Happiest Day of my life...

Finally the day came for which I was eagerly waiting since so long, the happiest moment of my life. I bought my first DSLR yesterday :)

I wanted to share with you all on the day I ordered my Nikon D7000 but the first order got cancelled and I thought I should not jinx it :)

I can't tell you guys how much happy I am . Not only this is my first DSLR, its something for which I was waiting since last many years and something which will give the much needed purpose to my life.

Before I write further , I will like to thank my sister and parents for letting me buy such an expensive equipment. Especially my sister, if my parent brought me to this world, you have given me my life Didibhai. 

Upgrading from a Point & Shoot to a DSLR in itself should be a major improvement and that being D7000 itself takes me to a different world. (Its a mid level DSLR costing round 62K with lens)

I ordered it on Wednesday and was supposed to pick it by Saturday but could not stop myself and went there Thursday itself :) 

Just sharing some initial thoughts. I am yet to take it out in daylight as I picked it at around 7:30 in the evening yesterday . But I already took 300 shots while travelling back from store to my home(around one n half hour trip).

So since I have only shot at night and that too from a moving car with my less than novice technique, I din't have much keepers out of those 300. 

I bought it with 18-55 kit lens as any other lens was out of my budget and anyways the reviews of this kit lens were quite good. 

1. The first shot that I took after the shopkeeper handed me the cam was the below potrait of my dad and now when I checked on my laptop ,its something I could never take with my P&S, a potrait with just the person and rest all blurred.  (The below photo is the cropped version of that.)

2. After that I shot while travelling and that too in low light condition. Since I have never used a cam that could give me any kind of control on Aperture or Shutter , I shot first in Auto mode, which popped out the flash the moment I tried to click. 

Don't take it as a negative comment but I found it hunting a lot with me missing some shots. Actually the P&S would have clicked those irrespective of whether it could lock focus properly or not. I am not comparing the quality here, I am just saying that since it has way more IQ then a P&S, it is more choosy :). 

P&S would have clicked it irrespective of whether anything is in focus or anything is sharp or not. But the few keepers I had itself gave me the idea that if I had played around with the camera or had been stationary, it would have locked many more shots in near perfect way. 

3. Then I switched to Aperture mode and owing to lack of knowledge when I reduced the aperture to say till f22 it increased the shutter speed by quite a few seconds and owing to my constant motion and novice techniques all of them had blurred (although I could still see some interesting light patterns due to its long exposure :)) 

4. So next I moved to Shutter priority, and again due to my stupidity , I clicked it at fastest possible speed initially and as expected they all were blacked out. Then I reduced the speed and I clicked a series of photos where I can see the scene illuminating as I slowed the shutter. 

5. The Viewfinder is AWESOME. Man I din't even checked the live view till I reviewd my shutter priority mode photos and found them blacked out. The Viewfinder is something to die for and I don't think I am going to use live view ever when I have such an amazing view finder. 

6. The Camera is heavy but I found it quite sturdy and grip was amazing. 

7. Coming from a Canon P&S and with Canon being quite user friendly as far as button layouts is concerned, I found the buttons quite easy to use. And there are so many buttons at the back that I was just wondering if I am ever going to use them :-D 

8. Then I shot in without flash mode and man I was hugely impressed. The shots have come too good at times without flash in low light. By good I don't mean keepers but in that low light I never expected it to lock and capture so well and once my technique improves I think there will be many keepers. 

 

Below is my first attempt at Bokeh (about which I will definitely write a post once I get more hang of it)

If I have to summarize in one line then it will definitely be I'm Loving It :)

Since my Di is not here so the only muses that I have at present are my helpless Mom and Dad , who are going to be most frequent subject of my photography.

 

I just loved the above pic that I took of my Dad.


So guys be ready to start this new journey with me :)

Am I insane ???

Taken by My Film SLR


 

Its been a long time since I had a Wow moment in my life and I perhaps feel that I do need something in my life which will make me feel how beautiful this life is :)

And the closest thing that I can think of at this moment which can take me to the level of ecstasy is Photography.

I simply love that at this moment and although I already have two cameras, one point and shoot and one Film SLR but in order to pursue my interest further I need to buy a Digital SLR. And the DSLR on which I have set me eyes is Canon EOS 60D. Although I have been planning to buy a DSLR since long but ever since my Didibhai moved to South Korea for her Post Doc, I kind of have a little more financial freedom :)

So the camera alongwith two lenses , one 18-55mm and another 55-250mm will cost me little around ....sigh..... 60K (US and Japan price , where it suppose to be cheapest) :D

And the first person with whom I shared this and who I thought will be the only person to appreciate it, had this to say when I asked him ,"am I stupid to spend 60K on a camera?", "Dude , stupid will be too small a word to describe it." At that very moment , it stuck me," Oh God, is it insane ?".

But since I am not going to buy it right now and still have time till December (price will be less around christmas :)) and also hopefully Rupee will get strong by then, so I have somehow convinced myself to go ahead with it. ( I am also evaluating just to buy the camera body and not the lenses which will cost 15-20 K less and use the Film SLR lens I have for the time being).

Ok I know people say that its not the equipment but the person handling the equipment who captures great picture but I am defintely not a believer of that statement, as right now I know I am only bounded with the hardware.

But the major problem still lies in convincing my folks to let me make this and probably my first and last extravagant purchase.

I still remember when I went to buy my first camera and set my sight on a low end DSLR costing 20K, they very easily discarded that and I had to settle for basic point and shoot.

Don't get me wrong I am not comparing quality with price but lets accept it , more you shell out better machine you get. And for sure you cannot do all stuffs like night photography, potrait, sports and for sure wildlife  photography with a point and shoot. Yes its no doubt good for basic family photograph or travel photograph but to capture the real essence of the scene you need better control which you can only get from a SLR. And most people say that why straight away go for a 40K machine for start, you can first try out with 25-30K one and then upgrade (something I remember my Dad said when I was buying the P&S, "The model changes every month"). Yes I totally agree, but I don't want to shell out 25-30K on something and then after 1 year so feel "Oh I cannot do everything with this " and start looking for another one. No I atleast want to make 2-3 years investment. Also the thing with DSLR is that hardware doesn't change with over the years and you have to make investments on lenses, which anyway I will have to do irrespective of the body I buy.

Taken by my P&S

Convincing my parents will be a big task. Although I have asked Didibhai to get me one from Japan as one of her Korean labmates frequently goes there and in that case it will be little easy for me to first purchase and then completely share with my parents but still I want to first  create the ambience where they already have an idea that I am going to make an expensive purchase rather than getting the shock later. Thats why I have also asked Didibhai that whenever they discuss anything regarding me just turn it towards he wants to purchase a camera :D

The thought of talking to them about it is just like telling them that I have fallen in love with a girl and I want to marry her . And somehow that topic seems to be much simpler and easy to talk than camera :)

Well at present I can just pray for Rupee to get stronger by December and my parents letting me buy it .

May be I will also have to think making money from it , probably as suggested by my Friend , do photo shoots at wedding (anyway I did that at my two friends wedding this year). Photo shoots at Indian wedding sounds quite initimdating :)

Bought a Digi Cam :-)

I bought my first digi cam today Canon IXUS 95. Its a compact camera. A genuine one. Couldn't go for a one which gives more control. Anyways a cool one to start with. Will soon upload the photos that I take. I expect to use it regularly in fact if possible daily. Wish could take it to office too.