On Christmas morning Santa brought me a Digital Nikon-3400 with an 18-to-55 lens. Thanks Mom and Dad! I’ve always wanted my own camera, even though I’ve been using my grand dad’s heavy cameras for years. Mine is really lightweight and it even shoots HD video.

Pups doesn’t like other people using his cameras, so I always get a lecture when using his gear. I’ve shot color film in his old Nikon F-4 manual film camera. It was made in 1988 and he still uses it sometimes, cause he is old school. When I use the F-4, he makes me think about shutter speeds, f-stops, ASA, depth of field, mirror up, all kinds of film types and other boring things. It weighs a ton.

Then he says, “You only have 7 frames left on this roll, be selective, don’t waste film, cause it costs too much”. Then we have to send film away to process, and then pay for all the developing and color prints. That seems crazy. With a digital camera, you can get 1,000’s of shots and not run out of film. Now, I can shoot all the different things I want and not worry about paying money just to see them. This is going to be fun. I’ve shot mostly with his Digital D-200, below.

His D-200 Nikon only has a ISO-ASA rating of 1600. My smaller, lighter, way less expensive camera has a ISO speed of 25,000. Way better than his. That means I can shoot photos in low light, like just at dusk, when the deer are coming out. My camera is even better yet, because I can shoot and instantly link and send photos to my computer and my cell phone.

Christmas Day was fun because I was shooting lots of pic’s of my family and all my relatives and my “Great Grammy” with Vayda. Then I looked out the window and saw this small buck in the yard.

So, I got my first wildlife photos without even going outside. Too bad I only had the 55mm normal lens, I needed to zoom in closer.  Well, now I need to save some money for an 80-to-300mm telephoto zoom lens.