Nostalgia Mania Part 2: Moving On To Slightly Better Things

In the previous post, I described the first camera I bought, which was my first foray into photography. While it served me well, I was developing skills and technical knowledge fast so I decided that I need something much more than a Point & Shoot. I was soon the proud owner of a Canon 1000D with the kit Canon EF-S 18-55mm. Starter set indeed. Here's a photo of the 1000D taken off the internet:



Vital Specifications for the Canon 1000D in brief: 


Effective Megapixels: 10.1 megapixels
Memory: SD/SDHC
Sensor: CMOS
ISO: Auto, 100-1,600
Auto-Focus: 7-points
Min & Max Shutter Speed: 30 secs & 1/4000 secs respectively
Continuous shots: 3.0 fps
Picture Quality: RAW (uncompressed), Fine, Normal
LCD: 2.5 inches
LCD Dots: 230,000
Viewfinder: Pentamirror
Live View: Yes
Battery: Canon LP-E5 Li-Ion Battery Pack
Weight: 502 g (incl. battery)
Dimensions: 126 x 98 x 65mm

Starting out with a purist state of mind, I kept insisting that it was the photographer, and not the equipment, that made the photos. Therein began my adventure with photography, with LOTS and LOTS of trial and error along the way. I must have taken 30, maybe 40 thousand shots. Have a look at some of the better ones:-



Taken at the park right outside my house. I decided to sit down on the dry leaves.




I found Jesus. Apparently he's over at my house. What's he doing? Oh, I don't know, just hanging around I guess.

 


Mother Mary. I recently took another Hi-Def pic of Her for Desmond's tattoo artist to imitate.




I found Jesus again. Jesus! Why do you keep running away?




One of my better shots. Taken with the kit lens. Experiments with slow shutter-low light conditions. Didn't bring a tripod so i had to let the camera rest on the railing and manually adjust the shutter speed to almost 6 secs. One of the things I learned here is that the slower the shutter, the more 'sparkly' lights get.




One of my friends actually liked this shot. As you can see, i'm still experimenting with aperture.




My early facination with clouds. I'll later go on to take so much more cotton-clouds.




More abstract shots. I was lying on my back, on the walkway in the park for this one.




One of my better 'Leaves' shot while sitting on the dry leaves. A friend commented that the picture looks rather 'noisy' though.

 


Playing with the aperture.

 


Abstract landscape.

 

If i remember correctly, this little son of a bitch's name if Ralph. Cute bugger on a constant sugar rush.



Until today, it seems that the only person who appreciates this shot is me.. :-(
By using Canon's Spot Metering and the super fast prime Nifty-Fifty (Canon EF 50mm f/1.8) i focused on the tip of my brother David's cap.





My dashing Dad is not much a smiley person. However, it is a point of pride that I managed to get this one. He looks relaxed and genuinely amused. This is a precursor for most of my fav shots: Frame-filled close-ups, natural expressions and eccentric cropping of body sections.



That's where I want to be.



An attractive colleague Vivian at one of the AEON shopping centres. A whole bunch of us were there for some shopping centre related duties.



I could never get a good shot of my (more like Desmond's) Cat cos she's camera shy. Ironically, her name is Paris Hilton.



Yerrow frower.



Led Frower.



I think this is easily one of my best shots ever. Not even sure how I got it but everything that was meant to be sharp was pin sharp. Taken with the kit lens by the way.



Calvin up to his usual hi-jinx. A trademark close-up, filled-frame, cropped portrait.



Cheeky bugger.



Another thing I like besides filling the frame, is to give my subjects LOTS of breathing space. Calvin, don't hold your breath.



In my personal opinion, the 1000D is an great first-time DSLR. Canon makes the display controls no-nonsense and straightforward. It's an absolute breeze to use. I heard someone once tell a beginner that the 1000D is a crappy camera, and that he shouldn't waste his time on it. The braggart was also showing the beginner samples of his photos with a Canon 50D. I walked over and blew them away with some of my shots and afterwards told them it was from my 1000D. If you walk the talk, then your equipment doesn't matter all that much.

By the way, you can check out Part 1 of this Series here:
http://dominiquekeephotography.blogspot.com/2010/09/nostalgia-mania-part-1-starting-out-in.html

For those of you who like statistics:

Vital Stats for October: 2 posts 38 pics 

Vital Stats So Far: 19 posts 789 pics