New Camera

With the baby coming, we decided to get a new camera.  We didn't want a DSLR (even though everyone insisted on us getting one - and for those of you that did, thank you.  I would be more than happy to send you my address so you can purchase said camera that I "have to have" and have it shipped directly to our house).  Maybe you missed the fact that we have a baby on the way.  That translates to "we don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on a camera". :) We just wanted something a little better than our Sony Cybershot - maybe something that records video, has a faster shutter speed and a little more clarity in the photos. 

Of course camera shopping is the worst (I would probably rank it higher in terms of suckiness than jeans shopping or bathing suit shopping).  It's bad.  There are just so many options and I always feel that I over research and the camera ends up under delivering.  I buy one, get all giddy about it and then a friend takes amazing pictures on a more simple camera that cost her much less and I get frustrated.  Plus I feel like the reviews are always for rocket scientists.  Why can't someone just write a review that says "yep, this camera takes good pictures.  It's easy to use.  You will be happy, even if you know nothing about photography."  Seriously, that would help me so much.

I did get a recommendation from Betsy on facebook for a bridge camera.  Hum... I had never heard of that.  It's slightly better than a point and shoot, but not as crazy as a DSLR.  She gave me the model of the one she bought and was really happy with.  She told me what I wanted to hear - it took great pictures, it was reasonable and it had all the bells and whistles we wanted.  (Thanks for the review that I could understand Betsy... you saved me).  I started researching it and BAM!  It's exactly what we wanted.  And... it was in our budget. 

So we bough this baby -a Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR

Sounds and looks fancy, doesn't it?  Yeah, it is, compared to anything we've had in the past.  We have a lot to learn about it, but it does everything we want and WAY more!  So far, besides getting used to the size, we are having fun playing with it.  Here are some of the photos I've been taking as I get to learn things.

 

So with all that being said, and knowing that I have a lot to learn with this camera, anyone have any pointers on taking decent pictures of people, particularly moving babies? For some reason, the owners manual doesn't have a chapter on that.