In the last week of each month I post my photo of the month. This is my favourite photo that I have taken for the month. It might be a picture I took with my DSLR, or with my phone.
I write about the events that led up to the photo, the camera settings I used, and any other information I think may be helpful to other photographers.
August 2019 Photo of the Month
I didn’t take a lot of photos this month with my DSLR. August has had me building photographersfreedom.com, filming YouTube videos, and a host of other stuff.
I did get to take a few shots with my Galaxy S9 though.
As part of my personal growth, I have started getting up at 6am. I drive 5 minutes to the beach and walk for 20 to 25 minutes.
I find this charges me up for the day and gives me energy that lasts for the whole day.
Sandy Beach has some amazing sunrises and this particular morning was no exception.
I like this shot because of the colours in the sky, the reflections in the water at the bottom of frame, and the clouds in the foreground above the Sun. This all works together to divide the shot up nicely into three sections.
The reflections lead your eye into the photo and up to the Sun rising behind the clouds.
Camera Settings
I normally use the Pro setting on the S9 as it gives me more control over the exposure and look of the shot. If you want more information about the Pro setting, you can read this article from howtogeek.com.
I didn’t use it here because I just wanted to get the shot quickly. The S9 does take great shots in Auto mode too.
I haven’t edited this shot, it’s straight from the phone.
To the right you can see the settings the phone chose for this shot.
The aperture was f2.4. The S9 can use either f2.4 or f1.5.
I find the exposure time of 1/912 sec. to be interesting. Considering how much light was in the scene at the time and that the ISO was set to 50, a shutter speed that fast doesn’t really make sense! It did the job though.
As you can see, the focal length was 4mm. I find this wide field-of-view is more helpful when you are taking shots of up-close things with your phone, rather than landscapes.
Everything seems to look so distant and small in a landscape photo taken with a phone.
Read my 5 Landscape Photography Tips blog post for some great tips for getting better landscape photos.
Questions
How often do you use your phone to take photos instead of your DSLR? Are you happy with the quality that your phone produces?
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments box below. Be sure take a look at the Photo Of The Month for September post while your’e here. Thanks for reading my blog.
