A Windmill, Cows and Dr. Pepper for "Picture Day"

It's been several years since I've taken any photography classes.  In 2008 I signed up for an online class and had several assignments to work on and I decided to do them all in one day which meant a road trip to find things to photograph.  I think this was in April of that year.  For one of the assignments, I started out by driving up and down the highway near my home  (FM 920 to be exact) to see what I could find.  I needed something that I thought would represent a “who cares” image.  Not that any photo deserves a “who cares” rating but rather it pertains to the “who cares” aperture setting on the camera.  A “who cares” aperture is a setting of  f/8 or f/11.  These settings are for exposures in which the depth of field is of no concern.  In other words, with many landscapes everything has the same focal distance so you use f/8 or f/11 to get the sharpest exposure.  So I thought that maybe the image I captured above was one of those situations.  But when I looked at the image on my computer, I decided it didn't fit the definition of “everything at the same focal distance or infinity.”  The flowers in the front are closer to me so this is not a “who cares” aperature image.  I knew I had to work on it some more but I did love this photo and still do.

Next, I headed toward Dublin, Texas.  There was a Dr. Pepper sign on a building that I wanted to take a photo of.  No worries, I wasn’t just driving to Dublin for this one photo.  I was also going  to Comanche, my hometown.

Now, this Dr. Pepper sign is definitely a “who cares” for the depth of field.  The entire subject is of course all at the same focal distance from the lens. The photo worked out great and this is the one that I submitted for my assignment. I don't remember what rating I got for sure, but think it was good.

Once I arrived in Comanche, I decided that I needed to photograph a windmill.  I love windmills and like taking photos of them when I can get to them or have the permission of the property owner.  Lucky for me this one was on one of my brother’s farms.  I had originally hoped to take a silhouette photo of the windmill, but because of the trees and shrubs, I was not able to position myself so that the windmill was between me and the setting sun.  Instead I got a photo of the windmill side lit by the sun.  Which was another assignment that I needed to do.

When you take a photo using the sun as a side light, you get this lovely glow on your subject. I got a very good rating for this photo.

So that’s how I ended up with a blog post about a windmill, cows and Dr. Pepper.

Happy Crafting and Picture Taking!