photography: learning something new

A year ago I got a digital SLR camera for Christmas.  What a great present right?  Totally... except that its required a lot of time, practice and patience to start getting anything resembling great shots.  I have to admit the amount of work its taken was unexpected.  My first pictures were completely blurry...till someone showed me the autofocus button on the lens! I started with a course last winter which gave me a good basis to start and after that its been reading books and practice... practice... practice.  The drawback to the DSLR camera is its size, it is in no way a pocket camera and it does take effort to bring it along.  

If you have ever hit a golf ball really well and felt the sweet spot, thats the only way I can describe the feeling of getting a really great shot.  I hope that the more I do it, the easier it becomes but like I said, its only been a year.  

What brought this on?  Well, like many other moms out there, I wanted the ability to take a great shot of my kid.  Through facebook and other referrals I've found a few photographers to take milestone pictures of my son but how often are they around when your kid is doing the crazy stuff that makes them a kid?  I didn't want to miss those moments or have any more mediocre pictures.  I still use my compact digital camera but I upgraded it to the Canon S90 after doing some research and realizing that I had dropped my old one a few too many times.  Things that set it apart from the others are that it works great in low light, has a wide angle lens and has semi-automatic controls, so I can set it to aperture or shutter speed priority.  Since then Canon has added a similar model that has HD movie mode called the S4000.

So my favourite things today are my tools.  I chose a mid-range DSLR to start off with, the Nikon D90 and got the 18-200 lens as well as a 1.8 50mm.  The latest purchase though was a great bag by Kelly Moore.  I got the B-hobo in muted teal and I love it!  Its great for a casual shooter like me who might want to take my gear around but I don't want the world to know I'm hauling a camera.    

Cameras:  http://www.nikon.ca/en/product.aspx?m=17090 and http://www.canon.ca/inetCA/products?m=gp&pid=681

Lenses: http://www.nikon.ca/en/Product.aspx?m=14318 and http://www.nikon.ca/en/Product.aspx?m=14105


Flash: http://www.nikon.ca/en/Product.aspx?m=14566

The coolest camera bag ever!