Just messin around...

[miller821]

So I ordered a new Nikon D60 after my little niece broke my point-and-shoot digital camera... I gotta say the transition is simply amazing, and between the two lenses that came with the camera I have already taken over 1,000 photos... I figured i'd share some finally though, and hopefully get some input from some of you guys.

These aren't nothing spectacular, and most are at a stand still... Hopefully i'll get to try it out on something other than the animals soon.

Playing around



She sure is beautiful... But a handful.


This is my buddy... He actually kinda liked them for a little while.


Just a few of the quad...

[miller821]

I feel bad for this little guy, he's had more picture taken then a celebrity.


Its kinda hard for me to get many good action photos that aren't blurred... Any tips for this?


Our mountain lion...


Shined up nice, so I figured it'd take some pictures...


He won't leave the bed unless you take him for a ride...



Sorry for the randomness, just thought i'd throw some up to show.

[kawabunga]

To freeze action better you're going to have to use a faster shutter speed. In order to be able to use a faster shutter speed and not end up with dark pictures, you either have to raise your ISO or open up your aperture to a lower f/stop. Or in that pic that you posted of the dog running with a ball in its mouth, that looks like a focus issue. The dog is probably moving too fast towards you, thus going out of focus. (Just behind the dog, the grass is in focus) Things moving towards or away from you are going to be tough, it takes practice.

Nice pictures and cool animals! That lab is pretty cool for keeping the sun glasses on long enough for a pic. My dog won't wear glasses for half a second.

Keep practicing and keep posting!

[Pappy]

1/500th is plenty fast for the dog

Read the manual and learn which focus points work best for you. Bump the ISO to 400 for general stuff, use Continuos Focus for moving things. Leave it in Shutter Priority to start things off. If you try and handle issues with Aperature settings (F-stops) you will screw yourself up. Opening up (lower F #) will decrease your Depth of Field (Dogs nose be in focus and nothing else) You were at 5.6, more then enough DOF to catch the entire dog with the lens your using.

You also have the camera set to focus on teh closest subject, thats why the brick wall is in focus and the cat isnt.

And use jpeg fine...you have alot more quality left in that camera that your holding back!

Best advice, read read read the manual and there are tons of beginner photography sites on the web that can speed you along, most even have videos that help walk you through things. Once you get the hang of it, youll be shooting as good as most on here in no time

[Pappy]

Did you get any editing software with the camera? Download Nikons CaptureNX2 (30 day free trial) Works excellent, user friendly and if you do end up buying it, its alot less then PS with as much image editing software as anyone needs!

[miller821]

Thanks for the tips guys... All of these were taken with the auto-settings, which is what I would like to ween myself off of... I went ahead and changed the settings that you guys recommended, and For now i'll try playing with the ISO and shutter-speed...

As for the reading... I picked up Digital SLR Cameras and Photography for Dummies and have been reading that frequently, but a lot in there is still confusing... I didn't really think about reading into the manual, but I just glanced through it and it should be able to help me with understanding ISO and Aperture more.

And the only software that came with it was Picture Project, so i'll try downloading CaptureNX2 until I can get more experienced with photoshop.

Give me a few days and i'll be posting another set of pictures that you guys can critique and give advice too.

Thanks again!

[meankfx]

A good book to read is understanding exposure by bryan peterson. This book tells u all kinds of stuff in a easy to read language. Also try using adobe lightroom 2 that program is real easy to use and does a crap load of stuff it helped me out a ton.

[miller821]

Originally posted by meankfx
A good book to read is understanding exposure by bryan peterson. This book tells u all kinds of stuff in a easy to read language. Also try using adobe lightroom 2 that program is real easy to use and does a crap load of stuff it helped me out a ton.

Thanks, I've been reading a lot about exposure, aperture, etc. in online databases; but next time i'm out at barnes and noble i'll look for a copy of it.

I didn't get much chance to do any shooting today, but I did however see this tree in our yard that must have just bloomed recently... I tried messing with the shutter speed since the light outside was starting to fade, and this was the best picture I could come out with. Let me know what you think.... And for reference, does anyone know what type of tree this looks like?

[miller821]

Now that I look at it in a smaller frame i'm rather disappointed... Came out a lot darker than I wanted, but hopefully tomorrow I can try and capture a better photo of it...

Here's one that I took of my girlfriend that I really liked... I know it's darker than should be, but I still like it for some reason.

[meankfx]

Not bad just a little under exposed keep practicing. And dont be afraid to ask questions if u have any? Im new to photography also.