Newb Alert

I am the proud owner of a new Canon Rebel XT. How did I find myself here?

My only previous camera was Canon S50. It served me well. Compact, great at point and click type stuff. Always handy when someone is making a fool of themself at a party and you need to catch it on film. I thought this was the greatest camera in the world. That was until I looked at some photos from my friend's Canon Rebel. We were at a picnic together and both of us were taking photos of friends. Looking at the pictures he took and the ones I took there was clearly a difference in quality. Him being a professional photographer helped a lot too.

Anyways I began realizing the limitations of my little S50. I know next to nothing about photography except some compostion but I've always enjoyed it so I finally decided to take the plunged and invest in a quality DSLR. So that's how I ended here.

I'm so glad I found a site like this and I hope to learn a lot from the other members here.

Welcome to the friendiest and most helpful community on the Web.

You have a great camera, go have fun. There is masses of info on here so just go searching or if you can't find, ask.

Ghetto..... Welcome. Remember that your questions have probably been asked a thousand times before. We ALL have gone through the curve. I started shooting 40+ years ago and am still learning. Half the fun (and some of the frustration) is learning a bunch of little things that eventually add up to real satisfaction of capturing that one instant in time. When you do not get what you expected, look at the camera LAST, and yourself first. The XT is a darn good little camera but not the "perfect" camera (which just doesn't exist anywhere). Shoot for yourself not others....trying to please others lessens your uniqueness.

Don't forget there are certain obligatory shots !!
1) Your pet running back and forth
2) Someones child running back and forth
3) A squirrel on a branch
4) Falling/flowing water
5) A closeup of a flower
6) A dark out-of-focus (OOF) shot down a hallway
7) Your finger/thumb covering part of lens.
8) Please feel free to add to the list

Have FUN and enjoy.

Jon F. www.pbase.com/jpfergus​on

finger in the way of a lens, if you manage to get this right, i think I would like to find out how. These obligatory shots, do they HAVE to be posted?

Doggone it! I can't do the squirrel on a branch since there are no squirrels in Okinawa, except in pet shops.
Have fun with your new camera!
Deb