Playing with the New Toy

I got a new camera for my birthday. I am so excited about it! It's a Canon Rebel XS - which is a digital SLR. I have had a film SLR camera that I bought in college, but I have been wanting a digital one for some time now. So, I decided to just bite the bullet and (with the help of birthday money) go ahead and buy one. What I have learned right away is that I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to photography. But, it is so fun to play around! I love the freedom that digital cameras give you to play and then be able to delete all of the bad shots. So, that is exactly what I have been doing the past few days. My picture-taking adventures have included a nearby park, the top of Stone Mountain, my friends at an Earth Day party, and strawberry picking. Here are a couple of shots (don't be too critical...I still have much to learn!!):

View of the golf course from top of Stone Mountain

Monk walking around on the mountain

The gum rock (which I think is gross, for the record)

Trey, Kellyn, Lauren, and Rachel celebrating Earth Day (read: any excuse to have a party will do)

Lauren and I

The fruit (literally) of my strawberry-picking labor

Playing with the macro setting...

And again...

I am sure there will be more to come. Perhaps I will photograph all of the strawberry creations that I will have to come up with in order to consume all of these yummy strawberries before they go bad!