I know, ha ha, very funny. We have a few inches of snow and I have to find a flower for Through the Lens Thursday! Challenge accepted.

I found some snow topped hydrangeas which with some bending and twisting and kneeling in the snow, I could photo against the beautiful blue sky we have today.

I took a ton of photos, different numbers on different dials for different effects. In fact the first two I took, I just shot them straight off, I forgot to check my light meter and all other numbers.  Someone was going by and in my self conscious rush, I just started to snap away.  Well, thank you stranger who made me uncomfortable in my random photo taking because these are my favourite photos of the lot!

It is so exciting to get the photos onto the iPad to check them out properly. I always put my photos onto the iPad so that I can see them nice and big and check for focus or lack of it.  I get a vague idea from the teeny screen on my camera, I did see the first photos as very washed out and thought they were no good, but thankfully I didn’t erase them there and then.

I have such respect for anyone who took photos with film on a manual SLR camera before digital cameras came along.  No checking the screen on the back, no taking a million shots for a couple of decent ones, unless you wanted to use all of your film on one thing. And no pictures at all until they came back from the processors.  I took lots of photos using film and my point and shoot camera and loved waiting for the envelope of photos to come back.

When I was young, my Dad always used an SLR camera and took amazing photos which he never saw until he either processed then himself or got them back from the photo company in the mail. One memory from my childhood is the bath being full of photos propped up as they were drying! All great photos taken and processed by my Dad.

He always told me to take at least one photo of a subject, you never which may be successful and I still do that, always more than one shot of the same thing even on the phone.

I take a load of shots of the same thing,  especially as I learn manual and I always wonder if any will be any good.  At least I can have a look and check now. In the days of film, there was no option to check, just take the picture and trust your skills.

All I did to these photos is a little crop here and there.  I am really enjoying learning to use manual on my camera and I think I am starting to understand some of the numbers…