Cacti

Here are the last pictures from my early April trip to Arizona. I had fun using some of the SLR features of my new camera, especially the one where I can do manual focusing. When I am taking close-up pictures, a auto-focus often chooses something other than what I want as the main object to focus on.

With the manual focus and the interchangeable lenses of the DSLR, it feels just like taking pictures with a "regular" camera, except that I am not wasting film if I take 15 pictures of the same thing as I try different settings.

I missed that flexibility with our other digital cameras. That, and the viewfinder. I don't mind the viewing screen, but I prefer to use it as a post-picture check to make sure I got what I was trying for. Somehow, it never felt quite right not to have the camera up to my eye while I was shooting.

But I do love not wasting film. Since, I like my father, take way too many pictures at every opportunity, it is really nice not to have to pay to develop all that film just to get a small batch of good photos.