Today’s homeschool included a composition unit in photography.  The kids have been shooting in manual mode on their DSLRs for the past couple weeks, getting a feel for the interplay between ISO, shutter speed, and aperture in affecting exposure, as well as for controlling depth of field, motion blur, and image noise.  Today I demonstrated using exposure compensation when the subject is not of medium-gray tonality.  We also talked about composition rules like the rule of thirds and lead room.  We also talked about leading lines in a photograph.  Everyone got to work:

 

Trish tried out one composition trick, altering the height of the camera to change perspective:

The result:

B photographed this series:

I suggested to B that she try getting lower down to make the truck look more aggressive.  Here’s the before:

…and after:

The kids got down low to capture this insect from it’s own perspective.  They also chose a shallow depth of field to minimize background distraction:

There was a good amount of goofing off too:

Foreground object and leading lines by B:

Trish got some good results as well:

Another beautiful sunset out on the lake:

Speaking of photography, here are a couple nighttime photographs M and I captured a couple weeks ago:

The light here is M running towards me with a flashlight while the shutter is open:

Another great day!