Last Thursday, after months of contemplation, research and thought (actually years if you go back to the beginning), I received my new camera in the mail.  A Nikon D5000 DSLR with an 18-55mm VR lens and a 70-200mm VR lens.  This weekend I got to play with it a bit, and am starting to learn how to use some of the settings.

Here’s a couple shots that speak to me.

My mom’s living room.  A new floor my brother built and the woodstove that kept me warm for the first 18 years of my life.

This shot was taken on manual playing with the exposure time and F# and keeping the white balance on auto and the focus on auto.

The bells that hang from my mom’s front door, I can still remember exactly the sound they make when our old dog nuzzles them with her nose to go out.

This shot was taken with focus on manual so I could get my favorite bell in focus while slightly blurring the foreground, the glass doornob in the back, and letting the natural woodgrain come out.

A well placed and well labeled rock next to the sink in my mom’s kitchen.

Again, focus was on manual as well as exposure time and F#. 

My brother, his girlfriend Jodie, and my mom sitting watching the fire at dusk.

This photo was mostly on auto with no flash.  ISO was at 1600, exposure 1 second, and the camera itself was set on time release so it had time to stabalize. 

Tonight I played around a little with HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography.  It’s intrugued me for years, and the Nikon D5000 has a “bracketing” setting that is perfect for this kind of thing.

Here are the photos I took and an “interesting” combination of the 3.  I like it, but it definitely is not what I hope to achieve with more experience.

Zero Exposure Value compensation.

Negative two exposure value compensation.

Positive two exposure value compensation.

Here’s the HDR creation.  Odd isn’t it?

HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to Jen Yu who sent me so much info about Nikon cameras and cameras in general, she was so helpful with my research.

And Rana for handing me her camera at Arches a month ago and finalizing the decision that a DSLR is the way to go.

My journey to learn how to make the camera before me vanish and skillfully show the world how I see it is just beginning!