and then she snapped: show {off} your shot

We had a lot of people linking up this week and a lot of AWESOME shots, it was tough to choose my favorite, but I kept coming back to this one:

It's from Sarah at naptime momtog and it is nothing less than fabulous, don't you agree?

Sarah, here's your winner button!

This week's tip:
So I had a little revelation this week when I realized that my thinking had been all wrong regarding sunset shots. I previously thought that when shooting sunsets, it's kinda dark out, so I'm going to need to increase my exposure (add more light). WRONG! If you try and take a photograph of a sunset in auto mode (or even aperture priority or shutter priority) it's not going to work, because your camera is going to try and achieve "proper" exposure, which means it's going to achieve a balance of black and white which equals gray which is going to be a pretty boring sunset.

I took the following shots all at ISO 800. The first one is probably close to what auto would have done, but I really wanted the sky colors to pop, and the stuff in the foreground to be black, so I kept decreasing the exposure. First, I closed the shutter a bit (from f/5 to f/8) then I messed with leaving the shutter open less (first 1/80, then 1/400, then 1/640). The meter showed these shots as underexposed, but in this case, I don't think that means it's wrong. KWIM? I definitely like the darker shots better, they are more dramatic. Which is your favorite? I'm kinda hooked now and want to experiment with some more sunsets! (Oh, but I think we have to have SUN for that to happen).

I want to clarify that you can link up any photo you want each week. I don't choose themes, and you DO NOT HAVE TO FOLLOW MY TIP. I would LOVE if you could share a tip of your own each week, but if you don't have one, please feel free to show {off} your shot anyway!

Now it's your turn! Link up!

~~Rules~~ Guidelines:

~One photo per person, and the photo must be taken by you.

~Blog about your photo and share something about how you took the photo, or how you edited it. (because it is so fun to be able to learn from one another).

~Add my button (below) to your blog post...(text links are ok too, but please do link back to me ~~or I might cry~~)

~Link up to your blog or Flickr page, (but please link up to your specific post and not just your blog homepage...if I can't tell what post you are linking up I will have to delete the entry).

If you have ANY questions, feel free to email me.

I can't wait to see what you come up with this week!