Monday, August 18, 2008

Right Place, Right Time

I've been trying to for a while now to improve my photography skills by reading books, tutorials on the internet, and going out to shoot as many photos as possible. Biggest improvement has come from purchasing a DSLR, the Canon EOS 450D, or Digital Rebel XSi. Buying it I knew I'd have a huge learning curve to overcome, but never expected it to be as difficult as it was to learn how to use the camera. I don't like shooting in full automatic mode, and most often shoot in full manual mode to take the most advantage of the camera's abilities. Learning full manual on the DSLR can be a difficult process, but I'm getting better. All that to say, you can have the best equipment, read all the books you want, take all the classes you want, but sometimes it just comes down to being in the right place at the right time. This weekend we drove home on a less busy road and were rewarded with the right conditions to take some great pictures.

4 comments:

lyrl said...

Those are awesome pictures. Thanks, Kirstin, for pointing me to them from ABC.

Kirstin said...

Thanks Lyrl...they're actually Brent's pictures, I was just the driver. :) I'm very very proud of his abilities.

Jesse and Carolyn said...

Hey, Carolyn from ABC. Those are so beautiful! Did you or Brent photoshop them at all? Are you happy with your camera? We are looking into getting a digital SLR...

Brent said...

Hi Carolyn,

I did a minimal amount of photoshoping on these pictures, due to the quality of lighting that evening. Just some sharpening and contrast boost.

As far as our DSLR, I'm somewhat happy with our purchase. One major problem seems to be the autofocus. It will get the focus wrong more than I'd like it to. This is a common problem with this particular body, so until some new firmware comes out I'll learn to deal with it :)

The kit lense is not great, but will have to use it till we can afford a better. If you can at all, buy a camera body and a higher quality lense (not kit lense) when you purchase your setup.