Totally Awesome!

Doe With Twins
copyright
Jan Gibson

I just wanted to share a wildlife photo with you that I took with my new camera this morning.

First, a little background so you'll understand my enthusiasm. Our driveway is about a tenth of a mile long and has pecan trees on one side and pecan and peach trees on the other. It's a "far piece" from the back of the house (where I was trying to hide) to the area where the deer were under the pecan trees. Not only that, but it was getting ready to rain so the morning was pretty dark. As any photographer knows, the more extended the zoom, the more light is needed to get a decent photo.

This was a situation that my old camera would have refused to even consider taking a photo and would have laid down without even attempting the shot. With my new Canon, I not only got to take the pictures, but they actually came out fairly well. The fact that they weren't all perfect was operator error along with the conditions and not the camera's fault. However, Christine (from Creative Life Studio), an accomplished photographer, told me that even professionals take hundreds of photos to get that one that's absolutely perfect so I guess I don't feel too badly about these.

No, they aren't perfect, but I did get photos good enough to be used as painting references which has been my goal all along. And, I hope as I keep practicing, I'll get shots that are better and better.

Just doin' the happy dance here!

New Camera & Thank You

Lantana

Clematis

I just wanted to thank you all for your support and kind words about Coalie's passing. And I wanted to tell you that I finally got a new camera. I have it out on a 30 day trial and if I don't like it, I can take it back.

It's a Canon SX10 IS and so far, I like it very much. It's a lot larger and heavier than my previous camera but I think it takes great photos. The camera does anyway, but I'm still learning the camera! lol

I've gotten some really nice shots of some of our flowers but I'm really impressed with the zoom on this thing! It has a 20x zoom and I extended the zoom completely and focused on a shadow in the area where we had seen the foxes earlier this spring. When I downloaded the photo, I could see that it wasn't a shadow at all but a weed growing in the hay grass. I could even tell that it was a broadleafed plantain! Think of the photos I'd have of those foxes if I'd had this camera back then!

I really think it's me and something I need to learn about the camera, but I cannot seem to get a decent photo of any of the wonderful birds we have here. I did get a good shot of a female bluebird but mostly, by the time I get the camera set, even on automatic, the birds have flown away! I need to learn to get the controls set quickly! It's just that the controls, such as the zoom and shutter, are in a slightly different place than they were in my old camera and working them hasn't become second nature yet. I've only had the camera since this past Sunday and a couple of days were very rainy so didn't get to play with it as I would have liked.

Anyway, if anyone would like to use the flower pictures above as a painting reference, please feel free. I've left them fairly large even though I had to resize them for the web and I did watermark them just to deter other uses. Please don't use them for anything other than a painting reference - they aren't public domain photos.

If you use them, I'd love to see what you do with them! I know Jeanette will be the first to grab one since flowers are a favorite subject for her to paint! lol