Winter Finally Came and I Missed It

Yep, we finally got snow after a fairly mind November and December and wouldn't you know it, it was the day I was out of town! My daughter Jade was nice enough to take some photos for me though.

The Frog Prince Goes Digital

We were late comers into the digital camera world. My husband still had notions that you can't beat film when it comes to photography. But, I wanted one for blogging (I wanted to photograph my dishes for the food blog), so I went ahead and bought a point and shoot model that was easy enough for me to figure out; and the rest, as they say is history. I've had my little point and shoot on me everyday since then. I love it 'cause I no longer have to wait for the film to be developed and I don't have to lug that big 35 mm camera around.

Now even the frog prince, the film guy is starting to come around. Out of necessity, because he is building his website, my husband borrowed my point and shoot to photograph his artwork. At first, he still would not admit that you can take pretty decent photos with a digital but now that he has also had a chance to play with his digital images on Photoshop, he is grudgingly admitting that digital cameras CAN take very professional looking photographs.

He is actually talking about getting an SLR so he can take better photos! One of the models he's looked at is the Nikon D3, again, because he's a Nikon man and if he's going digital, he is still sticking to his old brand. I say, better sell more artwork! I love this model, but wow, the price is jaw dropping! But then, just think of the possibilities! What we can do with this camera!

Well, maybe Santa will be ultra good to use this year. You think?

Moving Pictures

Wouldn't it be cool to have Harry Potter like picture frames where the images move and can interact with you? Well, these frames aren't quite there yet, but I'm sure they're working on it. I just got one of those digital frames not too long ago and I just love them. I am keeping that one in my office. Now my office is not very big, well it's a cubicle really, so I don't have a lot of space to display personal items. Most of my wall space is taken up by work related items. I still want to glimpse the reasons why I am stuck in this cubicle eight hours a day though so digital photo frame it is.

The great thing about the digital picture frames is, you can display a number (a lot!) of pictures simultaneously without taking up much space. You can change the display just by switching the memory card out. Some digital frames can also display videos, did you know that? Now when my coworkers ask about a previous vacation or the kids, the picture show is right there. It's a great conversation piece!

The pre-digital age

Whenever we traveled before, during the pre-digital age, we would carry with us our 35mm Canon camera and a bunch of film that we carefully stored in lead lined pouches so that they wouldn't get damaged from x-rays at the airports. Then when we returned from vacation, we would take all the rolls of spent film and take them to be developed. We would then wait another week or so to get the prints back. When you have over thirty rolls of film, it gets a little too expensive to have them all developed in one hour, so we wait.

Wow, it does seem like those days were ages ago! Now all we do is pop in a 2 Gigabyte memory card into our digital cameras and we're good to go, even if we go on a month long vacation. Now I won't profess to be an expert at photography or digital cameras, but I can tell you how much I appreciate the convenience of my little point and shoot digital camera. I keep it in my purse and when I see something interesting I pull it out, point, and shoot! Then when I get back home, I download it and I am sharing it with my friends and family within a few hours. You can't beat that. Everything is digital nowadays. Even the days of photos albums seem like long in the past, now you can display your photos in a digital photo frame. Could you have even imagined?

Now with the convenience of digital cameras, I take pictures of anything and everything that interests me unlike the days when I picked and chose which to take photos of so as not to waste film. Now when a photo is not as I like it, maybe I've cut off the top of someone's head again, I just delete it! No more proof of my idiotic photography skills. Now, I am already yearning for something beyond my point and shoot camera. Maybe it will improve my photography?

Tagaytay Photo Album

Tagaytay

What a glorious way to start the new year. This is where we were last January, right before our scheduled flight to return to the U.S. Tagaytay is a town about 60 miles south of the capital, Manila, overlooking Taal Lake and volcano. It is a beautiful destination not to be missed. This was the first time I had ever been there, and I sure wish we could have had more time to spend there. It would have been nice to at least have gotten a room and stayed overnight. I also wish I could have done the actual beauty of the place justice in my photographs.