Playing with a new camera

Traded in my Nikon CoolPics 4300 with a dodgy autofocus mode for a Pentax *istDL digital SLR. The autofocus was just fuzzy enough that sometimes down-sampling the images for posting on the blog improved the photos dramatically. The Nikon also had a shutter speed measured in minutes: forget taking any action photos at all, unless that blurry motion smear is an intentional effect.

I didn't realize how much I'd missed the SLR until I started using the *istDL today. Being able to swap lenses is a luxury you can get quite used to, I'm afraid. I'm still no photographer, but I'm much happier with the quality of photo so far.

Molly was quite unimpressed as I tried to work out the differences between the way the old and new cameras worked. This was using the new 18-55mm autofocus lens that came with the camera.

Along the shore of Lake Scugog, just off the new waterfront trail in Port Perry. We were looking for an area to take Xander so he could cool off in the water . . . it turned out he wasn't too interested in getting wet, he just wanted to drink the lake water.

This is an attempt using the macro feature of my one long zoom lens (a 70-200mm). The bee was fairly co-operative.

Xander was wilting in the heat after about half an hour.