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July 16 - 1Backlit leaves glow in the evening sun Backlit sycamore leaves I decided to take a walk this evening, to catch a different light other than in the morning.  There were very few insect visitors to the wild bergamot in the butterfly garden, but I did disturb a couple of rabbits grazing on the clover.

It was after I left the garden that I realized my first mistake.  I had forgotten to check the status of the camera battery.  It was very low, so I knew I had to carefully select my shots.  My photography friends love it when I admit I make mistakes -- it makes them feel better about theirs.  But honestly, they don't know the half of them.

I found this fawn hiding behind grasses. For these walks, I am challenging myself to shoot in manual mode, where I have control over the shutter speed, the aperture (which affects depth of field), and the ISO.  It is all a balancing act to get the right exposure.  There is a little gauge in the bottom of the viewfinder inside the camera that you try to "zero out" in order to get a good exposure.  But I am still very much a reactionary photographer.  Tonight I saw a fawn in the woods, and I adjusted the settings to account for the deep shade.  

Trust me, there's a beautiful common yellow throat in this shot! Later, I saw a common yellowthroat in bright sun.  I didn't check my settings.  I just fired away, which resulted in two errors.  The shot was seriously overexposed, AND it ate up what little battery power I had left.  You'll just have to trust me that somewhere in this washed out photo there is a bright yellow bird.

Native grasses These cross-hatched grasses caught my eye. I purposely created lens flare by shooting into the sun. So today's lesson is to be prepared.  Check the camera settings, check the exposure, and check to see that you have either enough battery power or a spare battery in your bag.  I resolve to do a better job with all of these.  

By the way, the big benefit of walking at the end of a sunny day is dry shoes!

<Thanks for reading my blog entry, which is part of a personal photography project to bring attention to and to benefit the Fred Archibald Sanctuary in New Market, MD.  The sanctuary is owned and managed by the Audubon Society of Central Maryland.  Copyright 2017 Cam Miller.  All photographs are for sale upon request.>