New to photograpy.

[Stobber]

I have always loved documenting our journeys, and lives with pictures, but until recently we always just had a point and shoot digital. A week ago we purchased a DSLR and already we are hooked. We have a nice set of lenses for it, some filters, and some gadgets. We don't know why we waited so long to get more into photography. On our first camping trip we took tons of pictures, and really really enjoyed every minute of it.

Just wanted to see how many of you like to couple photography with camping and other activities. Any tips for the newbie....I just bought a camera (D3100) and love it, so I don't need camera advice. What gadgets do you utilize, and think would be a great addition. I have a macro and telephoto lens, along with filters(uv, polarized, florescent), nice case, dolica 62" ball head tripod, and blower/cleaning stuff. What else cannot I not live without?

And yes...I will be making a follow up post with a few of our first photos.

[Stobber]

Re: New to photograpy.

[Stobber]

Re: New to photograpy.

[Stobber]

Re: New to photograpy.

[Stobber]

Re: New to photograpy.

[Stobber]

Re: New to photograpy.

[renodesertfox]

Re: New to photograpy.

Nice pics! Thanks for sharing!

[Bigdog57]

Re: New to photograpy.

Looks to me like you have it pretty well covered! Nice pics! :cool:

[GlitterHiker]

Re: New to photograpy.

Beautiful pics! thanks for posting.

[AdamGOGC]

Re: New to photograpy.

Sounds like you have a nice set up. I, like you, really enjoy photography while camping. Unfortunately, I cannot see your photos, but that could be because I am typing this at work (shhhh...). I have a Sony A100 DSLR and I love it. Just a couple thoughts. First, I'm glad to see that you have a tripod on your list of gadgets. I was recently at Yellowstone National Park and I was amazed at how many people had huge cameras, but no tripod. Cameras only do so well with the "anti-shake" thing, but if you are going to blow up any of your pics, you should be using a tripod. Another recommendation would be to invest in some photo editing software (if you haven't already). Something as basic as Photoshop Elements would work great. When shooting in RAW you really have a lot of flexibility to touch up your pics afterwards. I don't have any photos to add to this post, but I will share my photo website if you are intersted. I find that looking at other photographers work inspires me and gives me new ideas. Here is the link.

[Stobber]

Re: New to photograpy.

Thanks for the reply....I love your pictures. I am no-where near that level yet, but hell, its only been a week!! lol. Yes, I to cannot believe how few people carry a tripod, ours is so light. I do shoot all of my photos in RAW+fine. My Nikon did come with some great editing software, I just have not spent any time playing with it. I have never really even used the AR feature on my lenses, I have heard it can have negative effects on the pictures.

Thanks again!

[UAE_Camp]

Re: New to photograpy.

Nice photo sets... You almost cover everything, my suggestion is try to add the ultra wide lens that cover up to 10mm focal length, you will enjoy more taking the photos while camping... The big aperture lens (f 1.8 or f 1.4) also good addition to your lenses, it will help a lot shooting in low light or at night while having the campfire... :p

[Stobber]

Re: New to photograpy.

Very timely advise UAE...I just ordered a nifty fifty on Amazon for those exact reasons. It gets great reviews, and is super affordable for a starving newbie like myself. I need a general prime lens for just walking around. After spending some time on The PhotoForum I realized many people recommend this lens for the exact reasons you stated.

[beemerchef]

Re: New to photograpy.

I think "Adobe Lightroom" is plenty sufficient without forking out a fortune for the PS software...
I never change lenses in the field! Even with a self cleaning camera you will get that sensor dirty...
.. and if you have spare change the Canon S-95 (now S-100!) is great for those close up/near shots when you do not want to deal with the big camera.

Ara and Spirit

[renodesertfox]

Re: New to photograpy.

I think "Adobe Lightroom" is plenty sufficient without forking out a fortune for the PS software...
I never change lenses in the field! Even with a self cleaning camera you will get that sensor dirty...
.. and if you have spare change the Canon S-95 (now S-100!) is great for those close up/near shots when you do not want to deal with the big camera.

Ara and Spirit

Welcome beemerchef to our humble forum! The Adobe Lightroom program that you have referred to is put out by the same company that has CS5(creative suite 5) but is a lot easier to use and costs a lot less. I do have the full blown version of cs5 and am happy with it, but that is because I'm a retired pro-photog and it can do many marvelous things that Lightroom can't. For the average joe "lightroom" may even be too much of a program to use. Personally, I think you may be cutting out some photographic opportunities by not changing lenses when you're out camping. Delkin Devices has a small neat package that works either in the field or at home for cleaning dust off of a camera's sensor and always goes with, in my vehicle whenever I'm out. Use to carry over 6 lenses at a time but now it's usually only two. Canon EF-S 10-17mm and Tamron's 18-270mm mounted for Canon 50D and EOS3 that I use. Also I'll carry a point-n-shoot if the trail involves free scrambling over rocky terrain. Anyway, I just wanted to welcome you to the forum! btw: I also use to chat on another site desert something and I ran into a user with the same user name. Always enjoyed his read! Thanks for taking the trouble to chat about campin!