July 1, 2008

My New Baby

My new baby is actually a camera. I've been contemplating getting one for a while. I loved the camera I had, which I got after my house was robbed. It was a little Canon Powershot and really did everything I needed it to – except for one thing. The macro was just not powerful enough to get the really close-up shots I wanted to take. The other thing I wasn’t wild about was the way it chewed through batteries, even using rechargeable batteries.
Since I also have a food blog, I like to take tight shots of plates and dishes that I am eating. I also like to take close in shots of flowers, leaves, rocks and textures. But most of all, I love capturing the details of furniture, architecture and other things that a lot of people overlook. The tiny details are often what makes a piece special.

When I got back from the Eastern Shore, I needed to take some ultra detailed photographs of hallmarks on some old English silver. I tried several times and several ways with the old camera, but only got excellent shots of the background fabric. If you don’t know about hallmarks, I will do a post on that later. It’s fascinating.
I grabbed a piece of the silver and took it to the camera store to see what I could find that would capture the information I needed from the back of the silver. Even though the teenage geek who was helping me thought I was a complete nutter, I accomplished what I wanted – to find a camera that could take extreme close up shots.

I had a few criteria for a camera. First was the macro capability, but nearly as important was the portability factor and ease of use. I know that a big SLR camera would take spectacular shots, but I can’t really stick it in my bag and carry it with me all of the time.
So the camera I selected was another Canon, figuring that the learning curve would not be too steep. It’s a Powershot SD1100 IS Digital ELPH in a lovely chocolate brown. The IS stands for image stabilization which is a brilliant feature! Short of carrying around a tripod (which I do, in my car), I would have to improvise and wedge myself on doorframes, prop the camera on beer bottles and generally look like a complete idiot! This will save me from continuing that!

I am teaching myself to do all of the manual features like white balance and ISO, as well as playing with all of the automatic settings. I will look forward to sharing more wonderful pictures taken by my new little baby.

These are some photos I took in my mother's garden the other day.
This is a tomato flower!

Daisy Bug

Marigold center

8 comments:

  1. congrats on yo0ur new camera - it is nice to have something small enough to have w/ u at all times. i just bought the canon sd850 and i'm happy with it. happy shooting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Meg -- you are so talented and I love the new banner!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the post about your camera. I'm in the market for a point and shoot and I found your review very helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. chocolate brown- tres chic!

    i'm a SD800IS, but image stabilization ain't enough for these shaky hands- can't find my tripod either (i think i lent it to someone at some point. maybe i'll find a new one in a thrift store!).

    new banner is VERY nice, btw- i don't think i saw it on your last post because i was so entranced at seeing my name in the title! thanks for that!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It does a nice job. The hallmark picture is unbelievably crisp.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Uhhh... the hallmark one isn't mine and neither is the camera one. If you click the link, you can see where the hallmark one came from. I am still working on my hallmarks.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your camera could totally kick my camera's ass - I am jealous!

    And I'm loving your new header, especially the curved title on it!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I bought one this weekend!
    Thanks so much for the heads up about this baby. Haven't done any macro shots yet but my old Sony Cybershot (it's huge and clunky from around 2002) nor phone camera was up to snuff.

    Did you see that there is a sale this weekend on the 2G SD memory cards? I think both Bestbuy and circuit city had them on sale; the Circuit City ones were going for $12.99 so that was almost a steal deal.

    Thanks again
    Cindy

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading and commenting on Pigtown*Design. I read each and every comment and try to reply if I have your e-mail address.