I've faced my fear....

Of shooting in manual mode on my dslr...

It's been a while since I've used my dslr artistically. My Nikon d3100 has more recently been used as my high definition video camera for my youtube videos and product photos that I review.

I picked up photography a little more than two and half years ago, after my son was born, with inspiration from my brother who is a photographer. With his advice for a newbie photographer, I picked up a nikon d3100 and began my quest into photography.

With a combination of learning photography with my d3100 and a growing obsession with makeup application, I had my sister and baby bff be my models for me to do their makeup and photograph them. 

The other day, I saw a tweet about a blog post 'face your fear and shoot in manual on your dslr' that Veronica had written. For more than two years that I've had my dslr, I'm guilty of using it as a point and shoot. For Shame! I've picked up a couple of tricks from my brother on how to shoot on manual settings and ventured out to use my camera over the Memorial holiday weekend using ONLY my 50mm manual focus lens! Not only would I be shooting in manual setting but I would also have to manually focus to get a decent picture!

This was an interesting little assignment because I had a hard time remembering to make sure the manual settings were right and getting the lens to focus correctly took some time. I am VERY used to shooting in point and shoot mode so there was that adjustment. Also, I made sure I had it set in continuous mode since my models were my active kids.

Here are my kids -

Lil Ma - 5 months

Nugman - 2.5 yrs

I really miss using my dslr as an actual camera and not just for youtube videos. It was and still is daunting to shoot in manual AND focus with my manual focus lens but practice makes perfect right?

When I first started, I participated in weekly assignments on Digital Photography School which really got me active in using my camera in a creative aspect. I may have to look into doing that again too! This is the current assignment and I still have time!

I'm trying to commit to using my dslr at least once a day for the month of June so it'll force me to practice the technique of focusing and shooting manually. I'm starting to realize that I have been falling through with these monthly commitments so I'll just share my results at the end of the month.

For fellow dslr users, what are your 'go to' tips when focusing manually or shooting manually? I am a newbie and continue to be unless I just use my camera more.

Thanks so much for stopping by and don't forget to follow my blog for new posts! 

Stay beautiful inside and out!

Laters,

Ree

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