New Camera: Day 2

I've had a total of eight hours of sleep over the last two nights combined, so I'm going to rush this entry and go to bed. I wanted to get my next installment of the Princess and Commander Masan scene written and posted over on Messages from Mâvarin, but that's going to have to wait. Friday is probably a better night to schedule that, when I can stay up all night and sleep into the afternoon the next day.

As I mentioned last night, one of the main criteria I used in selecting my new camera (a Sony Cyber-shot) was its purported ability to take decent photos in relatively low-light conditions. Tonight I put the camera to the test in this respect. It didn't work any miracles, but overall I think it did rather well.


This first shot was taken at lunchtime, of chicken tortilla soup. It's a flash shot using the macro setting.


Dusk in the Unnamed Largish Company parking lot. The flash photos came out better than the low-light settings I tried. I played with the tone and saturation levels on this, but I almost always do that anyway.


One of the big frustrations I've had with past cameras is the difficulty in taking a good picture of Tuffy after dusk. The house is never brightly lit, for various reasons (older house, broken fixtures, sixty-watt bulbs), and when I use flash, her eyes get that awful shiny reflection that ruins the shot. Sometimes I color them brown afterward; this makes the shots barely usable. Since I pretty much only see Tuffy nights and weekends, I miss out on a lot of potential dog-blogging.

Can the Sony Cyber-shot help me with this problem? Well, a little bit. This was taken without flash by the light of a nearby sixty-watt bulb under a vintage lampshade. I've adjusted the levels quite a bit, but the colors are still off, it's still a bit dark and the focus is just so-so. Still, it's a nice mood piece, and I like the fuzziness of the background.


Okay, I played with this one quite a bit - for tone and saturation, despeckling and cropping - but even the raw version of the photo was rather striking. I love the shadow the dragon is casting here. This shot simply would not be possible with flash.


You may recognize these props from Halloween, and from one of the "mess" pictures from the Monday Photo Shoot. I have them stored in a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory popcorn bucket. I've tried many times to photograph this faux skull, but it always comes out looking very odd when I use flash. This is the best representation of the way the thing actually looks that I've managed to date.

1:14 AM. I've done worse. Good night!

A New Camera, Macrobial Dolls

It's Round Robin Challenge time again! John Darrow of "Personal Effects," has come up with a truly challenging topic his time: "Macro." He further suggests arranging four 200x200 px shots into a composite, each minishot with a specific theme: texture (T), color (C), reflection (R), and newness (N), arranged in this layout:

T C
R N

Unlike Steven of (sometimes) photoblog, who is an expert with macro photography, I barely knew what it was when this challenge came up. Turns out "macro" is the term for the close-up setting (or lens, or both) on a camera. I think a macro lens on a non-digital camera is a large lens for taking pictures of small things. It's a paradox: outside the field of photography, "macro" means big, and "micro" is small!


Still, it's a neat idea, and a good chance to stretch my photography skills outside my usual comfort zone of landscapes and sunsets. And it was a great excuse to finally do what I've wanted to do for months: I bought a new camera tonight! It's a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W100, with 8.1 megapixels and an ISO of 1250 for taking good pictures in low light conditions. That's important for me, because of all the pictures I take inside St. Michael's as semi-official parish photographer.


It took a while to charge the battery, so I got a late start on taking the actual pictures. I decided to use the composite photo suggestion, and went with dolls as my subjects. Here are a few of the shots I took along the way:

Three Skipper dolls and a Skipper case "reflect" each other.

My newest doll, a Happy Meal Lucy Pevensey from a little over a year ago.

And here's my finished composite:

Texture: molded plastic "hair" on a vintage drink and wet doll
Color: Casey and friends in their mod outfits
Reflection: Skipper, Skipper, Skipper and Skipper
Newness: Lucy and the Wardrobe from December 2005

Now, if you're interested in joining in on this Challenge, you're more than welcome! Check out the Round Robin blog for details, and don't be intimidated if you're not sure about this macro stuff - it isn't hard, and it's a lot of fun. (At least it is for me, so far!). Steven and John have both posted some tips. Check 'em out! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with! And remember, any macro photography is fine for this. For most digital camera, that means using the setting with the flower icon to take close-ups of small things. Got it! Good!

Karen

Linking List

John - POSTED!
Personal Effects
http://personaleffects.blogspot.com/

Carly - POSTED!
Ellipsis... Suddenly Carly
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com/

Janet - POSTED!
Fond Of Photography
http://fondofphotography.blogspot.com/

Karen - POSTED!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/

Dorn - POSTED!
Through The Eyes of the Beholder
http://journals.aol.com/dornbrau/ThroughtheEyesoftheBeholder

Nancy - POSTED!
Nancy Luvs Pix
http://journals.aol.com/nhd106/Nancyluvspix

Kerrin - POSTED!
Macrocapture
http://macrocapture.blogspot.com/

Julie - POSTED!
Julie's Web Journal
http://www.barrettmanor.com/julie/journal.aspx

Steven - POSTED!
(sometimes) photoblog
http://sepintx.blogspot.com/

Linda - POSTED!
Blah Blah Blog
http://blahblahblog.wordpress.com

Gattina - POSTED!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com/

Brad - POSTED!
we-is
http://we-is.blogspot.com/2007/01/round-robin-macro.html

Schelle - POSTED! Welcome, new member!
Fractal Myth
http://fractalmyth.atspace.com/