New Look to my Smugmug website

My Smugmug website has a new look. Design changes will be unveiled any day now. Stay tuned.  www.samuelasmith2.smugmug.com

Church Window

51 and counting.

No one knows how long they will live. If today was your last day, what would be your best memory?  What would be your worst? Everyday is another day to get it right. Take the time to encourage someone. Be thankful for everything that you have in your life. Friends, family, relationships, health, wealth, etc...  I don't worry about how much time I have left. I just make sure that I take advantage of each day I get.

Dolphins at Sunrise

Happy Father's Day

Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning. ~Lydia M. Child

Foreground, Middleground, Background..

Perspective and Angles

Sometimes a photograph is noticed more just because it shows a different view than the norm.  I know one of the things that sets me apart is that I love to look at things from various angles.

Learn to use what you have.

Learn to use what is available to you at any given moment. In this case, I had a beautiful sunrise that I wanted to use as a background for a silhouette of a new tulip bloom.  At the last minute, I decided I wanted to light the flower without blowing it out with flash. I used my pocket flashlight to illuminate it instead.  I was thrilled with the look. Have a great day.

It was Worth all the Pain

Looking back at all the circumstances over the last few years concerning my eye injury, I have determined for several reasons that it is in the past and worth all the pain. Now that my vision has been restored here are some of the main reasons why I consider this episode a positive one.

1.  God has used me to restore blindness in a completely new way that was quite different than anything that I have heard of before. I call it "The Dream" and may post details later.  I think God for keeping me strong through it all and never allowing me to doubt him.

2.   I find that now I appreciate and notice the subtle details and nuances of light and shadows. I really feel that I am a better person and photographer because of all of this. Even while I was training myself to shoot with the other eye, I remained positive knowing that God was still taking care of things.

3.   Even though the prolong use of cortical steroids have wrecked havoc in my body, I have discovered that as long as you keep yourself focused on God and the positive things, you can overcome anything.

4.  My testimony is now even stronger and can help more people see the positive benefits of believing in God and never giving up. 

Spring is Coming !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm Back .......

After a long hiatus from this blog, I'm back.  Sorry for the long delay. I've been busy creating new blogs and shooting a lot of pictures. I've also been doing a lot of studying in the areas of portraits, composition, and lighting. Look forward to more timely posts.

Manual vs Automatic

This is a prime example of why the manual controls are better than the automatic ones. The autofocus couldn't pick out the two small birds against the bright reflection. The auto exposure controls were trying to compensate for the light as well. Putting it in manual allowed me to get the shot I wanted, not the shot that my Sony wanted.

Starting From Scratch

It's been a long time since I posted on this blog. I had a few issues with missing picture links so I decided to delete all the old posts and start anew.