The Oregon District

Its been a month since my first post and that’s mainly because I haven’t actually used my camera until this weekend (oops). BUT I am very excited to say that I shot in manual mode and I think it went pretty well! This February, Ohio has graced us with a wide variety of weather. One week its 30 degrees and snowing and the next its 50 degrees and sunny. Luckily, this past weekend it was perfect weather to go and explore downtown Dayton. My friends and I decided to go to Dayton’s Oregon District to have a mini photo shoot. This weekend the Oregon District quickly became my new favorite place, mainly because it is full of funky brick walls, bright colored doors and artsy murals.

If you’re from Dayton or know anyone who goes to UD you’re probably familiar with the “Dayton Inspires” sign. Since my friends and I are your typical UD students this sign was obviously the first place we stopped at.

I have to be honest, as soon as I started taking pictures I had the realization that I have absolutely no idea how to use my camera. I mean why would my f-stop in aperture mode matter, what’s ISO…how do you even change the ISO?? In the matter of 20 minutes I began to wonder why I decided to drag my friends downtown if I don’t even know how to take a picture?! My solution was the Internet, namely Pinterest. If anyone else is in my position (a beginner photographer with no photography classes in her future) I would suggest looking on Pinterest for beginners tips. There are so many blogs and easy to read/understand charts available. It’s basically a one stop shop for everything you need to know about photography.

After my little realization we decided to take a break and find a coffee shop to regroup in. We came across this cute little place called PRESS.

The inside of PRESS. The whole space was so quaint and modern- I loved it!

Their menu was pretty interesting, and based off of what we saw other costumers getting we realized this was not your typical Starbucks haha. Since we weren’t in the mood to try anything new we stuck with our usual’s. Aside from the adorable cups and the décor, the main reason why I will always love this place is because it was here that I had a photography epiphany. I finally figured out how to use the different modes on my camera! After searching “aperture for beginners” on Pinterest I found this awesome chart that explained everything I didn’t understand on my camera- aperture, ISO , shutter speed, etc. it was all there 🙂 Its funny how quickly your mood can change when something finally clicks. Below are my first attempts at utilizing aperture:

I think this is one of my favorite pictures of the day.

After some successful aperture pictures I couldn’t wait to go back out and take more photos:

 

***10 points to the first person who spots the Bud Light box in this picture***

My attempt at an artsy aperture photo

Eileen had double pink eye this weekend so she wasn’t very ecstatic about getting her picture taken. Therefore she was granted the role of “coffee bitch”…obviously she took her role to heart lol 😉

After roaming around for a bit I realized that the Oregon District kind of reminds me of the Flats in Cleveland. The streets are paved with cobblestone and there is so much exposed brick…I was in heaven.

Another thing I’ve come to love/seek out are colored doors/walls. I love the color contrast.

Here are some random pictures I took that I really like:

I really don’t understand why, but for some reason this picture made me think that Eileen looked like Alan from the Hangover

Seriously, I don’t know why I thought that she looked like him, but I laughed so hard when I realized this haha!

 

This sign was posted on one of the store windows, I wish we could have gone in but the store was closed for the day.

This kid was selling chocolate and after we graciously declined he asked if we were taking pictures…so obviously I asked if he would like to be in one 🙂

The Oregon District is so fun and I highly recommend taking a day to just go an explore the area. I would love to go again in the spring when everything is blooming, I bet it would be gorgeous 🙂

What I want to work on: I really want to work on more outdoor photography. Now that I understand how to change the ISO settings and use aperture correctly I’m really excited to play around with it 🙂