Scout and Breeze

[minkee]

OH DEAR! Haha

Well, lets hope you don't regret it!! I'm SURE you won't. Let me break down what you've bought for you -

Nikon D40

The camera

The rest is about the lens (which is the default one - aka "kit lens") I used solely this lens for around 4 or 5 years, so it's plenty good! Especially if you have good light.

AF-S

This means 'Autofocus' and also that it has an in-built motor (the 'S' part, not sure what it stands for). The D40 doesn't have a motor built in so you need it in the lens if you want it to autofocus. This makes the body cheaper, but the lenses rarer.

DXZoom

There are 'full frame' cameras and 'digital zoom' frame cameras. The former have a bigger 'window' onto the world as such... it's not really important though (full frame cameras are really expensive) and I don't see why you can't just step back a few paces if you want to fit more in!! Here's all about it in more detail if you want to know more http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/fx-dx-future.htm

Nikkor

This is just Nikon's brand name for lenses

18-55mm

This is the focal length of the lens. The higher the number the bigger the zoom, the lower the number the wider the view. So this has a nice range between zooming in (35mm) and fairly wide view (18mm)

f/3.5 - 5.6

This is the aperture size. The aperture is the hole between the lens and the camera body - the bigger the hole the more light passes through. The more light that passes through the quicker the shutter speed you can use. This affects a whole lot of different things and is the key to learning how to take good photos. The book will go into this in great detail, so you've got a good headstart there :3

G ED 11'

No idea what this bit means!

second hand at least!

Make sure to check everything - including the sensor - is clean. Take a photo of a plain background then see if there's any black dots on the picture. You can get them cleaned fairly easily (I think! I've never done it)

After that you're going to need some photo editing software too! Well, you don't NEED it, but I use Photoshop (I have it for work) and it makes a huge difference to getting the photos just right. Lightroom is meant to be really good too, and you can get a free trial. I'm not sure about free software for it, but I'm sure there's something out there. Shoot in RAW (it's the file type, it saves a lot of the information so you can make adjustments really easily) and you can really make your photos shine.

Then just hope for some good weather finally Lots of light and sunny skies make a huge difference!

[minkee]

Aw thanks Sabrina, too Yes, lots of crouching, lots of recalls, it also helps if you have a helper to get the dogs in the right position and / or doing stuff, so you can keep your eye stuck to the viewfinder and not miss a shot. Try to just keep taking photos and not review your photos till later, else you might miss a great shot cos you're too busy flicking through what you've already taken. And just keep at it! It's nice because you can keep taking and taking photos and not have to worry about getting it wrong like you might with a film camera. It doesn't cost anything and you just keep learning.

There is a TON of stuff to wrap your head around - it took me ages to understand what all the different numbers mean - but you get there sooner or later. And a science-boffin should have way less trouble than I did, anyway

Sabrina we need to see some of your photos too

[ScarletSci]

Awesome!! Thanks for breaking all that down for me, Minkee, even if I still don't quite understand what a lot of it means! I really am bad with tech, and know less than nothing about photography. I mean, I'm so bad I'm in a position of negative knowledge.

I'm into science, yes, and give me psychological research or the details of genetics and evolution and I'm away. But I'm spectacularly bad with mathematics and technology. To the point where the fact I'm a luddite is a running joke among my friends. At my friends house once, her cordless phone rang. I handed it to her, 'cos I'm good like that, only for her to look at me as though I were insane and say: "Ummm... Thanks man, but that's Wii remote..."

But I'm still really excited to give it a go! Hopefully I'll pick up the tech stuff as I go, I'll be motivated to figure it all out. I got an email saying that my camera will be posted on Tuesday, so I have a bit of a wait! My plan is to do lots of pointing and shooting, then try to play with the aperture and focus and see what happens! Until the camera arrives, I'll read the stuff you guys have linked and hope that it clicks into place once I'm actually taking pics!

Gonna take my current camera out and have a play with it until then, thanks again for all the advice! I'm all excited!!

[minkee]

Good luck with it!

[gwd]

i love the last photo with the tongue.

[Ari_RR]

When we used "easy walk" harness, we used to do the same thing - attach the front strap to the collar. It still was not a great fit, at all... so we switched to Sure-fit. Much, much better.

Great pictures.

[minkee]

That's my favourite one too, gwd

Ari this front fastening harness came with an attachment for the collar and is meant to work like that... We bought him the one that was meant to fit collies and spaniels and it's STILL too big for him. Just shows that even though everyone keeps telling me he's so big, he's just so skinny, too. I didn't want to get the smaller one as I was sure he'd grow out of it in no time.

This is literally the only front fastening harness available in local stores, and I have had a really hard time finding any online, too - bar american sites with huge delivery charges. It's quite annoying! because if Breeze decides to lunge at something then a front fastening harness is the only thing that's going to keep me on my feet - or my arm in my socket at least!

[ClareMarsh]

Good to see his ears still don't fit him, keep growing Breeze

I always get a kick out of seeing Scoutpup in that harness, knowing it has also graced the chest of a certain long haired chi

[minkee]

Couple more from today







Scout's looking all worried in hers because I may have shouted at Breeze when I discovered him nibbling on the little blue cat It just rolls off Breeze but Scout doesn't like raised voices one bit

[Sabrina]

Love these! That background color is gorgeous - sets off Breeze perfectly!

[minkee]

Well I hope ScarlettSci got on alright! Here's some more from me today. I'm putting them at lower res these days, because new laws have basically weed all over image copyright and I don't like the idea of sharing large pics for other people to freely steal!

Some lovely ones of Scout today.





















Bit image heavy, sorry, but I couldn't pick between them!

[gwd]

every one of those pics is a keeper! my two favorites are the one of breeze blinking with his tongue out......and the one where breeze looks like he's towering over scout as she's about to scoop up the ball.

[Ari_RR]

Excellent pictures.
They used to be the same size not so long ago

[JudyN]

is the guy in the second pic your lodger? I love that he and Breeze have matching hairdos

[minkee]

Haha, yes he is and you're not the first to mention that