Welcome to the month of May Wandering Camera linky party.  Thank you so much for linking up and sharing your photos.  Not only is it a lot of fun seeing the photos, I really enjoy reading about them too.

April was such a busy month for me that toward the end I was ready to sleep in for 20+ hours straight if I could.  My allergies have gotten much worse too and unfortunately, they are going to stay that way until the end of summer.  However, there are pockets of time when the allergy is not as bad and I can go outside armed with medication.  I will take limited time outside over none-at-all any day.  So far I have kept up with taking one photo per day. Currently I am at 121 out of 366.

1. Door of an abandoned building

2. Scarlet Pimpernel

3. Lichen draped on tree branches

4. My painted woodlands bookmark

5. Lupine

6. Fountain pen and sepia ink – my favourite

7. Persian Speedwell

8. Charlie – sleeping behind drapes

9. Yellow And Blue

10. Native Wildflower Expo – got a few plants for our garden from there

11. Lovely day at the park

12. Purple Douglas Iris

13. Ready to plant

14. A tree from Beyond Borders Fair Trade

15. Close-up of the tree

16. First flowers from one of the new plants

17. New red leaves on roses

18. Mr. Treestone loves his paper bags

19. My new Brown Betty with my old, most favourite tea mug

20. A perfect spot

21. Clouds rolling in at sunset

22. Montague enjoys rain as much as I do

23. The Dancing Wind

24. Playing with Inktense pencils, making a colour chart

25. Cactus bloom

26. Bouquet

27. Storm clouds out of nowhere

28. First plums

29. Riverfront

30. Light arches

I want to very quickly mention Lara’s book – Crafted Appliqué.  You can find the full schedule of the book tour blog hop at her website Buzzin’ Bumble.  My day is the 14th of May.  I have all the supplies to work on my project and I am super excited to try out her method of appliqué.

Aperture

Now, on to talking about Aperture.  A well-exposed (well-lit) photo is supported by three pillars – ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed.  I covered the topic of ISO in March.  Aperture is the F number – a number on your camera prefixed by the letter F.

I will omit the technical details on aperture and try to explain the basic goals of aperture settings.

Setting Aperture

You will need a camera with either M (Completely Manual) or AV (Aperture Value Priority) mode to set the Aperture Value manually.  In M mode you can set both Aperture and Shutter speed yourself.  On AV mode you only get to set the Aperture.  Based on your setting, the camera sets the Shutter Speed to get a well-exposed photo.  I suggest playing with both settings.

Amount Of Light

Aperture determines the amount of light entering your camera.  A lower number equals more light and that lets you use a faster shutter speed.  So in really low-light situations you can set your aperture to a lower number to get a higher shutter speed.  That way you can take photos without a stand or photograph a moving subject in low light.

Sharpness

Aperture also determines the area of sharpness of your photo. Think of looking at the centre of a photo. The lower the aperture number, the less area around the centre will be in focus.

If you want to focus on a face or a flower only at the centre and not the background, you will want to set the aperture to a lower number. As you increase the F number, more area surrounding the centre is going to come into focus.

Aperture And ISO

Here’s the caveat – since higher aperture number lets less light in, it will also decrease your shutter speed.

In situations where you want sharp pictures AND your shutter speed is not fast enough,  you will need to set your ISO to a higher number.  That would enable you to set the aperture to a higher number while keeping a fast enough shutter speed to obtain a well-exposed photo.

This sounds like a lot, but start playing with the Aperture values and you will see the difference.  Photography is very hands-on.  More you play, more you will see the difference.  I hope this encourages you to experiment with the manual settings on your camera a little more.

Now it’s your turn to share your photo posts. I always look forward to seeing them. Every photo is special because it suspends a moment and everyone sees the world around us differently! So don’t compare and contrast, just have fun and see the world that only your eyes can see!

Badge to share on your post and website

You can add any number of links to your posts from the previous month. The posts should have photos in them, with a story or anecdote. Your project photos (quilting, sewing, painting, knitting, etc.) are most welcome. You can also write a new post to link up. Please do not link up posts that are older than the previous month, they will be removed.

Please make sure to include the badge or a text link back to this site on each post that you link up. You can also add the badge to your blog. I am happy either way as long as you link back :-)

Spread a little encouragement amongst each other.

I will leave the link-up open for two weeks.

Wandering Camera is a monthly event that will run on the first Thursday of every month. The next post and link-up will be on the 2nd of June. If you follow me via email, bloglovin or facebook, you will get a reminder.

Have fun!!

I am also linking up on Photo Friday and Fun Friday Favourites along with other linky parties on my sidebar.