My First Digital SLR Camera & My First Blog

I generally don't like blogs. I've never had much use for one. Now, however, I think I have a reason to use one. You see, a week ago I purchased an entry level Digital SLR Camera from Black's Photography. I intend to use this blog to document my journey from being a simple point and shoot camera user, to mastering my DSLR.

After reading most of the manual and learning all about the various settings, I popped the 18 - 55mm kit lens on the camera body, switched to full manual mode and began shooting random shots in my apartment. Of course, the results were awful, just as I had expected them to be. I flipped through the manual some more and tried again. Better. I've spent a lot of time taking photos from my balcony. There isn't a lot to see, apartment buildings, cars, grass and trees. Though, the grass is great for trying to get the colours of my photographs right, and the trees make great objects to photograph at a distance. The best subject of all on the balcony though, are the Mourning Doves nesting in an open space below the balcony above us. They don't move much, and they aren't afraid of people, so it's easy to get up close and snap pictures for as long as I like until I get the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO values correct. Sometimes, I even get a decent looking picture.

During the past week I've acquired a Canon EF 75-300mm zoom lens, a simple camera bag, and a Black's Photography brand tripod. The combination of these things has led to some decent shots from my balcony, (including one lucky photo of a Dove in the rain), several hundred random shots at the cottage, and a trip through Fredericton's Odell Park.

So, over the past seven days I've photographed birds, grass, trees, clouds, radio towers, buildings, water, dogs, boats, a camp fire, fireworks and many, many moss covered rocks. And you know what? Some of those photos are even clear and lit properly!

The journey has begun...