Shots with new 50mm 1.8 lens!

Here are some initial shots with my new prime lens! Totally fun! Now keep in mind, I just got the lens on Thursday so I am still learning how to effectively use this lens ~ especially since on the D40, I am forced to shoot in manual mode with it. I've only shot in manual once before, so this is all very, very new to me! But, I must say....manual mode is not that difficult at all! I am totally loving shooting manual. :D

So now that I've had it for a few days, what are my initial thoughts on this lens?? Well, let's see.....it's AMAZING! Talk about deep bokeh! And the sharpness is great! The only thing I need to get used to is not having a zoom on it. A prime lens only has one focal length, so you must move in closer or father away from your subject. With a prime lens, you sacrifice the zoom for more sharpness. Fortunately, I do have a zoom lens for those times I can't get in closer. :D

Lastly, one of the biggest reasons I bought this lens was because of the wide aperture (f1.8), which makes it a great lens for low light shots. We went to a tractor pull on Friday evening and I was able to take some great shots in very low light without a flash. I was quite impressed! I didn't post any of those because unfortunately, my focus was off on all those shots. LOL! Oh well, it's all part of the growing process, right??

All in all, I highly recommend this lens! For only $109, this lens packs a lot of power and flexibility for the money.

Color-pop Florals

Browsing through my archive of photos to find something to post, I came across this cute photo. This was taken during my friend's baby shower a few weeks ago.

PP: I saturated the colors a tad, defogged, adjusted the curves & contrast, and also added a vignette using the lomo tutorial on the DPS site. Voila!

Having Fun With New Camera!

I can't believe the difference in the quality of shots with a DSLR from a P&S camera! I've been playing around with the various settings and took these two shots today. Ken Rockwell's site has been a great help to me, especially in setting the exposure compensation and optimized image settings. I love the color saturation from Nikon images!

I did not do any post processing, with the exception of a tiny bit of sharpening -- only because I wanted it as clear as possible. Even if I didn't sharpen it more, the shots were still quite sharp. Amazing!

DPS Assignment: Sharp

Here is my submission for this week's DPS assignment - sharp. Talk about procrastination, this was submitted at the very last moment. LOL. There are a lot of creative submissions (ie: using sharp objects, looking "sharp", and my favorite - God's Word as being sharper than a two edged sword), but I opted for the traditional sharp focus route. :)

This photo was taken at one of our church families' home. Our church was invited to come an pick apples from their apple tree. They have a beautiful flower garden.

Below is another photo I was thinking of submitting -- "sharp" blades of grass. But something about it didn't feel right to me. I don't think it was sharp enough. So I chose to submit the sunflowers intstead. :)

Cactus Flower & Texture Layer

Can you believe these beautiful, pink flowers grew from cacti?? I still can't believe it myself. This was taken back in April, during our trip to the Sonoran Desert Museum. I'm loving how vivid the color of the flowers turned out!

The two shots show the difference in appearance when a texture layer is added. I've posted several texture layer shots before, but what I just learned is how to remove the texture on places I don't want it to show (ie: faces, flower petals, etc) and still keep the tone of the texture on those areas.

The first shot has a texture layer applied to it, but notice the texture does not show up on the petals. And yet, the tone of the texture is still kept throughout the entire photo. I'm so excited to learn this! :) The second photo is the original.

My First OOB!

Isn't this image effect so (if I must say).... COOL??? :) I just learned about it and could not wait to try it. This effect is called "OOB", which stands for "Out Of Boundary" images. I'll definitely be trying this effect on other shots. :)

If you're like me, you're probably dying to know where the tutorial is. Well, here it is....
http://www.logicscape.com/oob_tutorials/

Enjoy!

A Bug's Life

One of God's precious tiny creatures in the midst of golden floral beauties! If only I had a macro lens to get an even closer shot. Another photo from our trip to the Sonoran Desert Museum, I was excited to get my first "bug in action" shot.

Floral Beauty

The glory of the Lord is evidenced in His creation!

This beautiful geranium was taken outside my mother in law's home a few weeks ago. My MIL has the most beautiful flowers! The focus of this photo was on texture layers, brush layer, color fill, and the photo filter.

Evidence of Spring

Spring is definitely in the air here in Arizona! Actually, summer is already peeking around the corner. This photo was taken at our latest trip to the Sonoran Desert Museum. The post edit technique I used is from DPS' Photoshop CS2 tutorial, "Mono, with a Dash of Colour". I then added a deep inner shadow around the edges.