Old and Tattered

I love old things, whether they are in nature or in man-made objects. The changes that happen over time are interesting to me. It is the same as I watch myself age. I have never really wished to be in my 20's again. Rather I enjoy each decade as it comes. Of course, at some point I may change my mind on this!!

Beach Shots

I love going to beaches and seeing what treasures there are. I also take my dogs who love the freedom. Once summer comes it will be harder to take them and have them run free as there will be too many people around. So we will enjoy it while we can. The first picture is almost perfect. It just needs a bit more space in front of Belle. However, with high energy dogs you take what you can get.

Shots of Halifax

Playing with Light

The First Storm of 2010!

and it was a beauty!

My new dSLR

Don't get me wrong, I loved my sony. It was a great camera to learn on. But I began to be frustrated with not having control over settings. I started by setting my budget. I then solicited advice from everyone. And even more important, I listened to it! I read reviews. I looked at specs and then had help interpreting them.

I then narrowed it down to two contenders: the Nikon d5000 and the Canon T1i. Both are excellent cameras and I couldn't decide. As my last step I went to the store and played with both. In the end I decided on the Nikon. It felt better in my hand and I loved the movable lcd screen.

I've had it for less then a week and have taken over 300 pictures. I am on a steep learning curve and there's so much I don't know. And then there's the stuff I don't know I don't know. but I'm having fun!

Rule #3: What goes in and what doesn't

I am guilty of only focussing on what I want. I will see a picture and take it. Only when I look at it, I realize that there's something completely distracting in the photo. ARGH! Now I have learned to look at what I want in, and then scan for what I don't want. Sometimes this means moving around. Other times it may mean removing items. Sometimes you have no choice and just hope that you can remove them later in processing.
In this shot I was trying to get the leaves and the dang dog just would not get out of the way. I love his expression which is clearly saying "whaddya mean I'm in the way? I add visual interest". I kept it for it's humour :)

Here are some shots where I managed to keep the correct focus (or sort it out with post processing):