I’m not going to be making a habit of this but from time to time if I find something I like I may well write something about it. You know, blog or website related.
Today’s feature is a blog/person, namely Aranea, written by a friend of mine and before you all click on the link to go and have a look, I must warn you, it’s all in Swedish. I met Andrea whilst playing WoW ages ago and we get on brilliantly, she was even kind enough to alert me to the Spirit Beast’s location which I detailed on here last year – so I am, of course, indebted to her. Haha.
Like me, she has been taking photos for ages but hadn’t done anything semi-seriously until she got her Nikon – a D80 in her case – last year. I remember chatting to her about the purchase and what lenses she should get…with much e-window-shopping from me at all the pretty lenses. “Yes, you want this 600mm lens…because it’s awesome, just don’t look at the price!”
With both Andrea and I having Nikon cameras of similar designs (my D70 to her D80) I was able to help her get used to and hopefully get the best out of her camera with the experience I’ve had using mine. An SLR can be quite daunting when you first unpack it and see all of the buttons and dials covering it but a quick ‘point-and-tell’ session cleared up some questions and had her on the way to really getting into the SLR-ness of the D80.
I’ve been interested in seeing the pictures she takes and I’m glad she comes to me with questions about photography as it’s one of my passions and I do love talking about it. I’m also glad she shows me some of the “bad” pictures she takes. Taking bad pictures is very good for improving your photography. If you can look at your own photos with a critical eye you can easily work out what to do to improve your next ones.
I’ve known people ‘get into’ photography and their photos improve with their speed of learning and the number of shots they take, which is understandable. Some people have a fast learning curve and some have a slower one. Photography should be about working at your pace so don’t try and improve massively overnight, it won’t happen. What’s been most impressive to see is Andrea’s quality of photography improve in such a short period of time. She recently purchased a 50mm lens, which is also my favourite lens, and her images took a noticeable leap forward in quality. Helped by an obvious natural eye for photography and a good image, it’s been an absolute pleasure to help out and watch the progress of her photography.
Aranea is her new blog, it’s very new and I’m looking forward to seeing more of her photos being posted up there, even if I’m not entirely sure what she’s talking about! Thank goodness for Google Translate?
G x
Filed under: General, Photography | Tagged: 50mm, Aranea, blog, D70, D80, lenses, nikon, Photography, spirit beast, Sweden, Swedish, World Of Warcraft, WoW
