6/365

Day 6, as presented on flickr:

Have a friend over today to play games. We’re having “mossaka” and salad for dinner.

A bit uninspired too.

This is the best I could come up with, it’ll have to do 😛

4/365

After two black and white photos, I decided it was time to bring some color back into the equation. Hence, today’s shot.

Johan had the day off today, so we spent some quality time together. This consisted of staying in bed half the day, nachos, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and just hanging out. Not much action today, but most definitely a wonderful day, the kind I look forward too all week.

3/365

Black and white seems to be turning into this weeks theme.

Today I listened to Hello Saferide and this one song stuck with me. It was the inspiration for the photo.

I’ve been playing around with slow shutter speed. Of course it resulted in motion blur, since I’m lousy at being entirely still. I like the surreal, dreamlike effect it adds to the shout though.

And suddenly, I don’t feel fat anymore
I don’t count my blackheads as a hobby
I don’t count the marks on the wall
And I don’t sleep well at all

I Don’t Sleep Well – Hello Saferide

Mattias, Emma and Märta came to visit today, so we spent the day hanging out at the bar while Johan tried to both work and be social. It’s been a really good day!

2/365

I’ve been playing around with Photoshop a bit. Today I found the filter function that let’s you add certain lighting to the picture. I’ve used it in my day 1 picture, as well as in this one, though I’m trying to keep it toned down to retail some of the natural feel of the photos.

My boyfriend and I have been looking for an apartment for some time now. Being picky didn’t exactly help us in our search, but we simply didn’t want to settle. We wanted an apartment in walking distance from the city center and with a unique, special feel to it. We want it to feel like a home, not like a factory made storage container for humans.

A few days back we were informed that one of the apartments we’d been interested in might be made available to us. We were asked to go look at it and get back to them with our answer. We went and looked at it and though we didn’t fall in love with it at first sight, it grew on us. So much so, that by the same time the next say we decided to accept the offer.

Since then we’ve been waiting, holding our breath, to see if we actually got it. Today we heard from them again. On Wednesday we have an appointment to sign the lease.

We’ve found a home.

1/365

Yesterday I started my 365 days project. I’ve decided to make it a general photography project. I reason that the less limitations, the fewer obstacles or moments of feeling uninspired.

I’m recording the project over on flickr, but I’ll also post the photos here along with extra background information and such. I’m so excited! Since I’m determined to complete the project this time, I’m currently working on a list of weekly themes to inspire shots and – ultimately – help me grow as a photographer.

Here is the first shot in my series:

On this particular day both the boyfriend and I had the afternoon free so we mad the most of it. We went shopping for food and drinks, cooked a delicious dinner while listening to sassy music and drinking cold cider. We sat in the sofa and talked at random and had a good time. We later had a good friend over for a few rounds of Scrabble, drinks and good company. We all had a blast!

Wordless Wednesday: Endless Winter

Nikon D3000 – First Impressions

Last week I mentioned that I’ve been shopping for a digital SLR camera. Deciding which one would fit me best took quite a bit of research, but in the end I went with the Nikon D3000.

The camera arrived Friday afternoon and I’ve spent the better part of the weekend getting to know it and trying it out. These were my first impressions:

It feels good

The camera weighs 485 grams, which makes it Nikon’s lightest model so far. The lens only adds about 200 more grams. The D3000 is a light camera no doubt, but it’s still heavy enough to have that real digital SLR camera feel. The right-hand grip is very comfortable and so far I haven’t worried about dropping it.

It’s smart

Over the past two days I’ve taken just over 400 pictures with it, trying out the different functions.

What I can already say is that it definitely is a smart piece of equipment. The Auto function is very good: Finding the focal points I was looking for was no problem what so ever – it always knew what I wanted. Shooting outside in daylight I’d actually say the Auto function would suffice for most hobby photographers. However, I did notice that it favors high ISO over high aperture when the lighting is dim indoors, which leads to a lot of noise in the pictures.

Knowing this, you should probably use one of the other automated programs – the camera will then let you manually set either aperture, shutter speed or ISO. It then adjusts the other settings itself to create a balanced picture.

Of course you can also switch the camera to Manual and adjust all settings yourself. Being a beginner I’ve chosen to wait with this and work on learning one setting at a time.

Differences compared to a compact camera

The biggest difference between the Nikon D3000 and my Sony compact camera is the range of situations it can handle.

The Sony compact camera is fantastic at taking macro shots and shooting outdoors when it’s sunny and bright. As soon as the lighting conditions aren’t perfect though, the quality of the pictures decreases noticeably, a lot of noise and focal problems being its biggest flaws. This is where the digital SLR (even in the hands of a beginner like me) shows the difference. The pictures almost always turn out sharp if you let the camera set the focus and noise only appears in exceptionally bad lighting.

I’ve only had the camera for a few days now, but so far I’m both pleased and impressed!

More posts will follow as I learn the different functions and settings.

Choosing A Digital SLR Camera

Well, I’ve gone and done it! After a lot of debating back and forth both with myself and my boyfriend I’ve now bought a digital SLR camera. Amateur photography has been a hobby in my family for generations and I’ve been wanting to buy a good camera even since my mother’s old Praktica broke a few years ago. The reason I’ve waited so long is that digital SLR cameras are very expensive. Spending 500 Euros at the least for a camera (not including lenses, flash, tripod etc) is not all that viable when you’re a student with multiple interests.

But since I’ve got a job now (albeit a part-time one) I decided to do some research and see what camera might fit me. Boy was I in for a ride!

What shocked me the most was the multitude of alternatives and the incomprehensible amount of information out there. I spend a few hours every day for three weeks reading reviews, photography forums, product information and what not. What did I learn from all that research? Two things mainly:

1.  All digital SLR cameras on the market today are good. At an amateur level the camera will almost always be better than the photographer behind it. Basically you’re the one holding back the camera’s potential, not the other way around. Which brings me to the second point:

2. Go for the camera or brand that feels best. Digital SLR cameras are quite heavy (the housing alone usually weighs around half a kilo), so having a good, comfortable grip on the camera is essential.

With these two lessons in mind I went shopping for a camera and ended up with the Nikon D3000 with an 18-55 mm VR lense. VR stands for Vibration Reduction – Nikon’s own technology.

I chose the camera because of two reasons: Firstly it is Nikon’s latest product, released during 2009, which should mean that I won’t have to upgrade any time soon. Secondly, it comes with a Guide function, where the camera does all the thinking, but instead of just letting you press the shoot button, it guides you through all the settings you need to adjust. This means that you can shoot reasonably good photos from the start, while learning the camera’s functions. This being my first digital SLR camera I found this very useful. Of course you can learn that from a book, but I like the idea of being able to learn small things as I go along.

The lens was trickier, since lens reviews always seem to contain more technical terms than camera reviews. What I was able to make out though, this particular lens is one of, if not the best, at entry level. The Vibration Reduction technology helps prevent motion blur in low light conditions. The basic mechanics of the lens are also based on new Nikon technology – it has more parts, which is supposed to make it more accurate and increase the range of use.

I ordered the camera yesterday, together with a remote trigger, a bag and an 8 G memory card. All in all it cost me just over 500 Euros, which after having looked around seems to be a very reasonable price.

Now I’m waiting for the camera to arrive so I can test it and see for myself how well it fits me and my amateur needs.

I’ll keep you updated!

Wordless Wednesday #2: The Wait Will Soon Be Over