Time for a Shootout

Last night, J and I were out running errands and happened into an office supply store. Earlier that day, I'd shown him my "wish camera" since he told me to be researching which sort we could best use right now. The last time I purchased a camera for myself was in 1986, just before going to Europe for 13 weeks. I was on such a shoestring budget that I knew I'd gain a lot more from photographs than souvenirs, though that didn't stop me from picking up about $20 worth of handmade items in Romania and enough Czech hand decorated eggs to drive customs crazy upon return...heh heh...

Anyway, back to the office supplies. Last night, we were stuck in a line of ONE (us) waiting on the employee who seemed to be taking his break while standing feet away, humming contentedly amongst his flock of copy machines in la la la fashion. To pass the time, J suggested I take a quick look at the camera section. I didn't realize they even HAD a camera section, and sure enough, when I did, I spied THE camera...the one I'd just shown him earlier online...the Wish Camera. Only THIS Wish Camera had a sign that read "Clearance" and had been marked $50 less than the original price, totaling a couple hundred less than when it first came out on the market...whew! I asked the salesman if they had plenty, and he checked, and there was one left in stock.

And that is how the Canon Powershot S3 IS made its transition from the stockroom to hanging permanently via neckstrap from my person. I am ecstatic!!! We cracked it out of its box and earnestly tried to decipher the manual, since I'm not a technology whiz and have never operated a digital before. In fact, it seems odd to me not having to insert film. By the time I figured out how to point and click, it was well after dark, so the photo ops had to wait till this morning. I've only taken a few, trying to get the hang of the different settings. So far I'm rather fumble-fingered, and I held my breath as one of my pictures of wildflowers in the vacant lot next door NEARLY captured a hummingbird I almost mistook for a hornet. Whatever sort of hummingbird it was, it had a brown lower half, and was quite intently gathering breakfast from a blue trumpet flower (not sure the name). By the time I figure out how to focus in, the oppportunity, or rather the bird, had passed.

Anyway, here is one of the first tries. This camera has a 12x zoom built in and also a built in macro mode.

Above is a wildflower (not sure what sort yet), one of my first attempts at both picture-taking and downloading to 'puter...I can't believe I can even see the pollen on the flower petals! The actual flower was less than 3 inches in diameter, and it was not until I enlarged the macro shot a couple times that I could see the pollen standing right there like bread crumbs. This is going to really help me notice things that have been right under my nose, and see many things differently for the first time. Amazing!! I love my camera!!

For now I'm off to find more things to shoot!