My Cameras :)

I suppose you all have gathered by now that I'm a photography nerd.  I'll be the first one to say that my knowledge is . . . well, not all that vast, but what I lack in that area, I make up in enthusiasm and a desire to learn more.  I mean, I can tell you what ISO means, and I can tell you what a slow shutter speed means, but I'm not one of those people that obsesses over cameras.  Either way, though, since I'm hoping to make my photgraphy a bigger part of my blog, I figured I'd write a little bit about my cameras.

Right now, the only camera I own (for sure) is a little Canon Powershot A590. And actually, it's not even my camera, it's the family camera and I'm the only one who takes good pictures. It's basically a really high end point & shoot, but I can adjust enough of the settings when I shoot on Manual or Program to make it worth my while.

It's got the basic ISO settings: 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600. I generally try to shoot around 200 or 400 for everyday photos & school events, but I shoot on 80 or 100 when I'm doing city scenes (my pictures from downtown LA & Denver were all shot on either 80, 100, or 200.) My yearbook teacher actually told us not to shoot above 400 because it would "hurt her feelings". Well, I can say she's taught me well. My shutter speed goes from ... to ..., and aperture settings go from ... to .... Now, I have to say that I personally find dealing with shutter speed and aperture on the A590 a pain. Maybe it's just me, or maybe I need more practice, but I usually end up shooting on Program and letting the camera automatically adjust most of the settings.

On the other hand, I absolutely love my cousin's Canon EOS30D, and I found its light meter (to adjust shutter speed/aperture) really easy to work with. I only played with that camera for a few hours when I was over at his house for Thanksgiving, but I had sooo much fun. We went down to the pool at like 9.30 at night, and put the camera on a tripod. With 30 second shutter speed, we got pictures that looked just like they were taken during the day! We also had a lot of fun taking "ghost pictures": walking into the shot for 15 of the 30 seconds and half-appearing in the photo. Here's an example . . . I'm holding one of my cousin's other cameras up to my face, that's why it looks like there's a random hole where my face is supposed to be :P

Annnnnd . . . I've played a bit with Ashley's Leica film camera, not as much as I'd like too, but from what I've seen of it, it takes GREAT pictures.  I love the focus . . . ^_^

One last camera . . . and this is the reason I said I only own one camera "for sure" is because my mom apparently has a BEAUTIFUL old Olympus camera from when she was in high school, complete with hugely long telephoto lens, that I am getting as soon as she gets it out of the garage.  Unfortunately, our garage has more similarities than I'd care to admit to a black hole, so the odds of finding it anytime soon are pretty small.  But I will for sure write a post devoted only to it once I find it.

I'm looking at different cameras to ask for for Christmas (preferably digital), that are high-quality and not point-and-shoots that aren't too expensive.  Something like Canon's Rebel series.  If you have any suggestions, please comment!

More politics posts coming soon, and stay tuned for a new, politics-only blog that Ashley and I are going to be launching over our Christmas break! =)