Lazy day ....zzzz

Sleepy Reindeer. Shot with Sony DSC-H2 - ISO 80 | Aperture Priority Mode F4.5 | 1/125s

Freezing day....

The Millennium Link. All photos are shot with Sony DSC-H2 - ISO 80 | F3.5

Basic techniques for better images - Focus Lock

Most digital cameras have a two-stage shutter button. When you press it halfway down, it sets and locks focus and exposure. Some cameras beep and illuminate a lamp or frame in the viewfinder when these readings are locked in. If you don't release the shutter button you can then recompose the image and the settings remain unchanged. This procedure normally locks exposure too, but if you first use AE Lock to lock exposure, you can then lock focus independently.

If the camera doesn't take the picture after fully depressing the shutter button, it most probably means that you are too close to the subject for the camera to focus on it (Read the user manual to find out your camera minimum focusing distance). Fix the problem by release the shutter button, stepping back a foot or two, and then pressing the shutter button again.

Step-by-step guide:

1. Look through the viewfinder and position its focus point on the main subject.

2. Press the shutter button halfway down, until the green focus-OK lamp in the viewfinder eyepiece glows steadily or the focus lock beep-signal is heard.

3. Holding the shutter button halfway down, reorient the camera so that your desired composition appears in the viewfinder.

4. Press the shutter button all the way down to take the picture.

5. Done!

Digital Camera - SLR vs Compact

SLR is an acronym for a Single Lens Reflex. The difference between an SLR and a compact camera is that the SLR will allow you to use a variety of lenses with different focal lengths.

Differences Between SLR and Compact Cameras (Basic)

SLR	Compact
Interchangeable lenses	One attached lens
TTL (Through The Lens) viewfinder — when you look through the viewfinder of a SLR, you are seeing what the lens sees. If the image is out of focus, the photo will be out of focus.	The viewfinder is separate from the lens and shows you an image of the scene in front of you. The lens can be out of focus, but your view in the viewfinder will be sharp.
Bulky and heavy	Sleek and small, except the super-zoom camera
The camera of choice for professional photographers	The camera of choice for the average consumer
All can use an external flash unit	Very few can use an external flash
All offer complete manual control	Not all offer manual controls
Capable to capture pictures in RAW or JPEG format , some can capture both in one shot	Mostly capture pictures in JPEG format only, seldom support RAW format

DSLR cameras' sensor are much bigger and consequently much more expensive than the thumbnail-size sensors found in campat cameras. Larger sensors are the secret to why 6 megapixels from a DSLR camera beat 6 megapixels from a compact camera. To spread the same number of pixels over a larger sensor area, the pixels must be bigger. These bigger photosites gather more light, so they produce less-noisy images, capture greater dynamic range, and perform much better at high ISO settings.