No music, film vs digital, and getting frustrated

17 January

We have Kile for the weekend so Jan is keeping him occupied on the Wii for now. In an attempt to drown out their comments while playing, I have tried to play a CD through my computer. But for some reason it’s not working. As a test I’ve tried the new CD from Digital Camera magazine and that is working fine and it’s not downloading some new apps that it needs to play. After that I shall try the music CD again.

Photography! Why do we take it up? At one time is was so easy. You bought a camera and a roll of film, install it, set the ISO (or ASA), setting on the camera and off you went snapping away, remembering to keep an eye on the on-board metre reading in the view finder. Once in focus (either manually or auto), you took your shot.  

Now we are in the digital age and everything is different. Of course there is Auto function that is just like film photography. However, most snappers these days want to be more creative than that and perhaps look to shoot different subjects. Now that means altering the ISO, and then the White Balance as needed; altering the scene mode or the priority mode; and when you’ve done all that, you can now start shooting. OK, fine … … … To help with all this a snapper and can buy a heap of photomags which all promise to make you a better snapper if you follow their guide lines.

And this is where I start get frustrated. There is so much help and information out there that no one snapper can take it all in, or at least this snapper can’t. All too often I get out with my camera and start shooting and before I know where I am, I realise that I have forgotten to change my camera settings as the conditions change. So how do I deal with it then?

I set the white balance on auto; choose either 100 or 400 IOS; and finally go with aperture priority. Those settings will do me more or less OK for a day’s shoot. Not very adventurous maybe, but it works. Of course I could go back to film, but let’s face it, once you’ve bought into digital, it’s far too expensive to go back to film!

Its Saturday folks, history day, and today we go back to 1536 and the ten king, Henry VIII. He fell of a horse in 1536 and it’s thought that his problems with mental illness had come from that fall. Today is also the birthday of one of my favourite actors, James Earl Jones.        

Today’s photo then … 

I’ll join in the fashion for robin photos.

And today’s funny …