Very much a newbie

[rushie]

Hi guys,

 

Very much a newbie to photography and struggling to get my head around things.

 

I received a Sony a5000 for my birthday last year and I've been struggling to get it to do what I want it to with the stock lens it came with. I can't really tell if it's me or the lens, or a combination of both. I have been able to get a couple of great shots, but they mostly still seem like flukes in one of the pre-selected modes.

 

I have an 11 year old cat, a 5 year old Dalmatian and a 22 month old toddler. My focus is primarily to capture images of my son and pets - sometimes individually but sometimes together. More often than not, the a5000 is used indoors (hence low light); unless we're out/traveling as a family, in which case I would be using my a5000 outdoors as well (as my husband can provide the much-needed second set of hands in case of an emergency).

 

I would really like to achieve beautiful portraits (with a blurred background) but can't seem to get done satisfactorily unless the background is really far away (regardless of what manual settings I try).

I'm guess I'm here to try and work out how to better use my camera (and stock lens) but also determine if I need a new lens (and if so what?) to achieve my goal of blurred backgrounds (since my birthday is around the corner).

I would really like it to be my default camera (as opposed to my fallback and fail-safe iPhone) and would be grateful to anyone who could point me at the right threads or provide any helpful information.

 

So in summary:

Camera - a5000 (E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS lens)

Primary objective - blurry background portraits

Secondary objective - artistic subject and surroundings

Subject/muse - perpetually moving toddler and pets

Location: Melbourne, Australia

 

Thanks and look forward to getting to know you