Smile Everyone

Well, it's a done deal. I purchased the Panasonic Lumix FZ18 camera, and she is a beauty. You know how my next step was to visit the store and try it out? Well, I visited three stores and none of them had that particular camera. There were a lot of cameras taking up shelf space, but not the latest and greatest from Panasonic. So I decided I would have to go to a specialty store in the big city of Portland, because it would be dumb to buy a camera that I had never even held. The day was too far spent for me to make it to Portland, so I would have to go another day and postpone the purchase. So I went home and bought the camera on the internet. Physically handling a camera before you buy is way overrated.

I've had it for a couple of weeks now, but the weather hasn't been conducive to getting out and taking lots of pictures. I've been busying myself with checking out some of its features and learning how to operate it.
One of the important features that I wanted was very little shutter lag, you know the time between when you push the shutter button and when the picture is taken. This camera is very fast and I love it! It's still not as fast as an DSLR, but it is so much faster than my old camera that it seems like it is.

It has the capability to download the RAW image, but I've only just started playing around with it and so I don't know if I will find the time spent adjusting the photo characteristics to be gratifying, frustrating, or just too time consuming. My son uses this mode all the time on his DSLR and he produces some very nice photos, but he does spend a fair amount of time at the computer getting just the right look. Take a look at his photo blog to see a few of his photos.

My younger grandson has been visiting for the last few weeks and is currently a favorite victim, er subject. Being that he is only four months old, he is not necessarily cooperative. However, I've managed to get a few good shots, many no so good shots, and some really bad shots. I would like to blame the camera, but I'm afraid it's the person behind the camera who doesn't know what he is doing.

Today was a beautiful day with reasonably warm temperatures and lots of sun. We decided to take my grandson's dog, Talula, an Australian shepherd, to the doggie park. My other daughter and her two sons were visiting at the time, so they joined us on our outing. We had a great time, with Talula making friends with every dogs she could catch. She did play a little rough with a pug and sent him rolling a couple of times, but he was none the worse for wear. What a great photo opportunity I had, but I forgot the camera. Can you believe it? I've been waiting for a day like this and I forgot the camera.

I'm not at the computer that has all my pictures so I can't download any of my fantastic photos right now, but as soon as I can, I'll post a couple.