I thought it would be a good idea to experiment with exposure, manual aperture settings, and trespassing (all of which I will use frequently if I ever become a real photographer). I circled Hoover Reservoir in Westerville at sunset one Saturday, and got a few fun shots out of my adventure. None of them are especially skillful photos, but they each capture a small victory over camera settings and lighting and Photoshop (I have the baby “Elements” version – I’m considering buying Lightroom first to manage my images, and then investing in CS3 later, since Elements is serving my needs pretty well now, and I found a website that claims I can use actions if I tweak Elements a little). Enjoy! Also, sorry many of these are of me. I’m not narcissistic, but when you’re all alone and trying to learn to photograph people, you have to improvise. Enjoy.
I love the colors in this one. I’m still trying to figure out how to make the weed stand out more when I reduce the image size for the web, but I’m not having much luck.
I wanted to try some backlighting, and I got this weird flare-y thing at the top of the frame. Not necessarily a bad thing, just very mysterious.
I just like the long shadows on the grass in this one. Those colors are straight out of the camera. It was a lovely evening.
This one is sooo Bob Ross. Happy little trees. I caught a little of the closer shoreline in the bottom of the frame, and the horizon is just crooked enough to annoy me, but I’m not going to change it. Nobody’s perfect. 
Lens flare is hip again. Or at least it’s coming back. Or trying to.
I’m so sad. Garth said this one’s my emo album cover. Funny.
I wish the subject in this one stood out a little more, but I was trying to keep those rocks in the foreground blurred but not unrecognizable, and I think it worked.
I lit this with my car headlights. It’s not really a good picture, but I thought it was funny, so here it is.
This one’s lit with my car headlights, too. Probably my favorite shot of the night, just because I love the depth of field, and because who woulda thunk car lights would work so well? They’re glowy. I like that.
