I know that for the last weekend I had set up a little challenge. The challenge was to take hazy photos using a sandwich back.  Well I never got around to doing so. On Friday morning I found a little Gem on Craigslist for an OK price and I had to get it. This little gem is the Canon PowerShot G10. The G10 is more than a Point and Hope camera. It’s a ‘semi’ professional point and shoot camera. It has the ability to control the aperture, shutter speed, ISO and exposure compensation, but wait there is more it can shoot raw. I know that there aren't many point and shoot cameras out there with this capability. The downside, kind of it does not shoot raw in AUTO mode, only in Program Mode which is not really a problem because I didn’t buy this camera to use it on AUTO mode. Even though this camera was released in 2008 it still has a better score than the Nikon J1 that was released 3 years later or the newer Nikon 1J3

 http://snapsort.com/compare/Canon_PowerShot_G10-vs-Nikon-J1

http://snapsort.com/compare/Canon_PowerShot_G10-vs-Nikon-1-J3

http://snapsort.com/compare/Canon_PowerShot_G10-vs-Nikon_Coolpix_P6000

 Now to the problem that I have…. I’m leaving for Vegas in 2 weeks. The problem is do I want to carry this little guy with me and take photos, or carry my Canon 60D with 4 lenses and 20lbs of accessories. … hmm tough decision.

Here is a sample shot with the G10 in a low 

light restaurant on AUTO mode. I say not bad.

Candid

Today as part of my morning routine i found an interesting blog on Light Stalking about candid photography. This is not easy to do. Mike offers some great insight on this subject. Candid is not 100% candid. He mentions the keyword "ACTING", however I don't think that the photos of a person "acting" candid and taking candid photos of people doing what they do portray the same feelings. Look at this example that i took a while back and compare it to the photos in his blog. Which one looks more natural?

Weekend Challenge.

This weekend it's one of my friend's birthday. And i would like to try this trick that i found on PetaPixel.
Shooting photos with a sandwich bag attached to your lens will create a hazy look and feel to the photo. I must try it out. Here is the instructions on how to do it.

shoot hazy and ethereal photos using a sandwich bag and colored markers

I Heart Faces & Talk Photography

Last week and this week, and i know it's early, i found 2 interesting Blogs/Sites that have lot's of helpful entries for all photographers from beginner to advanced.

The one entry i wanted to share in specific is 2 important questions to ask when editing photos. I think this article written by Brook Snow well written and very valuable for anyone to read.

Brook's 2 Editing questions are

1. Where am I supposed to look?
2.  What am I supposed to feel?

What do you ask yourself when you edit your photos?

Also i find myself reading a lot of the articles on photography talk. There are some that are quite funny like 41 reasons to date a photographer or 41 reasons not to date a photographer.

I have also discovered 2 books i need to get .

1. 500 Poses for Photographing Women
2. Posing Techniques for Photographing Model Portfolios 

Washington Arboretum

I didn't get around to post much this weekend but, as always i'm out there dragging that camera around.
This weekend i visited the Washington Park Arboretum and walked around for a bit. When i get there around 2 pm it was raining and i was ready to go home. I decided this is Washington and a little rain won't hurt and i should still go for my walk. The rain quit after 10 min and we had some beautiful weather and amazing sunset.

These were shot with my new lense 11-16mm Tamron DX that i picked up used on CL for $400 Not bad.

This was shot with a Canon 50mm 1.8 ||

If you are like me, a newbie without training for "punctum and studium" (Which there is a book that was recommended on called Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography on) you are probably looking for subjects and ideas to photography to practice. Well i here are some ideas i got from multiple sources.

1. Bad habit
2. Shadows
3. Love
4. Happiness
5. Self Portrait - with or faceless
6. Door / Window
7. Sun Flare
8. Something from a high Angle or Low
9. Hand
10. Water
11. Something Broken 
12. Motion - (dance, cars, sports)
13. Freedom
14. Job
15. Food
16. Youth
17. Sight
18. Support
19. Cause
20. Shoes
21. Up Close
22. Alone
23. Lines
24. Pages
25. Slow

These are just some of the things i picked out to try for myself. But there are many more idea. Anything and everything can be on the list. I think that starting with a limited few will help better discipline and train the eye. So when i'm out there with my camera will try to keep these in mind.