Too Hot for Man or Beast

I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. The weather alert I got said that the heat index could go as high as 112 degrees during the daylight hours through tomorrow. And when I got up at 6am this morning, the windows were all fogged up. Not a good sign. Folklore goes that during the Civil War, the Union thought that it would be a piece of cake to come down here and make quick work of defeating the Confederacy because they’d be doing the fighting in warm weather. What they didn’t realize is that the unbelievable humidity we get causes the heat to feel much hotter and the cold to feel much colder. About the only thing I can say is that we don’t suffer from dry skin and chapped lips as much as folks in the northern climates. But wow - I could go for some cooler, drier weather today!
As you all know, I get out and experiment with my camera nearly every day. This photo I took of a daylily in the late afternoon sun a couple of weeks ago was an attempt at an art shot, and I guess the closest I got was getting all the bokeh. But it did make me think of today’s heat. Looks like its in an oven, doesn’t it! Now I’m trying to learn how to shoot in manual mode. I wish I could remember which book I read this in, but the general tip is this..... Set the camera on auto and look in the viewfinder to see what aperture and shutter speed the auto mode registers. Then move the settings from there. I love Bryan Peterson’s photography books and he says that there are at least 6 correct exposures for every shot, but there is 1 best creative exposure. I went through those steps and found what I was looking for yesterday when I took this photo of my father’s old smokehouse. I looked out the window and saw how the late afternoon sun was playing on the side of the smokehouse and I wanted to capture it. This is the smokehouse and these are the settings.
Manual mode
Shutter 1/1000
Aperture f/3.2
ISO 1600 - had to go this high as it was getting pretty late and the lower ISO’s failed to show the shadow of the fence on the smokehouse.
Focal length 50mm (used the prime lens - my favorite)
Flash - off (I rarely use flash)
Spot Metering - I focused on the smokehouse and then recomposed the shot

For learning photography, I recommend anything Bryan Peterson writes.

Hope you have a cool and peaceful day!