What a beginner...

Santa was kind to me this year and spoiled me with a real camera.
That was very daring on Santa’s part,
considering how my previous camera drowned in an unfortunate event.
And it’s predecessor was killed while falling a few stories to the ground.

That Santa, what a giving creature he is.

I hadn’t had much luck with point and click cameras
And I was petrified of this fancy new DSLR.

I tried to read the manual…
All 472 pages of it
ISO sensitivity control
Active D Lighting
FX and DX
Aperture

Huh?

Let’s try the DVD…snore

Oh geez!

I decide to sign up for the local photography class given by the city.
That in itself is a whole other story,
2 hours of an instructor tooting his own horn constantly
and not allowing anyone to get a word in edgewise…

However, we did take a day trip to the Fullerton Arboretum
(no I will not pronounce that word…I simply cannot)

With my little knowledge and my new toy
We took our cameras off of auto, played around with some setting

and I was able to snap a few cool shots...

Here I was actually trying to get a shot of a bug on the leaf,

didn't get the bug, but thought it was a good one anway

A neat trick is to hold a piece of colored paper to reflect it’s color onto your subject.
You can see the orange paper in the corner below,
Teen 2 was actually my helper this day,
but refused to be the subject in any of my photos. This picture doesn't even begin to do this area any justice

My favorite pic of the day.
Good example of Depth of Field.The Arboretum is full of cactus and desert plants.
This bench is by their lake and running streams.

This truly is a beautiful haven in the middle of the city.
There are so many things to see and enjoy there.
http://www.fullertonarboretum.org/home.php

Whoops, almost forgot this one...
Afterward we got this one in Dana Point.

Yes, my boy is freezing, and we did wake him up from his nap, but it is another cool cool pic.
ps- Thanks Santa Baby.

http://www.daysoffivelives.blogspot.com/