Monday 28 January 2008

Geometry Theme Presentation...

The club members got off to a strong start in 2008 with a total of 12 members presenting images for the 'Geometry' theme set late last year.

As we have come to expect the images presented covered a diverse range of subjects and idea's.

We also welcome Alberto and Raymond who presented images for the first time..



The discussion was lively and jovial and you really must come along even if you haven't presented any images as it really is a lot of fun, to look at, and hear the comments regarding the images, plus the off the cuff anecdotes of Jose Manuel.... and of course to see if I can get through a presentation without messing up the slide show.... :-)



All the images are on the gallery pages and please give your 'thumbs up' to the those that you most like.... remember it all counts towards the Yearbook content. Of course comments left on the gallery pages are also very welcomed.

OK then, next theme is 'Whatever you want 2008', presentation is provisionally set for 10th March... As you may guess this is a completely 'open' theme, the only requirement being that the image(s) must have been taken this year...

Thank you all for your participation, and if the way you all started is anything to judge by... this is going to be a good year for the club... hasta la proxima..!

Tuesday 15 January 2008

Report: the ESAC photo club Nikon D80



I had the pleasure to borrow the club's new Digital-SLR, a Nikon D80 over the holiday period. It was my first hands-on experience with a single-lens-reflex (SLR) camera. In principle anyone can start using it without any prior experience by selecting the AUTO mode (or one of the selectable scenes: portrait, macro, night, landscape). For me this worked pretty well in most circumstances. In fact, it became quickly evident that the basic quality of the images is already better than your average point-and-shoot compact.

Compared to a point-and-shoot the Nikon is quite heavy and I was forced to use a tripod in low light situations (which I would normally never have thought about! ;-p.



The focal ('zoom') range for the current lens (18-44mm) is not very large but it is quite sufficient for first use.

After a few hundred pictures (mostly taken in RAW format, which I now need to post-process. more on that experience later) I tried using the semi-manual functions (P,S.A on the program dial). This I found quite a challenge. To get a better feeling for aperture/shutter-speed combinations and the effect on e.g. you depth of field (blurring of background) you can use the depth-of-field preview button located on the front of the camera.