Amy Tried It: A New Camera: A New Perspective

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The hubs is awesome! The year I had Presley, I got a new MacBook. This year, the year I'll have our second daughter, he gave me my first digital SLR camera! It's my Valentine's, push, birthday, & Mother's Day gift combined. I almost don't want to be done having kids because his "good job" gifts are amazing! I'm thinking an iPad with #3 and a Silhouette machine after #4... (Just kidding for all who took offense to that.)

Anyway, I have NO experience other than simply being an intimidated admirer of those nice, bright, beautiful photos. I had one Olympus digital point and shoot in college and got a Canon Elph after graduating in 2004. And that's what I've been using until now.

Why do I want to upgrade to an SLR now? Here's my first reason:

The top left and bottom right were taken with my new camera; the top right and bottom left were taken with my old point-and-shoot.

My second reason is due next month. And my third reason is because of blogging. I've done the best I can with my 8 year old digital point and shoot playing with macro and white balance. But photos can be so much more! So clean and crisp and bright and accurate. I'm tired of shadows, low light making grainy photos, and a slow shutter that goes off several seconds after my daughter did her "cute-gotta-get-that-on-camera" thing. I knew there was a better way.

So, about my new toy....
I chose the Canon EOS Rebel T3i after reading lots of reviews, blogs, and getting advice from a photographer whose work I have always admired.

My Camera

Being super brand new to SLR - as in I've only even held one once - I wanted an easy to learn on intro camera. The Nikon D5100 was the other camera I considered but was convinced to go Canon because of their lens selection: It would allow me to grow in the hobby if I wanted (according my my friend and blogs). Other than that, reviews of the two cameras put them in the same league.

FIRST THING I LEARNED
Speaking of lenses, within a month I've already realized I purchased the "wrong" first lens. The one that I bought with my camera package - the Canon 18-55 mm, f/3.5-5.6 - is fine, but when I began looking at online tutorials on how to actually use this camera, the 50 mm, f/1.8, or the "nifty fifty," is the best lens for to learn on and travel with.

The Nifty Fifty Lens

Oh well. Beginner's mistake. My lens is still good, but I'd go a different route for a first lens if I could do it again, and I'm really pining away for this one.

HOW I'M LEARNING
I find myself paying more attention to and pinning photos I like. Eventually I'll start trying to mimic those. I also found a great super beginner's resource at It's Overflowing. Some other "beginner" tutorials were still above my empty head: This one is very, very basic and thorough. One step at a time.

The very first photo I took with my camera. Makes even a pen look pretty.

So I'm going through that "workshop" and taking the everyday photos of family and for my blog. I also intend on participating in two photo scavenger hunts that begin today: one from Paper Coterie and the other from Fat Mum Slim.

Between this and the new garden (oh...and school and a new baby and the 3 year old), other crafts and sewing are probably going to take a back seat for a while...at least until summer.

In the meantime, I've given Presley, whose always been interested in using my camera, free reign to use my point and shoot. She's learned to aim and is beginning to wait for her subject to be ready before taking the pic. Here are some pics from her point of view.