I’ve been wanting to sharpen my photo skills. I was fortunate enough to have Suzan and Sal to school me in the finer points of controlling shutter speed, ISO and aperture together to get properly exposed phots while on a nice hike this Christmas Eve. I set myself up with a challenge in the shot below. It was hard to capture a balance between the shadows beneath and the sunny bright rock while keeping the figures in focus. I used a shallow depth of field blurring the closest part of the rock and focusing on the figures.  A polarizing filter gives the sky its rich color, deepens the shadow under the rock, and along with shutter speed, subdues the brightness of the sun reflecting off of the rock, allowing me to keep an low open aperture to get the shallower depth of field.