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Saturday, September 06, 2008

Circle Time: The Show and Tell Weekly Thread

Welcome back to Show and Tell. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. In fact, we hope you do go back to your blog and post your own Show and Tell item and then return with the link to your post. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let's begin.

I met Karen from Chookooloonks at BlogHer and she asked why I wasn't participating in Shutter Sisters. "I don't have a great camera like you guys," I said, showing her my Canon.

"But this is the same camera that Kate uses," she said.

"But my pictures never look gorgeous like Kate's!" I exclaimed.

"Do you know how to use the camera?" she asked.

"No," I admitted.

So I actually opened the manual and began fiddling around with buttons and I've started to learn. First stop, these action shots of water at a fountain outside a museum in Washington, D.C.





What are you showing today?


Want to bring something to Show and Tell?
  • If you would like to join circle time and show something to the class, simply post each Sunday (or earlier in the weekend or on Monday if you can't do Sunday), hopefully including a picture if possible, and telling us about your item. It can be anything--a photo from a trip, a picture of the dress you bought this week, a random image from an old yearbook showing a person you miss. It doesn't need to contain a picture if you can't get a picture--you can simply tell a story about a single item.
  • Label your post "Show and Tell" each week and then come back here and add the permalink in the comments section below (make sure you don't just comment that you participated: add a link to your blog in your comment so people can click over). I post a new Show and Tell post every Saturday night or Sunday. I usually move people up into the body of the post every few hours.
  • Oh, and then the point is that you click through all of your classmates and see what they are showing this week.
  • If you want it...
    I've now placed a Show and Tell archive on the sidebar that will be updated each week in case you miss it. And click here for the icon code if you wish to have it for your blog. It links to the archives.

32 comments:

Kristin said...

Oh wow...those are gorgeous pics Mel! What kind of camera do you have?

Here's my Show and Tell... 200th Post Giveaway

Delenn said...

You bring up a good point--I have my camera, but I haven't really fooled with it like I should. If I did, I am sure I could get a lot better pics. Great pictures of the water, btw.

Here's my Show & Tell:
http://polantworld.blogspot.com/2008/09/show-tell-8.html

Baby Smiling In Back Seat said...

Good work, Mel!

In a funny coincidence, my post this week is about camera tricks.

http://babysmiling.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/appear/

Malky B. said...

Beautiful water pics! I'm back this week. Here's mine:

http://www.benedictfamily.org/show-and-tell-090608-back-to-school/

Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...

Wow! I just got a new camera myself ... I wonder if mine does as good a job as yours ...

Here's my post for this week. Hope you're having a good week!

Arian said...

Those are great pics! I have a Canon too. I love it most of the time. It is a wonderful camera for taking moving shots. I just wish I could get it to do better with my crochet pics. Guess I need to dig out that manual huh?

Here's mine for the week....

http://fracturedrainbows.blogspot.com/2008/09/ive-been-busy-this-week.html

luna said...

awesome photos! I love the closeups in b&w. fun!

AnotherDreamer said...

Awesome pictures! It reminds me of when I was first getting friendly with my camera.

Here's my show and tell
http://anunwantedpath.blogspot.com/2008/09/show-and-tell.html

Smiling said...

yay you for sorting out your camera. I love having a camera with me to capture some of the beauty I stumble upon in my daily life.

Here is my show and tell.
http://circlesbecomeme.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/show-and-tell-rowing/

Anonymous said...

You photo's are beautiful Mel! Perhaps if bothered to read the instructions for my camera I could also take some better shots.
Here's my contribution for Show & Tell this week:

http://sharonvw.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/show-tell-ws-business-trip/

Bea said...

Hey, wow! Pretty darn good!

A photographer friend of mine said it didn't matter what camera, only that you knew how to use it. He was right - my little film point-and-click was getting some nice photos by the time I decided to switch to a tricky whizz-bang digital. Could I get photos as good with the digital? Not at first, not by a long shot. I took his point. The other thing is it takes practice to keep the skill up.

Not that I want to make myself sound all skilled, but this is my paltry experience, anyway.

Bea

'Murgdan' said...

Cool pictures. My husband is the photographer in my family. He has a camera permanently attached to his hand at all times.

I'm playing this week too!

http://murgdan.blogspot.com/2008/09/show-and-tell-garden-surprises.html

Anonymous said...

You see?? BOOM!! Shutter Sisters-worthy stuff! :-)

Glad you're going to be joining us -- these are great shots!

K.

Cricket said...

We probably have the same camera. I always say mine sucks, too! Operator error?

Mine is up.

http://cricketchurping.blogspot.com/
2008/09/day-at-museum.html


I hope that worked.

Shelby said...

Beautiful!!

I decided to jump in on the fun this week:
http://sbifblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/show-and-tell.html

Jamie said...

What beautiful pics!! I have a Canon, maybe I should get my manual out too!

Here is my post:

http://thetherapistisinbyjamie.blogspot.com/2008/09/show-tell.html

MrsSpock said...

OoooooO...those pics are nifty!

My Show and Tell

http://mrsspock.blogspot.com/2008/09/show-and-tell-from-scratch-cooking.html

kate said...

I feel the need to comment to dissent ever-so-slightly to the "I-don't-know-how-to-use-my-camera-and-therefore-cannot-take-good-pictures" line of thinking. With a very modest amount of know-how (turn the camera on, turn the flash off), you can take pretty amazing pictures as long as you find an interesting subject.

I'll start by giving a shout-out to my favorite amateur photo book called "How to Photograph Your Life" by Nick Kelsh. The thing is, you don't need a fancy camera to take good pictures. I have a middle of the road camera (not a DSLR, but more flexibility with settings than any other point-and-shoot I've found), and I think I take pretty gosh darn good pictures. 90% of the time, I use a "preset" rather than defining my own parameters, and 60% of the time, I use only one specific preset. I'm certainly no professional, nor do I have aspirations to be one, I just want to take pictures that I actually want to look at more than once. And I think I achieve that (my flickr site is in the sidebar of my blog), and so do you with these pictures of the fountain, fancy settings or not.

Kelsh's entire book was shot with an average-home-user digital camera, and a quick perusal of his book will, at times, leave your jaw hanging at how COOL some of his pictures are (and better than that, he gives tons of insight into how/why he took the photo the way he did, and thus teaches you well along the way). And as another example, here is the website (http://www.kineticphotography.net/) of a friend of mine who shot an entire photographic exhibit with cameras that could stand to be dropped repeatedly (read: cheap) and had but one required "fancy" feature- the ability to set a slow shutter speed. He started a photographic movement with a point-and-shoot, and gave exhibitions in museums across Germany, Italy and all over the US of his photographs taken with point-and-shoot cameras. He's just an average guy (well, a cool, nice, friendly, willing-to-be-artsy guy) who found a cool way to present a subject.

So my mantra is this:
Learn how to make a subject interesting (the fountain is a VERY interesting subject), and worry about learning to use the myriad features later.
In my (totally uneducated and thus fairly worthless) opinion, the most important piece of camera equipment is the perception of the photographer.

I just wanted to add my voice to counter all of these other voices who seem to be feeling timid about taking good pictures because they don't know enough about their cameras. And to join Bea's voice in encouraging people who don't have fancy cameras that they, too, can take awesome pictures.

astral said...

Those pictures make me feel like I'm right there! I love photography.

Okay here I go:
http://itiswritteninthestars.blogspot.com/2008/09/smelling-clean.html

Anonymous said...

I don't have a camera right now except for ok my phone, but this is kind of neat to look at.

Phoebe said...

Wow, I might be inspired to actually learn how to use my digital camera after this!

After a long drought from Show and Tell, I present the fruits of my labor this summer:

My Garden

Natalie said...

http://lunardreams.net/baby/?p=1276

Tash said...

Hey, I'm doing it this week!

Tash's Show & Tell

HereWeGoAJen said...

Wow. I am impressed with your photography skills. I have a nice camera that takes good pictures but not that good. Perhaps I should read my manual too.

Raggedy Ann said...

Oh, how exciting. I'm going to play around now with the buttons on my camera. Beautiful photos!

My show & tell:
http://infertile-raggedyann.blogspot.com/2008/09/show-and-tell.html

Kristin (kekis) said...

Great photog skillz! I really should learn to do more with my camera. Granted, it's a point & shoot that I love to use, but I know it does more than I do!

My S&T: http://fertileramblings.blogspot.com/2008/09/show-tell-new-look.html

Antigone said...

I'm so late posting this, but I just got back in town.

This week I'm sharing a pic from my recent first class in a metalworking series I'm taking. As the least artistic/creative/handy person on the planet, I'm somehow finding incredible joy in these classes. Go figure!

Antigone Lost

Michelle said...

Fabulous pictures!

Here is mine...

http://tobabyandbeyond.blogspot.com/

battynurse said...

Love your pictures. I suppose I need to get the DVD's that came with my camera out and figure out some of the options on my camera too.
Here's my show and tell this week.
http://battynurse.blogspot.com/2008/09/show-and-tell.html

sweetsalty kate said...

Hey, I can only second what the other Kate said - when I joined Shutter Sisters, all I had was a point and shoot, until I got the Canon a couple of months later.

http://shuttersisters.com/home/2007/12/10/mastering-the-art-of-the-rinky-tink-tink-part-one.html

http://shuttersisters.com/home/2007/12/17/mastering-the-art-of-the-rinky-tink-tink-part-two.html

And shucks... thanks for the kind words, but I have to also second Karen and say hella, yeah! Come on over, the water's warm and the company's warmer. Gorgeous water shots!

Amy said...

Mine's up!!
http://www.thedewbaby.com/2008/09/in-honor-of-seans-first-birthday-i.html

Io said...

Man, maybe I need to check out my cameras instructions, because my pictures are horrid. Your water picture is so cool. And it makes me thirsty.