My recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg ¹ was a momentous one for me.

This was the first time I captured my photos using manual settings ². ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed were all handled by me rather than the camera. I find this to be liberating, for some reason. I’ve had the Nikon for two years, so I’ve become familiar enough with the camera to change settings on the fly ³.

For this trip I opted follow the old adage “ƒ8 and be there.” That is, I set my aperture to 8 and went nuts manipulating my shutter speed. My only exception to this rule was when I entered in buildings, at which point I set my aperture to the widest available setting. I’m still processing my images from the just over eight-hundred I ended up keeping, but thus far I’m pleased with the results.

I’ll be uploading my favorites to SmugMug as soon as we finish getting settled back into home, and over the next few days I’ll share some of the stories I learned during my travels. For now, I’ll share an image from the weaver’s shop below. We’ve been traveling to Williamsburg for so long I find myself looking at more intricate details, rather than entire objects or scenes, and the threads on the loom caught my interest.

Nikon d7000 with 40mm lens
ISO 1250
ƒ3.0
40 mm
1/100 sec