First Weekend Out

My first weekend out with the new camera (Nikon D3100) was a little difficult, but certainly not as difficult as would have been expected. Pulling the camera out of the box and seeing all the buttons was a little intimidating.  I have been using point-and-shoot cameras for many years and they pretty much only have two or three buttons, seeing a camera with more buttons was a bit of an experience for me.

For the first weekend I chose to stick to the preset modes on the camera (children, flowers, landscape, etc.). I did not have a clue what aperture, shutter speed, and ISO had to do with taking a perfect photo; therefore, had no clue where to even begin with manually changing these settings. Using the preset modes was the "safe" bet for me.. at least temporarily.  Here are some of the shots I took:

 This is my little brat... I mean daughter :P  I wanted to play with a little photo editing, so this picture is black & white with a little bit of a fade effect added around her face.  I love the look on her face and I love the way the picture turned out.

 My daughter was an excellent "model" for me over that weekend so that I could learn how to use the camera.  For a two year old, she was pretty patient with me!

 This was one of those pictures that just had to be black & white.  The look on her face and just the overall attitude of the picture made me smile.

 Now this picture... I was not so successful.  Everyone meet Qwerty, my spoiled rotten cat.  As you may notice, the focus was on his feet rather than his head.  I did not realize this until I put the picture on the computer.  I still have a lot to learn (and not afraid to admit I messed up :P).

 Here is another one with my Qwerty boy.  This time I did manage to get the focus right and I just really love the way he looks here.  He is another one of my "models" that will just have to get used to having pictures taken.

 A flower picture.  I was working on getting the flower into focus while blurring the background.  It was somewhat successful, but I had hoped to get all of the leaves in the background blurred.  Again I still have a lot to learn, but I look forward to it.

 I love the way this picture looks.  Some of the lighting could be a bit different, but overall I think this picture is a lot of fun and would be adorable in a picture frame on my wall somewhere.

 This was not a "posed" picture, but I was pretty excited when she crossed her arms because it turned out too cute!

 Focus issues again.  The tree is definitely not supposed to be the main focus of this picture!  

 This one I really liked.  She looks like she is thinking about something, haha!  I love the way the grass blurred in the background.  Just what I was hoping for.

 Trying to catch a picture of someone that is moving a lot (swinging) is difficult.  Keeping focus on a moving subject is something I definitely have to work on, but I think I did pretty good here. 

After an afternoon of her mom following her every move with a camera, it was time for a break.