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The dust has settled a bit. Brother’s wedding was quite a success and everything went quite smoothly. It was a church ceremony and everyone just looked gorgeous that day.

Heh, my photography skills are still quite crap. The D70 is a wonderful camera but I’m not using it to its fullest potential yet. Took nearly 400 photos, and the really good ones are those of flowers (its like my specialty when it comes to framing inanimate objects). Had far more trouble with event photography (the dinner the night before the wedding and the actual wedding itself). These things you have less time to tweak for and there are a few photos where I turned the autofocus off and forgot to turn it back on, leaving some photos out of focus. There there is the incorrect usage of the external flash unit (I hardly touch it in Melbourne) with things either ending up too bright or too dark. Learning that slowly now and will have another go at it soon.

This leaves me to lament about my camera. I love my camera, it’s been nearly two years since I acquired it, but I’d like to nitpick on some of its shortcomings. It has a small viewfinder and a small 1.8″ screen for picture viewing. Lots of times pictures look fine in both and are glaringly out of focus when I view it on a computer monitor. Now, I’m sure a D200 or D80 would not have such problems, as both feature a 2.5″ screen as well as a larger viewfinder, where reviews have commented that it’s quite a pleasure to use. Now I just need to get a hold of one of these units to give it a testrun. There’s also the issue of focusing areas as I can still get pictures out of focus when the focus sensor is not pointed to the correct focus object. The D70 has only 5 focus areas compared to the D200 and D80′s 11 focus areas. Sure you can focus and reframe, but sometimes you forget and the camera doesn’t perform quite like you expect it to (it just means I need to dig out the manual and give it a more thorough read through).

Do realise one thing at least. A little less shy now to position myself where I should to get the best photos. Have some very nice candid shots that portray emotions that you’d probably miss if you weren’t standing correctly. I guess it helps that your family ignores you cause you just seem to blend into the background.

My brother hired a professional photographer for the occasion and I still wonder why professional event photographers go for Canon equipment. Heh, not like I have a bias, but am still terribly impressed to see someone toting a full frame Canon 1D (didn’t really catch the model but I’m sure it was a full frame camera) with vertical grip and battery pack and a f/2.8 constant aperture lens. I want to be able to improve my technique enough that I can get good photos for events. Heh, need to spend more time learning my equipment inside out. If only I spent as much time catching bees on plants as I did events, I’d probably handle the pressure better.

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Have set aside ZERO budget for lenses for 2007. Heh, should really save up for other more important things, like a holiday to New Zealand. I will spend more time getting acquainted with my camera and get the most out of it. I guess I’d like to spend more time learning the print end of photography as most of my pictures are still stuck with a computer screen. So that’s it then. Heh.