My Photo Hike on Rainbow Mountain
Hi Everyone!
Yesterday I took my little Nikon d7000 out when I was hiking on the Rainbow Mountain trails.
My purpose was 3-fold:
- Get exercise doing something fun–hiking
- Gather photos for a blogging about the trail
- Learn how to use my camera better
The exercise is pretty obvious. I get a nice workout walking and climbing over the boulders on the upward steep. It’s a wonderful time of year to hike because the temperatures are lower, so I don’t have to worry about the stifling humidity.
I just love taking photos for my blog. I probably like that part of blogging more than writing. Writing takes work. Photographic people, landscapes, and old houses is just play. I’d love to be a photographer for Nat’l Geographic or Southern Living.
Speaking of photography, it’s a wonderful time of year for taking photos on the trail. The leaves are just now beginning to change, but the foliage is still pretty and lush for the most part.
My favorite part of photography is composition. I’ve had enough art classes to be confident in my use of composition and color, but my DSLR camera still has been baffled. I understand that the three major points of photography are aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. However, I have a hard time wrapping my mind around aperture. It seems so confusing that the lower the f-stop, the larger the aperture. Yesterday, I took 3 pictures of the same object using 3 different f-stops (Sigma 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 lens): 22, 10, and 4. Now, I think I get it. An f-stop of 4 let in wayyyyyyyyy too much light. 22 left my shots underexposed, and 10 was just about right for clicking in the woods.

These are poke berries. Now, I know these guys aren’t edible. You can boil the leaves, however, to make a poke berry salad.