Camera Experiments: ISO

I'm trying to figure out what difference ISO settings make. I remember that you were supposed to use 100 film when you were going to take pictures in bright light, and 800 or even higher (1000!) for low light, although that would make the resulting picture grainier. But on a digital camera that uses no film? Hmmm.

So I stayed up late last night and played with my camera, using the subject I happened to have at hand - a sleeping child laying next to a stuffed dog. I didn't use a flash, although the camera's auto-focus works by shining a light on the subject, so she still ended up getting light in her eyes. She didn't stir, though.

The main difference I noticed is that, using 100 ISO, the lens/shutter stayed open longer - it took longer to take the picture.

[Images Moved]

I'll do more now that I have natural light.

I think I've learned that, in order to get the crisp, clear portraits I want, I need to select 100 ISO instead of letting the camera decide which ISO it wants.




I also think that, if I'm going to do any more of this, I need to do it somewhere other than my blog. How about a blog for this kind of silly stuff? It'll just be for my photo experiments.

In which I get wet and don't mind

Some mornings you can just tell when you get up that it's going to be a good day. The sun is shining, you feel clear-headed and refreshed, and the hint of some happy dream tickles your memory. Some mornings, on the other hand, you wake up long after your alarm with only thirty minutes before you have to be somewhere, and you have a shower to take and somebody has left the bathroom door locked on the inside, so that you have to stand there with a screwdriver for ten minutes trying to get it open.

Guess which sort of morning this was. But luckily it was not a portent of the day ahead. Of course, I did leave my umbrella in my room because the weather looked fine, and of course it did rain this afternoon, but what can you expect when you go out without your umbrella? (And I promised myself yesterday I would never again live in an umbrellaless state.)

Today was another full day of classes--similar to Monday, except with a piano accompaniment lesson in the morning and a voice lesson instead of theater work in the afternoon. I received my instructions for accompaniment today: I'm to accompany two students during their lessons, as well as practicing with them during the week and doing performances with them. Which could be a great experience, or could be nearly impossible depending on how many and how difficult are the pieces the students are doing.

Our humanities class was assigned the first few books of the Odyssey today, and our professor strongly recommended that we get together in groups and read it aloud. I found another student who was interested in doing that, so he and I met in the cafeteria after dinner and read the first three books, taking turns reading aloud. It was great fun. I think we're going to try to do the same with future assignments. (We actually heard that another group of students got together and did the same thing this evening, so maybe in the future we could collaborate. Beowulf is coming up...)

Tonight I've been working on a paper for my photography class (on Jacques-Henri Lartigue), organizing and scheduling and shopping-list-making, and listening to Berlioz's Requiem and some Rachmaninoff with my roommate.

Currently listening to: Mozart's Haydn Quartets

In which I enter on a course of serious study

Today was my first full day of classes: Speech at 9:00, Old Testament at 10:00, Humanities at 11:00, lunch at 12:00, Photography from 1:00 to 3:00, work in the theater from 3:00 to 4:30 (they're still moving into their new theater; today we moved a bookshelf full of old scripts from upstairs to downstairs), choir practice from 4:30 to 5:30, and then dinner. My classes are all great--in Humanities we sat in a large circle and narrated / discussed things from our readings; in photography we learned about shutter and aperture and the other basic functions of the camera, and I had my first quiz--not a difficult one. In Old Testament we've been reading the first few chapters of Genesis, and today we discussed what we can learn (merely from the first part of the OT) about the natures of God and man. The best part was when the professor first asked what we learn that God is, and two people simultaneously said "just" and "merciful".

A selection of cameras in the photography classroom.

But it was a long day. My first experience with nine-to-five, I guess you could say. After dinner I was listless, until at twilight I decided to take some homework outside and read. I met my voice professor and we talked a while. Then I went back to my room and one of my suitmates played some Broadway for me (I may be helping him to prepare a piece for an audition). After that my roommate got in from music practice, and we've been listening to Cecilia Bartoli and some of Chopin's ballades and discussing Salieri and Stravinsky.

"I have formed my plan, and am determined to enter on a course of serious study. ...By reading only six hours a day, I shall gain in the course of a twelvemonth a great deal of instruction which I now feel myself to want."

Sunday

Another short post, 'cause I have a 9:00 class in the morning. I stayed at home last night, which was nice, although everyone was tired after the fair. This morning I went to a friend's church, which is near the college, and then went back to the college to study. Studied all afternoon; went to the library (checked out my first book, for a photography assignment); had dinner at the restaurant, 'cause the cafeteria closes early on Sundays. At 9:00 I went to the vespers on campus, which was an out-of-doors worship service. Afterwards they had a bonfire and everyone roasted marshmallows. (A friend and I tried to start a game of duck-duck-goose, but for some reason it didn't catch on...)

Kind of blurry, but you get the idea.

After that I went back to my dorm room and met my roommate, who's been gone for the weekend. And then I finished my homework. When I've posted this I'm going to go pack my backpack for tomorrow morning.

The Fair

Today we went to our local fair. We met Tim and Giselle and her family, which includes Miss M's best friend, C. Miss M was thrilled to see Tim.



The big kids went off by themselves, so all of my pictures are of Miss M and C on the kiddie rides. Miss M was a bit of a surprise - she wasn't scared of any of the rides, as I expected from my experience with her brothers (although she was afraid in a wildlife exhibit that looked like the inside of a cave, and she thought the loud rock music blaring in the midway was scary).




And Miss M had some ice cream just before we left.

CM Co-op

Our local area started a CM co-op this year - moms get together with their kids every Friday and do either a field trip, nature day, or full-blown co-op (which includes picture study, a handicraft, folksong, hymn, composer study, art instruction, Spanish lesson, science experiment - each taught by a different mom).

Today was "full-blown co-op day". One of the boys brought an impressive map he'd made of Italy for show and tell, and was able to point out and explain in an animated way which wars were fought where - Punic Wars, battle for Rome, Hannibal crossing the Alps. He knew his history!

For handicrafts, a mom taught basket-weaving. I've wanted to make a basket all my life - and I made one! It's tiny; about the size of my hand.



L made one, too, but didn't take his home.

J won't normally be doing this co-op; his own high school co-op starts next Friday. But he came today to socialize (and to provide support - literally! - for Miss M.)

On Studying Out-of-Doors (or, a panegyric on choir practice)

Today was my first day of studying. I didn't have any classes today, so I was able to work from 9:00-4:00. I took my books outside and sat on a bench in front of the dorm during the morning. Then I took a break for lunch (where I managed not to drop my salad on the floor, like I did yesterday). After lunch I found a quiet stairway in an unfrequented part of the campus and did as much studying as I could there, until I had to go back to my dorm to use the computer. (Lesson: bring the laptop next time.)

It was lovely in the shade, but the studying outside does have its drawbacks. Stairs, however unfrequented by human traffic, are not therefore free of ants, gnats, bees, and other bugs of less certain description. (The sweat bees got me twice today.)

After that was choir practice. We did a few warm-ups, and then went right into sight-reading our music. And the sound! So many voices singing together, four parts dancing in and out with each other, coming together at moments of shimmering harmony to make chords that are almost tangible--sound that envelops you and lifts you up and sustains you until the last breath--that was glorious. It seemed to be over very quickly. Even some of the seasoned choir-members, juniors and seniors, said that they don't often sound that good.

After that I went to the school's annual Fiesta on the commons, where they had quasi-Mexican food (spicy rice-and-bean egg rolls?) and a cliche Mexican band. After dinner was convocation, which today meant a guest speaker in the chapel. The speaker was pretty good, but it took them half an hour to get to him. The president of the college introduced a local judge who introduced the lieutenant governor of the state who gave a short address and then turned it back over to the judge, who introduced the speaker for the evening.

An instrumental trio gave a prelude to the address

When that was over I went back to my dorm and did some more studying, breaking it up with piano practice--I tried sight-reading a Beethoven sonata. It went fairly well, but then I had chosen the easiest one I could find. I attended the mandatory residence hall meeting in the evening, and came back and did some more studying. (I did actually finish my homework.) Luckily I have a 10:00 class tomorrow morning, so I can sleep a little.

First Day of Classes

This post will have to be short, I'm afraid, because it's past my bedtime. My classes started at 9:05 this morning--or rather I thought they did, but it turned out my piano class wasn't supposed to be until next week. So my first real class was Old Testament; right after that was Ancient and Medieval Cultures; after lunch was Photography; and in the evening was concert choir. None of the classes had real work today, it was all introductions and handing out papers and going over syllabi. But I think concert choir is going to be the hardest as far as time commitment. Their rehearsals and performances may cut into a lot of my classes. And I can already tell that my Old Testament professor assigns more homework than his wife, the Humanities professor.

After choir the school had a scavenger hunt. We divided up into teams by our mentor groupings and raced all over campus finding different clues and fulfilling the requirements (like playing leap-frog or dressing up and pretending to be in a music video). We raced to be the first team to make it to the prize (an Applebees gift card, I think) at the drive-in theater about thirty minutes drive away. There was some confusion about who won, but our team was awarded the prize. After that most of the freshmen went to the drive-in and saw The Dark Knight, while I went to Wal-Mart and got some much-needed dinner and three-ring binders for my papers. And I've spent the rest of the evening organizing and scheduling and writing and doing a little homework (now there's a concept for a homeschooler).

Emergency Room

Yes, we made an unexpected trip this evening.

Dad dislocated his pinky finger playing basketball with J. He wanted me to look up online whether that's the kind of injury you can just pop back in yourself, and the first site I went to said, "Do NOT attempt to home-treat a dislocated joint." So we all piled into the van, dropped him off at the emergency room, and went to Pizza Hut. After dinner, he was still waiting to be seen, so we shopped - and, finally, four hours later, he was treated and ready to go home. Luckily, the bookstore stays open late, so we had someplace to hang out while we waited.

Registration

The day began a little earlier today with three men converging upon a single bathroom, the result being that one did not make it to the morning meeting in time and had to slip in the back door after it had begun. (Suffice it to say, the bathroom schedule will need to be remedied.)

But after that morning meeting (which was about the internet and phone service on campus) I had several free hours, so I wandered around identifying buildings and looking for the locations of my classes. I found the library, and the main class buildings, and the music offices, and the sports center with the swimming pool. The pool is on the far side of the campus, about ten minutes walk from my dorm, but that is the farthest I'll have to go anywhere on campus. (One benefit of a small school.)

In the afternoon I had a meeting with my mentor to review the class schedule that we put together for me several months ago. I'll be starting with 17 credits, which is a lot: the minimum for a full-time student is 12. But I'm looking forward to my classes. Humanities is the backbone of the curriculum, and I've done so much literature that I have a headstart there. When I got my box of books for my courses I was pulling out the literature selections one by one and saying "Read that"--"Started that one"--"I did this last year". This semester it's mostly epic poetry like the Odyssey and the Aeneid and Beowulf.

After reviewing my schedule I went through registration, where I filled out a student profile, got my ID tagged, got a parking tag for my car, had my picture taken for the yearbook, and had my records checked one last time. Then I went to the music offices and worked out times for my music lessons. In the evening they were taking all the students to a water park which is just five minutes from our house (the college itself is about forty minutes away), so I went early by myself and came home for a while before I went to the water park. I was in the water for a while, watched a very silly synchronized swimming contest, and played some more volleyball. When they started breaking up I and a friend from my dorm went home in my car. (Yes, I said MY car. I didn't blog about that, did I? Bother.)

Before leaving the water park. It's a bit blurry because it was starting to get dark.

And now I'm back, watching people run up and down the hall in our dorm, waiting for my roommate to get in and hoping to get an early start in the morning. For then school begins in earnest. MUSC 130/Applied Study (Music)/Accompanying--9:05 sharp.