Understand thy lens
Well Ill be damned. Looks like I have fallen in love with photography.
Its been an interesting week and a bit since I got the camera. I bought it without a flash memory card so I had it for nearly 2 days without taking a single picture. I went to Akihabara and bought a flash card then tried to use it for the first time ever. I was lucky enough to get one shot out of 30 or so that was legible.
At the time I knew nothing about F stop, shutter speed iso or anything. It was night time, I turned on the flash and tried to take a picture of a car in the road. But even with the flash on it still came out really dark. I felt kinda let down. I just spent money on a so called “decent dslr camera” and the flash sucks so much I cant even take photos at night…
It was not until I got onto the train and accidentally messed around with the rolling dial on the front of the camera (F stop) and took a photo did I realized that using that somehow makes the photo brighter??!!
(This photo needs a bit of a retouch, not sure how to do it 
)
I then accidentally flipped a switch and then realized that you can make the camera stop trying to automatically focus for stuff and make you have to manually focus….
Since then I have hit a few clubs, gone to a few events and had a primer photography session with Alfie Goodrich (highly recommended).
So while I am nowhere near god status yet, I have a slightly better understanding of how things work.
One of the most important things I learnt I guess is understanding your lens. I dont really completely understand mine yet though, but I am starting to see that it has a range. If I can trap someone in my range I can normally get the desired effect I want, but when I try to shoot things too far or with too many things in it the photo normally looks disappointing. I also learnt that manual focus is a bitch 
not only can you underfocus (not focus enough), you can overfocus.. Gotta get it to that perfect spot to get the photo that you desire.
So yeah, this rabbit hole seems to be pretty deep, but I am willing to jump in head first and see how far I can take it. Another thing is I guess ill redesign this blog and eventually change the domain to something less gloomy
Anyway my flickr account is http://www.flickr.com/photos/floatingcamera/
Feel free to take a look, berate or drop me some on advice on how to improve
Peace.
Tags: Japan, learning, photography, Photos
Nino (55)
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June 14th, 2010 at 8:03 am
Good job, my friend. I especially like your gf’s photos, really good. It’s learning by doing.
Will you take photos of models in the future? 
How about watermarking the pics? People will be all over them 
June 14th, 2010 at 11:42 am
Nice one.
Keep it up. That time at Shibuya was jokes. We can do more like that again.
June 14th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
I agree, watermarks are definitely needed bro!
I like the one with the Cat best! Perfect contrast of light and dark.
Keep it going! Get some fresh in the flesh GQ’s up there too! lol
June 14th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
@Nino - @Nino -
Thanks I like that pic aswell. Well yeah in the future you might see me shooting models at Prada photo shoots and shit hahaha ;p just kidding. I guess ill put watermarks. But I doubt anyone will steal my stuff…
June 14th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
@Adrian -
Yo man, that was mad fun running around with you taking snaps. Lets defo do it again. Hit me up whenever!!
June 14th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
@TGH CEO -
Sup bra. Yeah I took it at that park where those old ladies always feed the cats.
And yeah man, when I get some more skills and my name starts ringing out GQ’s all day baby hahaha.
June 14th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Great pics! I’ve just got a video camera and am hoping to make some sense of how to work it!
June 14th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
@Ca88andra -
Hey thanks for passing through. What video cam did you get and what sort of things are you interested in filming?
June 15th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
good luck in you quest to learn photography, I also have a love for the hobby and you can drop me any questions you might have.