Penning Photography Daily

Sissy, peering at me over the top step to the lower level in our home as I came in from the attached garage. Looking at me as if to say “Who Dat?” or “Whatcha Doin?” or “Why are you pointing that thing at me?”

I was playing around before and after choir practice tonight with high ISO settings on my Pentax K20D DSLR. I cranked it all the way to ISO6400, the maximum. That’s signified in orange in the settings, to forewarn that it’s really out there and you might not like what you’re going to get. High ISO is used to increase the camera sensor’s sensitivity to light. The higher ISO, the more light the sensor works to capture. It also brings with it an element known as “noise” in the results. Grain or fuzziness is a result of increased ISO. In this case, I like the results. It reminds me of the grain on a high ISO film. The message here comes through, you are not distracted by the high noise levels. At least I’m not and my Karen Sue isn’t. Your mileage may vary.

Taking a chance and working through all the possibilities. That’s what I was doing. If it had turned out terrible, with color splotches all over, I would not have used it. I took a chance, and it came out just fine. Nice even to my way of seeing.

Life is full of opportunities to take a chance, to explore the possibilities. The choices are many. At every moment life is bursting with possibilities. Using my existing knowledge and skills, I made a gut-inspired choice and learned from my exploration of the possible. Now I know I can use that setting. It opens up even more possibilities for creative image capture.

I’ve learned that by stretching my experience by working outside what I know and feel safe with, I’ve grown in knowledge and skills. I take more leaps based on the inner promptings that I’ve learned to recognize.

Who Dat? Just me, having fun and learning something new.