It's Harper's Birthday!!

Mavis Beacon"s tutor?

Kassia - those are beautiful roses. You will enjoy the pic long after the roses have whithered. It's such a good idea Harper to use the pic for a desktop. I use my pics for my desktop and have also made a slide show screen saver. Right now I am using some of my fall color pics. Eleanor

I use just about four fingers myself.

Me too, no excuses! Let's hear it!

I never learned to type formally. Still hunt and peck but do it pretty fast now.

Forgot to mention that I come from a long line of hunters and peckers.

I evade the hunters but peck through the grain.

Go easy, Victor.

I use the biblical method of typing.

ok, what is the biblical method???

pictures are going to be one of my winter projects... I have to organize and choose some to make posters...

Pictures takes me a full two weeks and seems never ending. It's just too hard to keep up with it on a daily basis from June 21 to September.

Seek and ye shall find.

oh Yankee that is a good one!!!

Pirl, I have 2 cameras now... like if one is not enough!

Yeah, Dave. Two finger or ten finger... it doesn't matter.

This Mavis Beacon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavis_Beacon

I have a little Kodak just point and shoot, it is a cool camera. Then I have an Olympus Camedia E-10. I paid 2,000 for it in 2003. It has more buttons on it then carter has liver pills. I can't learn how to run it. I am pretty sure it is going on ebay. I have all the boxes and more stuff. I hate this thing. Then another Cannon AE1 w/ flashes, lenses and more stuff. I don't like that thing either.

I'm sure you'll get someone to buy that from you Sherrie. I have an old 35mm SLR with a ton of lenses and accessories that is just sitting in my basement. Not sure what I want to do with it.

I have a 35mm SLR as well that I will never use since I have gone digital. Too bad the leather case was destroyed by the cold.

The lenses can be used if you buy a compatible dslr.

I'm more of a point-and-click kind of person.

hey, definitly look into the digital SLR, I agree with Victor...

if you look at California Sue' pics you will see how great it is (Sue has a cannon Rebel I think) ...

I got the Panasonic Lumix DZ18 .... it's a one step before and SLR ... I love it... but it's more complicated to use than the Pentax I have... but I love the 18X zoom.... can't help it...

ok - What is SLR?

I have both a film canon rebel and a digital rebel, and sigma lenses, I shipped my lens to sigma and they made a free adjustment to make them work on the digital rebel. It would still work on the other camera, but I do not use my film camera any more.

Single Lense Reflex - What you see through the viewer is what you get for a picture unlike my old Brownie that had a parallax view - I was always cutting off people's heads.

Sherrie, an SLR is what your Olympus in the picture is.

Victor, my 35mm is a Konica and I haven't heard that they make good cameras, so I probably will just sell the Konica. No, more realistically, I'll let it collect dust for the next 20 years and then just give it to the Salvation Army.

There are places that buy used cameras, Harper.

this pic was taken with the Lumix...

also this one...

I can type with all eight fingers and 2 thumbs but some fingers type faster than others and I'm always getting some letters in wrods out of order!! But this camera talk has got me confused. I have a Sony Cybershot and it is OK but I'd really like a camera that takes close-ups better but I have no idea where to start and I really don't know anything about cameras. I only know that I like capturing scenes by photography and then I'm not totally satisfied with the result!! Eleanor

When I type it is with my 9 fingers. 8 fingers and 1 thumb. Some fingers go faster example the comes out hte.

Dark and hte heat is on. ;-0

I have an SLR and I took a HUGE photography course about twenty years ago. I have forgotten almost everything I learned about manual photography since digital cameras were invented. Although sometimes when I see a terrible photo that I've taken, I manage to remember why, just don't always remember how to correct it.

My SLR needs a battery and they are about $50, so I use my digital.

My two Nikon SLR's haven't been touched since I started with digitals. So much equipment there in the closet!

Eleanor - have you tried a tripod, even the small table top kind? They work very well but I still get fuzzies.

Eleanor, look for a camera that has a Macro setting. That's what makes the close shots easy. You don't have to fiddle with any manual settings. Many camera specifications will say how close the Macro can focus - the closer the better!

Eleanor, it took me several weeks to choose a camera... I talked to a lot of people and read some...
one of the sites I used was the one below... it was helpful to me...
http://www.dpreview.com/

Those were my requirements:
1- a huge optical zoom - this tells you how many times can you bring an object closer... as you can see of my pict of the 2 roses (lady of guadalupe) one is blurred and the other is clear... so when you use the 18X zoom it blurs the background and show more details on the other... so the higher the number the better...

2- Megapixels - well, this tells you how big can the pic be... there is not a huge change between 8-10 ... since I am not doing huge posters, 8M are ok for me... (and believe it's huge)

3- I did not want to have to learn too much... so I wanted some thing with a good automatic setting ...
I don't mind learning, but I wanted to be easy enough so I can take it out of the box and use it... which happened...

4- I am not ready to spend the money buying more lenses if I buy a serious digital SLR... because I know once I have one I can attach a telescopic lens I will buy it... (which will probalbly be a Nikkon - since is what I already have and like our other friends are collecting dust right now so I can still use the lens I have...)

5- and of course I think of name brands like "Leica" lens... which is what the Lumix has it...

So if you are shopping for a new camera do a lot of reading, figure out what you really want in a camera and what can you compromise... because in my opinion there is no perfect camera yet...

Happy shopping!!!!

Kassia - you must have mentioned the brand of digital camera you bought on another thread but would you please tell us just one more time so I can look at it? Thanks.

Good advice here. Kassia! You are an expert!!

Sure... I got a Panasonic Lumix FZ 18... and I compared that one with an Olympus and a Cannon with the same features...

(I could have gotten the FZ8 - which has better ratings than the one I got... but I was silly enough to be impressed by the 18X optical zoom! but the reviews on that site are really comprehensive... more than what I needed to know... )

Oh Candyce, I am faarrrr from being an expert... I am too lazy to really get in depth about a camera... I have a friend that is a geek and he loves Nikkon and I saw his camera and he was so patient and explained to me few things in a way I could understand... LOL...

The mega-zoom cameras are great for nature photography - birds, etc. If your intention is primarily garden and family, it's kind of overkill. I have a 12X and only use the zoom on hikes, nature walks, etc. I use the Macro way, way more.

Thanks, Kassia.

I prefer the Macro to the zoom, too. Both are useful but for close up photos the Macro is the one for me.

I had a big camera with lots of features, but I found that I'd leave it home frequently because it was cumbersome. For my next camera I bought a super small one with as many quality features as I could get and I take it with me everywhere now! It's so easy!

I also like a camera that can pan back for a wide view. Sometimes when I'm trying to get a picture with the entire room in it, I find that I can't get it all in one shot. A wide angle is a must for me... well, and macro too.