August 2020 Blog - Getting to Know Your Camera - Asha Zappone

My Most Recent Holiday, and Experience in Photography.

On the 9th of August myself and my family, went out on trip to the Murray River, and boy it was a thriller of a holiday. I really just loved the relaxed and calm environment of the houseboat, but something that I loved even more was the photography I was able to do. It the most perfect environment to shoot photos. 

Some days it is dark and rainy then the next sunny and bright. And this just makes for dynamic and creative photography, as well as having some nice moody photos in the camera roll. One of the challenges I found within the weather changing was making sure that my camera settings were correct to fit the environment I was taking photos in (Especially because I was shooting on a DSLR). It was the first day that took a little while to find the correct Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed for the rivers environment.

To me the shutter speed had to stay high on this trip, the reason bring is I really wanted to capture lots of bird photos (a lot of my next posts through the weeks will be birds). The other great thing about having a high shutter speed is being able to capture the ripples of the river, as well as capturing moving bushes and plants.

For example this image was taken in the wind, thankfully my shutter speed was fast enough (1/1000) to capture the main object. (Eos 1500d)

On the trip my main shutter speed was at 1/1000, and on the really sunny days or sunrise I would knock it up to 1/1250. My Aperture on the sunny and bright days was set in between F6.3 to F8.0, and for dark and rainy days in between F4.5 to F5.6. Then for the main ISO, on the sunny days I had it around 200 to 800, because I had to be carful about the water reflections and brightness, whereas on the darker days somewhere from 1600 and 6400.

There where some situations where I felt that, this experience is really teaching me something. And I think that learning all of these things before hand really played a large impact of my understanding of the camera, but without saying, I definitely learnt more about the camera in person doing actual photo shoots and being with the camera one on one, instead of watching a YouTube video on how to change all these things. 

If you're a beginner photographer and want to know what Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed all mean, definitely watch a YouTube video of a tutorial, or in the comments request that I make a small tutorial on these three important camera settings.

So the trip has taught me heaps about how the camera works and functions, as well as being confident of going out of auto mode and switching the dial to Manual. The camera that has helped me to get this far in my understanding was the Canon Eos 1500d. This camera is a super amazing camera to start your photography journey, for quite a good price point for a high quality DSLR.

Its a great user experience starting out with this DSLR or another entry level DSLR from Canon, to understand the camera and how the camera works and what functions you need to learn in depth about to achieve high quality photos.

Thanks for reading, if your learnt something or enjoyed reading, let me know in the comments. If there is more you would to know more about these three main topics, I've discussed, let me know as well, and I will make an IGTV video on this topic.

Would you like me cover another photography topic, similar to what has just been discussed, let me know. If you have enjoyed what you have read, a follow would mean a lot! 

Thanks.