New camera!

Woohoo, check out my new Canon Rebel XTi/400D! We bought it at Henry's from a fellow named John Sloan.



I liked John because he seemed knowledgeable about Canons and was opinionated but not pushy. He also didn't rush through a sale, and was very patient with questions. Scott Murray came with Jeff and me; thanks to Scott for his patience waiting through the whole process!

Turns out Henry's also had the Sigma 30mm f1.4 lens after all! We're also trying out a Canon 17-85 and a 70-300. Here's one of the first photos that Jeff took with the 70-300, out in our backyard:



Going through the user manual and the Digital Rebel XTi/400D Field Guide, I can tell I have a TON to learn. Holy toledo. This camera can do so much more than my point-and-shoot.

Like the ability to control aperture and focus points (with a Sigma 30 mm f1.4 lens):



and then changing the main focus point:



In this photo, I've set the focus point on the little pink thingy that Jeff bought me from The Magic Pony a while back, and turned the other focus points off:



(unmodified except for cropping)

I still have to get used to the Sigma's narrower field, compared to my point and shoot, but so far I love it. Other differences (apart from the obvious features) I've noticed so far with the XTi/Sigma vs my Canon PowerShot:

- Much faster (e.g. turning on, focusing, taking a photo)

- Colours much richer. With my PowerShot, I have to fiddle with the image (colours, sharpness, etc.) for pretty much every shot.

- The light!!!! Sorry for all the exclamation marks, but I love LOVE having so much more light to play with. So much that I can tell that I have so much to learn about just this one topic alone. With my PowerShot, taking photos iin low-light situations was always a challenge. I usually ended up pumping up the ISO to 400, with the result of much graininess. With the XTi, I can turn the ISO up to 1600 (!) but also get a ton more light through the lens.

Take a look at the following photo, for example, which I took with my point-and-shoot:



(unmodified except for cropping)

[Update: I realize that I should have taken the latter photo at the highest resolution and brightness to be fair to my little point-and-shoot, plus duplicated lighting situations exactly. Once I'm more experienced with my XTi, I'll another series of comparison shots.]

A close-up comparison:





Must go experiment some more. Thanks again to everyone who has offered camera advice on Facebook, Livejournal, Photo.net, DCresource.com, and especially Ray and Iain for letting me try out their cameras.



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Things you shouldn't say to a writer on a first date

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. I've also made a couple of new posts to blogTO:

Grab Your Wizard Hat: Toronto Gears Up For Harry Potter

and

Interview with Patricia Storms: Illustrator, Cartoonist and Creative Dynamo: Anyone out there interested in books, cartoons or illustration (I suspect there are at least a few of you out there :-) should also check out Patricia's wonderful blog, Booklust.





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Will Write For Chocolate updated

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. I've decided that Eliza is going to start dating. This should be fun. :-)


Photo: Judith Nicholson.

I've posted an interview with Farzana Doctor on blogTO. My friend Leslie Ambedian recently recommended reading "Stealing Nasreen," and I loved it. Interesting plot, fascinating character interactions, plus I learned more about the South Asian and queer cultures.



Still researching cameras and camera lenses; my friend Iain is letting me try out his Nikon AF-S 18-200mm lens. Jeff and I are also going to check out some camera shops tomorrow.

The amount of advice online about digital SLRs is staggering. Overwhelming, really. I think my best bet is to do a bunch of online research but then actually try out the cameras myself. Right now I'm torn between a Canon Rebel XTI and Nikon D40X.



Thanks to Ruth, Jeff, Luisa, Reid, Walter and Dave Clement for proofreading my novel, and to my Reciprocity critique group for their help with the first section! I'm working on final edits now.



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Liam O'Donnell, camera advice, and cartoon captions

For those interested, I've posted my interview with children's author Liam O'Donnell on blogTO this morning.

Thanks SO much for all the camera lens advice so far! I'm still reading through it and have pointed Jeff to your comments since he'll be using the camera as well.



Here are the captions that some of you came up with in this week's Cartoon Caption Challenge:

"Any mail? I don't know, last time I peeked I got an eye poked out..." (pondside)

"Still waiting for a Valentine from that little red-tentacled girl.
(Granted, it would work better with a zigzag stripe on his shirt. :) )" (markbernstein)

"Lixaprg, seeing the Symbol of Enmity so prominently displayed, realized with dismay that its mission of peaceful contact with Earth was futile." (madfilkentist)

"Ever since H. G. Wells described him as a "singularly disagreable creature" in a book, poor Zorkulon has relied on a diminishing number of pen pals for companionship."(peteralway)

"The Giant Squid's grandson was waiting impatiently for his copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to arrive." (auntymarion)

"Xyxblug always felt nervous about approaching members of new species when they appeared aroused." (it-aint-easy)

"What do you mean, you're not my real father?" (huskiebear)

"Bernard always got a little anxious waiting for his delivery from the tentacle-of-the-month club." (joecoustic)

"Damn it! Who keeps sending me T-shirts?" (musicmutt)

"mailienation" (nelladarren)

"Though he'd sent in his change of address, the gardening magazines were probably still going to 'little hideaway beneath the waves'." (phillip2637)

"Must be a one-legged Vulcan with that ear..." (Christa A.)

"I've turned green waiting for mail. Its arrived!!!
But is it worth opening the box." (Mary P.)



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Life is not a dress rehearsal

Above: Jeff putting up my new Wall Talk transfer, which I found at Write Impressions (2215 Bloor Street West, (416) 769-1261). There were different sayings and quotes available, but I liked this one best.



I'm going to paint something around the quote, though I haven't decided what yet. I have the coolest home office in the world.



I currently use a Canon PowerShot SD550 Digital Elph for all my photography. It's a great little camera, but in past months I've started to feel as if I've reached the limits of what this type of camera can do, especially when it comes to photography for work-related projects.



I'll still keep my Canon PowerShot because of its portability, but am starting to think about getting a better camera. I've pretty much decided on a Canon Digital Rebel XTi, but am trying to figure out what lens to get. Eventually I'd like more than one lens, of course, but they're fairly pricey, and I'd appreciate advice from you photographers out there. Factors that will influence my choice:

- Size and weight. This is the main factor that has kept me from upgrading from a small point-and-shoot up to now. I love the portability aspect of my Canon PowerShot; I can stick it in my backpack or purse. I know the type of lenses I use are going to have an impact on how much I have to lug around. Ideally, I'd like to have just ONE lens, but may get other lenses as I learn more about the camera and its limitations. I don't want to have to lug around a mega-long lens, but would still like some macro / telephoto capability.

- Ease of use. I know there's going to be a learning curve, and I plan to do what I did with my PowerShot: take a ton of photos, fiddling with settings, experimenting. But I'd like the user interface to be straightforward.

Anyway, advice appreciated!



Above and below: pics of children's author Liam O'Donnell, taken with my PowerShot for an upcoming interview I'm doing with him for blogTO.



And here's my semi-weekly Cartoon Caption Challenge:



Any suggestions for a caption?



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