Getting Started

My first test for my new DSLR was at the Zoo. I figured out if I need to get some good pictures, I should start by going somewhere with variety. In retrospect, that might not have been the best idea. when everything is fenced, chances of getting good shots dramatically decreases.

As expected, most of my shots where blurry, out of focus, or just plain bad. However, a few were OK. And by OK I mean dramatically better than what I would typically capture with my point and shoot camera.

Slow moving animals and birds where probably the easiest to shoot. I tried using manual focus for most of my photos, to get a better feel of how focusing works and what to aim at. Needless to say this involved more effort and ruined shots but that's the advantage of digital SLRs. Flim is free!

I took all of the shots using the 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 IS II kit lens that I got with my camera. This was OK for regular shots, but was severely lacking in both closeups and far shots.

Closeups were not very sharp

Far shots were, well, far

The image stabilization feature of the lens seemed to come in handy when I took shots for fast moving birds. These came out in relatively good focus, taking my skill level into account. This does not imply that they were as colorful as I would have wanted them to be.

I cropped and did minor editing to the photos later, but this test revealed three important things:

1. DSLRs are heavy and bulky!
2. Photography is not my thing... well not yet at least.
3. Although it is pretty early, I need to invest at least a little bit into better gear.

I believe I have made progress on all three points and will describe what I did in future posts trying as much as possible to stick with the chronological order of what I'm doing so we can see when/if progress is being made.