Inspiration: A Weekend at the Lake

A Sailboat

I have a secret. Deep down inside I long to develop the talent for taking truly magnificent pictures. Privately I’m not happy with the occasional lucky shot that looks really good. I want the majority of my pictures to look great, so when I have a few minutes here and there I try to practice.
I have a point-and-shoot camera, but I’ve discovered that most models offer a lot of the kinds of features you find on a dSLR camera. The thing is, most of us just pull the camera out of the box and start firing away. So I’ve thoroughly read my camera’s user manual and I’ve bought a couple photography books. I try out the tips I read when I have a chance,  and this often happens on weekends we spend at the lake. You see, when we get away from home for a short break, I can forget that there are bathrooms to be cleaned and clothes to be ironed, so I don’t feel guilty for goofing off with the camera for awhile.

Kids Tubing

Besides, the lake offers lots of opportunities for photos. First, there’s lots of different kinds of boats on the lake, from tiny little fishing boats to sailboats to a cabin cruiser or two. There’s also lots of activity going on at the lake, what with all the skiiers and tubers. Lastly, there are animals and plants galore, which gives me a chance to really try to figure out how photographers do “fancy stuff,” such as get the background of a picture to be fuzzy while the foreground is sharp and clear (an effect called bokeh). For this post, I would have liked to have shared a picture of Roger, the five-legged grasshopper who hitched a ride on our boat last week, but my photographic skills failed me when I tried to get a picture of him. Fortunately, I managed to get a few other good photos, and at the end of the summer we’ll have enough to make a nice photo book about the time we spent at the lake.

An Attempt at Bokeh