Chili Cookoff

Last Saturday was the Chili Cook-off at our church property. Lots of people and cool architecture means lots of photo opportunities. Be prepared for lots of pictures!

Cute little Mr. Joaquin

A week before, I had been graciously loaned a 50mm lens, which has a very low aperture. For those of you who forget what the technical terms mean (unfortunately often including myself!) or never knew, that means that the lens doesn't zoom in or out, but since its aperture goes low, it will let in more light so you can take pictures in low light without as much blur, since you don't have to have the shutter open as long.

Taking pictures here showed me how very much I have to learn about photography.

The sanctuary

Ryan, who loaned me his lens

Mercy found this cool shaft of light through a doorway, so we took pictures of it.

I think this picture looks cool, like it should be the cover of a book.

Mercy and I went upstairs, and she graciously allowed me to take pictures as we looked around.

As you can see, she is a good model.

Through a hole in the temporary plastic door

This was cute; unfortunately I forgot the camera was on manual, and by the time I fixed it they had moved.

Handsome guy in the light of the bonfire

I have been doing things with white balance, and this was a good time to practice. I've always been annoyed when I try to take pictures in firelight because they always have that yellow/orange tint.

Before the custom setting

 None of the presets worked, so I tried the custom, and it seemed to turn out well. I had never been able to get good pictures in firelight before, so I took a lot.

After the custom setting

I took a lot of Joaquin. They were really cute, but unfortunately blurry.

Rebekah and Ashley had some fun posing:

Audrey told me I should go take a picture of Pastor Bayly. It turned out nicely, though since he was was turning Micaiah away from the fire it's dark on their faces.

I really like this one.

I like this one, though Nicholas is unfortunately cut off a bit.

Once again, Mercy and Rebekah, looking like a character out of one of their books!

I like the idea of this picture even if it wasn't executed very well.

Mr. Simpson was right; his son is difficult to get pictures of, but this one is cute.

Taking a picture with a weird white balance made the fire look really neat.

Putting out the fire. Eric jumped over it, thankfully after it was pretty much out.