Monthly Archives: December 2006

Photography

New Christmas Cameras

I don’t remember the statistics, but more and more people are taking digital photographs than ever took pictures before. This Christmas should increase that number significantly. Here are five of the most important tips for new digital photographers.

1) Many of the cheap film cameras had fixed focus lenses. That means the lens was designed to capture subjects from about 5 feet to infinity, depending on the lighting. As long as the conditions were just right, they could take great pictures. But the newer digital cameras are usually better quality and they focus the lens from close up to far away. For these cameras, there is normally a two position button. When you depress it 1/2 way down, it focuses on the subject and then when you press the rest of the way, it opens the shutter and takes the picture. With the old cameras, you just press the button and almost instantaneously, the picture is taken. If you do the same thing now and press the button all the way down there is a lag time between pressing the button and taking the picture. If you press the button without giving it a chance to focus, it is often taking the picture while you are moving the camera for the next shot. If you find yourself chopping off heads or getting blurred pictures, this is probably the problem. Steady the camera, press the button 1/2 down to focus (usually there is a red dot or a beep when the picture is in focus) then press the button the rest of the way and hold the camera still for a couple seconds to be certain the shutter is finished opening and closing.

2) If your camera has a view window for composing the picture rather than a viewfinder, try to hold the camera close in to limit camera movement. If you move the camera while it is taking the picture, it will blur. If you are zoomed in on something the potential for blurring is increased. If your camera has both a viewfinder and a screen, it is best to use the viewfinder because keeping the camera pressed against your face will held to keep it steady. Holding the camera at arms length, makes it difficult to keep the camera steady. The image stabilizers will help but can’t control it completely especially if you are in dim light of zoomed in.

3)The flash memory supplied with most cameras is usually minimal. The low capacity often will force you to reduce the picture quality to be able to take more pictures. This hurts in two ways. The reduced capacity forces you to take fewer pictures and often pushes you to set the picture quality to lower settings either by reducing the number of pixel’s in the picture and also in reducing the quality of the compression. I recommend setting the number of pixels to the highest number. Why get a 6 mega pixel camera and set it to record less than 2 mega pixels.

4) Digital zoom is worthless because it doesn’t actually zoom in on a subject, it actually just cuts away some of the extra background. The quality is reduced. If you digitally zoom in on something to make it twice as big, you actually reduce the number of pixels to 1/4. This fact is not true of the optical zoom. If you zoom in to an object to make it twice as large, the original number of picture pixels is the same as without the zoom.

5) Digital cameras can’t see contrast as well as your eyes can. If you look at someone in a shadow on a sunny day, you can see the bright portion of the sky and the shadow portion of the subject. The camera can’t. If it sets itself to capture the bright sky, the shadows will all look too dark to see anything. If you set the camera to picture the parts in the shadow, the sky and rest of the picture will be so bright they will wash out. So, even on a sunny day, you might need a flash to show faces in the shadow. It is probably needed more outside to show faces than inside where there is less contrast.

Em-T-Nest

Two hours to kill

After dropping Pat off at a baby shower in the rural countryside near Metamora IL, and knowing I had two hours to kill before returning to pick her up, I headed to the historic small town of Metamora. Driving down the main drag, I saw a brown sign, which is a starting point for many of our adventures. It was pointing to the Metamora Court House Historic site which sits on the north side of the city square. The building was built in 1845 for the Eighth Judicial District. After the county seat was moved from Metamora, the building spent a short time as an opera house but in 1921 renovation began to turn it into the museum it is today. The first floor is devoted to local memorabilia and the second floor is the restored courtroom.

 In keeping with the Christmas season, decorated trees were found throughout the building.

I could almost feel Lincoln’s presence as I rounded the top of the steps and moved back in time. As I walked in, I stepped on the same flooring Abe must have paced as he argued more than 70 cases including two harboring slave cases and two murders. During one murder case, his client on trial for murdering her wife-beating husband was said to have asked him where she could get a good drink of water. He told her “Kentucky” and when the court recess was over, she was nowhere in sight.
The site Manager, Jean Myers, stands in the witness box. This was an English style court and the witness was to remain standing throughout the testimony. A spitbox was on the floor to his left because for a witness to be heard and understood, he must have an empty mouth devoid of any chewing tobacco. The above desk was once used by Lincoln and because of his long legs, a section was cut out for his comfort. The picture below shows that cut out section.
This musicbox is a larger version of one referred to in the Lincoln Presidential Museum as belonging to Lincoln’s wife. I listened to it plan and it was as beautiful to hear as it was to see. So, if you find yourself with a couple hours to kill and Metamora is close at hand, I highly recommend a visit to the site. Tell Jean you saw it on the Em-T-nest Blog and perhaps he will let you listen to a tune similar to one Lincoln might have heard coming from his wife’s music box.

With darkness fast approaching, I picked up Pat and we headed into E Peoria to view for the first time, the Festival of Lights. But that will have to wait for another post. Come back and see a blue whale ready to devour the city of Peoria.