Setting Goals

Day 2/Year 2

After doing some soul searching and taking time to think about my photography, and in what direction I would like to take it, I thought it might be a good idea to set some goals for year two of this project. Landscape photography always has been and probably always will be my favorite type of photography. I'd like to broaden my horizons and get out to shoot some areas of New England that I haven't shot yet.........the Connecticut Coastline and areas such as Mystic Seaport come to mind. I'd also like to photograph more down on Cape Cod and the Islands. They are practically "in my own backyard" so to speak, and I have no idea why I haven't spent more time shooting down there. I've spent a fair amount of time photographing in the White Mountains Region of NH, but there is still so much more in that area that I would like to see. Western MA has been on my "bucket list" for the past few years, but time just hasn't allowed me the opportunity to get out there shooting. Goal number one for me is to visit each of these places some time during the next 365 days, and hopefully come home with a few "keepers" as well.

Last week at camera club, one of our members showed a slideshow on closeup/macro photography using closeup filters. (Thanks Lynne, it was beautiful!) This got me thinking...........I ALREADY HAVE a NIKON 4T closeup filter that I bought several years ago to use with my Panasonic FZ8. I took it out of the camera bag today, and low and behold it fits on my Nikon 50 mm lens. Goal number two for me is to perfect my closeup/macro work. Now, gear is an important thing with closeup photography. I wish I could afford to get a nice new macro lens, but with Miss J's upcoming wedding, I have no extra cash to burn this year. So, I will work with what I have, and hope to see some improvements with my macro work. I used the Nikon 4T closeup filter, with the camera set on the tripod out in the backyard this afternoon shooting rhododendron buds. I set the camera to macro mode and tried both manual and automatic focusing. Now that I look at the exif info, I see I was shooting at f8. Hmmmmm.....will be practicing more with this closeup filter?

Goal number three is working on more long exposure photography.

Goal number four is to perfect the art of panning. I have only made one attempt at panning, and would really like to work on perfecting that technique because I think it's just plain cool!

Sound do-able? I hope so!
The Specs:
Nikon D90, 50 mm lens with Nikon 4Tclose-up filter, ISO 200, 1/320, f8