Farmer's Market

[arcana_mundi]

I got my butt in gear and went out to the market to see if there were honeydew melons out yet. Nope. Nothing but beets and meats. But I did get some good photos.

I really like the photography. I think I'm pretty good at it. I wish I'd figured that out sooner. Of course, I think I would have been fairly BAD at photography back when that required

Comments

[m_nivalis]

Not sure if I've said this before, but you take really good photos. And thanks for the book recommendation.

What is that little wooden man with a stick out of his back doing? Please tell me, or I will lay awake all night wondering...

[arcana_mundi]

Thank you! I do like the picture taking.

The little wooden man is a folk music percussion instrument - the lady holds him over the board, which she taps with her hand. His dancing motion creates a clickety-clackety rhythm on the board.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afLG9x4WToo

:-)

ETA way better demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4gczQnssYI

[m_nivalis]

How... weird. I probably would have loved one when I was a kid.

[arcana_mundi]

I remember being totally fascinated by them as a kid. "Raggedy Man" is the name for them in some regions, and just "Dancing Man" in others.

[intertext]

You do take great photos!

Think carefully about whether you actually need a DSLR before you invest in one. I recently bought a Canon P&S for travelling which is quite similar to your Panasonic one, and am finding that I use it more than I use my Rebel, because it's smaller, lighter weight, and I don't have to lug lenses around with me. It has all the manual overrides that my creative heart could wish for, takes awesome macros and has more options for metering than my Rebel!

If you do buy one, get a body only and invest in really stellar fixed focus lenses - starting with the "nifty fifty" (50mm f1.8) that most makers offer - that way you've got the best of both worlds: the zoom capabilities on your P&S and fab professional glass on the SLR.

[arcana_mundi]

I do love the fixed-lens ultrazooms for travelling - I could have had a DSLR for Christmas (if I'd gone that route, it would have been a Nikon D40 - from what I've read, the kit glass it comes with is better than what you get with a Canon, and I was looking for a package because of cost limitations). I rarely override the Lumix to set shutter or aperture priority because I honestly haven't figured out exactly how to do that right - need more schoolin' on that. It has so many presets that give me the result I want that I'm awful lazy about learning how to do it on my own. My one really big learning moment with shutter speed came when I was trying to shoot the moon without a tripod that one time. Metering is something I've also fudged by taking bracketed shots (one of the preset options on the Lumix), but for white balance, I usually just rely on eyeballing the LED display while cycling through different preset white balance settings until I find one I like

[intertext]

Yeah, if you can swing it, the best of both worlds is to have both. I'm loving my Powershot, but wouldn't want to give up my SLR. You're right, the processing speed really makes a difference, and it's nice to be able to shoot RAW, for the flexibility it gives you in post-processing. For really important shoots, I would still probably want to have my Rebel (and I'm lusting after the Canon D40 mark II). If you're going to have one that you can try out without having to pay for it up front, that's great, because then you'll be able to see exactly what you can do with it

[arcana_mundi]

The slippery slope of equipment investment/lust is another thing I was hoping to avoid for a long time - I wish TPTB would make an ultrazoom with a nice big sensor

[intertext]

You could well be right about the aperture priority/camera shake equation. Duh. Never thought of that

[arcana_mundi]

The whole gamut will be a pain to tote, no mistake. But you're a photographer. It's what you do