I found the funniest button on my camera the other day. It has a picture of a flower on it. How handy, I thought, a built-in water-sprayer for indoor plants.
Turns out that’s not what it’s for. My husband casually suggested that I might want to use it. For what, I asked, you know how much I enjoy torturing our houseplants (I could water you, but instead I’ll accumulate 14 cups of water next to my bed, and then dump them all down the sink). That’s when he explained to me the wonders of the Canon PowerShot A80’s “macro feature.”
Apparently, this very special macro feature allows one to focus in on close-range objects, such as the aforementioned flower or, as a hugely hypothetical example, a cookie. Silly me, I thought that was included in the automatic part of auto-focus. I’m sure all of you amateur-but-clearly-gifted photographers out there already knew that. Thanks for nothing.
So not only does my aging camera have severely delayed reflexes when asked to capture any specific moment (not a big deal for still life, but kind of an issue when photographing kids), but it’s also extremely far-sighted and requires extra help to locate its bifocals. Fantastic. The artistic eight ball I’m behind grows wider.
But, do you know what was under my tree on Christmas morning? A Canon PowerShot SD700 IS Digital Elph.
Cute. Small. Uh-oh, is that a flower button I see? Okay, but that viewfinder screen thingy is TWICE the size of the one on my old camera (I’m getting a little far-sighted myself). Not only that, but when I snap a picture, it captures the exact moment I was going for… a split-second before it even happens. Talk about elphin magic. SD700, you rock!
Could this spell the end of butt-ugly pictures on this site? No guarantees, but this is what my Christmas torte looked like a split-second before I took a bite out of it.
It's a Christmas miracle.
(Visit Fancy Toast for the recipe for Jamie Oliver’s “everything but the kitchen sink” torte. I’ll give you a hint: orange zest, nuts, chocolate, apricots, ricotta, poppy seeds, cayenne, capers. Except minus the cayenne and capers, so it doesn’t taste like crap.)
(continued from previous post)
... for some reason, I don't remember seeing any of this! Care to explain?
Posted by: Dad | December 27, 2006 at 09:34 PM
When I see some of Nonni's tortiere and the cappellettis she undoubtedly sent you home with, then we can do a prisoner exchange. Until then, sorry...
Posted by: Tammy | December 28, 2006 at 12:32 PM