Lee and I took a weekend trip back to my old stomping grounds, Charleston, SC. The thing that brought me to Charleston this time was a photography get together (more on that awesome event later!). But since I those activities only took up my Saturday Lee and I decided to make it an extended weekend trip! I had also recently purchased a Canon AE-1 Program on ebay. It’s an older 35mm camera but can still rock out, as evidenced by my friend Hay’s photos from the workshop!

So one afternoon while in Charleston Lee and I decided to take a long stroll around downtown to enjoy the awesome weather! I didn’t want to be loaded down with my purse, light meter, camera, rolls of film, etc. So I put one roll of 35mm film in the camera, and few dollars in my pocket, and off we went! I was hesitant to leave my light meter behind but I figured it would be a good test for myself. To shoot without a light meter, based solely on my experience with film, and having never shot with this camera and lens before… I think I did a descent job!

I’m always trying to get better, improve my skills, test my knowledge, push myself… And this is just one of those times! Of course I only “test” myself with personal work. But it’s awesome that my professional work benefits from these trials! So here are a few more shots from out outing!

One thing I like to do from time to time is take a picture that is ever so softly out of focus. I feel like rather than drawing your eye to the exact focal point, it allows your eyes to take in the shapes and colors instead as the go over the photograph. Then of course that just may be too “artsy fartsy” for some as my husband Lee would say. He doesn’t care for shots like this. He says that it hurts his eyes because they are trying really hard to make the image come int focus. Hahaha. Oh well.