Pic of the Day #969
Ella wrestles with a neat little toy that I call "the Bug." I think it’s meant to be a butterfly, but…eh, it’s neat.
Gotta love that fierce expression!
I’ve taken to keeping my SLR set to its "RAW+JPG" mode lately — the JPEGs get saved as black and white images, while the RAWs obviously preserve the image colour. In effect, then, I’m creating "shadow copies" of all my colour photos.
I love black and white photography. But sometimes it’s nice to have things in colour as well. Sometimes, though, the black and white just looks better.
That was the case here.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned how I appreciate you’re photography. It’s something I think from time to time getting into. All the really good cameras seem to be a bit pricey though.
Steynian 356 « Free Canuckistan! (May 18, 2009, 2:26 pm).
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Well, thank ya, Clonemenace.
Admittedly, photography is an expensive hobby to get into, but it’s also (thankfully) a hobby in which you can start small. I started with a digital compact camera before upgrading to my current SLR, and I’m really glad that I did; the little pocket shooter gave me a lot of opportunity to learn about the principles of photography (technical and artistic).
And in fact, these days it’s quite possible to find a compact camera that essentially offers the same control features as an SLR. Yes, there’s a quality difference (physics pretty much dictates that SLRs, with their larger sensors, will tend to outperform compacts in areas of sharpness and noise) but when you’re starting out it really isn’t an issue.
Take, for example, the Canon Powershot SX10 IS. It retails for $400 USD, features an amazing zoom lens and a full SLR control set. Image quality is ok.
Or take the Canon Powershot SX110 IS. $250 at the checkout, great zoom performance, and good image quality. Yeah, it’s a bit underpowered with those two AA batteries, but if you don’t use the flash all that much it won’t bug you.
If you want “top end,” there’s also the Canon Powershot G10. Pricier, at $500, but basically a “prosumer” camera, and the next best thing to an SLR. Great image quality, a flash hotshoe, and decent zoom performance.
I’d recommend starting out with any of these cameras if you really want to learn the basics of photography. The G10 most of all, granted, but either of the other two would also do well for starters. And hey, if it turns out that it’s just not something that you find you have a lasting interest in, it’s better to be out $300 (or even $500) than it is to be out $900 or more.