Well, here goes. My first outing with the Canon EOS 30D. A "proper" camera borrowed from my folks whom I believe bought it from my brother during a brief flirtation with photography. But, I am getting ahead of myself. Maybe I should explain the hows and whys I needed to borrow a camera, where I think this may lead and to prove to myself this is not just another fad (such as my brother seems to have had) but then again, that is probably best for another time.
Let's get on with the show.
In mind - the sun was shining, it was a lovely Sunday morning and Paul had gone back to sleep after having to get up early to collect his parents from the airport. It was a perfect excuse to get out on my own and give the camera a spin. There were a few shots round my home area that I had in mind and so started there and then continued to St Anne's Well Park as I thought there might be some lovely photo opportunites there with it's beautiful trees. The sun was coming through the trees and not too bright so I took a few tree shots and was just packing my camera into my bag when I saw a couple of squirrels not too far from me. Walking slowly, I eased the camera from my bag, checked the settings and crept close. The first squirrel was gone before I even got close, and the second ran up a tree, shooting wildly, I managed to capture the creature's tail on my exposure. Telling myself, I needed to be patient, I waited a while and soon enough, the squirrel moved to a fairly low branch to sit and eat a nut. I positioned myself directly below him and zoomed in. He seemed aware of my presence but safe in the knowledge I was no tree-climber, he obliged me a few shots before moving higher up the tree.
My next choice of location was Hove beach. It was fairly windy on the coast and the sea was making pretty wild waves against the shore. I wondered how to capture this best. I considerd a wave breaker would be ideal and positioned myself close to the shore line but making certain I was not standing on wet pebbles. I took a number of shots of different levels of waves, uncertain how any of them had come out since it was so directly sunny that I was unable to see my digital screen and had to trust my instincts and what I could see through my viewfinder.
Satisfied, I was just packing up to leave when I noticed a surfer with a kite all ready to head into the water. I could not resist. I tracked his progress with my camera, from entry into the waves until he was much further out, all the while shielding my viewfinder from the sun with my hand. A trick I had read about and was now putting to the test! Happy with my shots and hungry for lunch, I headed home. A successful outing.
In camera - not too worried about the technical features of the camera at the moment. Just wanting to get into composition, framing, colour and creative arrangement. Finding the technical bits tough at the moment, so just went for the specifed camera settings, for landscape, close up and no flash settings.
