Categories: Digital Work • Pets / Animals • Photographs • Plants / Nature
Tags: camera, digital camera, digital photography, dragonfly, e-510, figaro, flower, frogs, new toy, sky, statues, Wordless Wednesday
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Olympus Evolt E-510

Well, I finally got my new toy and I’ve been wanting it for a long time now. I’ve wanted a DSLR camera ever since they first came out. It was a painful wait too, took about a week to get the camera just to find out I had to wait another week because the guy forgot to pack the batteries. I finally got it all however, and also got a weekend to play with it. I must say, I absolutely love it. I’m a secret camera-freak I guess, so finally buying this is just awesome.

I figured I’d write a little unprofessional review of it, as well as test out wordpress’s new features (yay image captions).

It is any enthusiast photographer’s wet dream. Automatic bracketing (in different ways too), 3 FPS shooting, 10 megapixels, RAW capability, in-body image stabilization (nifty feature), full-automatic mode as well as Aperture/Shutter priority modes, full-manual and even programmed ’scene’ modes. Can take Compact Flash and xD memory cards, so space isn’t an issue. There’s a whole bunch of custom lenses, optics, flashes and other accessories for it. It can become a money sink pretty damn fast.

Zuiko Digital 14-42mm lens

The one I got was a Body + Lens combo, so it came with a Zuiko Digital ‘four thirds’ lens (14-42mm). The auction also included an extra battery in the deal too, so overall it was a steal compared to what you’d pay for one normally. I got all that for the price of the body only basically, you gotta love ebay sometimes.

So far the pictures it has taken, even in full-auto ‘SHQ’ mode, are amazing. Using aperture priority mode with RAW, oh man just forget it. Amazing quality, even if you aren’t a professional. You don’t need to be a photographic genius to take good photos with this.

The lens it came with is great too, using around f8 gets the sharpest photos out of it. It can zoom up to approximately 3x and go to a very wide angle as well. The ‘four thirds’ lenses are a bit different in that they aren’t based on 35mm standard, so 14mm on this lens is about the equal of 28mm on a normal 35mm standard lens. In my uneducated testing, the 25mm mark is about equal to 35mm and 35mm is about equal to 50mm (don’t take my word as perfect though, I’m probably off a bit).

One thing that is still holding me in awe, is the overall speed of the camera. It takes barely a second to turn on, automatic focusing in ideal conditions (good light) is nearly instant, writing speed (to slow xD cards) is even bearable. The focus is much more tedious inside when it is dark and using the flash. The flash will pop up and sprinkle light onto the area to try to focus, and sometimes it just takes awhile. Manual focus indoors might be a better option.

The only thing is it is obviously large and isn’t going to fit this in your pocket, unless you’re still sporting some of the baggiest pants on earth. So it is going to make a great companion to my existing SP-310 which I’ll have no trouble taking anywhere due to size. My 310 will also continue to be my macro shooter, I’m amazed at that cameras ability to do macro shots. I’m sure with a macro lens, this E-510 could take amazing macros as well.

I would recommend this lens to anyone looking for a near professional-grade DSLR but don’t want to fork out $2500+ for one. You can get this for about $550 with body + lens + battery. If you ask me it is an excellent deal. It has amazing reviews around the block and comes highly recommended everywhere I look.

I’ll have a bunch of photos posted tomorrow that I took with it to show off what it can do.

I also in no way see this camera as an extension of my body, no matter how bad it looks.

Lens Extended

Categories: Digital Work • Humor • Information • Photographs
Tags: camera, digital camera, digital photography, e-510, giddy like a school girl, new toy, sp-310
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[ Click image for full view. This is only a small portion of it. ]

Categories: Digital Work • Pets / Animals • Wordless Wednesday
Tags: cat, Digital Painting, meeka
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My God, a white cat is hard to paint. I didn’t realize how difficult it could be until I tried Meeka. Not only that, but I have her on this red satin type background and that is pissing me off too. I’m having a hard time ’seeing’ the folds and it’s not coming out the way I want it to. BUT I am stubborn. I WANT to paint my Meeka. I am getting tired of looking at that red background right now though, so time to take a little break.

Yesterday was one of those days I was running around like a nut. Errands, errands and more errands. By the time I got home it was time to make supper, so I was rushing to put everything away. Well I ended up stepping on Meeka’s paw. The poor thing just got declawed. UGH. I’m not even sure which paw I stepped on. All I heard was this high pitched meow, which made me jump, and then I saw a white fur ball dashing into the next room. Now she looks at my sneakers and I swear she is scared of them (I don’t blame her). Poor thing. Boy, I felt so_bad. But today she seems ok. So I guess I didn’t hurt her as bad as I thought. I was afraid I had done some damage. She’s been through enough and I just want her back to her old self again. My little spazz.

I’m just glad it’s Saturday and I have nothing to do. No errands, no cleaning…just me time. I spend all week doing that stuff so weekends are pretty much my lazy days.

Gotta love the weekends, eh?

Categories: Caturday • Digital Work • Pets / Animals
Tags: Caturday, Digital Painting, meeka, White Cat
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I need something to paint.

I say paint but it’s digital (I go into Adobe and use my wacom tablet). I don’t know what to call it really. I do ‘paint’ on one layer so digital painting sounds good to me.

Anyways…I need something to paint. I was painting Hugh Laurie (from House) but I got bored with it. I want to add my own little touches but with a hardcore portrait painting like that it is hard (at least for me). I want to paint something a lil more personal and add my own Autumn touches to it.

If you are interested just let me know. I can’t promise anything though. If you don’t hear back from me then I guess that means I didn’t want to do it. Sometimes I’ll start something then just leave it because I don’t ‘feel’ anything, if you know what I mean. You wouldn’t believe how many unfinished paintings I have in my folders (bad me).

I can paint anything really, but I’d prefer a pet/animal. I like doing that a lot more than I do painting people. It’s just more ‘fun’ for me. And this would be free. I need subjects! Sometimes I feel a bit guilty just grabbing things off the internet without asking for the owner’s permission, which is what I usually end up doing.

You can check out my digital painting gallery here.

I should really do something with this. I know I could make some serious money, but getting the ball rolling is a different story. I keep putting it off for some reason. I think maybe the ‘fun’ would be gone for me if I went into it that way.

[ btw...my lil Meeka is home and doing better. Her paws still bother her of course, but she does seem to be getting better.]

*poles Cherry for the hell of it*

Categories: Digital Work • Pets / Animals
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