Oh What a Difference a Camera Can Make!

We've talked about getting a new camera for several months, and finally ordered it just before Christmas. Tom had done a lot of research to find just the right one -- like our old, reliable SLR film cameras but digital, that you can manipulate yourself and get good, crisp results. (There was a lot more to what we were looking for than that, but I think you get the picture!)

On Saturday this huge box arrived on our doorstep. It contained the camera body and lens and all the incidentals we need. Tom spent much of the day just learning some basics. We were sitting in our living room that evening and Tom was showing me some of the things he'd learned from the manual. I picked up the camera and zoomed in on the three wise men who were on the coffee table in front of me. Click! And look how this turned out! 

I then focused on the television stand, where one of the Joseph-less manger scenes stands. Without doing anything to prep, I got the nativity in my viewfinder and clicked. Look at the difference between this new photo and the one that I carefully set up a few days ago and published in the blog. 

New camera

Old camera

Can you see why we're excited?

Marilee, Tom's sister, came up Sunday. Now there's a gal who loves to take pictures. Whether she's filming a step-by-step record of us making pizza for dinner or on the prowl for snow geese, she almost always has her camera handy. She is, in fact, the one who took this picture at the farm in New York one snowy winter's day.

Off we went to the Lights of Christmas at Warm Beach Camp, each with a camera in hand. It was a riot of lights and scenes and awe. And it provided a good workout for the new camera.

I must say, it was probably the least desirable setting to experiment with a new camera, with Tom hardly having had time to get familiar with it, with it being outside at night, and with how difficult it is to keep a camera still and the lights from blurring when you're not using a tripod, but I think the results are laudable, even really, really good! (All but the last two were taken on the new camera.)