My New Baby

Be warned…

this post is filled with photo-tech hoo-hah

and mumbo-jumbo that might be a snore

to people who don’t get off on cameras and lenses.

If that kind of thing bores the bejeezuz out of you,

move on along!

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Have you noticed?

I have been drawn away from my blog by a new love lately. Can one cheat on their blog with a new camera?

My (good, dear, sweet, generous) hubby got me what I really wanted for Christmas this year! A new digital camera! Even though we didn't neeeeeed it! Not just a digital camera, but a digital SLR camera!

A Canon Digital Rebel XTi, baby!

But it’s not really the camera that I wanted, it’s the lens.

I love to browse through photos in flickr and I kept finding these photos that I was SO drawn to! They were pictures of a thousand different subjects, but they all had this super-tight depth of field where everything in front of and behind the subject was out of focus. But what was IN focus was SO crisp, and I wasn’t sure how to describe it but what was out of focus was… so… beautifully... out-of-focusy!

(There's the tech-talk I warned you about earlier!!)

Now I have taken a LOT of out of focus pictures in my life, and NONE of them looked good. That’s when, reading up on the Canon lenses these photos had in common, I learned the word BOKEH!!

Say it with me, now... BOKEH!!

I think it means “blurry, in a good way” in Japanese or something.

Folks started describing the photos I liked as having great bokeh, creamy bokeh, and even as being BOKEH-LICIOUS!!

The magic, I found, came from Canon’s glorious skills with optics, and the fact that some of their lenses stop down to 1.4, 1.2 and even 1.0 (their aperture opens REALLY wide!) This also allows the camera to let in more light in low light situations. I take LOTS of indoor pics and DESPISE indoor flash! So, another plus.

Am I boring you yet?

Long story short, Michael decided the expense was worth my giddy happiness, and since I take 99 percent of the family pictures, I should have what I want (isn’t he awesome??). And, reselling our current digital camera would offset the cost. So YAY! I started my research.

I found the lens I wanted… It stopped down to 1.2 and it was $1400!!

Hmmm… I found the next step down was very reasonably priced. No middle ground between them. This one stopped down to 1.4. Very respectable.

I hunted on flickr for pics taken with the camera/lens combo I lusted after could afford, and sure enough, lots of creamy bokeh to go around.

Sold!

I had read that the kit lens that comes with the Rebel is not so fab, so I opted to get the body only, and ordered the lens separately. The body showed up in time to go under the tree, but the lens finally came a few days ago.

I have been in hog heaven ever since.

I took a bunch of pics in the tiny backyard brick courtyard we have, and took the kids to our nearby park a few times, and shot about 4000 photographs. Not a one of them was above f/1.4! Even when it wasn’t the most appropriate setting! I just wanted Bokeh, bokeh, bokeh! Creamy Bokeh!!

So, forgive me that so many of my pictures for the next few weeks are going to have a super tight depth of field while I play and learn.

All these pictures were taken with the new gear. Also, my Wordless Wednesday pic of Noah and his friend in the previous post.

Oh, and just so my camera doesn’t get jealous of my lens… I have to say that the usability and ease of the digital rebel is really finding a sweet comfy spot in the corner of my little heart and settling in nicely.