New toys are so much fun. And what about the pleasure of getting something a day early? (Kudos to FedEx). Camera manufacturers have bowed to human nature for some time now, so practically the first thing that comes out of the box is a ‘quick-start guide’. I had to wait a couple of hours for the batteries to charge up, but once I put them in the camera and set the time and date, I turned it on and took this picture:

This is some plants in my studio.

Not bad for a ‘everything automatic—I barely know what I'm doing here’ shot. I wish I could say that by reading the instructions and taking more pictures my skills rapidly ramped up, but I still am pretty clueless. I more or less turned the macro capability on by accident, and as I write this couldn't tell you what to do to get it to save my life. But here's another pretty picture of some fancy pink double cherry/crabapple blossoms:

I actually like the traditional single petal ones better, but they haven't opened yet...

With any kind of luck, in addition to RAW processing, digital slides (not to mention fewer of those blown highlights) there might even be some little beadmaking demo movies in this website's future. What fun this is going to be!

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.