what?

I take pictures of everything. Between my old point and shoot camera, my iPhone, my iPad, and my wonderful Canon digital camera -- well, let's just say, I take a lot of pics.
So, when I thought about buying a new car, I went searching for a pic of my current Acura. Guess what? Not a single pic! I combed through all my digital files, and could not find one pic anywhere! Even on my blog!! WTF?

Better than I thought I was

There is a picture of a jellyfish that I took one day at the Vancouver Aquarium. This is the picture...

I have it as one of the screensaver pictures on my laptop at work. When my boss saw it, he mentioned that it was familiar and that he has the same picture on his computer. When I told him that wasn't possible, that I took the picture, he thought I was joking. He said that everyone has the same picture, that it comes with the windows "sample pics". So, I looked. Sure enough, Windows came with this picture...

I can see why he thought they were the same. Very similar! Although I think the Windows one is better, I don't think I did a bad job with my picture!

PhotoScan app

I needed to scan a photo for a friend, and didn't want to dig out the scanner and the computer, and set it all up, and so on. So my Father-In-Law told me about an app he uses on his iPhone called PhotoScan. I downloaded it, and just to try it out, I scanned an old photo of my Grandfather.

It turned surprisingly well, and I managed to scan the pictures I needed to for my friend in record time. It doesn't have the quality of the scanner, but it actually turned out way better than I thought it would.

I tried

I got my new camera for Christmas, and while I take a lot of pictures, I'm still trying to get used to the settings. I do try and take most pictures manually, so I usually end up with something out of focus, or where the lighting is all off. And one thing I learned? Taking pictures of hummingbirds is a lot harder than it looks...

Fort Mac Fire

Of all the pictures on the internet of the Fort Mac fires, I like this one the best...

Moon pics

Picture it...
It's 7:00pm. It's cold outside. But there is a beautiful crescent moon, and both Mars and Venus are clearly visible in the clear night sky. And there I am, on the front deck with the telescope, a set of binoculars, and my new iPhone. I decided I wanted to try and take a picture. In one hand, I have the binoculars, and am leaning against the house to try and keep my arm as steady as possible. In the other hand, I have my iPhone, with the camera lens up to the left view finder on the binoculars. With both hands occupied, the only way I can take a picture is to ask hubby to hit the button on the iPhone. I finally get it all lined up, and yell "hit the button!" But hubby has given up, and gone back inside where it is warm. So, what can I do? Hit the button with my nose! Here are the results...

The little tiny dot is Mars. And the bigger dot is Venus. Not the greatest picture, but I'm glad I tried.

Pictures

One thing my iPhone does that my iPad doesn't, is take panoramic pictures. (Where was this technology 20-30 years ago??? I used to take a bunch of pictures, get them developed, and tape them together!!)
Anyways, this is my first attempt...

It's a shot off the front deck of the house. I wasn't even trying to take a good picture. I was just testing it out, but I think it turned out pretty good.

reminders of time gone by...

Do you know what this is?

If you do, you'll remember them.
If you don't, I can tell you that it is film canister. You know... film for cameras. It used to come in these little plastic canisters. And I used to keep a ton of them (because I used to take a lot of pictures). That's right... before digital cameras, you actually had to put film in your camera. And, when you took a picture, you had to use up the whole roll of film, and then take it in to get developed, then wait to pick it up, and then (and only then) could you see the picture that you took. Remember that? If you were broke (like I was), you usually had to wait a week for your pictures to get developed. No 24 hour "while you wait" photo developing for me... I couldn't afford it. And if you bought the 48 picture exposure film instead of the 12 (like I used to because it was cheaper again), well, then you had to wait sometimes a whole month before you finished the roll and got the pictures back! You simply didn't take 48 pictures a day/week like you do now. You didn't want to waste the film!!

My how things have changed!
With digital photography, you not only see the picture the minute you take it... but you also take a whole lot more pictures. You can. It's doesn't cost anything to take 22 pictures of the same rainbow. So you do. At least I do. But, sometimes... just sometimes... I miss the anticipation of going to pick up my pictures from the local drug store. The exclamations of "oh, I remember that!" or "Wow, that picture really turned out good!". But, I certainly don't miss the cost!

Oh... and those little canisters? GREAT for taking vitamins or aspirin in your purse. Or keeping jewellery in when you were traveling. I still have a few left over from the olden days, and I think I might just hang on to them.

Moving Photographer

I tried to take pictures of the full moon last week while I was driving home from work.
1) pictures of the moon don't really turn out if you are in a moving car, and

2) taking pictures of the moon while driving isn't such a great idea

Thankfully, I put the camera away before I got myself into trouble...
:-)