Beautiful Day To Go To The Zoo.

Almost 70 degrees in the middle of November is what the weather guy on the radio refers to as "unseasonably" warm. And if you're freaking out about global warming then a beautiful day like this may be downright terrifying to you. But for me, it was a perfect day to hit the Baltimore Zoo with the family and see how the D40 handles "in the field" in the hands of a true amateur. With the cash leftover from playing it frugal, I sprung for a cool Nikon camera bag (with a groovy yellow stripe) and a polarizing lens filter.




Awesome bag, just the right size to fit all the gear.





Ok, so evidently this thing is the shit. If you've ever worn polarized sunglasses (not the gas station crap that has "polarized" written on them so you pick them up...I mean a real pair of polarized sunglasses) then you know what they can do. This is good for outdoor, sunny day use and really makes colors "pop". Bluer blues, redder reds, yellower yellows, improves contrast, cuts glare...all of it. It sounded too good to be true, but man did it make a difference. I have a few shots to show how it handled.





So off we go!





Otter statue oversees the entrance.





Charlotte having a great time. I've found that getting up close and manually focusing on the subject really gives that good "blurry background" that I really like. I'm practicing different techniques to get consistent results. Doesn't she look cute?!!





Enjoying a leaf. I really like getting in close especially as the sunlight shifts behind.





Stopping and photographing leaves and berries and natural colors is to be expected. It never gets old, the colors in nature are always so sweet. Close up, polarizing filter.





Not a very good background for this picture, and I'm still practicing manual focus. Getting faster...





Polarizing filter in full effect. Look at that. Now the filter itself can be adjusted while on the camera to adjust the level of effect. I'm still working on fine-tuning it but look!





More polarizing filter porn. Look at that. It makes the colors of nature on a sunny day just ever-so-much-more-so.





My beautiful girl.





My beautiful wife! Smiling while thinking "you really are going to do this all day aren't you?"





Here it is. Remember in my first post I said 1-2 shots in 200-300 will be "the one"? This is it. Perfect shot. It took over 300.





I'll use this in my job application to "Glamour Shots".





Another great thing about the D40 is that it's big enough to be awesome, and small enough to still do this. The traditional "Mike and Flo" shot. Very important.





Charlotte in the vulture's nest being silly. At this point the sun is really starting to go down and the point and shoot that I used to tote around would start struggling right about now with the slow shutter and crappy flash. The D40 is unfazed. Is that how you spell that?





This shot would have been impossible with the point and shoot. There just was not enough available light.





Here's another 1 in 300 shot. I love the "natural moment". "Okay everybody smile!" shots usually suck and just don't allow you to see the real person in the picture. If that makes sense. It does to me, so there.





Last picture of the day, and what a great day it was. You can't tell from looking at this (well, maybe Penny) but these girls are tired. And hungry. Off to Outback.


So there it is. The first day of rough and rugged "field testing" of my Nikon D40. This really is a great camera and I'm very happy I chose it. I wasn't too heavy to wear around my neck, wasn't too bulky to get in the way, and was just a pleasure to tote around. Now bear in mind, except for manually focusing about 50% of the time I'm still shooting on full-auto mode. It's essentially a really big point-and-shoot at this time, but the difference in picture quality is astounding to me. I can't imagine how the results will look as I get deeper into the features this camera, and DSLR photography in general, has to offer. I've definitely acquired "the bug".