Using a DSLR: My First Time

Many people look back on their first time with a sense of fondness.  Of course, their nostalgic tinted memories may not have always represented the actual occurrence.  Many of them were kind of awkward and lacked the skill they thought they possessed.  This post is the true story of a first time...

My alleged sibling goaded me into going to a place called Northwest Trek (probably because it is in the NW, but i'm not so sure about the Trek).  But wait, it gets more strange.  Sibling Zed, as i will call it, had just purchased a new DSLR (because he thought that moisture may have ruined his old one) and told me that i could use his old DSLR - a Canon EOS Rebel XS (or something). 

i normally use a point and shoot Canon PowerShot A70 (that is probably 10 years old).  Point and shoots have the simplicity i want, but lack interchangeable lenses (and lenses you can turn to focus).  i mean, i'm not sure (nor do i really care) what aperture, white level, ISO, etc are.

So there i was all alone, my pulse racing (not really) with anticipation as i pointed the camera and took the shot of some animal.   It was like time stood still in that moment and the anticipation had finally been satisfied.  The thumbnail displayed on the LCD screen looked almost decent.  This was followed by numerous other shots (over and over again).  It was an insatiable frenzy of 193 shots.

However, much like people's other people's first times, it turned out not as spectacular as i anticipated.  It kind of felt good and right (and maybe a little naughty).  However, looking back on the experience - when i put the pictures on my computer things were different.  It may have seemed good for me at the time, however, the shots that seemed so right at the time were stripped bare of their nostalgic delusions and i could see how bad it was for the camera.

Would you care for some examples?  Too bad (i'm not sure what some of these are).  Everything was under-exposed, over-exposed, blurry, mutant like, the wrong end of the animal or something else.  None of the images turned out that good.