one is a regular jack-o-lantern.

I focused on the sunflower blossoms first........

and then changed the focus to the pumpkin patch beyond.  These aren't great artistic shots, but show how I used the manual focus.

I went back to the splash park and took a couple of shots of paper boats floating in the water.  It was too cold for kids, so I had the whole park to myself.

I wanted to get these shots to use as photo reference for some future art.  I liked the reflection of the boat in the water.

After I brought this photo up on my computer I was kind of disappointed that the water park is now closed.  I would have liked to go back and take another one of this without the boat.  I liked the shininess and the reflections.  It's almost abstract.

I asked my daughter, Lisa, to stand under the pouring water with an umbrella to get a photo-reference shot for the theme of the week in Watercolor Wednesdays.  I didn't ever get around to doing the painting, but I got a fun shot!

What is the good of your stars and trees,

your sunrise and the wind,

if they do not enter into our daily lives?

E. M. Forster

I don't usually take sunrise photos. Since I had to be at work early for a meeting I happen to catch this morning's beautiful sky.  I may make a bigger effort to photograph them if they are as pretty as this one was. 

I really like this quote.  I believe it to be true.  There is something about letting the beauty of natural things into your heart that helps you be a better, more centered person.  I hope you all have an awesome evening and a beautiful day tomorrow.

I took my daughter-in-law and grandson to the splash park on Saturday.  I'm so glad I did.  It was the last nice day.  Sunday turned colder and today is colder still.

I had fun playing with the focus on my camera.  I really liked the pattern this water spray made.  My daughter-in-law and grandson are behind, out-of-focus.

On Sunday I bribed Andy once again to pose for me.  I was feeling a bit guilty about the lack of photos I had on my wall of my youngest.  It was overcast, the storm was blowing in as we did these.  It started raining as we drove home.  Whew, we just missed the storm, and the clouds were helpful.  Things worked out pretty well.

We had some awesome skies this weekend.   I thought these clouds were very interesting.

I liked the way the trees framed the sweeping clouds in this shot.  I would have liked to get a bit more detail in the trees, but, oh well.....