Nikon P1000

Week two of the Ultimate Blog Challenge for me is Photography Week. When I mentioned to Rich that someday I’d like a “real” camera he told me to check the options for “someday” when I might buy one. We have a photographer friend in the mountains that takes wonderful shots of wildlife at Cade’s Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee just over the North Carolina border. She has a huge camera with many interchangeable lenses but she told Rich that after researching cameras for her hubby, she found the Nikon P1000 was the best especially for a beginner. The next thing I knew, Rich ordered the camera and it arrived the end of November for an early Christmas present! One reason why she recommended the Nikon P1000 is because the lens is stationary so there is no need to purchase a variety of different sized lenses. With the 28mm all the way to 3000mm optical zoom it’s the most powerful zoom lens ever put on a Nikon Coolpix camera plus it’s mirrorless unlike the DSLR mirrored cameras. The P1000 has full manual controls plus easy to use auto shooting. Some of the special shooting features are Beach, Fireworks, Food, Landscape, Night Landscape, Night Portrait, Panorama, Party/Indoor, Portrait, Snow, Sports, and Sunset. It’s even a video camera which I only checked out but that too will be interesting to figure out! I have not even begun to learn all these different features. What I like about the Nikon P1000 is that I can take fully automatic shots where the camera does all the setting automatically or I can use the Program or Manual mode where I have to think and plan my settings! LOL

When I first starting looking for things to photograph I was still using the Program mode and there is even a setting for moon shots! I’m excited to go to the beach and capture some awesome sunrise and moonrise photographs! I may be figure out the time lapse by then.

This was one of the very first pictures I took with my new camera using the Auto moon mode. This was before I started using the manual modes. I took the crescent moon shot on November 28th and the half moon was November 30th. I was amazed at the clarity of the photos on my first try!

These are some full moon photographs I took on December 8th using the Auto moon mode. The top photo was 1500mm zoom and the two bottom ones are 1200mm zoom. One thing I have to work on when doing hand held shooting is to control camera shake. The camera is heavy and when the zoom is even half way out it takes some balancing to keep the camera steady. My friend who is teaching me showed me how to hold my hand under the lens and it works great for keeping it steady.

There is still so much to learn and just like when I was 60 years old I went back to learning and completed six insurance courses and passed the State exam mainly to see if I could still learn at that age. While pulling up this link I realized this was posted in the first Ultimate Blog Challenge I participated in on January 2016!

Here I am now, almost 74 years old and doing the same thing, seeing if I can still learn something new and retain what I’ve learned! It’s a challenge but I love my Nikon P1000! We are going hiking around the intercoastal waterway marshland and see what kind of wildlife I can practice some manual shots on. That will be my next lesson!