Project complete

Well, I played around with my camera and that damn cherry all afternoon, but I gotta tell ya, I got some really cool pix from the sessions. Check them out here. I think it was an excellent exercise for me, and I definitely think photography teachers should have their students do something similar. It forced me to really use my camera, figure out what different settings do, sample what effects I can achieve with those settings, and learn how to use light, composition, and color to really enhance a photo.

The funny thing is, I was carefully trying to set up the cherry in different poses and locations and take the pictures, but our dogs and cats kept trying to get at the cherry. So I have random pictures of a paw and a cherry, a mouth and a cherry, a nose and a cherry, and so on. If you look carefully you'll see that all of our pets—Max, Dollie, Spanky, Adora, Scrappy, and Kayo—are in at least one cherry photo, even the fish.

Anyhow, I had great fun doing this and I hope you like them as much as I do. I totally got into the creativity of it all and lost track of time, but I also learned a lot about how to use my camera in the process. In the past I've always had my camera set on Auto or something similar, and rarely took any artistic control of the camera. But now I frequently fiddle with the white balance, ISO, metering, and so on. I figure this is a wonderful way to hone my skills before we head to Hawaii in a few weeks. Click!