DG Site Updates: 2007 Photo Contest... What camera did you use?, 0 by Kaelkitty

Kaelkitty wrote:
G'Day Everyone,
I have recently (about 18 months ago) bitten the digital bullet with my Kodak Easyshare Z700 4mp camera after about 30 years of being a dedicated slide film only SLR photographer. My previous film camera is a semi- pro level Ricoh SLR that was rarely ever used without its macro rings, tripod, and extension cable. I used to spend 10 to 15 minutes on a single photo, framing, testing exposures, thinking about depth of field, etc etc. - now I just get out there and shoot! I am loving it. Since I got the Kodak I have taken over 4000 photos, I find it very easy to get out in the garden for a few hours with the camera and fill up the memory card nearly every weekend.

I do find that my current digital has some limitations - it is fairly easy to saturate the colour sensor in bright light - especially with strong blues and reds, and the macro distance isn't short enough to suit some of my favourite subjects such as very small succulent flowers like Crassulas, but I am finding it a good basic camera to learn on and I really love not having to pay through the nose to develop pictures that haven't turned out well! If I ever win the lottery I am going after a really good digital SLR with decent macro capability as I have serious ambitions to be a really class act in documenting my plant collection but in the meantime I am having enormous fun just learning. To anyone who feels a bit intimidated by their camera my suggestion is to take it slowly and concentrate on one setting or feature at a time.
I felt like that at the age of 11 when my father gave my my first SLR and I graduated from the "snapshot" brigade to being a "real" photographer, and I went through it again in 2006 when I got the digital, but the best way to learn is by doing!

One thing I think I should have done was make a list of which photos I entered - by this time next year I'll have no Idea which ones they were and several were personal favourites so i'll probably run the risk of accidentally entering some of them again. I guess when I get time I'll have to go through all the thumbnails again looking for my username - wheee!
Anyhow, to close, here is one photo I KNOW I entered, because a fellow member was kind enough to dmail me personally after the competition to tell me how much they liked it, for which I thank you very kindly. Of course the beauty of the digital format is that this is only one of about 20 photos I took during a period of several minutes; during which a lot of the time the evil subject creature was either A/ moving, B/ not looking at me or C/ out of focus due to the difficult lighting conditions - this just happens to be the best one of that set of photos!

Happy snapping for the next twelve months, Kaelkitty.