glissando: a continuous sliding from one pitch to another (a true glissando),
or an incidental scale executed while moving from one melodic note to another (an effective glissando).

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with Thanksgiving tucked away for another year

I had a yearning for some quiet.. to slide things down a “pitch”.. only visually,

with a few simple dried red roses caught in a white bowl.

I’m content { for now } to let the fall splendor peak in through my windows.

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Pumpkins and pinecones were gathered
and moved outside to welcome Trick-or-Treaters in a few weeks,

leaving tranquility in their wake.

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The counters were swept clean and the wee flowers from my daughter’s birthday were set down on white linen.

{ Bet you thought these were massive from the first photo! }

It’s so hard to believe 22 years with my daughter have slipped by too.. ( a “true” glissando)..

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Now glossy jars of flour and sugar with vintage metal scoops are on stand-by for the next birthday and

{ apart from the tiny flowers }

a muted color palette

blankets all within.

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After rearranging things, I enjoyed a few hours becoming reacquainted with my camera.

I’ve been a bit disappointed with my photos lately..
..it may have something to do with the light dusting of flour over the lens;)

I stayed with AP (Aperture Priority) Mode for the most part. When your camera is in AP, the only decision you have to make is the aperture size. Then the camera does the rest of the “thinking” for you.

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It is amazing to see the difference an f-stop can make.. of the dozens I took, I loved this photo best.
The aperture was set to f-stop of 4 or f/4, and the photo was taken from above.. 45 degree angles are often very pleasing to the eye.

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A low f-stop means the aperture or “opening” in the lens is wider..a higher number and the aperture is smaller in size and this also allows less light in.
It does seem counter-intuitive, but the lower the f-stop number, the wider open your aperture is.

I’ve also discovered that “zooming in” on a subject can get you a much lower f-stop and more background blur.. it changes your depth of field or distance of focus behind your subject.

{ If you use a low f-stop number, the background is soft-focused immediately behind the nearest point in your photo. }

Here is a similar photo to the one above with a higher f-stop of f/22. See.. now everything is in focus and the mood of the photo is quite different, busier.. less gentle and subdued.

You can see in this series of photos how the aperture changes the depth of field.
Take note of the white flower (closest) in the bottom left-hand corner.

The first photo has an aperture of f/22 then f/14, f/10 and finally f/5.

You can see that f-stop of 5 or f/5 photos have all of the flowers behind the white one out of focus, not something you would typically choose.

But as you saw in my favorite photo above, sometimes it works out for the best!

The smaller your f-stop, the wider your aperture.. but I’ve read that there is less sharpness overall in your photo if you have too low of an f-stop.
They say that for most cameras, an f/8 is ideal for maintaining the sharp details in your photo.

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If you’ve got more expertise than I.. please “chime in” with your comments.. there’s so much to learn with photography!
I found this WikiHow page quite informative!