My neighborhood

January 21, 2010: 35 degrees and sunny, 1pm-3:30pm. I had to run a few errands so I decided to walk around and shoot my neighborhood. For each photo I have posted the information so that we can see the best outcome. Every photo was shot RAW but for blog posting purposes I had to convert each photo to jpg. I do have to mention that I am going as amateur as possible. Meaning that I have not altered these photos in any way. I do know how to use photoshop, however I do not have photoshop in my computer, yet.  Gotta get the picture right in the camera lens first. Those are the best pictures. A very good photographer does little editing afterwards.

I was reading Jasmine Star's photography blog and she posted this because a reader asked her how to improve thier manual exposure abilities.  So I took her recommendation and chose to start my camera the same way.


"I was given for shooting midday in full sun with my 70-200IS 2.8 lens was the following: f/2.8, 2500, 100 iso. All of a sudden, I felt like someone had given me a lump of gold. I finally found a place to start!"  ~Jasmine Star

I love getting this kind of information from a professional because it can give you a starting point. As much as I love taking pictures, I have never been tech savvy when it comes to camera manual settings. And with that said, I have absolutely no idea what she means! :) So I figured out from my camera's manual that they shutter speed should be 2500 and the aperture should be 2.8  What is the Iso number?  Frankly I have no clue! After this photo session, I'm actually going to do some research so that I can learn to shoot better manually.

My camera couldn't get an aperture of 2.8 so I started at the lowest, 3.5. From here, with each picture I took I made sure that my camera registered the right exposure for each lighting situation.  Looking back at the pictures, they were all taken with an Iso of 100 but I have no idea how I did it!

Here is the very first picture of the day.

Camera settings: 1/100 3.5 iso 100

This one is soooo much better! Camera settings: 1/400 3.5 Iso 100.

There are many murals in my neighborhood.  My goal is to photographs as many murals in Brooklyn as I can.

I love how the colors pop on this one! And the handwritten addition makes it even more fun! lol! BTW I did not write that. lol! Camera settings: 1/400 5.6 Iso 100

I'm a huge fan of graffiti as well. I would have loved this photo if there were more light. This wall was shaded because the sun was behind the building at this time. I have to catch this one early in the morning to get the right light. Camera settings: 1/160 5.6 Iso 100

I'm also a sucker for fashion.  Had to make my way to Soho to pick up some art supplies and came across this boutique window. Camera settings: 1/50 4.5 Iso 100

These are the last two pictures I took.  I don't really like either. The first one is too light and the second one is too dark.  I'm assuming that in order to get a perfect shot with this one, I'd need extra lighting since not all of the areas that need light are reflecting the light.