Learning Curve

Posted on November 11, 2014November 11, 2014 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Maybe I should call this post “be careful what you wish for”.

After I had been using my D3000 camera for about a year I began to get a little frustrated with its limitations. Oh there were ways to work around them but I came down with a bad case of camera lust.

At the time Ritz Camera was still around and I spent some time playing with a Nikon D7000. It seemed to have what I wanted. It could be set to automatically bracket for HDR and it had a place for a manual remote trigger. Those were the 2 biggies I was interested in at the time.

But time passes and I never seemed to get the money together. Then Ritz closed. More time passed and I spotted the D7100. I didn’t run into much buzz about the D7000 any more so I began researching the 7100. I wanted it it but there is something to be said for wanting things from afar.

The opportunity arose this weekend for me to pick up the D7100 for a very reasonable price and I jumped on it. I couldn’t wait to get it home and charge up the batteries.

By the time the first battery was charged it was dark so I plunked myself in my recliner with the camera to play. The first thing that threw me a curve was that I was taking pictures but nothing showed up on the live view.

I thought I was doing something wrong. Now if I had looked in the instruction manual I would have seen (in about 5 minutes or less) that to view the photos you need to push a little arrow and Voila! there they are.

Now I went searching for the histograms and (Shame on me) a way to get out of auto. The dial was 2 tiered and I had no idea what those choices were!

My oh my it will be awhile before I’m as comfortable with this baby as I was with my old entry level D3000. I have my work cut out for me.

By the end of the 2nd day I had managed to get all my settings in the camera and managed to get to the aperture and shutter modes so I am making progress but it still feels a bit like a struggle.

Practice Shot of Rocky taken from across the livingroom

Like I said, be careful what you wish for. I’m going to have quite a learning curve on this one!

Challenge # 1

Posted on March 21, 2013March 21, 2013 by Dusty Roads

I think this first one will be easy. What is it and where is it? Answer tomorrow but I bet most of you get it first. 🙂

Eiffel Tower

Posted on March 20, 2013March 20, 2013 by Dusty Roads

The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, is an iron lattice tower located on the in Champ de Mars, Paris, France. The structure carries the name of the engineer who designed and built the tower in 1889.

The Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris and the most visited paid monument in the world.

The Eiffel tower was built for the 1889 World Fair. It was said to be the ‘symbol of our achievements in the field of science and engineering’.

Construction of the Eiffel Tower began on January 28, 1887, and was eventually completed on March 31, 1889. It took 2 years, 2 months, and 5 days , for the 300 workers involved to complete the project.

The Eiffel Tower has a total of 1710 steps ( Just imagine climbing them all) to the third level small platform at the top, 674 steps to the second level, and 347 steps to the first level, all counted from the ground.

There’s much more I could list here but I have to save some for when I really go there. But I think you get the idea. So tomorrow I’ll post the first landmark/monument for real.

Coming Attractions

Posted on March 19, 2013March 19, 2013 by Dusty Roads

With the nasty weather the northeast has been experiencing since I came back from Florida and the time it’s taken to assimilate Buddy into our little family, I haven’t been doing too much exploring.

For once Sunday at work was not too crazy so I sat and pondered what I could write about until I get out and about again. I thought of a few places that would be awesome for pictures and of course that would mean some good stories but none are open yet. Some won’t open their doors until May!

May is the Alaska cruise so I’m sure I’ll have a lot to tell you then but there’s the rest of March and all of April so what can I share that would be of interest?

I think I have an idea. I have thousands of pictures from my trips, both away and locally. But just dumping a bunch of pictures isn’t that interesting so I thought a challenge might be fun.

Lets say I went to Paris. (I haven’t but we’re just pretending right now). While in Paris I took a picture of the Eiffel Tower. I would post the picture and you’d have to figure out that it was the Eiffel Tower in Paris France.

The next post will give you the answer so you’ll know if you are right and tell a little bit about the picture or landmark.

So even though I haven’t been to Paris and I have to “steal” a picture of the Eiffel Tower. Here it is.