Off Season

Early April, and my Christmas Cactus is blooming again.

Sarlac

Since moving to our current home, we were finally living someplace long enough to get indoor plants again.

It took a few more years to get a healing aloe to replace the ones we left behind in Manitoba.  Just a little one, found at Walmart.

It's not so little anymore.  In fact, we now affectionately call it The Sarlac.

I know aloes can get pretty big in their natural habitat, but not so much in a pot.  At least not that I've seen.  I'm used to them getting bigger by shooting up lots of babies and crowding the pot.  This one has only had 3, which I have since transplanted.  Instead, it's just getting thicker and fleshier.

And toothier.

Food mode

(edit: I originally wrote this post by email from my phone, however only 1 of the 2 photos I attached made it to the post.  Probably because I wrote it from a parking lot, then started driving while it was uploading and lost wifi connection!  I love technology, but it does have its limits. LOL)

Recently, my Galaxy S4 gave up the ghost.  Among various minor glitches, the first major thing to go was the default camera software. It stopped saving pictures, with either corrupted files or nothing saved at all.

I started using a purchased software and, while still shots worked fine, it corrupted, then lost, some video I took.

When it came time to choose my next phone, I was in a bit of a quandry; do I do what I usually do and get an older phone for cheap?  Or do I get the best new phone for my needs.  You see, I hardly ever use my phone as a phone.  For communication, I am more likely to text. I drive a lot, so even that is limited.

After examining my usage, it was two things that were the deciding factors.  One of those was camera quality.  It was camera quality that lead me to go with the Galaxy S6.  It got really good ratings, and I have been very happy with it.

It has not been until a few days ago that I finally got around to actually looking at the settings and options.  It turns out that there are modes that came with my old phone that are now available as free downloads.  Looking through the various modes available, I found several others I wanted to try, including a "food" mode.

Here are two photos to compare.

One is of a cheap grocery store stir fry meal, just out of the microwave and still in its plastic bowl.  That one was taken in food mode.

The other is of a Soda Jerks build your own burger.  It was taken with default auto mode.

Both were taken in fairly low light.  The burger picture has been cropped, but no other post processing has been done. These are raw photos.

What do you think?  Can you see a difference?

A.

Can you see it?

Anna, here.  I've been able to get back at my crafting and craft blogging again lately, which has been healthy for my psyche.  A couple of days ago, I set things up to do a shoot of a crown I'd made, that included putting down a piece of red velvet I have.  

I figured it was appropriate for a crown, don't you think?

The crown is on a glass lazy susan, which allowed me to take photos at different angles without actually having to handle the crown.  It worked out rather well.  After I took the photos and removed it, however, I noticed that the little "legs" under the base had left marks in the velvet.  It didn't take long for that to happen at all.  

I moved the lazy susan, but I didn't bother to move the velvet away, thinking I might use it again soon.  Which is why it was still there, yesterday, when I happened to glance at it and noticed something odd.

Can you see it?

I know, taking photos of red is always a challenge for cameras, but it's still there.

Not the dust and cat hair, though that should give you a hint.

Can you see it on here?  It's the same photo as above, but I used post processing to try and bring it out a bit more.

You can see parts of it a lot more clearly at an angle.

Yes, those are kitty paw prints.

And kitty leg prints.

And a kitty butt print.

One of our cats got on my table and sat there long enough to leave a butt print in the velvet.

Along with the hair.

Now I have to figure out how to clean the fuzz off, as well as how to remove cat indentations.

Note for future reference.  Do not leave things out on the table that I don't want the cats to "decorate."

Raawwwrrrr

...Lord, I need to get out. Just out.

Sent from my fantabulous BlackBerry Passport. 

qui prius respondit quam audiat stultum se esse demonstrat et confusione dignum 

Camera Test

For the past few months, my Galaxy S4 was glitching out on me.  The first major failure was when the default camera software started saving only corrupted files.  Only a section of image would save and the rest would be grey at first.  Eventually, none worked.

I switched to a purchased software and that worked for a while.  It was the video that went on that, first.  Lost what should have been some amazing footage.

Then there where things like overheating.  Audio going weird, both in music and in the middle of calls.  Etc.

Of course, my contract wasn't up yet.

Eventually I had no choice. I had to upgrade.

Photo quality was one of the deciding factors, since I really don't use my phone *as* a phone all that often.

I almost went with the Galaxy S6 Edge, which has had good reviews, but instead went with just the S6.

This is the second photo I have taken with it.  I am in low light, plus the phone itself was about an inch away from the top of the bowl.  I would have had trouble with this with a regular camera, and my previous phone would have had a lot of noise due to the low light.

This is straight auto and default settings.

I think it turned out pretty darn good!

I don't think I'll be using our regular cameras much at all, anymore!

What has your experience been with phone cameras?

A.

Post processing

In the old days you needed a comp‎uter,some fairly advanced software and some serious skills to do proper post processing on pictures. These days, not so much. Here are the before and after of the same shot. One is original while the other has gone through exactly two filters from one program. 

The times, they are a changin'.  

P.

Sent from my fantabulous BlackBerry Passport. 

qui prius respondit quam audiat stultum se esse demonstrat et confusione dignum