We were asked to put up two or three photos of our choosing, and talk about things/people we photograph. We were also asked to describe our camera. I generally take pictures of the outdoors, concentrating on trees, plants, flowers, skies, and things of that nature. I also take photos of my dog, a small toy poodle. I don't take many pictures of people, because I don't have any relatives close by, and never learned how to ask people to pose that I don't know.
I recently bought a Canon EOS 40D digital SLR camera, and invested in a high optical quality, but limited zoom capability lens. The lens is a Canon EF 24-105 mm L IS USM, and that is the only lens I currently own. Right now I am learning how to use the camera.
The first photo shown here was taken of a grapefruit on my grapefruit tree. Click on the photo image to select a larger view. The photo was shot in the Normal Program mode which took the photo with the lens at f/8, 1/125 sec. I changed the zoom lens to a focal length of 58 mm to frame the shot. The ISO was 400, and no flash. I was satisfied with this picture.
The second photo was taken of some groundcover and an urn that lays beside the waterfall in my back yard. The picture data was f/9, 1/400 sec, 95 mm focal length, ISO 400, no flash, on Normal Program mode.
This looks good initially, but I don't like it because a closer look shows that the camera focused on the green plant in the foreground putting the urn slightly out of focus. I would rather have the urn in focus, and the green a little out. Here is a close up of the urn and plant to show what I mean. The next time, I will use the ability of the lens to do a manual focus after I get the initial auto focus. That way I can control the shot.
My final shot was taken of my dog, Peanut. The shot was taken indoors using available light with everything on automatic: program mode, auto focus lens, and auto ISO. I did the zoom on the lens for the cropping. The picture was shot at f/4, 1/60 sec, 105 mm focal length, ISO 800 without the flash. The lens has an auto stabilizer which was on for all my shots shown on this page. I am sure it helped here at 1/60 sec.
Those were some of the first shots I took with my camera. I won't show you any of the photos that looked like ordinary snapshots. But I had a lot of those.... lol.
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