New to photography

Sue.

Hi There.

So far the weather has not been conducive to photography. Two weeks of high winds and heavy rain, so little chance of using the 400D. Living where you do you might have forgotten just how bad our weather can be at this time of year.

I did manage to take a couple of decent pictures in the half hour of sunshine that occurred while we were staying at the hotel for our anniversary. Once they have been accepted on the POE site, if they are that is, I will let you have the details so you can see for yourself.

A couple of points re the 400D have occurred to me and might be of some help to you. Over here the camera is not supplied with a memory card, so I bought a 4GB card to go with it. I have found that this gives over 800 shots on the highest setting, more than a 1000 on the average setting. I have now found that this is way over the top and a card of that size is not really required. I would suggest that a 2GB card would be more than adequate, perhaps with a spare 1GB as a back up.

I also have realised that a spare battery is a must. While you can take over 300 pictures on a fully charged battery, less if you use a lot of flash, it is always best to have a fully charged backup battery just in case. It would just be typical to run out of battery power as you come across the best photo location of the day. Your camera shop will advise on a the type of battery needed, it need not be a Canon made battery.

Hope that these hints are of some use. I still believe that the 400D is a great camera and I am looking forward to a bit of decent weather so I can get out into the Lake District and give it a good workout.

Regards Roy Jackson.

It is true that I forget how bad the rain gets in England. Here we go for months on end without seeing a drop, and when it does rain it's a flash in the pan.

I was in England last year when we had the big rain (July 20th wasn't it?), in fact I was on my walk and got saturated, also got some great pictures of wet leaves, and cows sheltering under 'my mum's tree',

Anyway Roy, thank you for the tips, I can't wait until I get my camera, I'm hoping to have it before I come back to England in May.

Sue

I have submitted the first two pictures taken with the 400D. They are listed in the Harrogate Town section, page 2. The subject was not very cooperative, so I did not have time to do anything fancy with the camera. The pictures were taken with the camera on the 'fully auto' setting. It was just a case of point and click, letting the camera do all the hard work re exposure etc. Under the circumstances I think that the results are pretty fair. I think that you will have no difficulty in producing decent results in no time at all. Good luck with the camera when you get it.

Regards Roy.

Well, I tend to go for the complicated stuff for no good reason, guess I'm just a geek :-), but I bought my Canon Rebel XT (350D outside the USA) not too long after the XTi (400D) came out and it was at a good price. The newer camera would have been nicer, I guess, but I keep seeing pictures taken with even older equipment that blows me away, so it's obvious the limiting factor is the button pusher, not the hardware. I had a Pentax ME Super (35mm film SLR) 25 years, but gave it to my sister when I got the bug for a DSLR. So far, I'm loving my "old" 350D and the Sigma 17-70 zoom I bought with it. I might end up getting a Canon 70-300 (or 70-200L) zoom, but I've not decided yet.

If you buy a Canon DSLR, I recommend joining the "Canon Digital Rebels" Yahoo group. It's a very active group of folks from around the world who shoot great photos, give good advice and are very friendly. They can be found at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Digital-Rebels/, and have a PBase account where you can post pictures.

Thank you Len for the link, I should be getting the camera within the month (money should be arriving soon) and will check out the site. I really am a novice in every way, and look forward to the challenge of learning.

And you are right, the camera is important, but the person taking the pictures makes it happen.

Roy, I am off to see your pictures now. Thank you again for being there with advice and examples.

Hi Sue

The photograph of the grey squirrel on the tree was taken with the standard 55mm zoom lens that came with the 400D. A nice all round piece of gear.

If you want to see some of my attempts with a telephoto lens have a look at the pictures under the heading of 'Herrington Country Park', here I taken pictures of gulls in flight. I would not have been able to even attempt these with anything other than an SLR. The lens used here is a 70-300mm zoom lens that I used to use with my old Canon SLR film camera. The fact that the lens were interchangeable was another reason that I went for the 400D.

By the way I have just read in a magazine that the Canon 400D was the best selling SLR camera in the UK last year.

The latest photograph that you have make a comment on, the 'Ullswater shore' one was taken with my old film camera and then scanned into the computer. That series of pictures are a couple of years old.

Incidentally in that series you will see pictures of daffodils on the shore of Ullswater. One legend has it that these are descendent of the flowers that inspired Wordsworth to compose his poem about the daffodils. The location IE 'Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze' certainly fits the poem.

These flowers are the only wild daffodils that I know off, and they are protected by law. Try picking them and you will end up in court.

Again thanks for the kind comments re my photograph.

Regard Roy.

'I wandered lonely as a cloud' One of my all time favourite poems.

I just checked out your Herrington pictures. Wonderfu!.

As an bird watcher I am hoping to dabble in a little bird photography if I can pick up the skills.

You know, though... somehow after the misspent years of my youth I always now think of --

"I wandered lonely as a cloud,
Till I came upon this dirty street.
I've never seen a stranger crowd;
Slubberdegullions on squeaky feet"

...when I hear the quote.

Oh dear, what have the Americans been up to now? Thankfully I have never heard that version Len, and now I'll try to erase it from my mind.

*Wanders off reciting original poem over and over again*