Photo Nuts
My two sisters and I all have the same camera, and my niece, and my son and his wife, so we all share information. Like on our trip, EnviroGirl explained that if you made the picture size smaller, it extends the optical zoom, so if you don’t need a really vast photo, you can focus on something and get this huge telephoto. I had no idea until she explained it. Like yes, it is in the book, and I even read the book, but there is SO MUCH in the book.
My sister Sparkle told us about using a feature called Fireworks. She tried it for fireworks – it works! It also works on moon shots, although there is another feature called Starry Nights for that.
One thing totally cracks me up. There used to be a Simple Mode indicated with a heart, it was simple and automatic, and no one liked to use it. The newer models have something called Intelligent Automatic, and we all use that mode because it gets the best photos. We would never dream of using something called “simple” but “intelligent!” That’s very different!
Mariner Man, Sparkle’s husband, doesn’t use the same camera but he showed us a new technique he says is working for him, getting interesting and new photos: put your camera really near the ground or on the ground.
Sand Castle
Good tip, Mariner Man!
So I’m kind of waiting for sunset, and photo ops just keep happening. There are wonderful kids flying kites, and I wait, and I get the shot I want – what joy!
And then, as the sun continues setting, along come a couple surfers.
This isn’t such a great shot, but it is the only shot I got of one of them up on his board. He wasn’t up for very long.
This hasn’t happened to me for a long time – my memory card is full. I have to quickly go through and delete anything excessive to have room for the sunset. And then – the sun goes into a fog bank. I had thought it would shine through, but no – the fog EATS the sun! And, just at that moment, the surfers decide to go home and I get my last shot:
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love the pictures… specially the one with the kite and the one right after it… fabulous
Thank you! Those were my favorites too. Today, the sun never broke through the cloud cover. brrrrrrrr!
is that a shark fin in the second picture?! :S
That sand castle looks like Mont St Michel. haha Love it!
Thanks for the optical zoom tip, by the way, but I’m having trouble understanding the ‘smaller’ picture size. Smaller in terms of file size (reduce the resolution/quality of the picture), or smaller in terms of focal point? My camera still has the little heart setting on it (a Canon) so I’d love to learn a new trick or two. 😉
LLOOLL! Try a sand dollar, Kinan! I think you need some beach time!
OK, C, like your camera has 8 megapixels, but you can tell it to only use 5 megapixels (still, an extremely fine photo, unless you want to make a huge enlargement). When you tell this camera (Panasonic Lumix) to use less pixels, what it does is to subtract from around the edge – you get less in the photo, in terms of area, but you get more optical zoom in that smaller central area. Like my 16x optical zoom can become a 56x optical zoom.
Your heart setting may mean something different – on one of my cameras, a tulip means micro, but on another it means telephoto. I know this is asking a lot, but . . . it helps to read the manual. We have each read little pieces of the manual as we go along, and we are trying to share what we have discovered. It really does take time to integrate and understand it all.
Are you back in Kuwait?
Thanks for the photo tips. I’m getting back into photography after a hiatus of thirty years– during which digital has replaced film— and I have a lot to learn.
How exciting, though, to suddenly learn something enlightening from a short comment on a blog!
Marahm – here is the best tip of all. (Oops, I got so excited about what I wanted to say that I forgot to say thank you and welcome to HT&E! Wlecome! Thank you!)
Now, the best tip of all – hang out with younger people. My favorites are the 20-30’s, they are technologically savvy AND have started liking adults again. I also like the 15 – 20 year olds, but they think too quickly and talk too quickly and are so smart and energized that they can’t talk slowly enough for me to understand 😉
I DO read the manuals, but it is a lot to digest. You kind of have to read something, try it, integrate it, and then move on. You can do that fairly quickly, but you really can’t – or I really can’t – do it all in one reading.
All around you are people who can give you tips – listen! I bless my son and daughter-in-law for all they have taught us, and my nieces and nephews, and my sisters and their husbands – I’ve learned so much from all of them.
Please come back and link so we can see your results!