Chris.Derecola

I entered one.  I submitted a picture I took July 2008 in Santa Cruz, which seems like a lifetime ago. It happens to be one I’m partial to and since it fit the theme, I’m giving it a shot. This is really the first time I’ve done something like this with my pictures, so hopefully I don’t come in last place. Please consider voting for me now and every day until the contest closes. I would very much appreciate it.

Finding myself with a bit of bonus money, I recently purchased a new point and shoot camera. My old one is outdated (~6 years) and I don’t always want to whip out my dSLR, so I figured it was time. After doing some research, I opted for the recently released Canon PowerShot SX200IS. Although a bit more than I wanted to spend, it seemed to be the right option for me given its various offerings. I’ll probably post a review after I use it for awhile; in the meantime, here are the reasons I picked it over some of the smaller models.

• Canon. It’s no secret I prefer Nikon for SLR, so this might come as a contradiction. Having done enough research to recommend cameras for others and actually using a bunch of Canon P&S myself, I can comfortable say they make the best ones.
• Zoom. What can I say, I’m a zoom snob. I feel incredibly restricted by 3x and even 5x is a bit short for my taste (I use an 18-200mm [11x] on my dSLR ) so I was immediately attracted to the 12x (28-336mm) this model offers. The camera is not a “super-compact” as a result of all that glass, but with a 3″ LCD to make up for it, I’m okay with that.
• HD Video. I’ve really gotten into the whole making thing and had been thinking about upgrading my dSLR to compensate. With a pocket camera that shoots 720p, video is no longer a requirement when I do eventually upgrade.
• Modes. Again, it might be the photography snob in me but I don’t think I ever want a camera that doesn’t have aperature and shutter priority modes. My 6 y/o P&S was originally purchased because it has them (and I wanted to learn about them) so anything without would be a downgrade.
• Random Goodies. Blink detection, face detection self-timer, red-eye correction, face tracking and pop-up flash… I’ll let you figure out what all those things do/mean.

I’d also like this post to serve as the unofficial release of the blog on DirtyMartiniPhoto.com. I don’t know if I’m going to separate content or just double post here and there in the future, but I figured you’d love yet another RSS feed of mine to follow.

Spurred by some new code and friendly competition, I did a somewhat major redesign of my Dirty Martini Photography website. Aside from the obvious changes you’ll notice, there are many subtle changes that you’ll probably never realize. I thought about listing them all out, but I suppose pulling back the curtain kinda ruins it.

It’s changed enough that I wish I’d taken a screen shot of it before to compare to what it is now. Google’s cache updated before I could grab it and the Way Back Machine doesn’t have what I’m looking for so I guess we’ll have to rely on your memory. I think the new version is much less amateur looking… something I’ve wanted for a long time. I’ll probably be tweaking stuff here and there to fine tune but overall I’m very happy with the result.