Fun Lessons with my DSLR Camera

This weekend, I took my 4th full day off since February and went out to my family’s lake-house to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Aside from a much-needed break from creating shows, I got some play with my DSLR camera that I got for christmas, the Canon Rebel XS.

There were three types of photos that I particularly enjoyed.

Closeups of Kids Faces

Since I got the camera for Christmas, I’ve been taking tons of pictures.  It’s great to know that I’m capturing all those memories and will have them for years to come.

So with that in mind, I started taking lots of pictures of the kids in my family and I noticed something amazing: closeups of kids faces create amazing pictures.

I’m sure any seasonsed photographer out there knows this already, but it was a great realization for me.  Take a look:

Long Exposures

Having fun with fireworks is even more fun when you can see what’s going on.  These pictures were taken several hours after sundown with 10-30 second exposures.

They’re blurry because they were hand-held, but I’ll definitely use a tripod next time.

Zoom Lens and Sports Mode

Right before I left, I went on a boat ride where we took my brother and cousin tubing.  So I put on the 55-200 lens and fliped the dial to Sports Mode.

To really see what’s going on with these shots, be sure to click the “All Sizes” button and look at the original image.