Picture This: Your Face.

Confession: I left the last post up for two days because I liked reading it every time I opened my laptop.

I have never met anyone so intrigued with their own life story as I am with mine. But that's another post for another day.

This day is Thursday! Time to answer a reader's question! Hooray! Enthusiasm!

I know one person in particular is going to be thrilled with my choice of the week.

Question, from Raygon [to whom I would link, except her blog is all fancy pants and private, so most of you wouldn't be able to access it]:

What kind of camera do you have? Do you Photoshop your pictures (like the pics of the flowers)? Or are they naturally that colorful and vivid? Please, oh please, answer my question...I have only asked 100 times! Come on, Camille!

Answer, from Me:

Oh, Raygon. Thank you for your long-suffering support of my blog. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to answer this question, and even more sorry that I won't be able to answer it the way I wanted. Ideally, I would have a photo of the cameras I use, and maybe one of me using them, but life is not always ideal. I thought I'd better go ahead and answer this week, for fear of losing you as a friend altogether. Sorry for the delay.

The answer is...

...it depends. There are two cameras in my life that I use on a regular basis. Both are cameras I have commandeered from Poor Kyle. (Poor Kyle, indeed. All that he has is basically mine now, and nothing I have appeals to him in the slightest. I think he got a bum deal.)

For everyday point-and-shoot pictures, I use this:

Image from here.

There it is in the mirror, being clutched by my rather fearsome-looking left hand [curse this rheumatoid arthritis].

It's a Konica Minolta DiMage Z3, and it's not made anymore. Which is just as well, because probably none of you have heard of this brand anyway. Which is why they went out of business, I suppose.

"Dear our customers..." Such a thoughtful way to end an era. Page from here.

Nevertheless, it's a fantastic machine, and is 100% user-friendly. I use it for quick photos that I need right away. I'm sure I'm not utilising even a tenth of what it can do, but I'm not too savvy when it comes to apertures and f-stops. For me, and for most pictures, it works like a charm.

It took this photo...

...and this photo.

Uploading my snapshots to iPhoto takes seconds--not minutes--and I'm very pleased with every aspect of it, save perhaps its bulkiness. When I take pictures with the Konica Minolta, I do not edit the shots in Photoshop. I usually only use iPhoto's limited editing options, because that's all I really need for my instant-gratification snapshots. [Fact: I actually only use the "enhance" feature. I kind of don't know how to do anything else.]


Poor Kyle let me take this camera to Europe with me last year [he wanted to marry me], and it has been my nearly-constant companion ever since...

...Which seems fine by him, since he upgraded to this:


The Canon EOS Digital How Long Can They Make This Name SLR:

An SLR is a digital camera that is better than other digital cameras, as far as I can tell. It does better things--though I'm not sure what, exactly. It might have something to do with pixels. Or all the lenses available for purchase. Image from here.

And I'll tell you the honest truth: I know nothing about photography. Sometimes I steal the SLR to make myself feel fancy, but I never change the settings from "automatic," and I only know that I like one lens: the 50mm f1.8. I don't know what it means, but it makes the backgrounds of photos all blurry, which is a style I like:

I used the fancier camera for this photo of my inquisitive nephew...

And for this image of my favourite new bedding.

And for these images of my backyard [those were happier days when the grass was green].

{It kind of bothers Poor Kyle when I sneak away with his camera. First I thought it was because it costs more than my life. Then I thought it was because he thinks I take ugly photographs. Finally I learned he just likes being the one who knows how to take pictures. I was stealing his thunder. So someday I'll just buy my own--perhaps for my next birthday--and that will be the end of it. He doesn't have to look at my artwork if he doesn't want to.}

For the photos that I do attempt with the SLR, I do use Photoshop for some minor touchups--again, I am far from well-versed in the program; I simply follow Ree Drummond's easy tutorials, and I can usually come up with something that looks nice enough.

And that, my friend, is everything I know. I bet you were hoping for a bit more wisdom, huh? Sorry. I can't be acting all wise, or people might start expecting more out of me.