[Pez]

Hey guys,
My wife and I had a baby back in April. We decided it was very important to us to get pictures of her because she's changing everyday. We bought a Nikon D300 (surreal in it's capabilities) with 18-200 lens and a 50 mm 1.8 aperture lens. Something unexpected happened, while I love taking pictures of my daughter, I have discovered that I love taking pictures! I wanted to show you some of my stuff, horribly compressed by the Flicker monster, but lets you see the pics. Please let me know what you think, I have no prior experience, but am learning daily.

This picture I entered into a contest, I took it when I had the camera for literally 2 days.


This one is my silly niece


Floating flower


Cousin


another niece


4th of July pic


last but certainly not least, my daughter!


I'm still getting the hang of the D300, it is a beast of a camera with a ton of very useful features and rugged as heck. I am learning so much. Photography is a beast of a hobby to have. Expensive like audio, but to really get good you have to practice and learn a monumental amount of info. Someday I'll get there, but until then, what do you all think? Criticism is welcome.

Thanks!

[Anji12305]

Three things;

You connect well with people, and that's not easy in photographs.

The flash obscures detail, the photos using regular daylight are more engaging.
(I keep the sun coming over my shoulder or use white foam board as a "bounce".)

Simpler compositions draw us into the story told by your picture, tease us in a little.

FYI - I find a wider focal length easier to work with, something around 35mm for a film camera.

[Goosepond]

Hi Pez,

I'm certainly no critic. I'm an aim and press kind of shooter. 

But you obviously dove right in with very good equipment with very nice results.

I jumped in when digital photography was just getting started. I remember buying a whopping 1.4 MP Casio P&S, lying on my belly to shoot some new red mushrooms and marveling at what I saw on the screen. I submitted it to a website I had found on the 'net and the next day there it was as the photo-of-the-day! I was hooked.

The immediate gratification of digital is hard to beat.

I've graduated to much better (and expensive gear), but basically I'm still a point-and-shooter. But at some point, I also graduated from fully Auto shooter to fully Manual shooter. As capable as these modern digital cameras are, I decided I wanted to be in charge. So I choose the aperture, shutter speed, often choose spot metering, crank up the ISO if need be to be able to handhold, etc. I also separated the focus function from the shutter button.

The learning process has been most enjoyable and there are functions on the camera that I've yet to explore. I don't do a lot of post processing. But shooting in RAW allows me to recover my big goofs.

So enjoy. It's a great hobby. 

Gene

[jqp]

Super shots! How do you like that 18-200mm lens? I had mine stolen and had to replace it even though I could have bought many other lenses. I have the D90 which gives similar picture quality to the D300.

I am trying to get more shots during the 'perfect light' time of day. Your daylight shots look like you got some good light. What settings were you using (as you may know,you can check them in the original files using Nikon View NX, etc., or on the camera itself)

[Pez]

Thank you all for your feedback!

Anji12305, I think I get what you're saying by "draw us into the story told by your picture, tease us in a little." It seems like one of those elegantly easy things to say, but something that may take quite a bit of mastery.
As far as your comment on flash, the only picture that I used a flash was the picture of my daughter. Perhaps you were referring to the picture of my cousin lying by the wild flowers? That one I used my 50 mm lens at 1.8f to slightly overexpose her skin which I think compliments her beauty, albeit loses some detail.

Also I have been contemplating a 35mm lens I have loved the 50mm, but I find myself backing up a lot to get the framing I want. wide open aperture is really fun to use.

Goosepond, I am in awe of those who can use manual deftly. I can do it when the 51 point auto just isn't getting it right or if I need to have more control, but I do tend to miss a few wonderful shots because I'm futzing around too much with focus. 

JQP - the 18-200 is a very versatile lens indeed! Great for shooting people, scenes etc. I have noticed slight aberrations with very straight lines across the top/bottom/sides of the field, but for the type of shooting I do it's rarely a problem. The problem with many zoom lenses is (in my limited experience) is aperture in tight shots can be abhorrent.   

I looked at the D90 and liked it's general performance, but for me there were a few deal breakers. First, the video feature is premature on this camera, no auto focus, shaky and seemingly useless for what I would use it for. My brother owns it and loves it, but when we compare pictures the D300 is just a little richer in texture and color saturation. I also prefer the more professional buttons rather than the little guy running, moon symbol, etc. Now cost-wise the D90 makes a lot more sense than the D300. It's a big pill to swallow. Either way for me the Nikon always seemed to have a vastly superior picture vs the equivalently priced Canon and sometimes superior to more expensive Canons. Both are great of course, just depends what you want.

Bonus pic.

Perhaps this one draws you in a bit Anji12305 I hope so, because I think this sort of pic is what you are talking about. 

anodder niece Lupe

[lonewolfny42]

Pez...

My wife and I had a baby back in April.

Congrats Jason....

[jqp]

Yeah futzing around when you are trying not to miss good shots...This is one obvious point Ken Rockwell makes well, describing his use of the 18-200 VR lens. He often leaves that lens on the camera, and sets some settings to auto so he can focus on getting shots he otherwise might miss. Of course, as a professional, this is only a certain percentage of the time, since he shoots so many different Nikons and Canons. I agree, when you are new to this it is often better to get in auto modes when you want those important shots. Focus on using good light and getting in a good position to make the shot you want. Also work your subject, whether it be people, animals, etc.

There is distortion on many lenses, it often considereed desireable or part of the art. The 18-200mm lens has more distortion at 18mm and 70mm (which can be correctd). You can correct the distortion using Photoshop or other tools if you feel the need.  However it has less distortion than other lenses in this category.

After a year of shooting DSLRs I am finally using manual mode a lot more. Photographing kids and pets in an 'uncontrolled' setting I would probably want to use more auto settings.

I got this one from the drivers seat just before driving away - time for automatic settings!

[JohnR]

Really interesting compositions. I like #4 in particular.