Raven & Willow

[flashbackpat]

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and I am so glad I found it. I think there will be a lot for me to learn here. I am a very amatuer photographer with a special interest in photographing animals (people's pets). I wonder if all photographers have to take dozens of shots to get 1 or 2 decent ones.

[MoJo40 Design]

Very Cute.

Welcome to the forum.
As you learn more you may still only like 1 or 2 shots.
Don't be too hard on yourself, just keep shooting.

[willgoss]

One of the great things is with digital you can shoot lots of pictures, it does require some discipline to delete lots of shots....

When I take 30 pictures (candid type setting), about 15 are worth keeping and only 4 or 5 worth working on...

[shreds]

Don't worry about the loss rate.

As you progress you will find less get 'ditched' although even then, everyone has good days and bad.

Unless you experiment, you wont know and I still reflect on my best picture taken 18 years ago (still hanging framed on the wall) which had me turn and shoot a backlit shot as an 'experiment'. (One of 12x36 shots I took on that shoot)

I still regard it very highly after all these years. (shame I can't do them like that everyday) and brings favourable comment from all visitors to the house.

Or perhaps I too am far too critical these days!

[flashbackpat]

I suppose that is why I chose this particular shot to post as my first. It was taken with a small inexpensive vivitar digital camera I got for Xmas a few years ago. A camera I still dislike to this day. I realize that the photo isn't high quality but my pride in the picture is that I got the shot at all. The picture gods were all on my side that day. I managed to capture the expression and get an in focus shot before my subjects dropped the toy. I was disappointed that the coffee table with my sons smokes were also captured, but elected to post the unedited version.

I recently purchased a Nikon D40x and I'm trying diligently to learn how to get the most out of it. Today while practicing with the black and white setting I snapped this shot.




The on screen version doesn't come close to comparing to the print. But what impresses me the most about the picture is the dogs soft, sultry expression. I don't believe it would have been as evident if I had taken the shot in color.