February: Finding Beauty in Bad Weather

February 23rd, 2013
Mountains of NC

Every month I want to do something photography related to improve my skills. Here is a link to what I did in January.

I have hit some bad luck as far as photography goes lately. My plan for February was to buy a used prime lens from a friend, one that would help improve my portrait AND my macro shots. I had big plans for setting up a studio in baby boy’s room, and to take a macro photography class in March. The possibilities were endless. But, it was too good to be true.

The lens was not compatible with my outdated camera body. If I want a prime lens, I need a new camera.

I research this idea, and emailed a bunch of people who know and love Nikons. If I want to go pro, the D700 runs between $2000 and $3000. I do want to go pro someday, but not while I have a child in daycare.

The next options are the D5000 or D7000, which run between $500 and $800, both are cameras I can do A LOT with, but still, they are expensive. The third choice is to buy a used camera, which I have given some thought to as well. There is the possibility of renting a camera and lens for trips too, and seeing how much I like them. If I rent, I can see if an update in cameras would be worth it for me. All of these decisions, though, are for down the road.

So, with my outdated trusty D60, I decided on a photo expedition to the mountains for February, to practice my skills learned in January and to add to my portfolio. The forecast: rain, clouds and fog. I heavily debated if I even wanted to go to the mountains in that kind of weather. I was not going to find many scenic views . . .

But I did find water droplets. Hundreds of them. Okay, I might have been able to find them in my backyard too, not 2-3 hours away, but the drive was still worth it. I actually wish I had taken more pictures. I would definitely visit the mountains again in conditions like these just to get more pictures of these droplets reflecting trees. 

As far as skills go, I just clicked away on both auto focus and manual focus. I think I still took some nice "macro shots" even if I couldn't get any closer to the drops of water. These pictures were taken at about 4 inches away. I do wonder what pictures would look like with an actual macro lens. Sometimes my camera refused to focus on them, but for the most part I think I have some lovely pictures. I am happy with them. If you are not a fan of water drops or fog, do not visit the blog this upcoming week!