May 2007


I finally gave in to the reduced prices and increased performance of recent digital SLR cameras and picked up a Canon Digital Rebel XTi camera.  I had used an SLR in the film days so I wasn't afraid of the additional complexities of the new camera.  I was quite pleased that even moving to a heavier and bulkier dSLR, I'm still much smaller and lighter than I was with my old Minolta SLR camera.  I've started with the kit lens which gets mediocre reviews, but it's nearly free with the camera.  I wanted to use that as a starting point to see what I will want to move up to in terms of lenses. 

I was a bit time crunched on Saturday and Sunday so I shot right round the corner at the Rose Garden and Los Gatos Creek trail.  Monday I went to Hakone Gardens in Saratoga which I have been meaning to visit for awhile.  All of the pics can be found here

http://www.sanjoseabrams.com/photos/RebelWeekendMay2007/index.php

Hakone Gardens

From what I've read most serious amateur photographers shoot in the camera "raw" format.  With prior cameras I always shot JPG.  On day one of the new camera I shot both JPG and RAW since I was not familiar with the software to convert RAW to JPG and did not want to lose all of my work.  Once I learned the RAW converter, I now shoot only in RAW.  The biggest downside is that I'll need a lot more memory cards to have equivalent capacity; fortunately, memory cards are dirt cheap now.   This puts a slight kink in my workflow of making albums, but it's still fairly straightforward. 

Last week was my semiannual trip to the East Coast. Spending most of the week in Florida and finishing the weekend in NY resulted in a fairly busy week. Most meals were eaten out and friends and family were happy to see me (and I them). The major photographic activities resulted from a day trip to Fairchild Gardens in Miami, some photos of the always adorable Whitney, and NY views of midtown and Central Park.

The photos can be found here and a few previews are below:

http://sanjoseabrams.com/photos/FlaNYApr2007/index.php

Enjoy and comments are always welcome.

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Fairchild Gardens. 
 

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Whitney 
 

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Central Park, NY. 
 
And if my photos aren't enough for you, check out Dad's album