More Real Life Experiences with My Nikon D7000

My camera is only 51 days old.  I've taken 3,636 pictures so far.  My third battery charge produced over 1300 pictures while I was using both VR and non-VR lenses.  I used my external flash on the camera about 50% of the time.  I did use the LCD monitor quite a bit, especially during VBS.  A lot of the kids had asked me to take their pictures and then they wanted to see it on the LCD screen.

I had the opportunity to watch my D7k fill up slot 1 and continue into slot 2.  Slot 1 contained a 4GB SDHC card while slot 2 contained an 8GB SDHC card.  I set the camera to let slot 2 be the overflow card.  It didn't take long to fill up the 4GB.  It was neat to see the camera switch from one card to the next.  It worked nicely.

I've been extremely happy with this camera and I'm happy with the results I'm getting.  I do get a lot of "wow" pictures.

My VBS Beans are Growing!

I planted the beans last Friday evening, during VBS.  Hubby (the farmer), gave me an empty peat pot.  I added the moist soil and he chose 3 seeds which I stuck in the peat pot.  I added a thin layer of moist soil over it.  Look at my peat pot now.  My beans are growing!  

I guess it helps that hubby has a green thumb and that he happened to have a neat market stall called Farmer's Fields.  

The start of my bean plants sprouting in my peat pot
(70mm, f8, 1/125, ISO 900) 

Besides planting, I also tried my hand at tie-dyeing.  I also got a chance to put together a coin box and then paint it.  Here's the results of my arts 'n craft from last week:

My water colored coin box, peat pot, and my tie-dye sample
(32mm, f5.6, 1/125, ISO 400)

I might have to give a bit more thought to the tie-dyeing experience.  It was fun!

Blueberry Muffins

I decided to make another batch of blueberry muffins while the fresh blueberries are still in season.  My third attempt this month and I have to say they came out lovely:

Blueberry muffins with blueberry sauce swirled in the middle and on top
(55mm, f5.6, 1/125, ISO 1000)

I used a recipe from America's Test Kitchen (2nd attempt).  This time, I decided to have fun and that made all the difference in the world:

Yummy!
(95mm, f5.6, 1/125, ISO 720)

I used 1 cup of blueberries in the muffin mixture.  For the sauce, I also mixed a cup of blueberries with a teaspoon of sugar in a sauce pan and heated the mixture.  I squashed the blueberries as it was cooking down.  Take it off the burner and let the blueberry sauce cool to room temperature.  

Using an ice cream scoop, I scooped the batter into each greased muffin mold (pan).  Using a teaspoon of the blueberry sauce, I placed it in the middle of each muffin and used a chopstick to push the sauce into the middle of each muffin.  I swirled the tops of each muffin.  

All I can say...Yummy!

A Beautiful Day!

It was a beautiful day today.  After church, I headed over to Old Town to capture the blue sky and puffy white clouds:  

18mm, f10, 1/1000, -1.00, ISO 100

VBS Through My Lens

I got a chance to try out each of my lens this week for VBS.  I used my all purpose 18-200mm, 35mm/f1.8, and 50mm/f1.4 lens.  My favorite turned out to be the 50mm.  I was consistently getting great images and skin tones.  At any given hour, I would go from inside the church sanctuary activities, to an indoor market, to outside for games.  While the 18-200mm worked great for zooming in and out, it didn't do as well in the sanctuary.  Even with flash, it tended to produce grainy pictures.  I'm so spoiled with the 50mm/f1.4 lens.  

Here are a sampling from VBS.  I'll be back to post the picture specifics for each one:  

In the marketplace, painting coin boxes

Huddle time in the Sanctuary

Eunice and Martha at Martha's house

The Dye Shop - where everyone got a chance to create a tie-dye scarf

Huddle time in the Sanctuary

I tell them to "smile" and this is what I get...lol!

Even the adults got to have fun with at the Dye Shop

This is a work of art

Fun with the beach ball

Water balloon toss

A farmer giving a lecture on planting beans

The sanctuary with a wall of stone

Eunice in Mary's house

At the Dye Shop

The Magic Number...1427

That's the number of pictures I took on one battery charge...1427. As I was taking more and more pictures, I watched the battery display go down and down and down. I can also see the % status reading in the menu. It eventually went down to 1% and I was still able to take about a dozen or more shots. Incredible. This week will be a busy photog week for me. I've been asked to take pics of VBS at my church. Way cool as I need more practice with my camera settings. I'll be back later this week to give another update....

Surfing at the Beach

Hubby and I headed to Ocean City, Maryland for a short break. This morning was a dreary morning at the beach. Five blocks to the north or south of us, it looked like it was raining. It wasn't. It was just a hazy morning. I grabbed my camera and we headed down to the beach to check out the surfers.

This is my favorite shot...a wipe out:
















We came back to our room to pack and wouldn't you know it, the sun decided to appear:



I've noticed that I need to be more careful and check the camera settings before I start to fire away. I'm not used to the main camera setting dial being on the left side of the camera. When I pulled it out of my non-camera backpack, the dial moved from P to S or shutter-priority mode. So the above pics were taken in S mode and I know they would have been a bit better in P mode. Lesson learned.

I'll be back with more pictures later....Ciao!