A "how to" on the sparkler fun..

First of all, even though it was getting pretty dark outside, I set the ISO on a low setting (my camera only goes to 200)...because I knew that the light from the sparkler itself would be very bright.

The second thing I did was put the Aperture at about 5 or so...so that the background would be more blurry, knowing that the person doing the 'writing' would be moving and that the slow shutter speed would make the nothing but a mess.

Then I brought my camera into "bulb" mode..which is found when you start heading into really slow shutter speeds. I wanted the camera to catch the movement of the light and slow shutter speeds is how you do that. "Bulb" mode allows you to control exactly how long the shutter stays open. You hold the button as long as you want..and when you let go, it closes.

So then we would get ready, spark up the sparkler, get into position and I would say "GO!" then hold my breath (trying to avoid camera shake) and the shutter button while the person did the writing..and hope for the best! You should have seen me when I realized that it worked! I was so excited:) Then when I started showing everyone the kinds of pics I was getting we had lots of ideas flying around about what to do....and then we ran out of sparklers!

I think it would look better in the complete dark..although, I kinda like being able to see the person in the background as well.

And then, like I said in the other post, with Lacy's name I had to flip it in an editing program because she wasn't confident that she would be able to spell it backwards. With the heart it didn't matter.

So yeah...go to the store and by some sparklers and have some fun!

Sparkler fun.

Of course, as soon as I started 'perfecting' this type of picture, we ran out of sparklers. We were starting to have so much fun with this idea....so we will undoubtedly be purchasing more so that I can have even more fun!!!

This was when I started figuring it out..

Kirsten's heart..


So then we moved onto bigger and better things:) (haha)
Lacy wrote her name the regular way from her perspective, so of course, it was backwards when I took the picture. I just did a little flippety flip in Paint to make it read the correct way.


I think next time we will wait till it's totally dark outside.
Need. to. go. get. more. sparklers.
tee hee

Sunsets

It amazes me how quickly the "perfect" picture of a sunset disappears. Josh and I were driving back from Tilton (through Laconia) tonight and noticed that the sun was peaking through the clouds over the lake 'just right'. I happened to have my camera with me in the van, so he pulled over as quickly as he could so that I could jump out and get a picture (he's such a good guy!). By the time I got out and crossed the street to get in a good position to get a picture, the 'just right' scene had come and gone. The pictures I did manage to get still show the beauty of the evening, but I promise...30 seconds before this was taken it looked even better!


..and since I had put in the effort to get out of the van and cross the road to take a picture, I figured I would try to get a bit creative while I was there (which was all of, maybe, one minute). This was just about all of the creativity I could muster at that moment...hahaha. A close-up silhouette'ish shot of these half dead flowers on the side of the railroad tracks:)