Snowy Trees

View large, the needles are tack-sharp and full-range!  I did lose the snow in the foreground, I may dodge it a bit and see what is still there in a darker exposure.

Pushing Snowball Through Air

This was a neat capture, just as The Cub released the ice chunk to throw it into the sled.

Self-Portrait

With the new camera, of course.  The more I use it, the more I like it!  I know there’s folks out who would cringe to find that I’ve bought, yet another, higher end point-and-shoot digital instead of a DSLR, given my film SLR background (I used a Pentax K-1000 knock-off and a Yashica A TLR for many years, doesn’t get much more manual than that, barring a view camera!), and it does break my heart to have my 4 x 5 Besseler enlarger in storage.  The simple explanation is that I had kids.  They changed everything.  Light is Good.  Simple is Better.  I stopped using the SLR when I bought the Russian-made LOMO; both a size and creative shift!  Then I went digital a couple years later.  In 2004, DSLRs were prohibitively expensive for a young family (still are!) and I wanted something that others could use easily with autofocus.  I still need the control of manual focus and exposure.  Nikon was always my ideal choice, having longed for an N80 when they came out.  The Coolpix P90 is at the high end of point-and-shoot cameras.  I can’t put different lenses on it, nor does it have a RAW mode.  But, it does do most of what the D90 (my DSLR dream camera) does, for half the price.  I have even more manual choices than the 4300 has; color filters in B & W manual mode, P, A, M & 2 user-programmable manual dial settings, better flash than the 4300 with compensation settings, a digital viewfinder that has diopter adjustment and works great!  (Am I the only one that misses a good viewfinder?)  The huge LCD for my aging eyes that tilts up and down is a nice bonus! 

And, best of all, don’t I look good using it!?

Reading At Bedtime

One of my photography teachers told us to “break our legs,” get down below our subjects, explore different points of view.  Chris Marquardt suggests this, too, on his podcast Digital Photography Tips From The Top Floor.  Exploring different points of view can bring fresh perspective or let you notice new things about old subjects.  I’ve had these kids a while, this was a fun way to look at them as they read together tonight.  AND I tried out the high contrast B&W setting on the new camera.

Pens & Sketchbook

Some of my favorite art tools are fountain pens and brush pens.  Here’s a bit of fun with my choice of sketchbook and selection of pens.

Ice

Family Photos

We do take family photos; we have families and do stuff and want to make a remembrance of things with families.  I had set out to make “good” photos each day in this blog, and sometimes “good” and family don’t quite mesh as well as we’d like.  Ice skating in an outdoor rink also didn’t seem like the place to take my new camera until I have a better strap and got my larger camera bag out of storage.  With me on the ice and the kidlets clinging for dear life (The Cub, anyway), the only good opportunity was during the Zamboni run.  Look who has eyes for Daddy!

I did crop another child out, but there is no other post-processing.  Nikon Coolpix 4300.