Practising with the Nikon D3200.

I have had an early birthday present of a Nikon D3200. I read lots of reviews on entry level DSLRs and found that this one had a consistently good write up - good image quality combined with ease of use. I am a complete novice to photography other than compact digital camera snap shots and the odd instagram so was pleased to find this camera comes with on screen guides to advise you on aperture, focal length and such things.

I was hoping to get a few good practice shots in before taking it to Brighton tomorrow but with the bad weather I have been constricted to my own house and garden. The good thing about digital cameras (as opposed to analogue) is that you can take several photos and then just get rid of the rubbish shots.

Here are a couple of what I think are my best from today...

This is a shot of little Beau. I've been trying to experiment with depth of field and get the blurred background with the sharp focussed foreground. It came out pretty good in this photo but I'm still very hit and miss with it.

This picture of Lola was just taken on the Auto setting. I have played with the editing by upping the contrast and trying to make the green more vibrant. I only have free basic photo software at the moment so should probably invest in something more specialist.

Here I was just experimenting with black and white in the editing process. I've used quite a high contrast which I think works well with black and white, especially as the subject here was so light against a dark background anyway.

One of the reasons I wanted to get into photography was to take pictures of my family. I love how my nephew covered up his face which makes the picture seem less forced and much more like a natural moment (which it was!)

So, there are a few for now. I still have loads to learn and lots more settings to explore and get used to. I'm looking forward to getting out and about and taking some photos of some more exciting things.