But for those of you who want to get started now, first grab your manual for your camera or download it if you don't have it.

Here is a tutorial I wrote many years ago. It's a good start and what my article is based on.

http://www.xeramtheum.com/ForG...

dave said:Here we go!

http://garden.org/forums/view/...

Dave, so very much!

I can think of a whole lot of questions I'm going to ask here. And Lynn, maybe we can even start to dream a little more concretely about time-lapse photography! This might be the perfect place to bring it up, even if some people might be interested in plants other than sempervivums...

But now it's getting past my bed time here on the East Coast. Tomorrow is another day!

Go with God.
Mother Raphaela

Well, golly gee, take a dog for a short walk, eat a little supper, do the dishes and 'like magic' a new forum appears. And I missed most of it.
You guys are good! Thanks Dave!

Anne... great tutuorial. I know it will help me take better pictures.

Is it the Macro setting you will discuss next?

I just edited it a bit and took the maco part out .. I'll leave that for later .. the site only has the first two tutorials in the series. You really need to get your camera manuals and look up the features I'm talking about to find out where it is on your camera and how to access it.

Since there is a forum now, I'll rework the lessons a bit and won't submit as an article. But you'll have to be patient .. I've had a very, VERY trying two weeks and I'm way behind on a lot of things I had to abandon in order to deal with the last two weeks, and am playing catch up at the moment.

I will anticipate hearing what you have to say .... It is getting past photo shoot time in a few weeks anyway.

I do wish they wrote photography manuals for dummies. So it is in plane English. I like the idea you gave about using a paper ruler to test your distance and track it. Thanks.

That is great Anne. Will that go in the new forum?

RickCorey said:
Does anyone know a way to defeat the blurring caused by wind and flowers nodding and swaying? I usually try the "anti-hand-shaking" setting, but that doesn't always help enough. Just wait for a less windy day?

Use the fastest shutter speed that the lighting will allow. If possible you can also try blocking the wind.

Yes. I'll put it in there in installments with shorter snippets so we can have a question and answer. I'll even do some on graphics editing.

Set the camera on "sports" mode .. great for windy days and flying wildlife.

Dave can this thread be moved over to the Photography Forum?

Going over to "watch" the forum right now!!

Anne: Thanks for that link to your tutorial ... wonderful!! I did download the manual when I first got my camera but it's so technical that I lost interest very quickly.

After reading your tutorial I found the EV setting on my camera and I'm going to try it!

Thank you for your tutorials. Back up is probably the number one rule for all of us. It's easier to crop than try and get that butterfly to land on the flower again, especially when reviewing photos at 9 PM!

Lin - I opened the manual the first time only to see the paragraph, "Discharging Rechargeable Batteries", and felt like a five year old in a college class!

Another one that throws me is when the camera tells me the card is not formatted. I follow the instructions but nothing changes. I just bought two more cards and they didn't require initialization.

Oh boy -- what a great thing to find when I logged in this morning!! Thank you Dave, and thank you Anne -- my gardening season has just about come to an end, this is really something to look forward to!!

You're welcome to everyone. I cannot stress enough for you to find or download the manual for your camera. Don't try to read it all at once .. take one section at a time, read it, use it and play with it until it becomes comfortable. Then move on to the next one.

This is some great stuff. Please, how can we get the information from this thread over to the new forum?

It's already here.

Xeramtheum said:But for those of you who want to get started now, first grab your manual for your camera or download it if you don't have it.

Here is a tutorial I wrote many years ago. It's a good start and what my article is based on.

http://www.xeramtheum.com/ForG...

Anne, Thank you. I have to write a (non-plant) business letter and then hopefully I'll have some time to sit down here with my laptop and the cameras. It is amazing to see all you have done! MR

I agree that camera manuals provide crucial information, AND that they can take a lot of effort to interpret and put into practice.

I'll check to see whether the "Sports" setting is faster than the "shaky hands" setting. Thanks!

Sports setting uses a faster shutter speed since it's for stopping action. I don't think the shaky hand thing has anything to do with shutter speed.