Friday, February 18, 2011

Blink

This being the first post I guess I should explain myself.  I enjoy looking at the world and wondering what what would take a nice picture.  Notice I said "nice" not good or great.  Since I'm considering what photos, I might take I know they will not likely  be good or great. At least not yet, perhaps not for a long, if ever time.
This blog is produced purely for me to keep track of my experience.

Today I tried out my brand new DSLR for the first time, a Canon 550D.  So I'm playing.  At the moment on auto. Once I've grasped the idea then I'll take the camera off auto.
It's been a long time since I used anything but a "point and shoot" camera.   In my 20's I bought an SLR film camera. I did learn how to use it, a little. I even used to develop my own film and print my own photo's. Yes, I've still got it but it hasn't been used for more than 20 years.
Going digital means I can afford to take lots of shots, play, take risks and learn without wasting film.
The biggest difference other than the obvious is getting used to taking photo's now I wear glasses for reading. which in this case also means viewing. I used to love the feeling of my eye against the viewfinder. Viewing within the frame. I feel slightly removed if I wear my glasses. It's not as pleasurable. I guess I will get used to it.

My first two shots were of my husband as he watched me finish unpacking the camera after it arrived. One of the 2 looks pretty reasonable. The other, the first, was blurred because I rushed it( a bad habit of mine). I won't share them as I know he wouldn't like his photo on here.

I took a couple of pictures on landscape mode in the very early morning light.  Very ordinary subject and nothing special about them.  The sky and clouds looked pretty but on auto landscape mode they looked washed out. I'll have to do some reading and figure out the best way to take these kinds of shots which I really want to take.
You can see what I mean below.



Then I decide to have a play with the closeup mode. I had about a 70% success rate with these.  A few blurred as I was a little too close or as the breeze caught the plant as I was taking the shot. And a couple of my bee subjects flew away as I took the shots so I was left without them in view.

Anyway results below.  The best of the bunch.

This white rose didn't photograph  well. I'm guessing the white threw off the balance and made it difficult for the auto focus to work.











2 comments:

  1. I love taking photos..some are really good and others, well..you know,I wouldn't win any awards for them. But I enjoy it and that's what is important. The quality of the shot for me is secondary to the pleasure I get exploring and documenting my finds.

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  2. Hi! I linked through from the comment you left at my blog. Thanks for visiting. I love taking photos too, if you scrolled through my posts even a bit you've seen some of them. I see you managed to capture a bee in the jasmine! They're tricky little devils; as soon as I get one in focus, off he buzzes.

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