• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

First Shots With D40

Josh Blackwood

New member
I think this is the right place to post this, if not let me know!

I just got my Nikon D40 yesterday, and spent the better part of the afternoon playing around with it. None of my shots are anything special, especially composition-wise, but I thought I'd post a few up anyway. I used the Nikon D40 with 55-200m VR lens for all of these. Critique is welcome, and appreciated!

(hosted on Flickr)

2690792657_11ca2650b5_o.jpg


This dragonfly I caught flitting about around 15 feet away, I used manual focus and zoomed all the way in to 200mm to get these shots.

2690814027_de7cca9027_o.jpg


2690806281_8188bd2ca4_o.jpg


2691609888_2c3c11b8c3_o.jpg


These were taken at about 7:30PM or so, in failing light. The horses are my neighbors'. All shots have had Curves tweaked in Photoshop, and the dragonfly was sharpened.

Thanks, Josh
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Josh,

You did well with the dragon fly. They reach up to 18" in wing span in the largest species*!

You might consider cropping. Look up the rules of thirds.

The photography of horses is a challenge. We have great pictures of a mass of galloping wild horses in clouds of dust but it's much harder to take a picture of a horse and make it powerful and compelling. Still these pics are good and you might experiment with cropping.

Congrats on you new camera!

Asher

*These are amazing creatures and in the early stages of life, before dinosaurs these were all huge!

Then the concentration of oxygen was 60% and the insect could therefore burn fuel fast enough to sustain it's energy needs. After one massive extinction event the oxygen percentage dropped and these relics could not survive. so we have just the tiny versions of these hunters.
 
Last edited:

Josh Blackwood

New member
Hi Asher,

Sorry for my delay in responding, I've been busy with a lot of different projects, as well as further familiarizing myelf with my camera. Thanks for the kind words! I'm working on learning to instinctively utilize the rule of thirds to my benefit when possible, and improving my composition. Still a lot to work on!

I'll be posting more later, as I get them 'developed' (I started shooting in RAW, I like the extra options that gives me.

Thanks,

Josh
 
Top