Monday, May 4, 2009

My new lens!

Today I went to the post office to pick up a mystery package we had missed on Saturday. Chris acted like he didn't know what it could be...but that little sneak knew all along it was the new lens he had ordered me for my camera!! I've had my SLR for over a year now and this is my first lens to get! I'm so excited! Happy Mother's Day to me!

It's a 50 mm f/1.8. It's not a zoom lens, which took a little getting used to (I had to physically back away from my subject when I needed more of it in the frame).

Now for you lens and camera geeks: the reason I wanted this particular lens is that I needed one that would go to a lower aperture than my other one. This one goes down to 1.8. I think my standard lens only goes to 2.8, or maybe 3.2. I can't remember--all I know is that it wasn't low enough. A lower aperture means I can shoot in lower light situations more easily. Low aperture means you get that fuzzy background which is so great for shots of faces. If I have my aperture set really low, I can have my shutter speed higher and still get a good shot. On my old lens, I would set my aperture as low as it would go, then I would still have to drop my shutter speed wayyyyy low which meant my pictures were wayyyyy blurry! In the photography class I took last summer the instructor said shutter speeds below 30 really require a tripod, otherwise you get camera shake, and I was having to go down to 10 or 15 with my regular lens to get properly exposed shots indoors.

Outdoors my old lens works great, but I wanted a good lens for getting snapshots indoors, without having to use the flash (I hate flash!). I had told Chris I wanted this new lens before the baby arrived, so this is my early Mother's Day gift!!

And without further ado, here are some cute shots I took the first few minutes of playing with my lens...

One of Claire's "looks". Her eyes are so very expressive!


Converted to B&W because I liked the look! Plus Aaron had spaghettios sauce on his face and the B&W hides it!


Could have used a slightly lower shutter speed to let in a little more light, but I still like this shot. Looks really good in B&W!


Silly Claire!


I'm sooooo very happy and excited!!!

2 comments:

Amber said...

Great shots and great info for me. I'm still learning about my camera. I need to take a class.

Regina said...

Good for you! Love the 1st one of Claire but they are all good. So jealous am I!