Saturday, June 28, 2008

Image of the Day

Since I'm on a roll with little critters on flowers here's another one.
Now I need to say something about this image. I proves something. It was not taken with my best Nikon camera. It proves that you don't need an expensive, pro camera to take a good picture. What you need is the right light and good timing. The early morning light for this shot was really nice. I walked outside to take some test pictures with a new used Nikon D40 I got from eBay. It's a gift for someone. I also got a 18-55 kit lens with it. I wanted to test the camera, so I just started taking pictures around the yard to make sure everything was working well. I caught this bee on the flower at just the right time. I don't think this shot would have been any better with my big, pro camera. I believe it would have looked about the same. Then too, of course, I wouldn't have gotten this kind of image with a little point and shoot. I had the D40 set on shutter speed priority (1/800 sec) to try to catch the moving bee. So one would have needed at least a DSLR for this shot. But what I didn't need was a 12.5 megapixel FX camera body or a $1000 prime Nikkor mirco lens. The little 6.1 mp D40 with a $70 lens worked just fine. Another caveat: I wouldn't have been able to take the macro shot of the little green hopper with this lens. But I would have been able to hook up my Nikkor micro lens to the D40 and get almost the same shot. I know some of you guys with D40s and D50s out there. Get out and capture some great images! You don't need an expensive camera. You can do it!

4 comments:

Gene Helsel said...

Your photos have inspired me to start shopping for my first digital SLR camera. Do you think I would be happy with a D40, or should I spend the extra $$ and get the D60? Also, do you have the code lines for the "Read More" feature on your blog? It's really quite nifty. Gene (in Wenatchee)

Jeff Meyers said...

Gene: Thank you for this.

The D40 is a really nice camera. You'll be very happy with it. It's an entrance-level DSLR, so there's some things you can't do with it. But it all depends on what you'd like to get from your camera. Take a look at this and see if it doesn't help:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d60.htm

Second question: the code for the "read more" feature? Hmmm. When I first changed the template, I believe I posted a link to the site in my comments. But I can't seem to find it. If I do find it, I'll post it here again. Sorry.

Jeff Meyers said...

Gene: I just found the page where you can get the code for the "read more" feature.

http://hackosphere.blogspot.com/2006/09/expandable-posts-with-peekaboo-view.html

Gene Helsel said...

Thanks Jeff!! Gene