trial and error

I've had a day to play with my new camera and get to know it a bit more. I think it's unhealthy how much I love that thing!

Yesterday, the first thing I did was try to get close ups - and try to get the backgrounds blurry at the same time. I found out how to adjust the aperture and starting shooting. When I looked at the photos I had just taken, my subject was blurry and the background was in focus. All morning I tried and tried and tried to achieve that look that I so badly wanted. I became more and more frustrated, until I threw my hands up and gave up for the time being. 

Worried that it was a problem with the camera - and not a user error - I googled "Nikon D3000 faulty close up" to no avail.

I decided to gave it one last shot (no pun intended) and headed back outside. For whatever reason, I held the camera a bit farther away from the subject and took a picture. I looked at it...and discovered I had done it! I succeeded in making the subject clear and the background blurry. I was beyond excited.

I realized I had been holding the camera too close. I was used to the lens of my point and shoot, which is not as sensitive, and shot the picture far too close. I now know that I would have needed a macro lens to be that close. 

As you may be able to tell from the above pictures, I went a little crazy with the blurring. But seriously, you don't know how excited I was! Figuring out how to use a DSLR camera - or learning photography for that matter - is all about trial and error.

And so, yesterday, June 11, 2010, will now go down in history as The Day Carlotta Learned To Correctly Take Close Up Photos With A Blurry Background (I can't for the life of me remember the correct term for this look). Hip hip hooray!

On a side note, I promise this will not turn completely into a photography blog. I'm just really excited about my camera. ;)

-carlotta