Taking Photos at the Parks

Hey gang - for our last trip, we bought a new DLSR camera. ; Fantastic photos. ; I'm a newbie to photography, so bought a second lens to try and experiment with some photos of SpectroMagic and the fireworks. Not bad, but I can see how this is like going to school - it takes a lot of time and a lot of learning to figure out stuff and get it right.

Just wondering - do folks here snap a lot of photos? ; What kinda camera do you use?

 

We too just bought a DSLR about a week ago. ; There is alot to learn for us point and shooters. ; We have a Sony 300A with live view (DW loves its ease of use). ; So far we have just taken pics around the house, but plan to picture crazy in 2 weeks while were at WDW. ; I found there is alot of free lessons on Youtube that are great to watch for the beginner.

 

Here's a couple of tips.

Fill the frame with your subject. Don't waste a lot of space with too much sky or asphalt.

Look at the edges of the frame. Are you cutting some important info off or including something that will distract from your subjecy?

When taking picture of children, pets small subjects bring the camera down to their eye level.

Avoid placing peoples ; heads right in the middle of the frame. In you minds eye divide the frame into horizontals thirds and place the eyes of your subject on the top first third down from the top of the frame.
If not mistaken some new SLR's come with a grid you can activate in the menu to help.

Don't be afraid to move the subject out of the middle of the frame.

Mix it up throw in some vertical photo's

Zoom with your feet. Get closer to your subject

Give your photos some depth. Avoid placing your subjects up against a wall. Have the back round tell part of your story without distracting from the subject. Pay attention to the back round information. Avoid something odd growing out of the subjects head.

Use the flash out doors to fill in faces and give subjects eyes a sparkle.

Know the range of your flash. Most built in flashes are good to about 10ft/3.3

Pickup an extra battery.

Pickup an extra memory card.

Back up you photo's ; daily. To your laptop or if you have an iPod you can back up to that without a computer using Apple's camera adaptor for the iPod

Read the manual.

In the digital age if the photo is no good delete it. When travelling I try and edit what I've shot a couple of times a day.

Test out some of the setting before using them. Many more setting than P.

Taking an intro to photo course at at community centre or Henry's photo.

Feel free to post photo's and I'll try and figure out how to make the camera work better for you.

 

That's me trying to look thru the viewfinder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Here's what we have at home.

DW's Camera
Olympus 850 SW
http://www.olympuscanada.com/cpg_sectio ... oduct=1365
Drop proof, beach/sand proof and water proof up to 10 FT

DD 14 Camera
Canaon Power Shot SD 1000
http://www.canon.ca/english/index-produ ... id=2&ovr=1
Bought this early in the summer of 2007 takes great shot and full of features. Great battery power.

DD 10 Camera
http://www.casio.com/products/Cameras/E ... /EX-Z80BE/
She received this as a gift for her b'day last month. Easy to use only a few buttons and a easy menu.

Me, I only use a camera when working.

 

We have a Pentax K100. ; It was recommended as the best introduction to the DLSR world for a point-and-shooter (which I am). ; There were several camera websites recommended to me when I was looking. ; This is one that I kept the URL for - good overview, rating various cameras, etc.

www.steves-digicam.com

 

Shelia the url you posted http://www.steves-digicam.com/ goes to a cyber squatter with a couple of links disguised ; as ads.
Do you have anything more specific on your camera?


I wonder if they named the K100 in honour of the K1000 35mm of days gone by.
The K1000 was one of the best entry level 35mm SLR's ever put out. Durable, accurate a real work horse.
I fist go my mitts on one back in high school in 1975.

A few years later my parents bougth me my own Prakitka MTL3 the pride of the eastern block 35mm cameras from East Germany. Woith its then already outdated screw mount for the lens I took thousand of pictures for school projects, newspapers, bands, dance, plays and many weddings

 

Ham Ham,

I have an older model Kodak Easyshare. I think it is 3.0. I'm by no means a great photographer, and it has served its purpose as a family camera. It's been easy to use in shots and on the computer. However, I find it has become quite "chunky" compared to newer cameras and the screen is too small to really judge the photo when I take it.

I was looking at the Canon camera as a replacement, and passing on the Kodak one to my daughters. Do you think it would be a good step up for me? What are its negatives? I don't need anything fancy - just click and go.

I don't want to get my daughters a new digital camera -- even the cheapest ones would be better than their mom's! ;

 

it all depends on what kind of camera are you looking for, if you want a Digital SLR then the two top brands are Canon and Nikon. The only real difference with Canon and Nikon are the die hard users who are brand loyal. I did hear Nikon can take a "bang" and keep on working with Canon is a little less durable.

Karen is a camera girl ain the family and has been doing it as an amateur for about ; 12 years and she has both a DSLR (Canon 30D) and a Canon powershot.

If you just want to take pictures for "remembering" then don't go overboard with the DSLR. It would just be a big waist of money and if your not into photography you will not like taking all the grear with you everywhere you go.

A smaller camera which still does an excellent job is the canon powershot(we also have one of these) will serve you very well for pictures in the parks and during family get togethers and you will not need to take a large bag with you everywhere you go. Plus is 1/3 to 1/4 of the price of a DSLR

If you want to really get into taking photos then i would go out and invest in a DSLR, normally you need to pickup another lenz as the stock lenz is tipicaly junk, I would look into image stabilizing lenz which really makes a big difference for anyone (new and old users) grab a mono pod or tripod and get ready to take some really great night time pictures and firework pictures..

If you take a look at http://www.disneymagic.ca/gallery/showg ... hp/cat/502 any night time pictures posted by me or Minnie will be taken with the ; Canon 30D

When we feel like going hardcore and taking pictures we will grab the 30D when we don't feel like carrying all the gear then we take the powershot which takes the sames photos as the 30D....

 

I always find the staff at Henry's quick and knowledgeable. H3 I think you live in or around Ottawa so drop by a local Henry's and talk with the staff.

Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony and Casio all make great ; Point and Shoot cameras. It just boils down to features. If you plan to do a lot of nature photography or sports P&S will be limiting.

I'm really impressed with the P&Scamera I picked up for the DW
http://www.olympuscanada.com/cpg_sectio ... oduct=1365
Works under water, keeps out sand and is drop proof and rated to 14F. Most P&S are rated to 32F.


You can also get a decent DSLR without breaking the bank.
Sony has this one which includes live view and the screen tilts so if. I think Realfam just picked up this one and had a bonus telephoto lens thrown in. Sony bought Minolta several years ago to gain some street cred amongst the camera folks.
If I had the money I would go for the new Nikon D90, live view that also shoots HD video but a tad out of my price range.
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 1665345641



Check out Henry's, also ask what they recommend, which cameras are coming in a lot for repair etc.
Depending where you work Herny's may be able to offer you an additional discount

 

Some great info coming thru now. ;

Sorry, Hamham - I don't know what a cyber squatter is (other than something that takes over info it doesn't own ?, maybe, and seems to be designed to sell cameras), and maybe the site there has changed since I bought my camera last year (I haven't really been looking at it since)- but I think they still have a list of cameras under www.steves-digicams.com/best_cameras.html and rank them according to digital slr, prosumer, entry level, super zoom, hybrid media, compact, ultra compact - pocketable. ; I can't say anything about the accuracy of their info, other than for me I remember using the info there to learn about all the different types of camers there were because I wanted to move away from the p&s. ; I didn't buy from there. I used it as a research tool. ;

There were several other sites I looked at too - I'll see if I can find links. ; One was www.epinions.com/buyers_guide/Digital_C ... tml. ; I looked at a lot of ratings there, and learned about the importance or overblown importance of megapixels, etc. ;

Others were www.dpreview.com and www.photographhyreview.com

However, you seem a lot more knowledgeable about cameras than I am - as does Sean and Karen.

I'm learning.

It'd be great if we had a camera board, or maybe have the knowledgeable folks have a way to share their knowledge with us newbies. ; There is so much to learn.

 

Here is a link with info on my particular camera - the Pentax K100.

www.pentaxcanada.ca/digital/digital_slr/k100d/index.php

I have 2 lenses.

I'd been waivering about buying some p&s, which were getting pretty pricey for what I wanted, and would have to sacrifice on one thing or another - I wanted to learn about pictures - be able to take fireworks shots, also Fantasmic! and Spectromagic shots, as well as the regular family shots. ; The pentax was able to offer me basic functionality and room to grow/ learn - at a very reasonable price.

 

Thanks for the info Shelia. some helpful resources at Steve's site.
www.steves-digicams.com
The first url posted had no s in digicams, that directed me to the squatter site.

Shelia what lenses do you have?

Which one do you use the most?

 

Oh, shucks - now I see what you meant. ; I just checked out the site with the typo in it (no 's' on digicam) - sorry, that's what I get for doing it from memory the first time around. ; Glad you found the proper site and found the info useful. ; I really did learn a lot by browsing that site - still learning, obviously, but it's an ongoing process.

I have two lenses. ; The everyday one is a Pentax 18-55. ; My zoom (that I don't use as much) is a 50-200.

 

Lots of great info here.

I have used an Olympis SP310 (last two trips), an HP810 (I think), and a Kodak Easy Share. ; I ususally take 700 to 800 pictures while wandering around. ; There is a link to my albums in my signature. ; I think on eof the greatest benefits of digital is that you can just shoot and not worry too much about the number of pictures. ; Memory cards are reasonable priced and easy to carry around.

I am hoping to get a DSLR before our next trip. ; Probably will look at the Canon as that is the type of SLR I have. ; Although, I do like the Nikons.

 

Glad to hear someone is as snap happy as I am .

I don't think you can go wrong with a DSLR, and I'm a novice. ; I love my Pentax, but I understand how loyal camera owners are to a brand. ; Since you're a SLR fan, you don't have the same newbie issues that I had. ; Let us know when you buy!

 

Shooting Fireworks

Realfam and I often discuss the challenges of shooting fireworks. Found this article. Great tips.

http://www.pcworld.com/printable/articl ... table.html

 

Very cool pic!!!!

Its funny you should bring this topic up. ; I was just say to the family we should do some home fireworks tonight and I could pull out my tripod and play a little. ; Most of the fireworks I have make loud bangs though, hard to capture on DSLR.......

 

I love taking pictures at WDW, so many nice views in the parks and the resorts, and then come home and put them together with a Disney photo cd shots to make a slideshow of the trip. ; ; I have a Canon rebel xti and love it but I'm investigating purchasing a second lense to use with this camera, the 18-55 that came with it has been a little disappointing when I needed to pull something closer to get a good shot. ; i'm looking for a zoom or something that would give me more zoom capability, but probably still allow me to use one lense all day? ; You know when you are riding back to TTC from the Magic Kingdom on the ferry and there are some nice shots of the Bay lake resorts, but I'd like to have some zoom capability. ; Any recommendations or thoughts are welcome. ; I think I'll take the camera into Henry's and see if they will let me try out a few different lenses to help in the decision.