Comparing Shots

I am studying some things about my new Fujifilm Finepix S1000fs digital camera, trying to learn how to use more of its features. Oh, I can take perfectly good/nice photos with it on Automatic, or as friend Kevin calls "Idiot Mode", yet I want to get far more creative with it than that. Years ago, before digital cameras, I had (still have it) a good 35mm camera. I knew how to use the different settings things, knew how to set aperture, shutter speed, all that kind of thing, and did every time I used the camera. However, due to the cost of film and developing, once I ended up on a disability pension instead of working a good paying job, I 'couldn't afford' to use it very often or very much. Now, years later, and a few things that I'm sure must have blown some brain cells (no, not drugs, illnesses), there is much of that stuff that I no longer remember. Also, I used to learn things very quickly and easily, and now I have a hard time making sense of things that seemed simple once upon a time. Is this due to the illnesses, or to the fact I'm over 50 now? I don't know.

Anyway, I now have to find a way to relearn a lot of things about the basics of photography outside "Idiot Mode". Actually, no... I don't have to do anything of the sort. I want to. I CHOOSE to. But I don't have to. Now that I joined a camera club I have the opportunity to learn a lot about how to take better photographs, so knowing how to use my camera, knowing the basics of photography, will be very important to me.

This first photo was taken of my driveway yesterday not long before dark. Thus the blue color. It was after a neighbor plowed my driveway out. At the bottom of the hill, you see the highway that goes past my home, though the shoulders are covered with snow, and there are snowbanks, the pavement itself is bare.

This photo, I took very near the same time as the one above... only today, around 24 hours later. I used the N setting on my camera, for Natural Light. A bit different shade of blue, I'd say. In this photo, you can see the tracks from the van of the Pellet Stove Repair men (see last post for more info on that, if you like). They are pretty deep tracks, and it's no wonder they couldn't get up the hill. With all the snow we've had since yesterday you can hardly see the highway either. It's now very covered in snow. When I was out taking photos in my yard, the snow was falling, and it was very wet, nearly rain in fact, so will be very soft, making the tires bog down in it, and it will be very slippery and very heavy on roofs.