tales of an ordinary girl

So, the first two pictures, including the abysmal first picture, are with the old camera with the rest taken with the new camera. I'm still having trouble with pictures at dusk, usually only when there are lights in or very near the photograph or reflective signs to throw off the flash. But, I love the camera. I usually take 50-75 pictures in a week. This week I've taken over 250. I decided it was time to start deleting truly bad images after I saw what it was doing to the available space on my hard drive.

Oh yes, and the Extreme III SDHC cards are definitely worth the small increase in price. I copy pictures that are 2-3 times larger than my old images about 5 times faster. It doesn't help with Flickr uploads though.

All of the pictures are still unedited. I do plan to learn how to remove the light poles, for those of you who have asked, but I'm not there yet from a time perspective. I'm planning to take a digital photography class in the Spring, so hopefully that will help. Maybe I can somehow learn to avoid the light poles, though they seem to be everywhere around here.



Original Source

Cannon, taken with the Minolta
The new camera (Cannon) arrived today, but by the time the battery charged it was night. I took it out to see if night photography would work. A lot of shots just wouldn't take, even holding the button down for minutes. I'm unfamiliar with the tripod and it's made the pictures worse so far. I took the picture below of a planet or star (click to enlarge) and a few pictures of the moon.

Some planet or star
Here's my old forlorn camera (Minolta). I'll still use it for when I don't want to chance carrying the new camera around. It may reside in my car semi-permanently.


I took comparative shots with the Cannon and Minolta cameras, although Billy wasn't too pleased about being the subject.

Billy - Minolta
Billy - Cannon
As you can probably see, the Cannon picture is much more detailed and focused on the actual subject, not everything else, including the blanket. His fur looks more glossy too, but that might just be the flash difference.

I don't yet feel comfortable with the new camera. It's not as heavy as I expected and holding it is actually very comfortable. But the controls are unfamiliar and I'm not used to looking through the viewfinder. I take all of my pictures now through the screen, sometimes not able to see what I'm taking due to the glare of the sun. Still, I know once I get used to the Cannon my pictures will improve. Tomorrow I'll try my sunrise pictures with the Cannon.

Mamacita Chilena over at Just Married Chilean Style is running a charity art project to support a co-worker of her husband, Marcelo, who is planning to go back to school for his Tecnico en Construccion. He makes too much for government support, but not enough to support his family and pay for school. The jobs he would be qualified for if he completed his degree would allow him to advance his career and support his family and fiance.

Mamacita has made the commitment to sponsor his education when he goes back to school in March '09 as long as he stays committed to school because she wants to help Marcelo further his goals as people did for her as she was growing up. To help with the costs she is using all of the proceeds from the sale of her fine art prints from October 6th to November 6th to pay for Marcelo's school fees.

The prints are gorgeous and the money goes to a good cause. If you're thinking about buying art or gifts for friends and family during the holidays, have a look at her site. You'll be able to buy originals from an artist who is just starting her career.

I had a hard time deciding, but finally ordered these two.