My birthday yesterday did not consist of gifts or birthday cakes, Nah. Instead, I took my bike, grabbed my camera and decided to spend the day out and explorer the surroundings with one goal:
To improve my photography skills

I actually think I take decent pictures, I am good at spotting angles and details. But one thing I have never been good at since I brought myself an actual camera last year is to use the tools the camera has to offer over a smartphone camera. As a biker, I came to realize it is almost the equivalent of only using one gear even when you have 29-speed.

But now I have learned that if you want to use a camera, you better use it right! In one day I have made improvements of my pictures just by educating myself a little. It is super important to understand a camera and how it works. Knowing what settings do what before you take the shot can make the difference between a good picture and a great picture


Without manual settings this picture would never have been possible

Lets compare some pictures with automatic vs manual adjustments(non of these pictures have been edited)

Both pictures were taken with the same camera, the one and the left is manually and the one in the right is automatic(where you let the camera do the work). It is amazing to me with a little more commitment how drastically I was able to change the picture into what I wanted. The camera doesn't always do the job right, so it needs help a little from time to time. The manually (on the left) picture showed much more accurately how the fort actually looked with my own eye.

Same again, left is manually taken, right is automatically. While I do admit I could maybe have made the manual picture a tiny bit brighter(I am still learning!) but it still captures the post-sunset much better.

Late night I also played around with some street lights before heading home. While the camera did a decent job at capturing the light to me, it just seems a little too bright for how it really looked. As you see again, I managed to capture the street light a little more pleasant by doing the work myself.

Some more pictures I took manually

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I love how I managed to capture the sun and the shadows on the leaves. While my angle was perfect for this kind of picture, the automatic version would just not have gotten it in this way where the tree almost looks "golden orange".
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Okay, this one probably the automatic could have taken just as well, but I just think it was a cool picture I managed to take and I felt like I would be cheating you guys not sharing it!:)
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When I went on my bike I got a little further outside the city to some waterfalls. So I also started playing with the mechanic of making the picture taking longer to take. (in this case about 3 seconds). This resulted in the water that was moving while the picture was taken to become this "white current" and it looks super cool if you ask me. While I didn't test this method, it can also be used to capture "moving lights" in a city, like from above on a road where cars a driving. Your camera will be able to make these kinds of "laser beams" on the road.

Conclusion

This is my first time I ever tried to do more with a camera than just "taking a fast picture", but actually manually adjusting it in the moment. Not only was it super effective to do, but also it felt fun and was a great way to spend my birthday acquiring some new skills to my bike travels around the world.

Suddenly it makes sense to me why I am using a camera instead of my phone. Before, sometimes the phone seemed to do a better job than my camera. But now when I know how to really use the tools that my camera provides, I doubt I will ever want to take a picture from my phone ever again. I am just at the beginning of the magnificent journey of improving my photography, but so far so good! I can recommend educating yourself and learning your camera a little bit, it really makes a different!
-holm