Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Wheeeeee!!! I got a new camera today, my first real digital camera and a pretty good one, too. After reading an interview with a travel writer/photographer who suggested a particular model of Panasonic as a good, compact point and shoot with manual capability I found myself a used Panasonic DMC-FZ35. One of the most exciting things about this camera, for me, is that it has a Leica lens!!! Ohmygosh! (Ok, it's no Hasselblad but I'm not there yet, financially, not even used.) So I have been counting the days until it arrived and thought I had a couple more to go. And as I was on my way out to the store for some fresh fruit and Comet there was the little box sitting quietly at the top of the steps just outside my door. Aw!
Obviously I did not go to the store, but came right back inside, unpacked my camera and began to play. It's been a bit of a challenge, I must say, all new machines seem to be for me at first. Gone are the settings I'm familiar with -shutter speed and aperture right out in the open on the body of the camera. Now I have to learn how to find these things in the computer of the camera and not only by navigation but also because they don't call them shutter speed and aperture. And actually, I haven't yet been able to locate where to adjust the aperture or anything I recognize as being equivalent to it. And there's something about the extra little doodads "sports setting", "party setting" that kind of turn me off. For whatever reason it makes me feel like I got the Barbie camera or something. Anyway, I'm working on it. I've been actually reading the manual (this is huge, I do not read manuals) and making a few notes about functions so that I can carry them around with me for a little while until it all becomes more familiar.

One thing I absolutely did have to take a photo of were these beautiful saucers I found at St. Vincent's yesterday. The design and color of the glaze on each one is ever so slightly different and I love them so much I am actually now thinking of starting a plate wall even though I've never thought of that as a "me" thing to do. More likely is that I will just use them as, well, saucers. I already did last night and since I have no coasters, saucers are kind of necessary. Furthermore, I kind of like the idea of incredibly mismatched cup and saucer combos and my favorite so far is this pairing with my favorite cup. 
So here they are, my very first photos with the new camera machine.




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