(no subject)

[which_chick]

The camera came today.



I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a vibrate feature, but it apparently has every other damn feature on the planet.

Sample images: (I got it after lunch today. This was just "Hey, look, I took a picture!" dicking around. Clearly, I need more work on framing, on telling how much light the lens really needs, on what the zoom can and cannot do for me... but there will be time to learn that. This was just starter stuff. I have a new camera. I can take pictures with it. Yay!

Heather's daughter, Tess


Tess, again. (I do not have many relatives who tolerate having their pictures taken. Tess is the only one locally.)


My side of the mountain.


The other side of the mountain.


The faucet in my bathtub.


Half-and-half poured into a jar full of water. I want to do a better job than this, with less distortion (where the jar bends) and better lighting (not a big blob on the glass where the flash hit) but this was proof of concept for me and I am happy with it for that.

Comments

[cousin-sue.livejournal.com]

So glad it finally arrived!

Hooray!

[not-your-real.livejournal.com]

The Tess! So that is the Tess. The Tess is so cute!

(If I've seen the Tess before, I plead "They change so fast!")

About the moving liquids: Dayum! Your camera is sooooooo hot. Mine would not be able to get the whole picture saved before the scene changed, I think.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking on the moving liquids thing. I really like the soft curves and shadows of the half-n-half in water thing... but I need better production values. (This is not an expensive effect. It took like two tablespoons of half-n-half, poured in a thin stream out of a measuring cup.)

To make it better...

1. Flat glass instead of curved. I'm thinking maybe a small goldfish-sized tank (the kind with two curved sides and two flat sides). WalMart has those.

2. Better background than my cutting board stood on end. Cutting board is honestly non-uniform color anymore and it's marked up. I'm thinking maybe construction paper, stuck to the back of the fishbowl. (I am totally all about the high tech, here.)

3. Better lighting. I needed flash in my kitchen at nine in the evening and what I *had* was on-camera flash. I think I can do better.

4. An assistant to pour when I say to pour. It's no fun to have to pour with one hand and take the picture with the other hand. (Number of people I know who could be coerced into participating in this kind of foolishness: none.)

5. More and different substances. (Cream experiments were cut short because I need that for my coffee. Milk is not anywhere near as satisfactory because it's thinner and mixes too readily.) Ink-in-water? I'd use a white background for that, I think. There, I could do from-the-top shots or maybe from-the-bottom shots. I bet that would be interesting. Cream into tea. That's a gorgeous effect. Cream into other colored liquids (beet juice?) to see. I bet the cream would lighten up the colors and make things look like shades of the color...

6. Try taking pictures of smoke from those dumb-ass incense sticks. (Similar interest for me, techniques might map. Also a lighting problem.) I like when the smoke makes little scrolls in still air. Note to self: buy dumb-ass incense sticks or acquire the next batch that pot-smoking tenants leave behind.

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

re 2/5: Some sort of light box? http://www.studiolighting.net/homemade-light-box-for-product-photography/

re camera in general: I'm totally jealous. My photo teacher told me I should get a "cheap digital SLR." I don't think such a thing exists, but the fact that he told me to do so made me REALLY want a digital SLR.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

I've done the pricing for dSLRs and they do come in a pretty broad range, from what you'd pay for a pretty-nifty point-n-shoot to more than twice what I paid. In the Nikon family of products, the entry-level model is the D40. They recently jacked the Mpx for the D40x or whatever, but the plain D40 is fine. If you're more of a Canon person, their entry model is the Digital Rebel XT (I think).

Price check (amazon.com)

Nikon D40 w/ 18-55 II kit lens: $540

Canon Digital Rebel XT w/ EF-S 18-55mm kit lens: $606

I don't know that you can do much less than that unless you're willing to buy used. All of the pictures (above) were taken with the Nikon 18-55 kit lens (which I bought used for a hundred bucks, came with both lens caps, and clear tiffen UV filter).

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my teacher has a $2500 canon, and he was like "guys. Don't spend this much. You're like 20." I was like, holy shit, you're somewhat reasonable!?

I'm not averse to buying used in theory, but there doens't seem to be a good way to go about it and not depend on the luck of the draw, as it were. Also my point and shoot is 10 MP-- so I don't want to go backwards in terms of image quality too much.

Of course, if I wanted to I could just buy the most expensive thing I could find, since I have $3500 of otherwise unusable scholarship money, but I'm not sure I want to, all the same. I should probably just suck it up and do it! I just hate spending money!

By the way, you may find it interesting/hilarious that he wants me to do this so I can take digital pinhole pictures. (I can't complain. It sounds like fun. Just, usually, my "sounds like fun" whims cost $10, not $1000.)

[brni.livejournal.com]

very nice. i've been fighting the urge to get a shiny camera - i have no time to spend with it, and if i do, i have to sacrifice something i need to do more.

:(

i still miss the smell of darkroom chemistry...

[brni.livejournal.com]

oh, also, try the half-and-half trick with heavy whipping cream...

[jaltemba-bay.livejournal.com]

Does having the new camera mean that the actual amount of real work will decline until the "new" wears off?

I am glad that it finally came.

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

So is your house up on a hill mountain? That's a pretty impressive view.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

No, my house is down in the hollow, with the lake. That's where I flip my boat over and call it sailing. This is from the top of the mountain I drive over every day to get to work... There's a pull-off and then two minutes of defiant trespass on Turnpike Authority property gets you that shot. There's a better one on my flickr.

[staceman.livejournal.com]

Like, wow.

I never before quite understood the big differences between cheap cameras and expensive ones. I do now, these pics explain it all. Very impressive!

[galena417.livejournal.com]

congrats on finally getting your camera!

Tess is a cutie.

Mountain (both sides) looks like a pretty nice place to live.

Water falling and cream in water are pretty cool...definite potential there!

[zhasper.livejournal.com]

What they said!

In particular, the bits about pretty mountains and the cream-in-water - nice!

I've flickr-added you, so as to see more of your experiments :)