Playing with a new camera

It’s been 10 years since I had my hands on a really great camera. I was designated sports photographer for my yearbook staff at one point in High School and really loved it. I’ve been wanting a professionalish grade camera ever since but have never purchased one due to cost. But the urge to jump into photography has been steadily growing since then and this past Black Friday I made my move when I found a Canon XS with 18-55mm lens for an outstanding price. Since then (and in true “me” form) I have been learning everything I can as fast as I possibly can. Library books on digital photography? Checked out by moi. Online tutorials on digital photography? Researched by moi. And I’ve read/skimmed through them all this past month. I have a long way to go but here are some fun techniques I’ve been playing with:

Zooming out/in while in mid shot.

Making select objects look like ghosts. Whoooooooooooo…..

The ‘making pretty swirling colors’ technique. Yes, I am aware that these things have official names but I don’t have them memorized yet. This is our Christmas Tree.

This is also of our Christmas Tree. Shot using the ‘I forgot to focus while in Manual Focus mode’ technique. P.S. I actually like the lovely blurred light effect.

I have also been experimenting with shutter speed. With a very fast shutter speed I was able to get a detailed picture of a pot of water boiling:

And after turning the shutter speed down just a bit, it captured the steam rising up from the pot as well:

I am having a blast! More pictures soon to come.