MMS 173 Warm up: New guitar day

I hadn't done any serious photography for several months. I bought a camera more than a month ago and hasn't left my bag since. So, with the start of the new MMS 173 class getting closer and closer, I thought it was a good idea to see how far down my skills had gone. It was also high time that I start getting used to operating the Nikon D7000 in an actual photo op as opposed to gawking over it at home.

I also had the perfect subject. I had been planning to shoot my new guitar - Spirit 3 (or Green Al, as my girlfriend calls it). The typical guitar-on-the-bed pictures where some people notice the bedsheets first aren't going to cut it this time. So, I went out on location on Black Saturday lugging 30 pounds of gear with me.

It was too bad the Makiling Botanic Garden was closed that day. I then drove to my second choice and was glad to find an open Pook ni Mariang Makiling that still had a good spot along the stream which I could have for myself.

After wrapping things up at Pook, I didn't feel like I was done, so I switched venues and headed to UPOU Headquarters, by the beloved Oblation under a glaring afternoon sun. It was surprisingly not that hot, though. In fact, I haven't felt that nice under direct sunlight since my last day in Australia just before winter. That enabled me to last a pretty long time.

Coming from a Nikon D80, the D7000 does make a number of things easier. And image quality is noticeably superior. But at the same time, I still have to get used to actually using the new camera system.

This was also a good time to practice a few Photoshop tricks. Admittedly, I wasn't a huge fan of doing anything beyond a few minor edits on pictures until last year. I'm hoping to know a bit more about it later.

While my eyes are pretty much the same as it has been before, my execution is a bit rusty (fumbling with the new controls didn't help, either). But all in all, it was a pretty good warm up for things to come -- more music and more photography!