Learning to use a camera

Nicola and Dave have lent me their camera for an upcoming trip. It is a digital SLR and way more complicated than my little "point and shoot" so I am taking it with me when I walk and trying to get used to it and learn how all the "bells and whistles" work.

On this particular walk I had it on AUTO as it was my first day with it. It focused on the foreground and blurred the background. Nice, if I had wanted that effect.

Handles a landscape nicely, crisp and clear.

Does a better job shooting into the sun than my camera.

Evidence of beach users that day include; a motorcycle,

dog, (quite clear on a close up)

horses, the day before and

Canada Geese.

There they are. The zoom works well.

The recent storms have left cliffs on the parks dog beach.

A bigger viewing screen that pulls away from the body of the camera makes it easier to catch birds in flight

and landing in a large raft on the lake.

Not landing particularly gracefully though.

Walking back through the park I saw this Downy eating berries.

The Old Cut lighthouse is always photogenic.

Especially with storm clouds behind.

Julie Stone's garage covered with souvenirs from her father, Dave's, Long Point explorations.

How lovely that would be, riding on the beach.

There was a lovely sunset the same day and I just went out and randomly played with the camera dials but have no idea which gave me the best shots. However, even on Auto the camera didn't wash out the colours as much as my camera does.

I know this one was on AUTO, as it was one of the first that I took

Then I started playing.

The colours really were this brilliant but usually my camera can't capture them.