February 9 - 40/365

28-55mm lens @ 34mm, f/4.6, 1/30, ISO 200

Today's photo represents a few different things. First, I have to boast that I went Manual again today. [yea!] I'm definitely feeling more comfortable with specifically choosing my camera settings and hope I can keep improving in that area. For this image, I specifically opened my aperture as far as it would go in Aperture priority mode and also chose a very low ISO. While the general rule of thumb is to use higher ISO settings for low light situations, such as an indoor picture like this one, I had lots of good extra light around me here and wanted to keep myself "darker" and hopefully enrich the colors from the maps. I definitely achieved the look I was going for.

This image also represents my first attempt at a "self-portrait." I have been wanting to experiment with taking some photos of myself, but this is obviously harder than it seems! You should have seen the setup I had going on for this photo. I had my camera on a tripod [obviously] and since the tripod wouldn't reach tall enough for the angle I wanted, I had to put it up on my kitchen counter. So every time I wanted to take the picture, I had to climb up on my counter, press the shutter release button, climb back down and get in the chair within the 10sec timer. Then repeat the process to check the image result and repeat if necessary. Phew! But it was worth it.

Lastly, this image reflects one of the activities I have been busy with while snowed in at home the past few days. I have been actively planning our upcoming trip to Germany and Austria in the spring. I've been reading through guide books and planning an itinerary on paper and have slowly started figuring out a game plan. I'm starting to really look forward to the trip, even if it is still a few months away.