Wednesday, November 15, 2006

If Wishes Were Fishes

I have over a dozen photos of distant whale fins, because whales are seriously uncooperative animals when it come to holding a pose.

They don't even say Cheese. They like to surprise you.

"Hey, bet you can't get your camera ready fast enough! Bye!"

Whales like me only slightly more than hippos do. They flee at the sight of me. No whale ever tried to kill me, but at least a hippo can hold still long enough for a shutter to click.







13 comments:

Marie Javins said...

I know whales are mammals, not fish. It was a nice rhyme. Leave me alone.

Pville Peg said...

Not all whales are so photographrophobic. On a whale watching trip out of Bar Harbor, Maine, we spotted a distant pod of whales. One of them came over to say hi. The crew of the boat recognized him by a notch in his fin. He played with us, repeatedly surfacing and sliding through the water alongside the boat and staring back at us. I got the distinct impression he was mugging for the cameras, or, at least, enjoying the attention of the delighted humans.

Anonymous said...

IG had a fancy pro camera with a speedy drive, mind you...

My ex-boyfriend, a photojournalist, used one of those at my wedding. He captured the flower girl tackling my abdomen. My heel tangled on my dress hem and I fell against the best man. So very slapstick.

We could stop-animate the whole thing from those 20 images...

Marie Javins said...

I won't get an IG-level camera but I have my eye on a decent Canon digital when my condo sells. Though I still haven't put the GPS on eBay to help pay for it.

It's so past time I had a real digital camera. I have to take my film SLR to do anything, then I have to pay for developing and scan and blah blah blah. Looking forward to my digital SLR.

Amanda Castleman said...

Some folks claim Nikon's prosumer models are superior...

I was always a Canon girl (still, am, in fact, what with the schmancy, broken point-and-shoot). But I'm pissed that my expensive SLR lenses are now low-tech clutter.

For the uninitiated, Nikon's lenses leapt the transition from film to digital. Canon's did not. And the glass is the nasty expensive bit, for the sort of shooting we do.

Not to ignite old battles, but I'm considering the switch.

Next up: I turn to Windows.

Yeah. Like that'll happen. EVER.

Ax, Mac snob and faithless photographer

Marie Javins said...

Not to crow meanly, but... my circa 2001 Canon lenses works beautifully with the Canon Digital Rebel.

My other-brand lens from my film Rebel only worked on manual with the digital. I gave it to HM for his Canon Digital Rebel, though I kicked myself when I realized I could have gotten $100 for it on eBay.

Anonymous said...

I have Canon lenses – they're miserable bayonet-mount dinosaurs... hence the hassle.

I'm glad not everyone suffered!

Marie Javins said...

I just googled it--apparently it's to do with the vintage of the lens, pre-EF or no, and even then there are exceptions. So Canon-brand lenses EF and later work--mostly-- and other brands work only on manual, but miserable bayonet-mount dinosaurs don't quite cut the mustard.

I guess the lenses from my Canon AE-1 are out then... wonder what I'll do with that when I move. Seems a shame to chuck it into the trash but no one is going to want it.

Amanda Castleman said...

I have an AE-I too! Sweet ancient beast.

Hang onto it. Sooner or later, art students and retro-geeks will be scrambling for a bit of old-school film fun.

Marie Javins said...

The AE-1 is an amazing camera--it forced me to learn things (long since forgotten).

It's just so very heavy, and so very not-digital.

I'll take it to Africa next time I go. Lots of people there don't have cameras and it's still common to use film instead of digital. I know someone who would love to have it--the electrician at Murchison Falls--pity it's so very unlikely I'll ever head there again.

If anyone hears of anyone going to be a tourist at MFCA, take me old camera along, please!

Ed Ward said...

The technical quality of my photos took a huge leap when I got my "prosumer" Nikon. I don't know if it'll help, but it's a Coolpix 8700, which was superseded a couple of months later by a model which fixed two tiny problems that, after reading a very detailed review, I couldn't decipher, except it had to do with the rendering of whites. I figured it would be a negligible difference, and, with over 50% off of the original price, it was a bargain. You might be able to score something like that if you looked around.

Marie Javins said...

The Canon 350D is on my menu, probably from Butterflyphoto.com. Unless I instead get a used 300D (Rebel) for about $300. Either way, my great leap forward would be enhanced if I just quit using blogger! Did you realize that blogger's software makes a super-crappy lo-res version and uploads it for you when you don't do the sizing yourself? I didn't, and then when I posted my Hudson Valley photos, I couldn't figiure out why the thumbnails on the main page were so washed out.

Further snooping around revealed that the software makes a web-size thumbnail with lower-quality than what I'd made in photoshop.

Easily fixed. I just have to be less lazy and make a smaller image myself, but will I? Eh, probably not. It's pretty hard to get worked up about a thumbnail, and they look fine if I choose a larger size when uploading.

Marie Javins said...

Here's the camera I want. If I can get $300 off the GPS on eBay, I'm halfway there.

Maybe it will dazzle the whales into holding still.

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