Good Sunday morning, all! :) I am considering starting a new little weekly series on the blog called Shutterbug Sundays. What do you all think?
I mean Wordless Wednesdays is so last year, right? ;)
Plus, I have so pretty awesome photos that I would like to share with you all each week, but many of them do not really seem to fit into any one post I am doing for a particular week. I also thought it might be a good opportunity to share a few photography tricks & pointers I have learned along the way. I am in no way a photog expert, but I have a little knowledge to impart here and there. ;)
Today I want to share with you all some incredible and gorgeous Fourth of July shots I snapped over the past couple of days.
How did I capture these?
Using the nifty Fireworks setting on my Nikon Coolpix P510. No, it is not a fancy, dancy DSLR, but I love this camera. If a $600+ DSLR is not in your current budget, I would highly recommend the P510 (Pssstttt... it costs half that!).
Plus, it takes the guesswork out of your settings. It has several scene options that adjust the shutter speed, aperture, etc for you. My favorites so far- the Food setting (shocking, right?), the Sports one (has been amazing for catching photos of my ever moving baby girl in action and for taking pics of my son at track meets), and now the Fireworks setting. The Fireworks scene has a very slow shutter speed for catching all of the flickers and tendrils of every sparkly mortar that booms and explodes above. The key though is to remain VERY still while the photo is snapped or better yet, to use a tripod (I need one myself actually). You can see some of the squiggly lines below? Those are from very slight movement while I was holding the camera...
I should note now that this is NOT a sponsored post. Nikon doesn't even know I have been gloating about them and their Coolpix P510. I just want to share about this camera because I know that a lot of bloggers (particularly food bloggers) would like to upgrade from cell phone snapshots of their creations, but not all of us have the funds for some of the higher end DSLR's. This camera is a nice compromise.
After snapping several impressive fireworks shots, I decided to try the setting with sparklers. The results were also just as impressive. Actually, maybe a little more so... ;)
I was floored by this one! I have seen pics like this, but never thought it would be possible for me to capture one without owning a very expensive manual camera. My husband slowly traced out a heart with his sparkler as soon as I pressed the shutter button. I held the camera very, very still and voila! We captured a heart drawn in thin air with a sparkler! Pretty cool, right?
So, what do you think? If I make this a weekly series, will you be back here next Sunday morning? :) Let me know- I am listening!
