I forgot to mention the artist's name is Apocalynn. She's a really talented and fascinating woman.

I'd share an image of her JI painting (and the turtle she painted for me as a child), but I don't want to offend her. You can still see some of her work at the link above.

Beautiful

Thank-you (if you're talking about the photo and not just Apocalynn's work) :)

Any luck on your trip a while back? Paul Black said his SDBs have been going crazy for a while now (but are only 50% through), so I was holding out hope that you might have visited him too.

If you got any photos, I hope you share them if you can. I always enjoy them.

BTW, this color was almost impossible to capture with my old camera, but one of the WB presets on this new miracle worker worked just right. It's amazing and kind of sad at the same time to see what a huge difference the equipment makes. I wish I could think I was making the good photos, but you can't mess up with this camera.

Brock ~~ is this your newer Canon XT_ (?) that took this pic? Thanks.

Hi iris_gal,

Yes, these are from my Canon XSi with the kit lens. I'm still borrowing a friends 75-300mm lens too and I really like it, especially instead of the $5,000 price tag on one of the lenses I really want.

One reason I really like the kit lens is that it's image stabilized (like my old camera). I hate using a tripod and rarely do, so that makes a big difference. My friends lens can be frustrating at times, because it isn't IS. Which means it gives me blurred images in especially poor lighting.

Ask me how much I'm complaining about having the chance to use a good (even if not the best) zoom lens, though. :)

Add to all that, that the fall of that flower is too large for my monitor (set at a 1024x768 resolution) when I view the image at actual size and you can imagine that I'm actually very happy with the things I've been blessed to have in my life. The fact that some of those dewdrops appear larger than my thumb is pretty neat to me.

That's probably more than you cared to hear, but I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to share what I like and dislike about my current photography equipment.

Thanks Brock. I never tire of hearing about cameras that capture the complex layers of pigment of iris flowers. And your photo certainly demonstrates that.

And also interested to hear which lens you like and why. I have too many pics that are slightly blurred. It befuddles me why shooting at 1/650th there is any blur at all.

So is the lens kit included? How do you like live view?

Exquisite. Thanks for sharing this photo, and your album too.
Renee

Thank-you, Renee. I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed them.

iris_gal,

I don't want to ask any stupid questions, but I don't know where you are in your camera tweaking abilities. What ISO are you using and is it a zoom lens?

If you're really zoomed in on something, the shutter and ISO can need to be set really fast in order to get clear photos.

The kit lens is the lens that comes packaged with the camera if you choose to buy a set and not just the body (which I should be able to do the next time I upgrade).

The live view was, honestly, a big disappointment. The shutter doesn't trigger the auto focus when in live view. You have to press the * button (on the back/top of the camera) to initiate auto focus, then release it, and then press the shutter. On top of all that, you even have to change the factory settings just to be able to AF that way.

I had grown very accustomed to using an lcd for shooting, but now I'm so used to using the viewfinder that I don't even bother with live view anymore. It drove me crazy for about a week and I haven't looked back since. You wouldn't believe how long my battery lasts now, too.

Tried to make that message short too.

Brock

Beautiful little noid! I really love the color.

Shadow