I’ve finally found the time to make it outside and snap some pictures around Hudson Springs, a local park near me. Unfortunately, I did not plan ahead that well. It was a very bright day, and I didn’t make matters better by going in the middle of the day! Oops! Most of my pictures came out extremely overexposed. Keep in mind, I’ve been using the camera on Canon’s Program mode. Once I dialed in the exposure compensation meter, things got a lot better. At the beginning of the hike we encountered plenty of geese. These guys generally don’t like you getting too close to them, but I managed to snap a few pictures. These were a bit overexposed and didn’t turn out too well.

This was my first time using Lightroom as well. I’ve never edited photos before and was a bit intimidated by all the different settings. I wanted to start learning how as early as possible though, so I got right to work editing the pictures I captured today. Here’s the goose photo cropped a little bit, reduced exposure/highlights, and a few other small touches. Any tips/criticisms are appreciated!

Overall I think it came out alright. The colors don’t look as washed out, and the goose is a bit more pronounced. I just wish I got a slightly different angle to show more background. Not a huge fan of the pure grass backing.

Continuing on the hike, I wasn’t too inspired by anything I saw. I really wanted to see some birds and get some pics of them on branches, but it seems like they were hiding. I came across a nice opening in the trees and decided to go for a full sky-view picture. I reduced exposure, highlights, whites, and increased “dehaze” to make the sky pop.

I might’ve overedited this a bit. It looks a bit fake to me, but not entirely sure. I think it’s mostly the leaves that all kind of get lost in each other on the right side.

Getting deeper into the woods, I found a perfect subject to focus on. Off the path, I found a fallen tree with some moss growing on it. What particularly intrigued me was the red plant-life that was growing off the moss. Not sure what it is, but it made for a nice picture! I reduced exposure, brightened shadows a little bit, and reduced some highlights.

I’m thrilled with how this picture turned out. When I first looked at it on my camera it looked super overexposed and I didn’t think it’d turn out. I guess that just goes to show the power of image editing! Honestly, that was my feeling throughout the entirety of this shoot. Throughout the hike, and getting into my car, I was sure I didn’t get many photos. It seemed everything I was shooting was overexposed and wouldn’t turn out well. I should have been tinkering with camera settings a bit more. It’s definitely an art, and I definitely want to get better at it. Luckily, those feelings subsided a bit once I got home and got to editing. Here are a few more of my pictures I captured today.

Overall it was a great day and I’m happy with how some of my pics turned out. Can’t wait to get out there and try more! I have the telephoto and wide angle lens (mentioned in a previous post) coming in a few days! Going to be awesome figuring out the strengths of these new lenses. The wide angle will be mainly used for star photography and low-light photos, and the telephoto will hopefully be able to capture some deep space astrophotography. I am going to try and get a SkyWatcher Mount soon to help with deep space objects.

Hope you enjoyed todays blog post! Posts may be slowing down from here on out, as I won’t be able to get out for a shoot everyday. Let me know what you think of my pictures in the comments! Anything I can do better? I am grateful for any advice! See you next time!