The Vacation Aperture contest was AMAZING! We had a HUGE turnout of photo submissions! As I went through all your beautiful photos, I could smell the scents of summer all around; the campfire, the chlorine from the swimming pool, wet grassy feet from playing in the sprinklers, mountain fresh air filled with the fragrance of wildflowers, salty seawater after an afternoon at the beach, the list could go on and on. Your images were alive! As a whole group of submissions, the photos submitted for this photo contest were the BEST! I think we’re all getting better and better at our picture taking, I’m super proud of you! Almost all the photos had a clear story focus vs a quick snapshot. I could tell many of you are thinking about composition and framing. Your photo submissions inspired me to try new things with my kids (lucky them! :)).

If you are new to the blog, let me do a quick recap. Let’s call it a Prelude. And then by 12 noon, I will post the FIVE FINALISTS so you can start voting! (One of the Random Voters is going to win a Sony Cyber-shot camera just b/c they cast a vote, so get ready to vote!!!)

Who doesn’t want one of these slick guys in your purse!

Back to the Prelude…We often host a Photo Contest on the blog with a specific theme. The most recent photo contest had to be a Vacation themed photo but also had the added challenge of using Aperture to highlight the story of the image. Aperture/fstops is all about how buttery, blurry you make the background. OR, how blurry you make the foreground (everything in front of your subject). The lower your fstop numbers goes, the blurrier your background becomes. Check out our award winning, Beyond the Green Box DVD if you’d like to learn more about aperture in a no-nonsense way. 🙂

For the contest Prelude, I want to highlight a couple submissions that did a great job of showing aperture at work. These images aren’t the Top Finalists, but I had to share them as Honorable Mentions. If you are new to the idea of Aperture, take a look at these images, and the blurry background thing will make much more sense.

Check out this great example of Aperture. The photographer, Susan, focused on her little boy. She chose a low fstop of 2.8, making the little girl and waves blur. The higher the fstop goes (8.0 and higher), the more detailed and sharp the little girl and waves will become. Beautiful image Susan!

Here’s another great example! If you aren’t comfortable with shooting in Manuel or A mode (Aperture Priority mode), you could pick the Portrait Shooting Mode (often the Icon with a little head). In this mode, the camera will automatically adjust to your lens’s lowest aperture. Amanda took this picture of her little one. See how her little girl is in focus, but the flowers and steps behind her begin to blur more and more as they lead up into the mountains. Amanda, great shot of this little sweetie at Mt. Rainier in Washington state. I’m almost positive my parents have this exact same shot of me when I was four. Love it!

And one more before we UNVEIL our finalists! This mom, Christina, emailed me and said she is new to picture taking. She only bought her camera a month ago! Wow! Look at what she’s already captured by playing around with her Aperture?! Christina took this image at a 5.6 fstop! As many of you know a 5.6 is not that low, but it still gave her some pretty great blur in the background. The farther the background is from the subject, the more blur you’ll get even if the fstop isn’t super low. All the kit cameras come with a lens that has 5.6 fstop abilities. Play around. When you hit the glass ceiling of wanting MORE blur, you know your ready for your next lens!

Thanks to the talented people who sent me these images! Thank you for letting me share them as Honorable Mentions. Your images are such great examples of Aperture at work!

Thanks to ALL the people who submitted their images. I’m not kidding, this group of submissions was our best ever! Everyone did such a fantastic job. It was PAINFUL to narrow down the finalists to only five! Keep up the great work! And keep submitting! I love to watch your images transform as you grow in your photography!

It’s a BIG day today! Check back around 12noon PST to see the AMAZING TOP FIVE FINALISTS! They took Aperture and Story Telling to a level that will knock your socks off!

Make sure you invite your friends to come and vote too! If we get 750 votes, yes 750!, a Random Voter is going to WIN a Sony Cyber-shot Camera!!!

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Our Refuse to Say Cheese DVD series is continuing to grow, faster than we know what to do with! If you haven’t ordered your own copy yet, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box (They are BACK IN STOCK!! Yeah!!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the titles of your choice