Living the Dream

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Day’s Verse:

The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Luke 19:10

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This is one of the few pictures I have taken with my camera in the last couple of days. With the death of the free Canon batteries, and with NiMH batteries and charger winging their way to me, the idea of buying non-rechargable batteries seems ludicrious. But we did, and I can get back to my addiction now. This picture was actually ridiculously difficult to take, if only because I did not have a tripod. Even with the image stabilizer on, I was quite some distance away from the subject – the fireplace – and was shooting through leaves and a window. Even on a fast shutter speed I simply could not get it stable. Also I note that I need to take my pictures on a higher resolution so that if I crop them small they do not turn out pixelized. Continue Reading >>

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Day’s Verse:

Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. If therefor your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be whholly illumined, as when the lamp illuminates you with its rays.

Luke 11:34-36

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My new camera has begun paying for itself… or at least showing its superiority to my old one. I am swiftly learning the basics of aperture/shutter speed variation. One excellent illustration is the picture below (or wherever it is on your screen). I do not even know what settings I had, only that it was a slow shutter speed, 1/60 I think, and a wide-open aperture – possibly f/2.6, my lowest. The camera does not vary much in aperture, only from f/2.6 to f/8 (regular SLRs can go from f/1 to f/22 I believe), but its shutter speed goes from 1/2000 to 15 seconds, which makes up for the aperture deficiency somewhat. I took a lot of pictures inside with some settings off because everything turned out quite dark, so you barely made out the subject or got a totally brown or black screen. Still, after much experimentation both here and in the Campus Center, I can say I have begun to develop a rudiment of instinct for the way this may work. Continue Reading >>

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Day’s Verse:

Whoever seeks to keep his live will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

Luke 17:33

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Luke is back, as of late last night. I will be buying the Canon camera some time today. My first term at WPI is over. My grades are iffy but I did my very best and nobody can ask for more than that. I have not slept much lately for some reason and so have become well acquainted with the backs of my eyelids. I am working on filling out scholarship applications and the application for the London MQP. But really I am just sitting around reading an ebook about photography. Now I see how things are: frantic, followed by nothing, followed by frantic. Crazy. Continue Reading >>

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Day’s Verse:

No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Luke 16:13

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Calculus has become a zit at which I pick with all the futile zealousness of an acned teenager. With the sunset today the teenager comes of age as I begin and complete (hopefully) the mother of all Calculus zits, my final exam.

– KF –

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Day’s Verse:

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.

Luke 11:9-10

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I have been doing comparisons on Digital Photography Review on the cameras and I have tentatively reached the conclusion that the Canon S1 would work well for me right now. It is reasonably priced, offers the major features I want including maual focus, very close-up capabilities, CompactFlash memory, and an excellent reputation behind it. The Fujifilm S5000 Z would be the other one that might work well for me. Continue Reading >>

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Day’s Verse:

“Beware, and be on your guard against eery form of greed; for not eve one who has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”

Luke 12:15

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I have started to look at digital cameras to replace my old one, a fine little Fujifilm FinePix 2650. It serves fine as a point-and-shoot but for anything beyond that a new camera is called for. I have waited about a year after becoming really interested in so-called artistic photographs, just to be sure investing in a nicer camera would be worth it. Well, I continue to take pictures but continue to chafe at my camera’s limitations. So: Continue Reading >>

Here is a picture of one of Z’s contact-juggling light balls. It is very cool. Click here for one of them in motion. I hope to corner him and spend more time taking pictures of the various colors of balls in motion. Think of this: a flowing river of colored up and down his arms. Could be very cool, especially if I had a camera that allowed me to change the shutter speed. But I will do the best I can with what I have – which, I noticed, is getting rusty! I cannot imagine how, but perhaps this is an indication time is running out for my faithful digital camera. Continue Reading >>