Starting my photography journey - very slowly!

Today is my birthday - and I am now the proud owner of a Panasonic Lumix FZ 1000. It's very exciting, since I've never had more than a point and shoot camera (in the dim and distant past) and an Iphone for happy snaps more recently.

I visited Lackford Lakes (near Bury St Edumnds, Suffolk) for an hour or so this morning with my hubby, and just missed some bramblings. The Volunteer at the visitor centre was most excited about seeing them. But I did see a siskin on one of the feeders and a lovely grey wagtail stalking about on the ice at the edge of a shallow pool - however I had hardly switched on my camera before he had disappeared again. I did get some shots of the siskin and a few blue tits, but they looked quite blurred through the viewfinder (I had it set on IA - Intelligent Automatic - something I am not!!). 

Luckily for me, I was able to find a 10 week beginner's course running at the revered and well established Ipswich Institute and attended my first session on Wednesday evening. Getting to grips with all the acronyms on the dials, plus function buttons - not to mention puzzling out why turning the focus had no effect (I had it on autofocus, so I guessed that disables the manual focussing) is a challenge. I came away from the session with head spinning, but am hoping for gradual Enlightenment over the weeks and months.

We wandered off to a hide and I saw some Egyptian Geese, Teal, Tufted duck, cormorants, coots, swans etc - so that was a delight. I even managed to get a few shots of the scenery, though light levels were pretty low!

Many thanks to all the friendly folk (Angus, Mike and others) who helped me find the right camera (see the thread "Bridge camera for a complete beginner"). 

  • Hi Karen,
    If you have not already done this then get the person to show you how to adjust the diopter to suit your vision.

    If you want to know how its done click the link below.

    LINK- - -Diopter adjustment on the DMC-FZ1000

  • Good luck Karen, if anything gets a bit confusing, come back on here and ask, we'll be sure to help between us.  There's also a wealth of info available from this Index thread don't forget

    https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/photography/194529/getting-off-auto---index

  • Hi Karen,  firstly belated Happy Birthday for yesterday;  sounds like you received a fantastic present and hope you have many a happy hour with your new camera.    As with most new gadgets and gear, it takes time and practice and most of us end up with more photos we take being consigned to the bin than those we actually keep !!    Photography can be very rewarding as well as frustrating at times as we can all tell you about !    Good luck with the lessons, it is a great place to start to give you more confidence with settings and I guarantee when you've had a few days and then weeks practicing  it will all slowly fit into place like a jigsaw puzzle.    As  WJ says,  if you need help then just ask away and hopefully someone on here will be able to assist  -  I have gained a lot of valauable tips from the experts on here and the link that WJ gave you is a good place to start.  Most importantly, enjoy the camera and getting out and about to photograph subjects and we all look forward to seeing your photos.    By the way, is there any spare birthday cake left ?    LOL

  • Many thanks, Hazy. I had to laugh about the fantastic present - it certainly is, but I saved up and bought it for myself!! Wink

    My hubby bought me a niger seed feeder for the garden - not as glamorous, but equally useful - I am looking forward to seeing more goldfinches as a result.

    As for the spare birthday cake - if I'd had one, I would have gladly shared it with you. Joy

    I will definitely ask lots of stupid questions on this forum - everyone is so friendly and helpful!

    Once I work out how to resize the enormous photos for posting, I'll put a few up. They won't be good, but hopefully they will gradually show some progress. At least they aren't ones of my feet and are vaguely straight... LOL

  • Hello Karen, welcome from Caithness, up at the very top of Scotland. Enjoy your new camera, look forward to seeing the results, whatever and however they may be! It is all in the learning. A niger feeder is a great pressie, as you say the birdies love the seed, no doubt you will have many. Enjoy

  • Thanks, James. I'll give that a go. I am long sighted, so I imagine that's the problem...

  • Hello Catlady - Thanks for the kindly welcome! Greetings to you, too...

    I've only ventured as far north as Fort William - it's a long way from East Anglia!  I am hoping to get up there once I retire - only 3 years to go, hurrah!

    The birds seem a bit puzzled by the niger seed feeder - the slots are tiny... Maybe we ought to send them a Youtube video to assist?? Joy

  • Good luck with the new camera - I hope your birds take less time to learn to use their new feeder Slight smile Seriously, it does take a bit of time to get used to all the options a camera like that offers if you're not used to it, but don't be afraid to experiment, have fun and most of all, don't worry about the mistakes. We all still make them, and you can see some fine examples of all types in the Bad Photos thread!

  • Belated birthday greetings Karen,I hope you get a great deal of pleasure from your new camera and amaze us all with the superb pictures you are going to take.

  • Hi Seaman. Many thanks for the greetings and good wishes. As you get older, birthdays are less exciting - but this one has stood out for me due to the wonderful time I'm having snapping everything in sight - or even not in sight (ho ho!). 

    No amazing photos as yet - but I am a very patient person, and will stick at things, and enjoy improving. 

    I even took a photo of the super blood wolf moon at 5.12 am this morning - at least I took about 10, but most were just black!!