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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

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Flashy Gifts

March 7, 2011

I spent most of the weekend in this state of surprise:

Me. Speechless. Surprised.

I’m happy my fingernails were actually painted for that shot.

I spent the rest of the weekend like this:

Me, happy, loving my new Rebel.

Because that baby is NEW. I receieved the SURPRISE GIFT of a Canon EOS Rebel XS. And left me pretty much speechless. I adopted my interest in photography from my parents, who raised me with an SLR in hand and bought me my first polaroid for my 6th Birthday. Damn, that Polaroid film with only 10 shots in a cartridge was expensive.

I took the occasional photography class, but am entirely an amateur with a passion for photographing things I love. Mostly in macro, if you’ve ever checked out my personal flickr account. I’ve bought and burned through a few digital cameras since they became more affordable in the early 2000’s, although never an DSLR. My latest digital camera is even still pretty rad – It’s a Canon Powershot SD870 IS that I’ve had for about 3 years. I saved and saved for that one, watching the pricing rise and fall on Amazon until one day it was about $250 below the real list price from one seller and I hit BUY faster than ever. I’ve really enjoyed the quality and functionality the whole while. I’ll probably still use it as a point and shoot for quickie shots. I even use my iPhone 4 regularly because even it has great quality if the lighting’s right… BUT NOW…

This Rebel changes my life. Not to sound dramatic, but it does. It’s hot. And it’ll force me to really learn the nitty gritty details about becoming a great photographer and commit those details to memory, better yet, make them instinctive.

And things get better too:

Canon G12 + Pete. That’s riiiight, Pete bought himself a new camera too, having ragged out his last one to the extremes. Meet the Canon G12, which I completely believe to be the most manly, rugged, and sexy camera I’ve ever seen. Quite the body. Hands off, ladies.

It’s a 10MP beast with all of the bells and whistles you could ever want, just a tad smaller than the DSLR you’ve grown accustomed to seeing. It’s just really slick. The specs straight from the product page on the Canon site look like this:

Canon G12 specs from the Canon Product Page.

We gave the G12 a good test run this weekend with a trip to the Museum of Play in Rochester. Not that these photos have anything to do with the toy archives or hands-on activities, but the in-house butterfly garden is always a good place for some photography.

Pretty moth through glass:

Museum of Play, March 2011

A nice macro on butterfly chrysalises:

Museum of Play, March 2011.

And the as-you-would-expect-from-me flower shot:

Additionally, the G12 also impresses with a few nice-to-have settings. The photoshop guru might not have a problem adjusting a standard photo to tilt-shift, but the setting makes it easier for amateurs to achieve the look on the spot. Yes, this is my dining room table in the midst of another project (more to come later this week), and yes, the lighting was poor since it was just last night that I was toying with these settings:

Canon G12 tilt-shift feature. No photoshop changes made. Also, not shown because I can’t decide if it creeps me out or not, the camera also has a setting that detects smiles. That’s right, it detects when a person is smiling and snaps the photo right then; I tested it with frowns, blank stares, and grins, and could not activate it unless smiling with my teeth. Fascinating technology.

Hopefully the quality of the photos on the site will improve and will be more enjoyable (although let’s face it, the iPhone will still make an appearance since it’s always on hand).

Anyone with helpful tips pertaining to the operation of either camera, be our friend.

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Helping The Economy

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

6 Comments


Irene
March 7, 2011 at 9:05 am
Reply

NICE SURPIRSE GIFT! You got some great shots there!

I have a Nikon D40 I need to start using. I even got a tripod last year for my birthday that I haven’t really used. I’m gonna take both to Casa Ugly and start taking “real” photos. No more cell phone shots. LOL!



Melissa
March 7, 2011 at 1:51 pm
Reply

Nice, Emily! I may pose for you next time we hang out. :-)



    Emily
    March 7, 2011 at 3:58 pm

    Thanks Irene + Melissa! I see lots of technical know-how and photo shoots in my near future.

ginnie
March 7, 2011 at 3:04 pm
Reply

Congrats on your new camera! I’ve had the XTi for about 4-5 years and have only recently started messing around with manual settings forcing myself to learn everything..f-stop..shutter speed. The only thing that makes me sad is that even with an Image Stabilization lens my shakey hands still manage to mess up what would’ve been a perfectly good photo. I’ve still got tons to learn but now I have a pretty rad tripod so it’s been easier taking photos..especially in low light conditions.

I wish you all the best with the new camera. Can’t wait for more photos!



    Emily
    March 8, 2011 at 10:18 am

    Exciting Ginnie! I heard that the Canon site has some pretty good tutorials, although I still haven’t gotten around to checking them out myself yet.

    http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=HomePageAct

Ashley @ DesignBuildLove.co
March 28, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Reply

AWESOME! I am soooo jealous! I dream of a new camera one day… Can’t wait!!!



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  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

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