A frog, rocks, and bugs - nature's beauty

Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the shapshot from the photograph. – Matt Hardy

Today begins my official Tuesday Tips - Photography Tips.  I'm still finding that my camera works best for me when it stays in auto setting.  It is after all designed for the "point and click" users.   Duh!  What is important is remember to read the signals the camera provides when it is auto focusing.  The little green boxes indicate what it is focusing on and it helps me capture beauty in the simple things in my yard.  I'm starting to get my family a bit more "excited" about the project.  Last night while he was outside cooking dinner on the grill, my husband opened the door and yelled to me, "Grab your camera, there's something outside you haven't taken a picture of yet."   Of course, I scrambled, and ran outside to see what the awesome opportunity was.  The little frog from earlier this summer, had grown up and climbed the wall.  Luckily for me, he was a slow moving target.  But I must have scared him.  He moved to the side and tried to hide from my crazy photo shoot.  As I looked around the yard, I found the lighting under the deck shining on the rocks.  Even from inside the house, there were opportunities to capture nature's fall activities.

The part the camera doesn't do for me is distinguish a snapshot from a photograph.  That's all about composition and being at the right place at the right moment.  You have to take a lot of pictures to get that down.  Here's a few of my attempts last night.  Go out and discover some photos of your own today!

The shadow is bigger than he is!

I held the camera above him (he
winked at me I'm sure of it)

Look how far he was from the ground!

Oops, guess he's scared.  I'm sure
when he was little, he fit here
and we never saw him.

Awe...he's taking a sunny nap.

Cool lighting - see how the camera
focused on the rocks and made the
background a nice blur.

A silly stink bug climbing the hummingbird
feeder (note only bees are there now)

Just waited a few seconds more,
and I captured the bees in flight too!