The new camera

The bad news is I dropped my Lumix just before Christmas and the zoom function was ruined. At a cost of $160, the repair wasn't worth it.  The good news is that my sweetie got me a new camera for Christmas.  It's smaller and less of a photographer's camera but I think it will serve well for our upcoming trip.

The Sony DSC-WX350 is a point-and-shoot model but it has some intriguing capabilities. Here's a sampling.

First, three different takes on the Amaryllis flower. The first with the regular lighting, the second with what is called soft focus, high key, and the third in monochrome with high contrast.  Quite different effects.

Now we get really wild with posterization, high contrast and pop effects:

Then, just for contrast, this is with what's called a retro effect.

Of course all of these effects can be achieved with photoshop or another photo editing program. But I've never really gone deeply into these so it's fun to be able to do it with a camera setting.

 These photos are taken with a setting that allows only one colour through. This is with the partial colour yellow









The next is with the partial colour blue (showing only the teapot)...

And of course, the partial colour red.  All very interesting effects, I think, although you would want to be careful not to overuse them.

Here are a few different shots of the same view with different settings. Can you see why I am excited about the creative possibilities?  

Now that I have this exciting new toy I can hardly wait to do some experimenting when we get to Mazatlan. We leave Victoria on New Year's Day for Vancouver and fly out the following morning.