Zoom In, Zoom Out: Week 19

I got an early Mother’s Day gift from Tracy this year. I didn’t have anything particular on my wish list, but several weeks ago received a flyer from the Community Darkroom. An instructor who I knew through Camera Rochester was offering a course “Beyond Your DSLR,” and it looked like something I’d enjoy. We just finished our third class, and it’s been very interesting. Much of the first two weeks were quite technical, but I knew enough to keep up, and had several “ah ha!” moments. He has me shooting on manual again which I hadn’t done in a long time, and our first assignment was to learn how to set custom white balance. I found that relatively frustrating, and not particularly helpful since I shoot in Raw and can easily adjust white balance in Lightroom.

Last week’s assignment was to shoot 10 images all with Daylight White Balance since that replicates the old film world more closely. We were to work on good exposure, focus, and composition. I put off doing the assignment until yesterday (the day of the class) since I was hoping for good weather, and finally got some. 

Although these are not the images I shot for class, I did remember to get some shots for this week’s Zoom In, Zoom Out while walking through Highland Park. There were lots of photographers walking around the park yesterday. It was a gorgeous day, but folks are a little worried that the lilacs won’t really be blooming by Friday when the annual Lilac Festival begins. 

The flowering trees, however, are in full bloom.

And most of the magnolias survived a week of wind and rain. I love the contrast of them against the deep blue sky.

You can check out other Zoom In, Zoom Out photos here on Helena’s blog.