A Day at the Lake

A week and a half ago I got to spend the afternoon at a friend's house which just happens to have a beach at the end of their back yard.  We had a great time in spite of a cloudy day that even rained quite a bit.  I even had the privilege of  using our host's telephoto lens on my camera!

For those of my readers following my photo learning journey, these were all shot with the Manual setting and in RAW, and edited with Photoshop CS3 - no special effects, but learned a lot with every photo about lighting, focus, shutter speed, "noise" and more.  I love shooting in RAW - now it seems easier than it should be!  I've also learned to delete bad photos (RAW images are huge), save the original image in RAW for good images, save a large version of the image and one that is sized for the blog (800 pixels wide).

Here are some of the highlights of the day:

This was in quite low light, but with PS I was able to brighten it up.

All I can say is "WOW" - a great portrait of my serious man.
See how the background is all out of focus?
This was a very low aperture (4) and a very awesome lens!

He was about 30 feet off the shore.  Does this kids ever smile?
Yes he does - he was beaming from ear to ear after going tubing!

Esther hamming it up at the alfresco dinner.

Our host taking his cat out for a leisurely row...
never seen that before but it was great!

A sweet portrait of Rachel soothing Carese.

Jonathan and Rachel canoeing - about 150 feet from shore.

This is Rachel, sitting in the canoe about 60 feet from shore
I sure hope I can get a lens like this one someday!

Rebekah keeping Esther warm and happy!

Heading out for tubing...all the kids had a great time,
 but they were too far away for any good  photos.

Jonathan helping Dayton learn to paddle 

and finally Bocce Ball to finish off the evening.