Well, if I'd ever told myself I'd read an instruction manual cover to cover, I wouldn't have believed myself! My method of learning has usually been either (A) ask an expert to show me, or (B) just keep pressing buttons until something works.
So here it is past my bedtime and I'm engrossed in the Dummies book for my new camera--in preparation for photo shoots I agreed to do for a book before I realized what a steep learning curve I was embarking upon.
The iPhone camera is quite good, but since I want to do things beyond the smart phone range for this project and future snapshots of people, I decided to purchase this Nikon. And since I've been too busy until now to really study it, it's still a virgin camera--except for the pictures of my feet and bed I've taken while doing what the book tells me to do.
What the Apple people tell you is true: the best camera is the one you have with you. And we all have our smart phone cameras with us at every moment of the day.
But when I see what this camera can do, I'm inspired to try everything--from outside bulb shots at night to switching the focus and aperture for different effects and lighting situations. I still have 90% of the book to go, but I'll be keeping Elena on Thursday night and she loves to be my subject. What a ham she is!
This morning at Twin Sisters breakfast we were all trying to put a positive spin on tomorrow, her first day of school. Later, her mom said, "I'm sure you won't cry tomorrow because it's going to be so much fun"--an opinion Elena quickly put to rest: "I am going to cry, Mommy!"
At times, reading this book, I feel a little bit like crying--because it's rather daunting to hold so many different options in my mind at once: touch screens and menus, lens settings and editing controls. But each step gets a tiny bit less scary as I go. As the video tutorial guy said, "If you stay in automatic mode, what you have is a very expensive point and shoot camera."
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