New to this board....help, please

[MommytoMJM]

So yesterday UPS knocked on my door and had a box from Amazon. Turns out that a very dear friend had bought me a Cannon Powershot S2 IS including case, battery charger and a 1 gig memory chip. It is beautiful and I just love it. My old camera was a Sony CyberShot, needless to say, they are VERY different. Not only do I not know much about this camera, but I don't know a lot about photography in general. I want to learn so that I can take dazzling pictures with my new camera....so, where should I start?

I live behind Magic Kingdom, so the World will be my subject mostly. My daughter is almost 6 and was adopted with special needs she is one of the most photogenic children I have ever met.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Monty]

So yesterday UPS knocked on my door and had a box from Amazon. Turns out that a very dear friend had bought me a Cannon Powershot S2 IS including case, battery charger and a 1 gig memory chip. It is beautiful and I just love it. My old camera was a Sony CyberShot, needless to say, they are VERY different. Not only do I not know much about this camera, but I don't know a lot about photography in general. I want to learn so that I can take dazzling pictures with my new camera....so, where should I start?

I live behind Magic Kingdom, so the World will be my subject mostly. My daughter is almost 6 and was adopted with special needs she is one of the most photogenic children I have ever met.

Thanks in advance for your help!

This is going to sound trite, but...

RTFI!

Read The :lookaroun Instructions!

The instruction booklet might seem daunting at first, but there are a lot of useful tidbits in there. It'll point you to features you're likely to use when you understand them.

For the parks, check how to do flash-less night shots [for fireworks]
general landscape shots for daylight and macro shots for getting really close to flowers or other quite small objects.

As you become more comfortable with the basics, go back and RTFI again... It'll make more sense and you'll gain new tricks to try.

The Powershot series are quite good cameras, in no time you'll be dazzling us all with your wonderful photographic trip reports!

 

[PhotoDave219]

I'll give the same advice that i give everyone:

Go out and buy "The National Geographic Field guide to Photography." Its the best beginner book out there. It covers the concepts and the how's. Between those and leanring how to do it on your camera (see the previous poster) you should be set to go. Its just being creative at that point and knowing how to anticipate situations.

 

[SpongeScott]

So yesterday UPS knocked on my door and had a box from Amazon. Turns out that a very dear friend had bought me a Cannon Powershot S2 IS including case, battery charger and a 1 gig memory chip. It is beautiful and I just love it. My old camera was a Sony CyberShot, needless to say, they are VERY different. Not only do I not know much about this camera, but I don't know a lot about photography in general. I want to learn so that I can take dazzling pictures with my new camera....so, where should I start?

I live behind Magic Kingdom, so the World will be my subject mostly. My daughter is almost 6 and was adopted with special needs she is one of the most photogenic children I have ever met.

Thanks in advance for your help!

You're new to the board? You've been here for 19 months....

Good advice, especially from Dave. It's digital--experiment and have fun with it. Delete the ones you don't like and start over again.

 

[MommytoMJM]

This is going to sound trite, but...

RTFI!

Read The :lookaroun Instructions!

The instruction booklet might seem daunting at first, but there are a lot of useful tidbits in there. It'll point you to features you're likely to use when you understand them.

For the parks, check how to do flash-less night shots [for fireworks]
general landscape shots for daylight and macro shots for getting really close to flowers or other quite small objects.

As you become more comfortable with the basics, go back and RTFI again... It'll make more sense and you'll gain new tricks to try.

The Powershot series are quite good cameras, in no time you'll be dazzling us all with your wonderful photographic trip reports!

I am reading the instructions, even though they make no sense wahtsoever right now! LOL

I'll give the same advice that i give everyone:

Go out and buy "The National Geographic Field guide to Photography." Its the best beginner book out there. It covers the concepts and the how's. Between those and leanring how to do it on your camera (see the previous poster) you should be set to go. Its just being creative at that point and knowing how to anticipate situations.

Awesome, I'll pick that up! Thank you!

You're new to the board? You've been here for 19 months....

Good advice, especially from Dave. It's digital--experiment and have fun with it. Delete the ones you don't like and start over again.

New to the Tips and Tchniques Board specifically silly!