Say hello to the Canon EOS Rebel XTi [link] and the acoompanying EF-s 17-85mm f4-5.6 [link] this is my new baby and I've been getting acquainted with it since it came in the mail the other day.

10 megapixels of SLR love goes a long way here in the DC area, and today I took my new toy out for a walk from Chinatown, down past the FBI building, onto the national mall, into the outdoor sculpture museum, on to the gardens surrounding the old Smithsonian Institute building, and finally stopping at the Holocaust Museum where I decided it was time to pack it in after the security guards gave me a hard time, more on that later.

I must confess I'm a completely self-taught- a euphemism for "knows nothing"- novice when it comes to photography. I've taken no classes, and while I've started reading some text books, most of what I know is a result of fiddling with the buttons. Honestly if it wasn't for the advent of digital photography I wouldn't know f from ISO from shutter speed, and I barely know them as it is. In my effort to learn I made with reading the manual last night and today put it to use.

Primarily I fiddled with the aperture to try and control the focus/depth of field/whatever, to get that classic look of focused subject and blurry back ground. I did this in close up macro of plants I could get as close as I wanted to and at the sculpture museum zooming in and out with my nifty new lens from a few feet away- "do not walk on the grass".

I didn't go looking for any action shots, but I did try to get a few dogs being walked- fail-, pigeons- mild success but pigeons suck so who cares-, smaller finches/sparrows/whateverthehellbirdstheywere- difficult as hell-, a huge bumblebee- surprising success, that sucker posed!-and a pack of yuppy tourists on segways- seriously it was like a battalion of segways all wearing their bike helmets and standing on their wheels, segway tours or something, hilariously lame. So, yeah, mostly I just got a bunch of macro shots.

Now, I went in with a single 2gig flash card... and I filled it. Yeah, lots of pictures. Granted a huge amount will simply be deleted into the ether never to be seen again, but of what's left I'm gonna have to be real picky so as not to just drown my deviant gallery >_< Amazingly the battery did not need to be replaced, which surprised the hell out of me, if it had I was well prepared as upon inspection of the camera and its battery I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it uses the very same battery as my Canon Powershot S30 of which I have two, two batteries A-HA-HA-HA!!!

So after I got kicked out of the gardens so they could lock up I wandered down to the closed Holocaust Museum to try and get some shots of the engravings on the walls on the side of the building with all the grotesque modern art (I hate big I-beam sculptures, ugh). I fiddled with macro and focus and shooting the engraved letters from the side with and without flash- it as a cloudy day and the sun was setting- when all of a sudden I heard a security guard over my MP3 player (I was listening to Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy, engrossing story).

He was concerned that I'd been shooting through the windows of the entrance he guarded, windows that for some reason faced in on his security station complete with camera monitors, computers, and all manner of security paraphernalia. Seriously, if I had better eye sight I could've waited till he went on a round, walked up to the window by the door and read all the info on the security computer's screen and monitored a bunch of security cameras, it was ridiculous- they seriously need to redesign that.

I explained what I was doing, getting technical with my explanation to make it clear I wasn't making it up. He said he had to see my shots, again thank heavens for digital photography; I cycled through the last 20 photos for him and he was sated. He told me I could keep shooting, just to be careful next time. I wished him a good evening and decided it was getting late and looking ready to rain so I should just go home anyways; I'd been walking for like 5 hours.

So yes, this camera, I think I love this camera. This camera is flipp'n sweet!