Finding the Light {This Is Our Life Project}

This week's theme was "finding the light" which definitely challenged me. It is definitely a skill {one that I am very much a novice at...} managing light in photography to get just the picture you want without too much over or under exposure. I bought Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure" a year ago and just recently have actually started reading it.  I'm only 70 pages in and it has had such an impact on my photography skill.  I went from shooting primarily in Aperture Priority mode, which I liked but was somewhat limiting in trying to achieve exactly what I wanted, to shooting exclusively in Manual which has opened up a whole new photographic world to me.  I am kicking myself for not having opened this book earlier because it turns out that shooting in Manual is extremely easy and makes such a difference! I never would have been able to achieve my favorite shot of the week if it weren't for this new skill. 

 This is our son playing with headlamp flashlights in the dark in his pop-up play tent. Every Friday evening we meet with several other couples for our church small group in which we enjoy each other's company, share what's going on in our lives, pray together, and discuss a book.  It is one of the highlights of our week. It is a boisterous time with several toddlers running around but these people are like family to us and we love sharing life together. We bring the kids, and put them to bed wherever we are. This week we were at our friends' home who don't yet have children of their own so we brought along Q's pop-up tent and a sleeping bag where the kids could play and sleep. 

This shot was a new challenge because it was taken in the pitch black with only the flashlight as a source of light. I was curious how it would go trying to focus in the dark {the photo itself is much brighter than it actually looked to your naked eye in the room}. I had to really bump up the camera ISO and slow down the shutter speed.  With the slow shutter speed I'm glad I got a shot in which there wasn't too much movement which would have ruined it.  Not the perfect shot, but fun to try something new all the same and I'm pretty pleased with the results.