My Blog Will Never Be the Same

For awhile now I have been lusting after a DSLR-camera (not that I am camera savy or anything, I even just now had to look up DSLR to make sure I was using the right term).  But I love the quality of pictures that come from them and I had a desire to learn. 

With my birthday being last month I was able to receive some generous donations from my in-laws and my parents and I was able to apply that money towards a camera... though I have to admit I almost chickened out several times when I thought of the expense, but my dear husband researched the cameras for me, found the one that he thought I would want, and ordered it for me, or I would have probably never gone through with it!  Love you Zac :)

And oh boy do I love it!  It is so much fun and I am learning so much.  We live in such a fun day and age when so much can be learned at home off the Internet.  There is so much to learn and so much more to buy that I have a new skill  to keep me busy for life.

Here is some of what I have learned so far.

Aperture:  A term that scared the crap out of me and almost convinced me that I wasn't smart enough to learn something new.  Turns out it means keeping an item in sharp focus while blurring the background...

Shutter Speed:  Oh I am having much fun with this one.  I get to control how long my shutter stays open, either pausing my object in mid-motion...

Or giving him that bionic man blur... 

Fast Shutter: 

Slooooowwww Shutter: 

ISO:  Okay, so don't know really how to explain ISO other than I need to change it around when I am in manual mode when I go inside and outside and the lighting changes.  I am sure I have some more to learn here, but here are some pictures I took of Ashlyn with different ISO's.

See the difference here? 

Love this girl! 

And learning about flash and natural lighting/ shooting at different times of the day... Here are some of the beautiful sunsets we get at our new home: 

Natural light: 

Zoom: 

Motion and Shutter Speed: 

Lighting up Eyes: 

Sorry, more aperture, this one escaped from the aperture section... 

I have learned so much just by reading my manual from cover to cover and watching online tutorials.  I look forward to taking a class in the next month or so and reading and practicing until I have so many pictures I could wallpaper my house with them.

In fact, I already had to go through 700 photos on my SD card and weeded them down to 200 and it is almost impossible to just pick a few to stick on the blog because I love them all.

Thank you Martineau Parents, Powell Parents, and Zac.  What a great birthday present!