S3 New Look

After two years of shooting with this camera I finally caved and bought an adapter, though it was an aftermarket adapter, hence the tape. I've been wanting to play with filters for a while now, but couldn't bring myself to pay 30 bucks for a plastic adapter. I got a metal one on eBay for $14.50 with free shipping. Though it did take over a week to arrive. I then went and got some cheap filters to experiment with, most especially a circular polarizer. The only downside of all this is while waiting for the adapter to arrive, I finally made up my mind on my next camera. I'm going to try a Canon XSi. It's a 12.2 mega pixel DSLR, that also uses SD cards, which I now have a ton of (though they might be too slow.) All told I'll be spending over $1,000 on my new camera and 2 lenses. There goes a chunk of my bonus. Technically the camera and it's kit lens aren't that expensive, but I'm getting a dedicated macro lens too, at the same time, or I would never justify $400-$600 on one lens. I decided on it after reading many reviews, seeing test shots, holding the camera, and seeing a very funny forum post. It said someone who wanted the camera had taken 3,000 pictures with his point-and-shoot, so he thought it was time to move up. My S3 just rolled over again to 20,000 pictures, well technically it was in November. I've moved up to 21,326 as of yesterday. So if someone who took 3,ooo pictures thinks it's time to upgrade, I should probably upgrade as well. I was going to move to the SX10, but I've been unimpressed by the photos it's been taking, and it can't use filters, which just pisses me off. I've also found I really dislike the wheel they moved to from the S3's design. It does not respond as smoothly as just clicking. That's after 4 visits to Best Buy just to hold it and mess with the settings.

Ice. Icy, Ice. and a deer...

My walk at Moose Hill on Sunday. I'll add more later. The ice above wasn't directly on water. it was left there from when the marsh was higher. There were several layers until you got water. The trail also did a nice creaking and clinking thing as I moved on it, but it never went more than a half inch under water, so I didn't get wet.

Shaped Bokeh

I should not browse blogs. Photography blogs especially. On this one http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/ I scrolled through ten pages of posts and came across how to make shapes out of the out of unfocused lights in the background of pictures. Quick explanation is you cut a shape out of paper or card stock, set the focus on something close to the camera, and zoom in until the shape disappears on the viewer, with my camera that was about 72 mm with a 1 cm across star. You also want the largest Aperture you can get, i.e. the lowest number.

I haven't quite figured out how to focus on something closeup, but I did manage to make shapes out of some Christmas lights. I suspect it would have worked a little better if I could find lights in my house that didn't blink.

This is the first shape I cut out, notice the fuzzy bits of paper on the edges.

Made for fuzzy stars. The sharper the edges the sharper the images.

More in depth instructions than mine can be found here: http://www.diyphotography.net/diy_create_your_own_bokeh and here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/shaped_bokeh/discuss/72157610869813179/

Cheap Camera Accessories

This week I finally caved and bought a cheap little slave flash trigger. It was about $12 on eBay. And amazingly enough it does work with the old Vivitar flashes we stored with the Canon AE-1. It works on the principle of setting off the remote flash when it senses a flash from something else, ie the S3. I don't know how long it's going to take me to figure out how to work the S3 and the remote flash so they're firing at the same time. My next purchase will probably be an adapter tube, and a polarizing filter, and possibly a flash bracket. I'm holding off new camera purchases until I decide if I'm getting a DSLR or not. The picture quality just keeps screaming to me. The Cokin P series of filters is intriguing me though, as I could use it on any later camera with just an adapter ring. And I recently discovered the true use of Neutral Density Filters. They easily make it so you can do very long water shots in sunlight, without overexposing, so I might have to try some of those too. The helpful tutorials that led me to these ideas can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/canon_s3_is_how_to/discuss/72157603671169448/ and here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/canon_s3_is_how_to/discuss/72157603671619056/

Last Cat Shelf... Finally

The last shelf is finally up, and the cat's licking her whiskers due to the treats required to get her up there the first time. She seems quite entertained about getting to touch the ceiling. I'll admit I airbrushed out some white spots on the wall to the left where I had to fill some holes made by inadequate mounting screws I tried yesterday. I'll be painting over them any day now anyway. And yes my living room really is that color.

What a difference a day makes

This week there was a nice alignment of several celestial bodies. The moon, Venus, and Jupiter appeared very close together (to our eyes.) If you were in the southern hemisphere I believe it even looked like a smiley face. Next time you'll be able to see it is in 2052.