New Camera...?

OK, I took the leap and plunked down a good bit of cash on a new camera in hopes of improving the quality of my bead and jewelry photos. I mention the jewelry here only to fool myself into thinking that I am actually doing something with my poor neglected Juniper Gems shop... (that's a whole different subject!) After doing a bit of research, which I am known for being a bit obsessive about, I settled on a Nikon D40. I ordered it online and got it on sale at a significant savings, which made me happy and kept my husband from having an immediate coronary issue. After a ridiculous shipping mishap, I finally got my new camera two weeks later, but still needed to get a memory card. I knew I needed one, but not being super techno girl, I was waiting on my honey to help me sort through the array of choices online. He works 50 hours a week and tends to be in a zombie like state for at least the first 24 hours he is off, so I was trying to be patient. He does after all pay the bills... it's not like what I do makes any money!

So now I have all the parts.. charged the battery and inserted the memory card. Step one.. turn camera on... OK, this is NOT a simple point and shoot camera that I am used to, so it took me a good hour of going through all the features in the menu.. repeatedly... to get things set the way I thought they should be, and this is on the most basic settings... It took some adjusting. I have to now use a view finder, I'm used to a big screen on the back of my old camera.. the image you take a picture of will display on the screen after you take a picture on the new camera, but it's not a big view finder like my old camera.. This puppy has a big lens on it, it works very well, but it makes the camera big, much heavier and more awkward to handle.. I've just never used this type of camera before, so this is like having a dishwasher after hand-washing dishes your whole life!

The first few photos I have taken on this thing have come out fantastic! I am amazed at it's ability to adjust to lighting situations without the use of a flash. I showed my Husband the first couple bead pictures I took, just some simple preview photos for custom orders, with NO editing, these pictures looked better than my best edited pictures on my old camera, except for the dust... that darn silver riser!!!

I took some indoor pictures around the house in all kinds of situations that our old camera just would not have worked.. this new one worked like a charm. My outdoor photos needed almost no editing at all, a little sizing and a tiny light tweak! I know I have yet to realize the true potential of this camera. I am hoping to find some online tutorials to watch or read to help me get better acquainted with my new techno camera... All in all, I think it was well worth the money. I am going to try  retaking some photos of beads in my Etsy shop that are not very photogenic and see how they come out. Some elements in beads and jewelry are REALLY hard to capture in pictures, but I think I have found the assistance I need to do a much better job. Hopefully this won't take me as long to figure out as photo shop did, nor require the amount of tissues I used!