My first Field trip with the 10D

[CyberDyneSystems]

A nice sunny afternoon, and a trip to the waterfront with the dogs in tow offered up a flotilla of Swans that were exceedingly tame. Even with the dogs on the shore they came in asking for portrates.

Here is where I made my first big blunder with the new camera. A nice bright afternoon and I had the metering set for "spot" or "Centerweighted". (I'm shooting in P-AE mode with a Sigma 28-200mm lens by the way, and I'm totally new to a real SLR)

Well a Swan as you may recall is quite,.. well WHITE! So the center metering made about 70% of the Swan pics too dark all around,. loosing a lot of nice detail on the water surface and shadows of the swans themselves.

Thank god I don't have to buy film :)

On the other hand,. when I had wider shots or where I metered elsewhere (other than the center of a white swan) The shots were glorious!

There was one territorial male amongst the otherwise happy crowd of about 25 swans. When HE showed up, it went from a nice docile session to full action Sport photography! Rearing up,. flapping wings hissing and soon an explosion of flying swans in all directions!

The 10D stopped the action remarkably!

With "burst" shooting on, I was virtually guaranteed to grab the perfect action shots while being equally guaranteed to fill that 256 MB card full of jpegs in no time at all.

I think today was one of the most satisfying expeiriences I've had with a camera. I love this 10D!

I even think that out of the nearly 200 pics I have a few I will keep forever :)

[justme_dc]

Sounds like a great experience right out of the gate! It's a great camera. Have fun with it! Maybe you could post a few of these "fierce Swan pics".

[excessnoise]

Well I hope to have some fun too. Sounds like a great camera. Still waiting on my 10D. It's supposed to be here by today. Having a family get together this weekend. I was hoping to have a little "practice" time with it before taking it....that is if I get it at all anytime soon.

[CyberDyneSystems]

:) I will post some in the galleries/comments section as soon as I have a place to host them. In the meantime there is a small sampling here;


http://www.ninjamicros.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22498


..... at a VERY reduced size of course. But it does give a representation of the type of shots I was getting.

[AndyDe]

My 10D arived yesterday & it's been raining since !

[CyberDyneSystems]

I fell your PAIN!

I had that one nice day,. and absolute pouring rain ever since :(

I'm at the point where I willingly take photos of my livingroom wall just to hold the damn thing! :)

[kendersplace]

I'm always glad to see someone have a great first experience. I remember when I got my first AF pentax SLR film camera, loaded it up with Velia slide film and went to Bryce Canyon in Utah.... similar experience. That's what makes it all worth it... I probably won't ever get any of those pics published on the front page of National Geographic - but who cares - I had a blast.

.... and just think... you'll only get BETTER from here.

Happy shooting.

[kendersplace]

AndyDe wrote:
My 10D arived yesterday & it's been raining since !

I can't wait for rainy season here in AZ. Get on out there! Want a cool photo op idea? Wait until it is just sprinkling, but every thing is still all wet.... at night.

Go to a traffic light with some cool lit shops or buildings near by. Stop the lense way down so you can get about a 2 minute exposure at ISO 100. Point at the traffic light and open the shutter. You're almost guaranteed to get very cool looking images that are somwhat random and totally original.

I've done this before, and you get great reflections in the street water, all 3 lights are lit, and the buildings just glow. Ad the light trails of the passing vehicles... very cool images. I love shooting in the rain. :)

Good luck.

[Light Chaser]

You are wise to understand the effect of metering white when relying on automatic exposure settings. Water is also just as dangerous. Water absorbs light and does not render its true exposure value. It can fool your metering system by as much as 2 stops under, depending on the amount of water in the shot. When shooting around water, bracket to the over exposure side of the reading.

Your swans are beautiful. Go back again to the same spot and experiment with the exposure and you will figure out the settings that make every one of your shots perfectly exposed. Have fun.

Steve

[CyberDyneSystems]

Thanks for the advice and Ideas Light Chaser and Kendersplace. :) and the encouragement!

This was one of those investments that was a long time working up to. I started with a very early Agfa digital camera, cheap, reconditioned, 1.1 mega pixel (1024x800)

Even with that I knew i was hooked,. gone was the fear of "wasting film" and suddenly I was shooting everything everywhere. Then nearly three years with my Olympus.... once you start spending a lot of time with any "gadget" and continue to do so years later,. then you know its worth the investment for "the real deal" thus the 10D. So far so good!

I can't wait for my next day out of work so I can play some more! In the meantime I'm going to try and do some shots of the Stage with no flash... see how that goes. (I work in a performing arts theatre,.. the Ballet loads in tomorrow... hmmm from Swans to Swan Lake.... I see a theme!) :)

[Light Chaser]

CyberDyneSystems wrote:
Thanks for the advice and Ideas Light Chaser and Kendersplace. :) and the encouragement!


I can't wait for my next day out of work so I can play some more! In the meantime I'm going to try and do some shots of the Stage with no flash... see how that goes. (I work in a performing arts theatre,.. the Ballet loads in tomorrow... hmmm from Swans to Swan Lake.... I see a theme!) :)

That 50mm 1.8 you are considering is perfect for the theater if you can shoot from the front edge of the stage. Conductors pit? Back stage left or right if you have to. You need a fast lens like that to stop the motion when you are not using flash. This is also the time to practice with your center weighted or spot meter functions. The hot spot lighting on the stars can blow out there faces if you are not careful.

You also have the advantage of being there for rehersal. Test the Sigma you currently have then. Find out what is the lowest ISO setting you can use before the performance shots to minimise the grain look.
Have Fun,

Steve

[ilya]

Ok, get out the sideburns, bell bottoms and tye-die.

To commemorate CDS' 10,000s post, here is his first thread (not first post, the forum doesn't have that kind of capacity!)

(grateful dead playing in the background)

Note the grammar, spelling and punctuation - its close to impeccable

I sure hope you guys get a roast together of some kind. 15 posts a day for last two years is akin to ... I don't know, but that's dedication :D

Well done super mod.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Note the grammar, spelling and punctuation - its close to impeccable
[/b]

God bless you Ilya,.. you see what this job has done to me :)

Just FYI,. I actually still have my first DSLR images on line somewhere,. to go along with these humble beginings, for those intersted in my first shots with a Canon DSLR;

Swans of India Point Park (http://cyberdynesystemsimaging.fotopic.net/c21230.html)

[Canuck]

CDS,
Well congrats on reaching 10K, super mod! Has it been this long? Can you believe it we both have been hanging around here for going towards 2 years. Where does the time go. The coolest bit has to be seeing anyone who sticks around long enough to have noticable improvement in their photgraphy skills. I can say that yours have gotten better with time. It has been cool watching the evolution as it were of lenses/camera kit that you have had since joining the forum. From the 10D to the 1D Mark II and the countless lenses you have been thru it has been interesting. Now if only a Sigma 300-800 can be afforded that would be really cool! It would be interesting to see if it anything like it smaller brother the 120-300.