Had to try my new camera ...
 

I think I mentioned my wife and I each got a new Kodak EasyShare P850 camera (5 megapixel) for our meeting anniversary. Well, had to try it out and so I took a few pictures just in our yard. Flowers mainly although there's one of two of our cars.

In any case, now I'm glad I did. I came in and within half an hour we got real deluge of rain and some strong winds and some of the flowers lost their petals. :(

Oh well, I'll share a couple pictures. I reduced them down to 640X480 although the originals are about 4 times that size 2900 X something. Whew! Huge.




Now I can hardly wait to learn how to turn it on. JK :)

excellent pics DB.

love the happy little yellow flower pic

there is something about the yellow flower pic that looks like a painting to me...

Yeah, I love those yellow flowers too!

Beautiful!

we call them johnny jump ups...like tiny baby pansies

Pretty flowers DB :)

I liked the moldy rock. :mad:




























ROFL :D

very good pics! :) No question that the digital pic is here and GOOD! ;)

Nice pics, DB!

Thanks all. Just wanted to share my first fling with the shutter. ;)

Gorgeous! You should come to CA and take pics of all the lovely exotic flowers in our yard. No, I didn't plant them...but they are cool.

DB

Your camera should have a macro setting, denoted by a flower.

If you select that setting, it will go to fixed focus. You move the camera closer and farther until the object is framed and in focus.

You can take a full frame photo of a dime, properly lit.

I think you're right. I saw something to that affect, just haven't tried it yet. I'll have to play some more with that. Thanks.

It's marvellous for insect on flower pics etc.

I bet so. I love some of those fantastic closeup pictures.

I am sooooooooo glad I haven't mentioned nipples.

DB-
I found a small, light, tripod VERY helpful with macro photography as depth of field becomes more critical. Marco and micro are my favorite. :)

Our digicam has that very setting & denotation.

I was looking at some pics the missus had taken of her whole flower garden in full bloom, & noticed they all seemed fuzzy & out of focus...turns out she had seen the flower symbol, & misinterpreted it as a special setting for all flower pics, regardless of distance...

“When all else fails, read the manual” ;)




LOL :) That’s the way we all learn.

Same here, PF...I use a cheap lightweight tripod (purchased at a yard sale) for my Ebay pics, using a white backdrop & the "no flash" setting under a bank of shoplights...a great way to bring out the details of, say, a book cover w/o the glare & washout created by using the built-in flash...

I've found a fluffy towel makes a good, cheap backdrop, especially when something has to be pedestal set……….and you can use different colors when the contrast requires.

Bedsheets are good for that too...but I've had pretty good luck with the blank side of an old poster-sized calendar from 1993...

Sure..... sure. :rolleyes:

I know what was on the other side of that calander. :D
Did she buy that as the reason you were keeping it around? :confused:

nice posies n rock n carzzz..db

Thanks again and PF and Scotz, some great ideas. Camera's new and I've got a lot to learn about it and your suggestions are terrific. PF, those pictures were beautiful.

I think I have the perfect small tripod for extreme closeups. I'll have to try that.

Two thumbs up to both of you.

And, thank you BG1. Appreciate your compliments. A little encouragement always helps. ;)






Now, about OF's idea for nipples .... :rolleyes:

;)

Interesting, yes.......... beautiful, I don't know. It sounds like OF has a better idea about beauty. lol

Tried a couple more close-ups. Still didn't use a tripod (lazy I guess), but anyway, here's what I got ...










You know, this is fun. Maybe I will get to those nipples ... :)

Those would make great screensavers

DB

The other thing I found with macro was the tendancy to wash out the pic with the flash.

If you put your finger over the flash, you can reduce the light and still get the pic.

The frog pic I posted was taken at night with an obstructed flash.

Another good tip. Thanks.

DB i love the cars mate... makes me want to go shopping

great pictures!
those water droplets on the, what were they? yellow gerberas?...beautiful
digital media is getting better and better.
the photographer ain't too bad either. ;)

Thank you, Wyndhy, you're very kind! I think you're right on the yellow flowers. My wife calls them Gerber(as) Daisies but I but that's the same thing.

I was to dumb (or smart enough not) to get into the darkroom processing with my film cams. Nikon loved me but Kodak didn’t, except for the film, so I took a lot of pics, playing with the light for macro and micro. If you are really into the up-close, there are ring lights for most of the better cams. Without a (involved and expensive) studio lighting set up, you get to play with neat/cheap tricks like the blocked flash or bounced light. A Kleenex rubber banded over the flash is fun. Just pointing the flash away from the subject and holding white paper (bounce) with different contours is neat to play with.

For me, the digital ‘lab’ has bee something fantastic for lighting. I wish I had more time to just play with that. Yep, after a few years of bitterness when a camera bag with 2 bodies and 7 Nikkor lenses was stolen, I tip-toed into digital and am a full convert. We have a true pro in our New England Pixie population you should be talking to, DB. I hear he has forgotten more than I’ll ever know about photography.

Nothing wrong with not using the tripod on those shots, db...full sun will bring the shutter speed up so high that blur & shake are non-factors...the big advantage to using a 'pod I've found is that digicams are typically so small & light that just pushing the shutter button will move the cam & undo all the work you just spent framing the shot just so...fortunately, the software that comes with most cams will let you fix most cropping issues, but it's still a piss-off when you see that you just cropped off the focal point of your shot...
Of course the best thing about digital is that it costs no more to take a dozen or so safety shots just to make sure...

BTW, those are some great flower shots, you're already macro-ing like a pro...

BTW, PF, the calendar is a desk-blotter type with no pics on it, & it was kept around by my mama (the master packrat, rest her soul) to let her grandkids scribble & color on...but I got to it first ;)

:(










(You want to see one I have from 73? :D )
LMAO

You do realize that babe is somebody's grandmother now?

I use an edit program that let’s you ‘undo’ anything before I save it “as”. I always keep my original, even if I made a lot of changes. If yours auto saves any changes immediately, open it and “save as” another file name before you start playing. The digital darkroom is the BIGGEST advantage I’ve enjoyed. No enlargers, chemicals to going bad, space and construction to do…………. Just SO much of a step forward.

One of the hardest changes for me has been reversing the basic rule of taking pics with a film cam. “Fill the frame!” ……… the idea here is to get some extra, as it’s SO easy to compose and crop before you even start to play with brightness, sharpness and texture and so much more.





Is this suppose to be an armature photographer thread?
:confused:







LOL