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Mary seems to be one of my favourite photographic models these days. She's always around and always photogenic. Today I was taking some photos and Mary just seemed to be right there and ready as usual. So I made sure she got some photo treatment.
I also took some zoomed-in night time shots from my balcony towards the downtown core. The sky was actually much darker than this shot looks, but I like the way it turned out. Wait. Back up. Zooming? Photos? Camera...? But what am I taking these photos with, you ask? Ah, well that would be my new camera and lens: a Canon 50D complete with a 17-85mm EF-S lens with image stabilization. *trumpet sounds* Yes, any somewhat regular reader of this blog will know that I've been wanting (and annoying you with blog posts about getting) a new camera for about 2 years now (has it really been THAT long?). Well I can now shut up about wanting a new camera, and get on with taking lots of awesome photos to display on the site! *everyone rejoices*
Since getting my new camera, I've read the manual (twice), watched many online tutorial videos about specific Canon 50D features and how to use them, bought a thick book about getting the most out of this camera (haven't read it all yet), and of course I've been taking tons of photos. Mary has been just one of my poor practice targets. This evening I decided to take a stroll at one of the locations where I first took my last camera 5 or 6 years ago: Ross Bay Cemetery. This area is always so peaceful and serene, and my recent photo shoot there didn't disappoint.
It was a bit chilly out, but the sun was setting and creating a nice ambiance for some photos. Now, I'm still getting use to this beast of a camera not to mention the lens, so bare with me if some of my photos seem like practice shots. I've been fiddling with lots of options and settings and trying new techniques like mad, but hopefully that just means I will be producing better photos over time. I've mostly just posted some of my fav (better) shots from this excursion anyways.
So I've got a lot of reading and learning to do, but I'm very excited. I'm also looking forward to the photography class I want to take in September to learn even more. Until then, I'm sure I can pump out a few thousand photos no problem. I may even pick up some new accessories for my setup before then too. Another lens (one that's good for low light situations like the Canon f1.4 lens) will likely be my next purchase. In the meantime, I hope to grace this blog with many new photos to keep you (and me) interested. So stay tuned!
This entry posted by Graham
in Photo Gallery posts
Tags: Cameras, Canon 50D, Photography, Photos
I remember that first trip to Ross Bay cemetery. Has it really been that long.. I was working for a prof at UVic, spending an inordinate amount of time writing blog entries and pretending I understood photography. Glad to see that one of us have improved in this domain :).
Hmm I just noticed how degraded some of these photos look because of my JPEG compression afterwards. I will have to re-save some of the originals at a higher quality and repost them. Cause it's a shame to post lower quality images that were post-compressed from high quality beauties!
What proggy are you exporting from? 60-75 on the slider in Photoshop is the golden zone (best compression vs. least noticeable artifacting)
Annnnd congrats on the new camera! Great purchase, I think you'll be happy with that camera for many years to come.
Yah, I've been using 35 on the slider for smaller image size. Time to change that up! Thanks.
Sweet action Graham - Are you shooting in RAW?
Since you're so into reading and videos:
http://www.amazon.ca/Photography-Barbara-London/dp/0131752014/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239816420&sr=8-14
That's the textbook for school. They'll suggest you buy it. It's very good and covers a lot of stuff.
I'm shooting in max JPEG currently. RAW would actually use less space per image, but I haven't started looking at my RAW editing abilities yet. For now JPEG will do as the quality and resolution is huge and I'm still learning the camera. I just got to compress them better when resizing and saving the photos for this here blog. Do you shoot purely in RAW?
Wow that photography book is expensive. I guess it makes sense since it's a "textbook" and those things are regularly marked up about 500% just cause they know students have to buy them. So stupid. Really, what other books cost $110+?
I don't shoot purely in RAW, but I would shoot RAW on anything I'd consider important.
RAW is certainly better, but it's a proprietary format exclusive to the model of camera. (A 40D RAW would not be the same as a different canon RAW for example).
Because of this, you're restricted to your included RAW editing package that came with your camera.
Adobe Lightroom and Apple's Aperture have done a good job of reverse engineering each cameras RAW, and so you can now use those applications, assuming it's on their compatibility lists.
This is true, but I've also read that RAW is not really necessary for most ordinary use. Here is a good article about the pros/cons of shooting in RAW vs. JPEG:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm
In case anyone is viewing these photos now and has read these comments, I have now updated the photos above to some higher quality ones with less JPEG compression.
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