New Body, New Lens, Same Eye

April was a server who joined Mammoth for a couple of months and became close friends with Missy. We had passed once or twice while hiking and made some small talk before inviting her on our hiking trips. The offer was always there but the days off were not. Despite having different days off, we still talked about our weekends and adventures.

                April was outside with a camera bag asking if anyone was looking to buy a new camera. It was a DSLR from Nikon. I had my point and shoot that I used since the beginning of last summer. When I was looking at that camera, I also had my eye on the DSLR but it was out of the price range at the time. I grabbed the camera and started taking some pictures and looking at the results to the point I was satisfied. I borrowed some money from Sam and made the purchase the next day. The camera came with a 18-55mm lens, a UV lens, camera bag, Nikon D3100 Body and a charger. I was in heaven.

                I borrowed a car and went out to Lamar to take photos with both cameras to see the difference. The point and shoot was automatic everything with four more megapixels so there was going to be a difference with each type of shot I was going to take. Along for the ride was my neighbor Craig. Craig had never been to Lamar and I figured with two months left it was time for him to see the land I spoke so highly of.

                We stopped at the Hell Roaring overlook and snapped some photos. I told Craig about the bridge and the backpacking experience I had since you could see some of the trail from the distance. We made it to Pebble Creek with seeing only bison and the osprey nest. It was a blue sky with white cotton ball clouds with sun rays shinning on the mountain sides.

                We pulled over and Craig stared in the beauty that he’d never seen before while I took some pictures with the new camera. We hopped back in the car and looks for some moose on our way to Barronette Peak. We walked the trail to the top of the hill and looked down the canyon and at the slow paced trickle of a waterfall.

                On our way back to Mammoth we turned around and went on Black Tail Ponds road where we were told bear might be. We made it to the peak of the road and pulled the car over to turn around and watch the sunset behind the mountains. I had both cameras on me and started to take pictures with each while Craig found a nice rock to meditate on.

                While I was taking pictures with the DSLR I had to test many settings while I tried to capture the perfect picture on the first day with the new camera. Unlike my “point and shoot” camera, I had three settings that I needed to find the right settings for the aperture, shutter speed and ISO. I didn’t master any of the sightings that day but managed to snap a couple nice pictures with the DSLR. The Point and Shoot captured some photos but the quality and color were not the same and were very different from the photos of the DSLR. With having the manual advantage on the DSLR, I felt that the picture I took with it, justified the sunset 100% more than that of the Point and Shoot.

                When we got back to Mammoth I rushed up to the room and started to process the photos. After loading both sets of pictures and viewing them I knew the purchase was a good investment in my hobby. Most of the time, with the point and shoot I would have to adjust many settings on the photo to make it more sharp or brighter/darker depending on how the camera would process the light but with the DSLR camera I was able to load them on to my computer and post them straight to the internet without having to adjust a single thing. That moment is when I felt I took my first amazing picture that I was very proud to show off. Other pictures I took from the Point and Shoot were great and I feel like anyone could have taken the same photos with the same camera, unlike the DSLR where you might have a small difference in aperture, shutter speed or the ISO setting will make a difference in each picture. At the end of the upload, I knew that from that day on, my photography would improve with each new experience I had with views I was trying to capture and that others would agree in the future.