How about this weather? Spring flowers are popping out all over our neighborhood. Our neighbor’s quince started blooming in January.

I’m taking a five-week photography class and I decided to use the quince blooms for last week’s homework assignment on “equivalent exposures” (basically taking the same shot, but messing with the depth of field). So the top picture blurs the background (my neighbor’s house).

I’m excited that I now know how to use my camera on manual mode. But this class has mainly just confirmed my camera is possessed by Satan. The first week of class, the instructor said “the camera will always focus on what is closer.” Nope. Not my camera anyway.

The only thing that should differ between these two pictures is how much of the picture from front to back is in focus. But even though I set the focus point to be the stamen in the middle of that main flower and used a tripod, the stamen are not in focus in both pictures, even though all I did was change the aperture and shutter speed. I even checked to make sure the red focus dot hadn’t moved. I’ve discussed this issue with my instructor and she can’t explain this. I clearly need a new camera, right?!?

Happy Spring Winter!