Afternoon snack up close!For my birthday this year, a few friends gave me Amazon.com gift cards (always a good, safe bet for me!) As I have more books than I can leaf through, I tried to find something a little more practical. I stewed for a week or so and finally, one morning as I was waking, it came to me: accessories.
Detail on a decorative platter I bought at100% Mexico on 14th Street a couple of years ago.
For those who wonder, I shoot all my photos with a Canon A630 PowerShot POS 8.0 MegaPixels. Nothing overly fancy or bulky, but certainly a bit limited in its abilities. For example, I have been exasperated to no end at macro-type shots I've taken of flowers and trees and the like, only to have the thing I thought I was focusing on not be the thing that showed up in focus when I later downloaded my photos.
Close-up of a bowl of shells and agatesI have in a glass bowl on my coffee table.
So, I hopped out of bed a week or so ago, dug out my gift cards, logged into Amazon.com, and found an accessory set for the Canon A630 that included a dual macro/wide-angle lens, a telephoto lens, three filters, a pocket tripod, a standard tripod, a cleaning kit, and a camera bag. And all for less than $90! (Which was perfect, because I only had $100 in gift cards.) I clicked "Buy" and then waited like a kid waits for Christmas.
Clover in the front yard. Must be time to mow! The best part, though? The flowers are in focus! Woo hoo!
My accessories arrived on Tuesday and I've been fiddling around with them off and on this week. The one accessory I'm the happiest with at the moment is the macro lens. And here for your viewing and my bragging pleasure are some random examples of things I've been able to photograph up-close-and-personal with positive effect! I may not be shooting with top-of-the-line equipment right now, but I think I'm getting pretty good results with what I do have. Besides, I still have a lot to learn before graduating to a serious DSLR and all the really super expensive components that go with the same. In short, I'm very, very happy with the range of photos I'm now going to be able to create with my new toys!
A big thank you to my friends who made this possible! THANK YOU!!
Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 6/08
10 comments:
oh nice, great shots!!! and wow awesome finds for $90!! p.s. you know you don't really need a lot of fancy stuff to get "serious"...i mean whacha got is already doing the job! enjoy the fiddling and am looking forward to seeing what you come up with
B.C.: I know, seriously, right?! So far, I'm pretty happy with my investment. In fact, I'm disinclined to hunt out fancy stuff while the not-so-fancy is getting the job more than adequately done!
So. Jealous.
Beautiful shots!
Maya: I would be, too. (And was, until I bought this accessory set.) That said, I thought you had a macro lens on your camera. Your close-ups of flora are amazing!
I've had to really learn to massage my little Canon point and shoot to get what I want out of it! ;-)
Maya: I still need to read the book that came with this camera. I've read enough to know how to do low light/night photography without a flash, but I haven't figured out how to increase/decrease my f-stops. That said, though, it also helps to have a little photo editing software. I just use the editing features included in iPhoto on my Mac.
There. Now you know all my secrets! :-)
Then there is that crazy little thing called talent which you seem to have. ;-)
Maya: In my case, the operative words are "Pure, dumb luck." Seriously. Nine times out of ten that's the case for me.
You're the one with talent. You've figured out how to make your camera do what you want it to do. I just get exasperated with mine and buy accessories. No talent in that! :-)
Or, I take many shots and hope one turns out...
Maya: Hey! That's what I do, too!
Quantity + Pure, Dumb Luck = 1 in a million Quality Pictures
:-)
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