The instructions

Hi Again,

Last week I went to Jessops in Livingston to get some advice from the man who knowns - Al. I always go there as I find his advice to be very good. He is a photographer and videographer who advises others of the same ilk, and also wanabees.

Anyway, after seeking counsel from Al, I bought a Tamron 70-300 zoom lens and off I trotted.

I used it a couple of days later and was disappointed by the results. They were a bit blurry at the telephoto end of the scale. I tried out one or two things and was still disappointed by the result. Then I came upon the instructions which came with the lens and they said that when using a telephoto hand held it was better to set the ISO toward the higher end, so I tried it at 800. Problem solved, perfect results. It was not the lens that was the duffer; it was me!

This leads me to my point. Always read the instructions. I have a D60 which I bought a couple of months ago. I was in a bookshop the other day and I saw a book with the title "How to use your D60" and I thought about buying it.

Then it dawned on me that I already have this book but I haven't read it although it came free with the camera. It's called the instruction manual, but most of us have a quick glance at it, read enough to get started ( they always have a quick start guide) and crack on. However, the manual, when read through and understood, tells you all you need to know. The manufacturer of the camera wrote it after all.

I find that it is best digested in bite size chunks. Learn a bit then leave the rest to another time and slowly work through it. It pays dividends.

Anyway, enough of that. I went to Crammond island yesterday with my buddy George and we got some good shots before the rain came on. It always seems to rain at Crammond when we go there. I edited the shots and a couple of them looked almost like the ones you see in the magazines. I am beginning to get the hang of Photoshop but I will tell you about that another time.

Cheers,

Tony.

In the beginning

Hi there,

I'm Tony Thomas and welcome to my blog.

I decided to begin this as I have recently taken up photography and would like to create a journal of my progress. Hopefully you will enjoy it and hopefully you may even learn from it as I learn as I go along.

I took up photography last year, and joined a local camera club. I have gone along to a few meetings, and have lstened and learned as I went along. I entered 3 photos into the competitions and ended up with the runner up position in the image of the year (beginners section) so this was an encouraging start. The photos were taken with a Fuji compact.

The club was commisioned to be official photographers at Gardening Scotland. As a result, I decided to buy my first digital SLR and I went for the Nikon D60. Essentially, when you buy your first SLR, you are buying into a system because to make use of your lenses etc. your next camera will have to be the same make. I opted for Nikon.

Here is the first lesson I learned in photography. A camera is like a rabbit. What was that? Well some years ago, when my daughter was 12, I bought her 2 rabbits as pets. They cost me only £12 so they seemed a bargain. However they cost me more that that every week in feeding and bedding and the vet bills were beyomd the pale. A camera is like that. You may spend 2 or 3 hundred pounds on your first SLR, but it's what you spend after that on lenses and accessories which hurts. Sam, a friend of mine, remarked to me that his camera wasn't expensive, while at the same time telling me about the printer he was buying. the cost? £1500! That camera was an expensive rabbit.

Anyway, I will sign off now. I hope you take the time to follow my blog but before I go there is one website I must recommend for clear and sensible advice. Visit www.kenrockwell.com/ for the best in advice and it's free. Speak soon.

Tony.