Talking Shop: Philly SmugMug Meeting - Using Your Camera 101

Okay look guys, I'll tell you straight up.

I'm not gonna lie - I like blogging on here a LOT more now that I've redesigned it HAHAHAHAH!  4 days of blogging in a row - unheard of!  But I will definitely try to blog more consistently from here on in!

Anyway, so yesterday, the Philly SmugMug Meetup Group held a meeting in Calumet of Philadelphia, a photography store which I shop at regularly!  Thank you to Calumet for opening your classroom to us, to my photo buddy Hillary for dealing with all the logistics of coordinating with Calumet, and for SmugMug for allowing us to have this meeting :)

Fred and I gave a brief and hopefully educational introduction on the essential ingredients for obtaining a proper exposure.  It was my first time to ever do a presentation like this in front of... PEOPLE... I'm used to informally helping out and such, but everyone was nice and tolerant of me and my corny jokes, so I think it went pretty swell!  After the overview, we broke down into smaller groups to tackle questions and just talk about our love for photography!

Below are some pictures we took during the meeting, but you can view more HERE.  And if you're in the Philadelphia area, feel free to join our Philly SmugMug group - it's great way to meet other photographers and share knowledge!

First here are a few pics from my photo buddy - Hillary!  Thanks for sharing!!

Apparently I'm very animated - Fred's looking at me funny as well HAHAHAHAH!!

My partner in crime :)

The next few were our 'live' (lol) demonstration on how sometimes our in-camera meter will not give us an accurate exposure.  

The camera meter has been fooled! My hubby is underexposed a little bit!! Oh no!!

When we are reading our camera meter, zeroing it out isn't always going to work if a scene is brighter than 18% grey. "Go back where we came from = go back towards the brightness (+) and expose longer!" The whites are more white instead of grey!  Yay! Excuse the off WB, just no time for that right now LOL!

Now let's take a darker scene..

Oh no! The camera meter told me this exposure would work, but I am overexposed!! The blacks are grey b/c that's what the camera wanted to do = turn me & my surroundings into 18% grey by overexposing!

Take THAT, inaccurate camera meter! We'll show you who's boss, by dialing back towards the (-) side as we look at our camera meter, exposing a little shorter (faster shutter speed) in order to make my black shirt black again!

Now let's break into smaller groups :)

Here's one from my other photo buddy - Dan!!  

His caption for this: Hi my name is Natasha, and, I'm addicted to ... photography :)

HAHAHAH!

And there you have it!! Wedding tomorrow and Poconos and Niagara after that!!