Backyard Poultry Forum

this is the very first photo on my new camera. i have managed to turn it on and take one photo:



i remember my first digital where i took a photo of the cat pressed some buttons and other half managed remove the photo a year or so later.

i have managed to set the date and the time. now to set it up how i like. what sort of camera you ask? a canon EOS 60 is says on the box. i have a year and a half to learn how to use it for the canberra national in 2012....and to develop muscles to hold it.

stay tuned for some macro shots of chooks. theabove is a crucifix spider.

great photo still hate spiders though.

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1 Stafford, 1 moggy, 2 British shorthair cats, 1 Green tree frog, 2 Eastern long neck turtles, 13 chooks- lots of different breeds, 2 almost adult boys and a worn out husband!

hmm i seem to be focusing behind the point i want in focus:



this is the same species of fly taken on the other camera as close as i could get:

hehe great subjects. i found with my lens that i had to practice practice practice to get it right, and sometimes i still don't but most of the times i do now. congratulations on a great camera.

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Anconas, Silkies and Pekins Caladenia Cottage
Silkies
Wonderful Silkies

now the cameras feel very different and the balance is different. even though the canon (new one) is image stabilized i do need to keep steady.

another go at the lil grren fly:



unlike the lil green fly who is at full size i had to reduce the spider to fit the whole thing in here to be shown as a whole animal:



and these 2 very small assasin bugs:



all of these photos were taken on a macro setting. i shall try other settings too as soon as i read some more. also tomorrow i shall try the telphoto lens (if weather permits)....i have never used one of these before.

Amazing, you are a very talented photographer.

I found getting the focus right with the Cannon a bit of a challenge (still do if I get over-excited) as there seem to be so many options for the 'focus' markers on the lens. I have not yet fitted the long-range lens to the camera - after almost two years of ownership - as I am nervous about how silly I will look with it on there ... and how nervous I might make the neighbours, lol.

Those are great shots though - the spider is particularly beautiful (though wouldn't want to meet it in its web) and that little green fly - how cute is that!

Great photos Ruff and congratulation on the new camera! What lenses did you end up getting for it?

Canon are renowned for having their focus be a little all over the place so it might not be you at all. I have a Canon 450d which is some versions down from yours and I love it.

i've bought heaps of great camera books but probably the best for learning about all the camera's features is the Canon EOS for Dummies book. There's one for most of the versions out there and even if you could only find one for a more basic model it would probably still be quite useful. Sometimes there only a handful if features which are different.

Another thing I have found amazingly helpful is joining a camera club. I've been going to the local one here and all the members are so friendly. They have monthly competitions so you can challenge yourself with photos and moving up the grades. Being a member of the club also give you special priveleges, for example we've been given special passes for the masters games running on the Gold Coast, so we get to wander around the competitions getting up close and trying to take good photos of the athletes. The club is heaps of fun and really handy to bounce ideas off other people and get suggestions on how to take better photos. I'm still an absolute newby and for my recent birthday one of my gifts was lessons with a professional photographer. I can't wait to have help with all the questions I have specific to my camera.

Ive put some links in to some great photography websites (there's a lot out there!) some of which have regular emails they send out with hints and tips.

http://www.picturesocial.com/
http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/

Can't wait to see more of your photos

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A mixed bag of lovely backyard ducks and chooks.

i wasn't going to get a cannon as they did not havea a rotating screen, then this one came out. my last 2 cameras are sony's and tended just to want to stick to sony. however i eventually got convinced you can get more and cheaper lenses for the canon so i decided to go for the different brand.

the lens i have been using today is ef-s18-200mm if that means anything.
the telephoto is a sigma 120-400mm
i also want a macro but with stabilizer which we will get off the internet along with a wide angle lens mr ruff insists i need. this one i think will be good for doing chooks in cages through a cage door.

my art classes have helped me heaps in composing photos. i should join a club but the chooks take so much of my time at the moment and i also want to do dog obedience. so many things.

when i get excited i shake too. i have learned to do deep breathing and concentrate. i will keep an eye open for a book for dummies.

lately i have been playing around in photo bucket competitions. i only just realized my album has been open for all to see for years. my biggest interest is animals in different poses and doing things people have never imagined. plants, especially fungi are fascinating too. i have a very good 'backyard' where it is not difficult to find somethimng of interest or something rare and unusual. even the dog. when mr ruff is home we go on little photo trips for the afternoon. he is just as interested and far more knowledgable and extremly artistic in what he sees. we have the odd competition to eee how many people we can get to look at our photos and he generally wins.

Wow Ruff, not bad for a new camera. I keep saying I should move to a digital for my actual photography but as I can't wear contact lenses any more, I don't do as much land and waterscapes as I used to.

I still use a Canon FTB that my mother brought second hand to give to my father as an engagement gift over 40 years ago. Most of my work is on slide film - Velvia mostly - but some of it has been put onto the computer. My bias is firmly with film cameras. I've never been big on digital though I recognise the benefits of being able to take a thousand shots and just delete the bad ones. It also works out cheaper in the end when you take into account the cost of film and development. It's been a while since I was able to put up with the chemicals used. I used to develop my own film - not the slide film - until the chemicals started giving me headaches and caused fainting spells.

Won't show any directly as some of them are big. Remember, my eyesight is nearly crapper than crap now but it wasn't crash hot a few years ago when these were taken.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/ ... ckrock.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/ ... 270003.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/ ... 260015.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/ ... 020002.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/ ... falls3.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/ ... rapid1.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/ ... stract.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/ ... c0a88b.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/ ... o37077.jpg

celi my last film camera was a canon SLR and it met the same fate as the last sony...taking photos in the rain causes mouldy lenses. however i so think you should try a digital camer, even $300 cameras can give fantastic shots. the benifit of these is that you can take the photo and have it up on the computer in less than 5 minutes and for you and your eyes it can help you see so much. even for normal old eyes it gives you so much pleasure alone. i do not have a TV but i would love to see my photos up on one of those big plasma screens. i am sure it would give you so much pleasure if you did.

Yeah, I have a poke around in camera shops when I can be bothered going down to Cairns but now that I can't wear contacts, I don't do as much. I use my dad's old Nikon for snaps in the back yard which is great for sitting there for an hour or two taking photos of a couple of chooks. But it all comes down to the fact that I struggle getting the focus right.

But I keep reminding myself that I should take my tent and go camp out at Henrietta Creek and go spend a few days sitting at the falls there. Nandroya is one of my all time favourite waterfalls and spending all day looking at water is very relaxing. But as soon as I start making noises about going camping and wandering around the forest on my own, everyone starts getting fussy because on top of not being able to see my own nose without glasses, I'm completely nightblind now They mean well!

celi i used to have excellent eye sight and could see infusoria* in water. wearing glasses due to age has so much frustrated me. with these digital cameras you just have to point them in the right direction and they focus for you. they would be excellent for you. i once had a sore eye and i could not see it because my glasses were in the way and could not see without my glasses so i photographed my eye and put it on the computer...purrfect.

* edited as i put drosphilla instead of infusoria. infusoria is a minute water organism i fed to my newly hatched siamese fighting fish. drosophilla are little fruit flies studied at universities for their multitude of genetic mutations.

Love your work.

Ruff you can buy quite cheap tripods or monopods on Ebay (and very expensive ones as well). If you're going to use one don't forget to turn off the stabilising on the lens and it also helps to set the camera to take the photo two or so seconds after you click the shutter button. Even when the camera is on the tripod you can see a slight shake after you've hit the shutter button. It makes a massive difference especially if you're taking a photo of non moving objects.


Edited to say they are also handy in low light situations where you might want to slow the shutter speed down and you can't hand hold without shake being seen.

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A mixed bag of lovely backyard ducks and chooks.