Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Program Mode Photography Rut

Yep, I hate to admit it, but I've hit another rut in my photography.  I'm officially out of Auto Mode 99.5% of the time (which was my goal when I started this blog) but now I'm in Program Mode that 99.5% of the time. 

What's wrong with that you ask?  Nothing really, if you're going to get out of Auto Mode, Program Mode is a really good transition.  It is essentially Auto Mode with a few more bells and whistles.  You choose the ISO and the camera does the difficult task of determining the Aperture and Shutter Speed.  You also have more control over things like white balance, exposure compensation, and color settings.  The problem is, Program Mode is a little too much like Auto Mode and I'm comfortable in Program Mode.  I'm not really challenging myself any more.  My ultimate goal when I started this blog was to get comfortable in Manual Mode.  That's not going to happen if I stay in this rut.

week 11

So what do I do now? I suck up the thought of getting some bad photos and I switch modes! AAAAhhhhhhh...I'm totally nervous!
Have you been in a rut before?  What did you do to get out?

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6 comments:

Pitterle Postings said...

OH, I have so been there! (What am I talking about!! I am still there!!) I must admit that I rather like program mode. The next leap is just way over the edge for me!!

Nikki said...

Photo Challenges! They absolutely get me out of a rut, make me think outside the box, make me pick up the camera at all! There's tons out there. It may help! I started with You Capture at http://www.ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com/category/you-capture. But for more ideas, go to http://www.ashleysisk.com/p/challenges.html She has a list of all the ones she does. Good luck!

Discovery School at First Baptist Heath said...

I keep shooting.. and delete a lot, and then have a great shpot, and spend time doin git again! tha tis part of the fun...

Kimberly Gauthier, Dog Nutrition Blogger for Keep the Tail Wagging said...

Jamie - I wish we lived closer together, because I can have you shooting in manual in a day!

Nikki's suggestion of photography challenges is brilliant.

What I do is just grab my camera, my 50mm lens, and I go for a walk and shoot everything with the goal of NOT shooting the obvious - chose a new angle, maybe I'll over expose or under expose, I'll shoot at different apertures.

All of this is great practice, gives great blog posts topics, and it's fun.

What's also nice is that you can take your time; you don't have to feel rushed.

So if you can take an hour for yourself a few days a week, I highly suggest it. I don't have kids, but I have two high energy dogs that love to hang out with me, so I just keep my camera on me while I'm doing laundry, cleaning the house, hanging with the dogs, whatever - once you start looking at your home through the lens - you'll see that there's tons of stuff to practice on!

Good luck and keep in touch.

Anonymous said...

I am SO stuck there right now. I just don't feel ready to jump to either of the other modes right now. In fact, if anything I've gotten lazier and use Auto more than I ever did in the past. We're going to Disney in 6 weeks, time to dust the camera off and figure out a few more things before we go!

*Jess* said...

take the next step and shoot in aperture priority mode. :)

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