jerrydalrymple.com
With
all the recent advances in digital photography, you really don't
have to be a professional today to get some great looking results. Okay,
so majestic mountains, exotic beaches, and lions on the Serengeti,
are not in the budget this year? You can still take some striking
images with just a splash of creativity and a reasonably priced
digital camera. As an example, the picture at left (Hunter's Tulip)
was taken in my front yard. It was a beautiful spring morning, Hunter
(my then two year old grandson) and I had just gone outside for
a walk around the house. As we passed a small stand of tulips, he
stopped, pointed and just stood there. Hunter and the tulips were
just about the same height and he watched them for the longest time,
fascinated as the bright red flowers swayed gently in the breeze.
As I bent over to talk to him, I noticed how the sunlight was filtering
down through the petals. We hurried back to the house, grabbed my
camera, and so the picture "Hunter's Tulip" was born.
As with anything worthwhile in life, the end result is in direct proportion to the effort you apply. There will be a learning curve involved and some basic concepts you need understand and remember . . . but it’s not brain surgery. Begin by spending some quality time with the little booklet that came with your camera - you know the one, they called it the manual. Take your time and get comfortable with the different controls and settings. Many cameras have automatic setting for things like close-ups, action, or night shots. That's fine, use them in the beginning if you'd like but to get creative, you need to know and understand the manual settings on your camera. Okay, so you've done your homework and now it's time to go exploring in the backyard, the park down the street , or perhaps the local zoo. Try some things; combinations of different f-stops, ISO's, and shutter speeds, and refer back to the manual often. Don't like the initial outcome? Not to worry it's digital - just delete 'em.
Photography is a wonderful hobby and with practice you’ll be very pleased with your results. In time, you will learn to see things much differently than you do today; lighting, angles, patterns, and perspective all play a part. The time and energy you apply to your new hobby will not only payoff in the quality of your images, but also in how you perceive the world around you and I think you’ll be surprised at all those little things you simply didn’t notice before.
Welcome to my website! Here I hope to share with you my love of photography, nature, and thrill of learning something new. Please feel free to browse around the site, there are gallery pages, something I call pictorials, and a tips page. Now I have never been accused of being the brightest bulb on the tree, and much of what I’ve learned about photography, I picked-up while attending classes at the "School of Hard Knocks." Many came with big price tags, some did not, but all of them are valuable and treasured lessons just the same. One thing about that school, you tend not to forget the things you've learned there. Anyway, I hope you will find some of the items on my site useful or at least entertaining.
In the future, I plan to add a blog and eBay store where I will
sell some of my work - hope to see you there. Good shooting!