h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi!

I can't remember whether you've been around on any of the conversations where I've posted the link to my photos. If not - http://www.flickr.com/photos/edwardthebonobo/

I have to say that I'm getting a bit of a buzz sharing them. People are being positive. It's especially good because I started photography with a course run by an outreach mental health project.

How are your mom and dad?

Hi Edward!

My favorites are Stolen Flower 3, the one with the black background, and Staemens, with those luscious colors. I also really like Twirly and Iris. Good stuff! I need to get out and take some more photos! Does your camera allow you to focus yourself? Mine has autofocus, and that can be frustrating when it won't focus on the right thing. Also mine eats up batteries like popcorn, so I can't take as many pictures as I would like to. (I had rechargeables, but I couldn't get them to work right. Nothing worse than charging them 2 hours and they still didn't work.)

I've been having a terrible week, because I am worried about my Mom, and because it is the anniversary this coming weekend of my breakdown in 93! Mom and Dad get along fine most of the time, but when she forgets who he is, she gets terribly paranoid, and has wandered off twice now. I shall have to discuss it all with my siblings as soon as my sister gets back from vacation.

There are some good things coming up this weekend though! I am going to see the movie Kingdom of Heaven tomorrow. (Orlando Bloom stars as a knight in the Crusades) And Saturday my family is getting together at my sister's for a Cranium game! Yay, fun!

I'm glad you liked them! I took Stolen Flower 3 on Tuesday night. I'm looking forward to buying some interesting flowers for studio shots this weekend - and maybe a trip to a garden about a mile from home in the headquarters of the National Trust for Scotland (a charity that runs old buildings, museums and gardens). I'm getting a creative buzz from all this - especially good because I got into it as the result of a course run by a community Mental Health project.

Do try not to dwell too much on your anniversary. I'm a little conscious that my episodes seem to have run in two year cycles, so I'm due for one. But at least I'm properly medicated now and have ongoing medical support. But this has been a week of late nights (election TV last night until 3am!) - so I'd maybe better make sure I rein myself in a little. Anyway - if you make sure that you arrange enough distractions, I'm sure you can get through it. Or maybe not even distractions. Mention it to someone. No need for a heavy conversation - but maybe best to put it 'out there'.

I hope the sitiation with your mom sorts itself out. But you're obviously doing the right thing handling it as a team.

Enjoy Orlando. The movie got some mixed reviews on a TV arts programme last week - but the consensus was that Ridley Scott had made some amends for the propaganda and racism of Black Hawk Down.

Oh - and the camera geek stuff:

Yes, I can focus it - but it's difficult with the LCD screen - especially because I prefer to use the viewfinder which makes eveything very pixelly. The autofocus works pretty well, though. You can adjust the way it takes a focus sample (but I've not figured out how yet). For flowers against lots of surrounding growth I often take a spot focus and then adjust the framing before taking the shot. I think most cameras should let you do that. (press the button halfway down to focus).

It was also about the cheapest model I could get which gave me aperture, shutter and full manual control. It's wierd that you have to pay more to get rid of the automation! It also has a 10x optical zoom and - as you've seen - a pretty good macro. But I want more macro now!

My only real beef is over some of the ergonomics. The wheel which lets you select shooting mode moves too easily - I keep accidentally taking movies instead of photos. Plus I often activate the menu button with my nose.

Oh - and in flash mode, the metering and focus have too much delay. Not good when you only ever want a built in flash for taking snapshots.

(Its a Minolta Dimage z1, by the way: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/z1.html. They suddenly got cheap because the z2 model came out.)