365 Days – Thoughts So Far

I’m past day six in my “one photo a day for a year” project and I’m already seeing a pattern. I like playing it safe.

So far, I’ve been extremely picky and clinging to my comfort zone for bare life. That’s gotta change. No one got better at anything just by doing the things they already know how to do! Browsing flickr I’ve found so many crazy, wonderful, impressive 365-days photos! It makes me feel disappointed with myself.

So I’ve decided to start my own challenge. One pick every week needs to somehow be out of my comfort zone – be it a full-body self-portrait or a shot that just is crazy. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad, stunning or mediocre, inspiring or plain boring. Every one out of seven pictures will be all about pushing the limits!

There, I’m feeling better already for having decided this. Let’s see what tomorrow will bring!

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.