Nature Photography

Starting next Saturday, I'm going to be taking a beginner course in Digital Nature Photography at Gumbo Limbo. I'm quite excited about it although I'm becoming very aware of how profound my level of ignorance on this topic is. First, the instructor sent us all an e-mail with our first assignment - finding out how to take RAW pictures on our particular camera. After some research, I believe I have determined that my camera, a Nikon Coolpix 775, will not take pictures in the RAW format or even in the TIFF format. Already, right out of the chute, my photos aren't going to be as good. They're going to be "lossy". I'm so ashamed.

Anyway, undaunted by this, I set out this afternoon to Spanish River Park to take some "nature" photos. I soon discovered that I don't know for sure what "nature" is. Will any plant do or does it have to be wild? Animals are completely out. By the time I get my inferior camera pointed at it, the animal has gone away. I did manage to get a picture of a lizard but it is very difficult to spot in the photo.

At one point, I actually saw a larger animal but after pursuing it, discovered that it was only a cat - probably not considered nature. Still, I did want to get a picture of it but it ran away. Dave thinks I spend my days looking for pictures of cats on the internet so I would have liked to put one there but, oh well. Here are some more of my efforts.

I think this one is my favorite:

So, stay tuned for further information about adventures in nature photography. For example, what is white balance? Is it okay to use the image sharpening feature or is that cheating? Is the spider that lives in my bathroom considered nature? One way or another, I'm going to be learning something.