My favourite 'Selfie' so far...

I thought that I should share this on my blog. I took this in Tuscany at the start of our second week. This is for week 4 of my 52 week project, its called 'Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf'. I hope you like it too, its obviously loosely based on Red Riding Hood....`````````

MASP

This afternoon I have been reading about MASP settings on my new camera. It all seems very complicated at the moment but I'm sure that once I have had a practice with them all it will all start to become clear.

My understanding is that the MASP settings allow for manual adjustment of shutter speed and/or aperture settings to reflect personal preference in photos.
M - Manual setting A- Aperture-priority S - Shutter Priority P - Programmed Auto.

Today I have also learnt about what impact different shutter speeds or aperture sizes would have on a photo. On S mode you can change shutter speed to slow for suggestion of motion by blurring or a high shutter speed to 'freeze' the motion. On A mode small apertures increase depth of field & bring the main subject into focus & a large aperture would soften the background details. Over the next few days I am keen to start trying these modes out to get some idea of what impact it does have. I'm intersted to know how my pictures will turn out!

Today my SD card and camera case arrived (hoorah!) so when P got home from work we put the chap in his pushchair and went out for a walk around the village. I managed to take a few shots whilst out and about but most were on the auto mode as I was too nervous to try whilst walking around!

This is my favourite shot from today:

More Practice

I was reading some 'tips for beginners to digital photography' last night and it suggested that I keep a notebook to make notes and keep track of my progress, thoughts, ideas for photos etc. So today I bought a swanky notebook - it has jelly beans on the front (yum!)- and I have started jotting things down.

I still haven't read the manual (oops) but I have been having a play around and taken some more pictures, cropped a few on the laptop and to be honest, I really pleased with how they've come out! I mean, I'm sure that more experienced photographers would spurn my attempts but I am pretty pleased for some early attempts.

I had a dispatch note from Amazon today to say that my camera case is on its way, so that should mean that by the end of the week I have my case & I can FINALLY take the camera out and about for some more exciting shots!

Anyway, here are another couple of pics I have taken today:

My new Camera!

I have wanted a DSLR camera for ages and have been secretly eyeing them up when P hasn't been looking! So I finally decided that turning 30 would be a great opportunity to treat myself and finally invest in one!

So this week I got one, it's a Nikon D60 and it seems fantastic! Of course I have absolutely no idea how to use it properly yet & I still have to start reading the dreaded instruction manual, but I'll get there. I am just having fun practising at the moment, I have a willing model - The Chap - he is always an interesting subject & I can't stop snapping pics!

I have joined and online Forum called Digital Photography School and it seems like just the place for me, they are a mixture of beginners & more experienced photographers who are more than willing to share hints and tips with rank amateurs like me!

Its so exciting, I can't wait to get cracking. Here's one of my first pictures: