Portrait mode guinea pig

Portrait mode guinea pig
Originally uploaded by gwilmore.

I took this picture of Vanessa earlier this evening while experimenting with my Nikon D50, about which I am learning new things just about every day. This happened to be the very first picture I ever took with the camera set to Portrait mode. I had to stand about 5 feet away from Vanessa in order to get the correct focus, because I was using my 70-300mm macro zoom lens. Vanessa was not at all enthusiastic about my taking the picture, and even less so when she learned later in the evening that I was going to post it on Flickr; however, Sheila and I both loved it, and I assured Vanessa that she had no reason to feel embarrassed by this. I suspect the photo will get some good feedback from the Flickr crowd, which in turn might persuade Vanessa that posing for her dad from time to time might not be such a bad idea after all.