I think it's harder for Livey to explain it than for me. Being a picture-taking fiend may have something to do with that. When we look through that camera's eye we can see things that don't jump out at us otherwise.
After taking the baby pix of the mantises, and talking to LL about the photo quality, I realized full force that my treasured old film Nikon just wasn't the right camera for blog pix. I'd shot some mantis pix with my *beater* digital - which is literally held together with a rubber band - and some other mantis pix on film.
There was a photo sequence on film that should have been a knockout. Oh! I just KNEW that the Circle of the Spineless was calling me! Visions of the Friday Ark (Invertebrates) were dancing in my head!
But when I blogged the sequence of the tiny mantids cannibalizing, and tried to click and embiggen for that beautiful detail my beater digital could provide - it didn't work.
LL talked to me about pixels and resolution. I took the negatives back to Sam's and they put it on the highest resolution CD they could do. The result was better, yes. But obviously they would never even approach that clarity I love to find in blog pix.
I was disappointed. There are photo ops that just don't come along very often, and the tiny praying mantis stalking and eating its sibling was one of them. The subject matter surely was not for everyone, I'd think! But having a great pic not turn out how you'd dreamed? Most of us can relate to that.
My Walter, who should NOT be doing things like this given his heart condition, decided to bust his butt working too hard so I could buy a new digital camera.
And as much as I love that man, and as worried as I am about his health now...pure human covetousness reared its ugly head.
I succumbed.
I bought that camera.
I throw myself on the mercy of the court - and yet I also must confess, I can feel no remorse.
It's wonderful. It takes such pix!!! Macros as close as 4" away. A 7x optical zoom. That stabilizer that so fascinated me when I saw it in action over at Granny J's. 7 some megapixels, more than my blog can even use.
I've been practicing with it here, taking photos of Livey's gorgeous flowers and plants and neat critters. I still haven't put in the instructional CD's to actually learn about it. Granny J's advice for me the technophobe was to learn just one camera thing at a time.
That advice is working. I'm not at all afraid of this one. It may not be the very best I could have gotten, it's a Casio and the reviews say it does have its imperfections...but so do they all. And no other camera in that price range could zoom and macro like this one can.
Instant human-to-equipment bonding - for a 'phobe - is a huge plus factor. Actually, it's probably the deciding factor, for me at least.
Most of the pix I'm posting now were taken with the new camera. Livey looked at her own flowers a little differently when she saw them. I hope they convey the beauty I see here.
There are window boxes under the windows all around the house. Most are chock-full of pansies, which we can't grow so well in South Florida except in winter. I adore pansies, big-time, so seeing them here is a real treat.
The first time I came here, there was a hummingbird sipping away at the flowers under my own window one day as I napped. Livey almost woke me up to see it but decided to let me snooze instead.
Everywhere you look, you see little arrangements that are almost hidden. I love the green and white on the foliage above, and that plant also makes very pretty white flowers. Then, of course, is this knockout blue. With me, if it's blue, you can't go wrong.
There are rocks everywhere, beautiful ones. A previous owner collected them not just from here but his travels around in America. Some are from places like Colorado - just like mine!
The arrangements of flowers, rocks, foliage plants, yard art, wood - it's just stunning.
Many of the ones that sort of sneak up on me are wildflowers. Just like me, Livey will stop at the side of the road to dig up a stray *weed* and bring it home to plant it. This white wild rose was one of them.
2 comments:
Hi -- loverly & S*H*A*R*P! Now, a new problem is going to rear it's ugly head: Namely, you're going to eat up your blogger storage(just like I discovered I was doing. Now I am using the megapixels so I can crop in tight on a feature. Then I resize (in pixels) to a small size picture for Blogger. Talk about this with Livey. There are other services which store your pictures (like PhotoBucket, which my dotter uses) for a link to your blog...
BTW, that rose is stunning!
Ah, thank you! I'm pleased as punch here.
Walter read over what you said about the resolution and memory and such, and seemed totally on top of it. Between you and him and Livey and LL, perhaps I'll be able to keep my computer from spontaneous combustion.
That white rose was Walter's favorite too.
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