Playing with Shutter Speed & Studio Pics

Today’s post for 31 Days to a Better Photo dealt with shutter speed. It seems to me from my reading that most people understand shutter speed before they understand aperture. I had the opposite experience. Before I started shooting in manual this year, I almost always shot in aperture priority. Occasionally I would play with shutter speed, usually while shooting water in a fountain or a waterfall, but I rarely got what I hoped for. After today’s exercises I feel more comfortable with shutter speed, and know that one of the problems I’ve always had in the past is not using a tripod.

I’ve been planning a post about my new studio for a while, but have had trouble getting the shots I wanted, primarily because of the lights in the studio. Although this room has more light than my last one, our house is generally dark, and we need artificial light most of the time. Today I put the camera on the tripod, and practiced two techniques (in addition to changing shutter speed) that I picked up on Kent Weakley’s blog:  depressing the shutter button with almost no movement with your index finger, and using the self-timer set at 2 seconds. Although I got good results with both, I much prefer the self-timer. So here are the photos from the shutter speed experiment.

Shutter speed 1/125

Shutter speed 1/30

Shutter speed 1/8

Shutter speed 0.4

The best of the lot is #3, and I would never be able to get a sharp picuture hand holding the camera at that speed. Although the last photo is very washed out, it has an artsy feel to it that I don’t mind. These photos show the main work space in my new studio. The corner desk actually divides the room into two area. The TV in the corner in on a wooden stand Tracy made years ago to hold my wooden stamps. The shelves hold paper, supplies, notebooks, embellishments, alphas, and paper pads. Using lots of baskets maximizes the space there.

This room also has a built-in desk. I gathered all my books from around the house and brought them all into the studio so I have a shelf of books about scrapbooking/cardmaking, a shelf for photography, writing, computer manuals, and a few favorites. I also have room to display some photos and special treasures I’ve picked up in our travels. My sewing machine has been set up in this room for over a year. The drawers now house all of my sewing supplies as well as some office supplies.

At the same end of the room is a reading and die cutting station. I’ve had my Cuttlebug and dies in this room for nearly a year as well, but I purchased a lateral file that matches my desk to create a die cutting table. My Slice sits on top, and the Cuttlebug, dies, impression plates, and embossing folders are on the open shelves. In the file drawers are all my paper scraps filed by color, alpha stickers, and some patterned papers. In the corner is my wonderful red chair from LL Bean that folds out to create a single bed if needed.

Behind my desk and between the door to the room and the closed door is my fold-up table from IKEA. It was one of the best $19 I ever spent. It’s mounted to be counter height so if I want to stand to put together a layout I can, but it doesn’t take up much room when collapsed against the wall. Above it is a printer’s drawer I refinished a year or so ago where I house most of my wooden sentiment stamps. The table isn’t centered under it because I wanted to be able to open the closet door when it’s up. I now have an Ott clamp light for the table, and keep it up most of the time.

Really, I can’t believe I fought this move for so long. I absolutely love everything about it. It’s so easy to find everything, and very quick to put away the terrible mess I always make when creating. The best part is that both Tracy and Matt come in here to visit much more frequently now. It really is a very inviting place.