samsung sl202

today was taffi's day to shine. taffi is my cat i adopted in 1993. she was about a year old then so that makes her about 18-ish. possibly 60-70 kitty years. she's pissed at me for sentencing her to the dungeon. i don't appreciate cat pee on my stuff. this has been her permanent home for about 5 years. but i visit every day to play and feed and i know she feels this is her safe zone. her roommate is spooky the black kitty we adopted. he is no. 1. they tolerate each other and at times i see them cuddling and spooning together-maybe for warmth but i know they care about each other. anyway-she moved every second-literally. and about a 1/2 hour into it she mellowed out, jumped up on the stool where a rug was crumpled on and chilled. she checked out the birdies outside and was pretty content. you know she misses me. warm ups for bonding are necessary. i like the close ups-especially of the eye and the swirly whiskers. i tested out the happysnap samsung sl202. this is a great camera for everyday quick shots. set on smart mode, iso 100 worked well with north natural light coming in from the left. aperture is at f2.8-again ideal for the conditions. basement light is dark and dingy and this camera sucks big time using high iso such as 800. the noise is ridiculous! did i mention a select random shots were corrupt? yes, perhaps it's the memory card-idk-and when i attempted to correct images in iphoto-i mean basic fixing such as exposure or sharpening-it wouldn't allow it. corrupt card and this is a reminder never to use this camera for anything valuable. just shoot a lot of shots. digital is cheap.

a norwegian christmas dinner

once again we are all feasting on food. this time it is all about the norwegian traditions. pork,gravy, mashed tators and of course akavit. this is a hardcore shooter that most norwegians indulge in during the holidays. i passed on this cause i'm pretty sensible when it comes to hard stuff. besides, i'm drivin. and plus i'm a weakling when it comes to drinkypoos. i like the angle on the food shots. it gives me a sense of the mood and tastes and quite frankly makes for a nice photo. all shots were at about iso 400-800 and f2.8. this is ideal for the conditions at that time. it's dark and i hate to use flash-emergencies only. although the shot of mom cooking could have deserved a fill flash, jist a teeny bit to highlight her face-but what can ya do. at least i knew that was necassary. i also like the shot of tore. my eyes start at the food in the foreground and sort of force you to zig zag through the bottles which lead you to his face. too bad there is a napkin poking him in the mouth. it just makes it more interesting. he looks content. our tummies were happy.

christmas pets

i like these shots in particular because the are parts of the animal that we know and love so much. i was unable to steady the camera(again these were shot with the canon) so they are not perfectly sharp-but at f2.8 it grabbed as much light as possible. shutter is set at 1/15 or 1/8. iso 800. thanks to peanut the beagle and fatima the cat, you were fantastic models.

christmas eve, 2009

you can't see it, but boy oh boy did it snow like the dickins. xmas eve was spent at my sisters home. fun times playin with the Wii, snackin on tastey snacks, and drinkin warm and fuzzy drinks. all while marinating in a mess of puppies and kitties (or dogs and cats). camera used was the canon happysnap again, (it's a handy backup camera-so long as mom is there) set on wide angle 5mm, f2.8-the widest, iso 800 for indoor night mooood, shutter is too slow and i forgot to pay more attention to that. i particularly love the close up cropped shot of leia and peanut, the comp is just cool. oh well, gotta love the fuuuuurrrr.

anne-lise and judy

i know mom was worried about there not being a good enough image taken of her and her dear friend from back in the day, so in this shot i decided to crop off me and leia, boost the xposure a little and adjusted the white balance a tad. in the other shots of just them they both were either chomping on food or a blinker was involved. so cropping us off made sense. i think the camera was set incorrectly but that's okay. the focus should be on them. nice capture ladies!

nypd pizza

this is what i'm talkin about. tastey yummy goodness from a pizza restaurant i've never been to. fantastic food and atmosphere. soup and salad was my thing that afternoon, i got real sicky. these were also shot with the canon happysnap in wide angle format at f2.8. the colors are pretty acurate and sharp. minimal editing was needed. nice capture!

kermit

me, leia, kermit and gagamomo. (clockwise) visiting my great uncle on my dad's side of the family. 90 years young with a huge heart and a sharp mind. served in the army at 19 and is a true patriot. the stories from a wise man are indeed humbling. with his bible by his side on a tv tray from 1970, he is never alone. what a sweet guy.

winter chorus concert

here we are at leia's high school. a winter concert. careful not to offend those of you who don't celebrate Christmas. these shots were taken in low light situations under fluorescent ickkkyness lighting. we tend to look green so i added more magenta to balance it somewhat. it's always a good idea to set your camera white balance before you shoot. always read your manual!! my mom used her new canon happysnap and it's high tech-and fast. i know you'll get the hang of it mom!!

ikea fun

ikea is one of the retail stores i love to check out every year for new ideas and inspirations. in this case, we all went to visit it in phoenix on a monday night. nobody around and when we arrived, i was feeling the sickness coming on real bad and knew that if i had some of their tastey swedish dinners, i would feel just a wee bit better if only for a minute. but nooo, they had to close by 6pm!!! i was frigggin upset,but kept my cool. it's beyond my control. so the images were taken with my mom's happysnap canon in low light conditions. if i were in a better mood i would've gone nuts and taken a gob of different shots. i love ikea. tons of fantastic designs and inventions. we were in and out and i bought a blankie and leia got some sweet string star lights. with this camera though, it was shot at f2.8, but not fast enough-as you can tell by the blurryness. it captured the happy mood of leia and her dear friend though. oh, got some skorpers to munch on. mmmm goodness. i think.

Canon PowerShot SD960

ok so this is my mom's camera and it is indeed a slick new canon. 'happysnap' is what i call it-but it does more-like these images here are a perfect example of what a wide aperture can do. my camera has no ability to open wide at all. the widest would be f3.5. the top shot taken on a perfect overcast day, iso 80, shutter 320, and f2.8. and the lower shot at shutter 640(!!), just look at the colors! pretty fantastic for a pocket camera. canon would be a nice upgrade. one day.

hummingbirds are tricky

these were shot at the desert museum in tuscon arizona. with my 40-150mm lens it was still a challenge. not only is it pretty dark in this little sanctuary but these critters move so ridiculously fast that my lens just can't keep up with them. the image that is cropped square is the one that became somewhat sharp. keep in mind i did'nt take too many shots-only about a dozon or so and without a tripod and a super dooper telephoto lens. they are descent though.

arizona 2009

on this day we chose to travel from phoenix to tuscon to visit the desert museum. it was a fantastic journey through cacti and rocks. my trusty 40-150mm lens worked pretty well for me although i still find that it's constantly hunting for light and not as lickety split fast or as sharp as i would want. i seriously am not a complainer but this is just maddening to me. i need fast and sharp results and this lens is adequete. i tollerate it but i can't accept it. it is the reason i sometimes lose my interest in photography and this pains me. it can be fixed. this i know. the following images are ok. they are good. but they could've been better.

a new beginning

happy new year. between the time of oct. 31-jan. 1. i go into this sort of deep depression. a sort of denial of all things. i step back from what i love to do to focus my attention on my family-my daughter in particular. it is a dark, emotional, stressfull time in my life where i can't get motivated to do ANYTHING! the holidays are painful and so involved, did i mention i got sick with pink eye and mild flu symptoms? i seriously didn't pick my camera up until i kinda felt forced when i went on a trip to arizona with my daughter, mom and her boyfriend right before xmas. and so here are the results. my daughter is happy. she met up with her good friend. she and i got through another long cold holiday. winter has taken over our lives now.it's f-ing cold like the north pole with sooo much snow-my home is an igloo. anyway, the year has come to a closure and i will now call this day a fresh start/new beginning. bring it on.