I took the leap this past week and finally purchased my first DSLR camera. I had been doing research for quite a while and settled on the Nikon D5200. Holy crap there is a lot to learn, but I am going to have a ton of fun playing around with it.
I had taken a camera lesson a little over a year ago with my homie Tony Granata, so I know enough about aperture and shutter speed to be dangerous, but now I am ready to put that knowledge to use. I have another lesson scheduled with Tony in the near future and I'm banking on him educating me even more on my camera's capabilities. Good friggin times!
I did venture out a bit this weekend with the new camera and I'm happy with the results. I won't lie, I mainly used the "auto" function with a bit of experimentation on the sports and landscape modes but soon enough I'll be utulizing all of the options.
The camera came with an 18-105mm lens which already blows away what I had to work with on the old camera. Of course, I am already yearning for some other lenses so I can zoom in on my birds, but we'll take it slow for now.
On to the pics:
The first chance to break out the new camera was at my daughter's softball game and it couldn't have been a nicer day:
The "sports" mode is fantastic and I didn't have to adjust for lighting at all:
Next stop was my son's baseball game but I ended up being too nervous to even take the camera out. Yes, I'm that annoying parent who takes it all too seriously.
Speaking of taking it seriously, my son was in the backyard after his game practicing his pitching (I swear I didn't push him) so I had some time to take some photos of his form:
Back in the house and I used the "portrait" function on my favorite subject. I like the results a lot as the skin color is way better than what I would get on the old camera:
Later that afternoon it was on to the plants.
First off, Geranium 'Espresso' with some newly formed buds:
A shot of my front bed and I can already appreciate how all of the plants are in focus which was virtually impossible in the past:
A field of dandelions (aka my entire lawn):
Trying to capture the Summer Snowflakes backlit by the sun:
That is all I got for now but you can be assured there will be some serious photography coming your way each and every day now.
I gotz the itch and it ain't stoppin any time soon.
John
