Gratitude Monday: YouTube, baby

It’s been months—perhaps more than a year—since I last pulled out my DSLR to actually shoot. I use a pocket camera for all my on-the-fly photos—particularly the ones I take in traffic. The Canon is reasonably comfortable to use, and it fits in the pocket of my running sweats, although I really miss having a viewfinder. Having nothing but that screen means I’m guessing about what’s in the shot and what’s in focus when there’s glare.

But Autumn-Winter-Spring are prime photography seasons, and I decided I just needed to get back in practice. So I hauled out the Nikon, charged the battery and…stared at it.

Because I’ve been using what’s essentially a point-and-shoot for way too long.

So I did what everyone on the planet with connectivity and a problem would do: I consulted YouTube. And, glory be, I found all kinds of tutorials on how to use this model. I uncovered settings and functions that what Nikon is pleased to call user documentation never bothered with.

Now, look, I learned to shoot on a Nikon rangefinder (which inspired the name of this blog). No through-the-lens metering; I carried around a light meter to calculate appropriate settings. And I did not do badly with it. And for years, my Minolta SLR served me well—through-the-lens metering, but not a lot of other bells or whistles. When I decided to move into the digital age—ten years ago; I wanted to see if this whole thing had legs—I didn’t spend a lot of cycles on it. I did take one Nikon 101 class through Seattle’s Open University equivalent, but…

In my defense, I do not use the Nikon as a point-and-shoot; I typically set it either to Shutter or Aperture mode, not Don’t-Worry-Your-Pretty-Little-Head-Honey. But I’ve never pushed it.

However, YouTube had my back. In a couple of 20- to 30-minute sessions last weekend, I learned heaps—enough to head out yesterday in full Manual, and play around with a bunch of different functions.

And here’s the thing: whether it’s photography (or specific photographic equipment), cooking, home improvement, auto repair, whatever—there’s a multitude of YouTube videos to walk you through it. In the past month, I’ve checked out how to use the Instant Pot to make soup, what I need in order to mount hardware and hang curtains and how to fix a hissing toilet. Yes—as with everything on the Internet—you’ll find crackpots there, and I recommend checking out several “experts” to validate their instructions. But, man—what a resource.

So, today I’m grateful for YouTube’s how-to videos. Because of them, my first foray out into the neighborhood with the Nikon netted 100 photos, 94 of which are decent enough to keep. And I had a great time playing with the settings.

Here’s a keeper:

And here’s the one I completely overexposed—which I kind of like:

Now—maybe there are some videos for the Canon…