My Present To Myself

I figured after graduating college, I deserved to treat myself to a little present. And that is exactly what I did yesterday.

I went out and bought myself a Nikon D40 camera, with a 18-55mm f/3.5 - f/5.6 ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor lens. And I am in love.

I have no clue what I am doing for the most part, but I am enjoying learning. I took a bunch of pictures yesterday, of just completely random stuff. I changed settings, edited some of the pictures, and basically just played.

I find it so amazing how much you can change a picture by just adjusting a few settings. It's incredible!

So my next task is to start learning more.... I'm going to find some books, maybe a class, and definitely lots of people to help me.

Here are some of my "playing around" pictures from yesterday:

I began experimenting with aperture, not knowing exactly what I was doing. Or rather, not having a clue as to what I was doing. I took the first photo of these two in color (obviously), and then using the editing functions on the camera itself, changed it to black and white. Kind of fun!
Same thing with these two photos.

All of these were taken at the Rose Garden at Priest Point Park.

Josh's mom's birthday is in June, and her one wish is to have pictures taken at Tumwater Fall's Park of Josh and his sister, Amy, together. My goal is to be able to take those for her! But first, I need more practice.

I have considered creating a photography blog in the distant future, to keep all of my photo posts in one place, but that is just an idea for now.

I love photography!