anchin musings

I had been hmm-ing and ha-ing about getting a DSLR for a long long time before my darling husband finally got sick of hearing me whine broke down and got one for me.  Part of the reason for my hesitation was the fear of 1) never using this major investment and 2) utterly and completely failing at using it.  As mentioned in About Me, I had some experience with photography in high school.  However, this is 16 years later and I consider all of those experiences past time glories that I may never replicate again.

After consulting with his very creative hot-shot photographer coworker (check out his flickr page here), my pumpkin pie decided to get the Nikon D5000 for me since it was a good beginner DSLR and also it was on sale.  At the time, I was a die-hard Canon fan, so I was a bit hesitant about this whole Nikon business.  However, I have come to love her every curve and button.  The D5000 is a good fit for my child-sized hands (I kid you not, I buy my gloves from the children’s section).  I suppose the only negative I would say about Nikon vs. Canon is that Nikon lenses tend to be more expensive than Canon.  

As for lenses, I currently have three.  My sugar bun got the kit lens (18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, pictured above) that came as a package with the camera.  It’s not bad for a starter lens.  This is what I still use for landscape or other wide-angle pictures.  See examples of photos taken with this lens, here.  I used it for a few months before getting a supplement (not replacement!) lens, the 35mm f/1.8.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this lens!!  I got this lens right before my best friend’s wedding and shot her entire wedding with the lens.  See example photos here.

I say supplemental lens because the 35mm is a prime lens, meaning it does not zoom, at all.  Thus, I still need the kit lens for wide angle shots.  Needless to say, without any zoom, I did A LOT of running around during my friend’s wedding.  I also stuck my camera right in their faces to get some closer-up shots.  Note: I generally would not recommend doing that during weddings!  She had a small, semi-informal destination wedding, and she was my best friend so I knew she would put up with me.  However, it was all worth it because I loved how the pictures came out.  This lens is fast and sharp!

The last lens that I acquired was a christmas gift from my buttercream cake at the recommendation of his creative hot-shot photographer coworker once again.  It is the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8.  I had not planned to get any more lenses, even though I was salivating over many of them, so this was a very pleasant surprise.  At first, I was very much intimidated by this lens.  I mean, just look at it…

OK, I guess it’s hard to tell its size in this picture, but I assure you, it is a monster and it is heavy!  I had a hard time carrying it around and holding it still.  However, now that I have a new camera bag (to be expanded on later) to house this baby and have played around with it a little, I am loving it!  

As a beginner, I think the kit lens and the 35mm lens were great to start with.  It also doesn’t hurt that they are the most economical of them all, at under $200 each. (Umm… if you haven’t noticed, photography is an expensive hobby!)