I am about to post a bunch of pictures from this morning’s manual mode bonanza. I am going to break it into three posts. One will be downtown Methuen and the top of the Spicket Falls Dam, The second will be the Methuen Rail Trail and the Bird Sanctuary. The third will be Walnut Grove cemetery.
Here’s the downtown and the dam pics. I don’t think I will give any details, just pics.
All of these were shot with my Nikon D90 in manual mode because I am insane.
I went around town today with my DSLR, shooting in Manual mode like a boss. Well… mostly. I kept the auto focus on because my eyes were feeling kinda funny. I learned that my 18-55mm lens only goes to f5.6. The 50mm lens on Dad’s camera goes to f2. So the comparisons might not be that interesting. I basically kept it set at f5.6 with the ISO at 200 (because the roll of film I used the other day was 200) and then just played with the shutter speed to react to the light meter. Probably not the best idea, but give me a break, I am a total rookie at this. I’m just amazed that the pics came out at all.
I will post more of the results later, but there were one or two spots where I took a shot in Manual and then took the same shot in Auto. What do you think?
99.999% of my fellow Nikon D90 users are going to want to punch me in the throat for being so clueless, but I’m a little tickled by today’s lunchtime discovery.
Dad’s camera has a light meter built into it. It’s a 100% manual device and the only electronic do-dad is the light meter. If it reads too high or low, you monkey with the aperture and the shutter speed until the little needle points to the middle of the meter. Without that little sucker in the viewfinder I don’t think I would have been able to do anything with the camera. I have been messing with a light meter app to suggest what settings I should start with, but once I have something setup I can tweak it as I look through the lens.
On my Nikon, I have never had a need for a light meter. I used an Auto function in almost every case. Sometimes I use shutter priority, so I set it to a certain time and then the camera calculates the aperture I need. I never had to figure out the settings for myself. The camera is smarter than I am anyway, so why question it?
Now that Dad’s Pentax is forcing me to actually do things for myself, I was wondering if the D90 could do the same thing when it’s in Manual mode? Turns out it can! There’s a button to set it up right on the top panel. It’s been there the whole time and I’ve never given it a thought. There is also a little digital meter display in the viewfinder. Again, I had never even noticed it. In fact, I want to go switch back to one of the auto settings and see if it goes away (I’ll do that another time). In manual mode though, there it is. Monkey with the aperture or the shutter speed and sure enough it moves around.
Right then, the next time I take the Nikon out for a stroll I am going full manual mode. Well… not for long exposures. I’ll stick to shutter priority for that, but everything else is manual mode!
Jump on this wagon with me, people! We’re rolling to a blurry, under/over exposed future!
Two things. First, weather.com says it is going to be sunny in the morning. I am going to try to get up around sunrise and go find a place in the city to take some film photo tests. Maybe just downtown before everything opens. Maybe the cemetery near the railroad station. Maybe the castle ruins. Maybe something else. I don’t know, but I want to do it and I only want to bring dad’s film camera. We’ll see what (if anything) happens.
Second, In regards to the previous post, Jen read an article tonight saying that people recovering from Gastric Bypass surgery probably should not try to eat broccoli until after three months or so. Something about the fiber causing food to get stuck. Well then I’ll just have to wait and see what happens, but I do feel perfectly fine at the moment. No worries.
Bonus third topic. I am in the middle of a third straight photo a day project thingie on Flickr. Every day for two years and nine months I have taken a picture with my iPhone. As of now, 9:14pm, I have not taken a picture with my iPhone. The streak lives, however, because I have taken a picture with my D90 and it’s on Flickr. The streak continues, babie!
Ain’t she sweet?
I warned you, here come a ton of pictures. Well, maybe not a ton. I’ll try to be more selective than usual.
I am trying to do things to take my mind off of the fucking supreme court. Dad’s camera is getting the mental energy now because the alternative is me screaming my fucking head off.
I mentioned in a post earlier today (before the supreme court decided that women don’t deserve reproductive rights or healthcare) that I was going to try and do a comparison between Dad’s film camera and my digital camera. I finished off the roll of film that was in Dad’s camera in the process. Now I need to figure out how to get it developed, and I have to hope that the 30 year old film is actually able to be developed. I know people like shooting on expired film because it does funky things sometimes, but 30 year old expired film? I don’t know. I did just order a few rolls of film from Amazon. When they get here I might be able to do this for real, but I also have to learn how to know what the manual settings on Dad’s camera are, and how to set the manual settings on my camera to match. I also don’t have a lens that matches either one of Dad’s so that will mess things up too.
Anyway, I took the film out of the camera (I had to read the manual to figure it out) and I took the photos off of my camera’s memory card. They all suck. Sigh of frustration. I touched a couple of them up a little in Apple’s Photos app. I wasn’t going to do that, but I still have copies of the unedited photos on my desktop so I can do a “real” comparison, whenever I get the film developed… if it can be developed.
Here’s a couple of pics.
This one isn’t awful, but it ain’t good…
This one isn’t good at all, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s going to be better than the film attempt…
These two are okay. Hopefully the film comes out okay too…
We may have a part two of this post at some point in the coming weeks. Or not.
WordPress.com puts out a newsletter. I usually don’t really read it. I maybe give it a glance and then trash the email. Today there was something about a new feature they’re playing with to give a monthly word prompt. The first month’s word is bridge.
When I read it I did what I always do for word prompt type thingies. I went to Flickr and searched for it. These are a few of the things that came up:
That was fun, wasn’t it? Let’s see what they dish out next month.
What can I say, I like taking pictures of water. Fountains, lakes, waterfalls, whatever.
I also changed the layout of this page… and if history is accurate, we can expect I’ll change it 5-6 more times before I settle on something.
Also, have you voted yet? It’s Super Tuesday, is your state involved? If so… vote.
My photo-a-day game had a visit from my Nikon D90 today. You’re excited, I can tell.
Inside the Red Head's Head 