The craft weekend image created

I try to work with my new iMac computer. I am still not familiar to a lot of things. Now I just created an image for my next newsletter. 4 images in 1.  It has been done so far so good.

A footpath

I past a footpath of Lorn where is a little village / suburb. This is first time I stoped this little place and discovered a few things - beautiful footpath, good coffee and boutique for nice cloths.

A back view of Setsuko's glassworks

I put a new window between my chocolate kitchen and the gallery. I saw a back view of my glassworks in the dark. It is interesting and attractive to me.

After a rain, before another rain

We had a beautiful moment in the morning after a rain, before another rain. 

Morning shine 朝の輝き

いただいた百合の花が咲きはじめ朝日を浴びて輝いています。Lilies are shining in morning sun.

絵的な桃たち. picturesque peaches

Friends of us brought these peaches lasts night. They are very picturesque on the red plate. The friends are Japanese potters who live in Australia, far distance from us. We had my Korma curry and Nan bread which I recently mastered for dinner.  We had a lovely time.  

Clean up Australia day and my first Biscotti オーストラリア挙げての大掃除の日

We started picking up rubbish on the road in front of our house from 7 a.m. Some people called us"Good on you!" Some people just made a sound from car as passing. It is  "Clean up Australia day" today. A lot of volunteers cleaned up roads, beaches, public places, everywhere in Australia.  

I made my first "biscotti" from our friend recipe. it came out quite nicely. Only one problem we have is hard to stop eating. The pattern of biscotti is very interesting. 

Photography note 2: Exposure Bias, Aperture and Shutter speed

As my today's test shootting, I understood about Exposures bias , Aperture value and shutter speed.

Test 1: The image of bottles is darker in Exposure Bias 1.00. Another image of bottles is lighter in Exposure Bias 1.50 ( Both are same aperture value f 6.7)

Test 2: Both of bottles in focus at f 13.00 Aperture Value. A front bottle is in focus and the back bottle is out of focus at Aperture Value f 5.60 ( Both are same exposure bias 1.00 ). Click and open the bigger images to see the difference.

The shutter speed is changed automatically as changes of above. If shutter speed is less than 60, it needs to use a tripod. 

Taking photograhes of glass

Glass is a most difficult medium to be photographed. So I have been having a great difficulty to take my glasswork by myself. Yesterday, John Harrison who is a local professional photographer came to my studio and gave me an important technical advice. Before I forget, I would like to leave a note here. 

Setting the room and lighting ( I use the back room of our gallery which does not have windows )

• Tune off the celling light because it is different type to other lights. when I add more light, keep same sort of light. It effects to the "White Balance" 
  
• My current light setting is almost good. Add another barrier ( Use bubble wrapping ) between the lights and the perspex sheets to make the light more even.  

Camera setting ( I use Pentax SLR Digital Camera for my glasswork )

• Set to AV ( Aperture Priority) on Dial indicator.
• Set to 400 on ISO ( Sensitivity). Press the "Fn"button to go ISO to change. 
• Set to Tungsten Light on White balance. Press "Fn" to go the menu to change.
• Aperture Value shown on right hand side in the view finder "+1" More + is lighter, - value makes darker. Press +/- button and slide e-dial.
• Shutter speed in view finder - If less than 60, it need to use a tripod.
• Focus on wider area needs bigger F number in viewfinder. Focus on closer object and out of focus on father object need small F number.  I cannot remember how to change the number. 

I am still confused about Aperture, Shutter speed and Focus .... 

One of new things I started this year ( Today ).

One of new things I started this year ( today ) is taking photos as walking / running as exercises. I have watched a movie called "yesman" recently and it gave me this idea. This way makes both activities - exercising and taking photos more interesting.