Ducks in a row

I've always loved to take pictures, and still remember my first camera, which was a Kodak Instamatic 110 film camera (the kind that took flash cubes, yeah I know, I'm dating myself), and am sad to report, I no longer have it, not that it matters due to the fact it's obsolete, and not only is 110 film impossible to find, but nobody really processes film anymore anyway, so it's a moot point.

I was introduced to what I like to call my first TRUE camera in high school while in commercial arts class at Vo-Tech, a 35mm SLR manual focus camera, and fell head over heels in love at the clarity of image I could get with one, I was also taught how to process black and white film while there (still a favorite medium as you focus on the tones, rather than the sometimes overabundance of color), and was INTENT on one day purchasing my own because of how much I loved it, but had to bide my time as they were rather expensive at the time.

I was finally able to purchase one while on my first command in the Navy while we were in the shipyard, at a local camera shop, and while it wasn't the most impressive thing, just an old student camera with manual only focus, it was MINE, and I soon started taking all sorts of shots around town, further developing my artistic eye, and learning how to find the perfect shots of everyday things.

Later down the road, I unfortunately lost my first SLR camera in a storage unit, and was devastated, but intended on replacing it eventually when I had the extra funds, which I finally did this year, and I could not be HAPPIER with it, even though I have roughly thirteen years worth of rust to knock off myself to get back to as good as I was, and brush up on the new technology involved in using a digital rather than conventional SLR camera (I still prefer keeping it in manual focus mode, as it feels more hands on), but feel I'm coming along rather well all things considered (nothing like jumping in head first with something new).

As I continue to improve though, I hope to one day start selling my shots, and perhaps get them into a magazine, but will start small, such as this, and other contests to build up not only my portfolio of shots, but to hopefully show awards my photos have gotten in addition to them .

This particular duck photo was captured on my first time out with my brand spanking new DSLR camera (a Canon Rebel T7), at the local park after they waddled up close to enough to me to make my nature loving shutterbug mouth water with anticipation, after having spent the better part of the day getting macro shots of flowers, and other plant life with my regular lens, as well as a few failed shots of some Canadian geese, which were unfortunately VERY washed out due to overexposure, because the super zoom lens I have doesn't have any auto settings, and so I'm having to brush up on my manual F-stop and shutter speed settings.

To be honest, I was surprised the ducks got as close as they did, but was NOT going to miss the opportunity for such a beautiful shot and made sure to switch to my smaller zoom lens as to ensure I didn't spook them as I maneuvered around to get the right angle, and this was the best of the bunch I took of them, as they started getting a tiny bit antsy while I walked around, and finally had enough of the human walking around, while pointing a strange object at them.