A Nikon D90?? What?!?!

I would like to welcome our newest addition to our family : the Nikon D90. ahhhh.

She's here, she's really here. My wonderful hubby brought this baby home today - he knew I was having a bad day (and our anniversary is coming very soon) so he gave me my gift early. I cried, I don't deserve this, it's too much. He insisted I unwrap it and start snapping - how did I get so lucky? I love my man :)

Laura, get ready for the Christmas photos...a photo a day of the ornaments on my tree...now you'll have tons to use as wallpaper on your laptop :)

oh, did I mention I love my husband and he is the best?! Now, how do you top this gift when a) you are out of work, b) want to make something homemade and c) but what?

any ideas? I'll be making a special supper, but man, how do you compare to a camera? ( I know he doesn't care, but I do, I want to return the happy feeling :)

I noticed a difference IMMEDIATELY. Seriously. I found the section for focal points (yes they really DO make a difference). And look, see just on top of the candle where it's all nice and sharp? I focused right there and it worked!

Straight out of Camera shot:

Didn't need a tri pod for this, just put my elbows on the table.

Settings used were:

Shutter: 1/160

Aperture: 1.8 (I love how the background is so soft and lovely)

ISO: 320 *can I just take a moment to say how AMAZING the ISO selection is on this? talk about an upgrade from my D40x (shhh, don't let her hear you say that, it might hurt her feelings).

White Balance: I set it to tungsten, and it's not so bad like this.

oh man, oh man....this is heaven. So sorry but suffice to say there will be lots of photos added daily :)

Now, this little birdie caught my eye :) So I shot at her from many different angles and many different focal points. I also took my ISO off of automatic shortly after my first few shots...with great success! I'll explain as we go along:

Birdie 1

ISO- 1400 (woah, I can't believe it's that high, it's not too bad, not much grain, I'm so happy) but right after I checked my info on the LCD screen I went in and changed it to what I wanted.

Shutter Speed: 1/80

Aperture: f 1.8

White Balance: Tungsten again.

I didn't edit this either - I wanted to show everyone just how awesome these are without photoshop first.

Next little birdie:

Shutter: 1/20

Aperture: f1.8

WB: as above

ISO:320 (if you look closely the background is much smoother now)

Tweet tweet!:

Shutter:1/25

Aperture: f1.8

WB: as above

ISO: 320

Now this one was fun - look at the feathers on her body (not the tail) and notice how sharp they are? Notice the face isn't sharp? That's how awesome the focusing is on this! yipee!

And along came another Birdie:

used same settings as above, just a different angle.

Straight on- how cute.

same settings as above for this shot.

ok, 2 more before you get tired of her, but she's just so sparkly and feathery, and soft!!! =LOVE!

Ok, so that's enough of sweet tweety...but look out Laura, tomorrow I'm snapping more ornaments-just for you! :) :)

Night everyone!

~MAGOO~