Saturday, February 24, 2007

New and Old

I got a couple of new toys today. The first allowed me to get the shot below. I don't have a macro lens for my Canon Digital Rebel, but I do for the AE-1 Program (pictured below). When Canon changed to the EF lens mount for its EOS cameras, it meant that the older FD style lenses would not be compatible. For a short while, Canon made adapters, but that was a long while ago. However, third party manufacturers still do and I just received mine in the mail. There is no auto anything when using the adapter and there is a loss if one f-stop, but with an FD f 1:1.4 lens, I can afford it. And of course, now I can use the macro, the zoom, the extension tube and all the other FD lenses as well.



The other toy I got was Apple's Aperture. This photo management program does so much more than I have yet learned to, but I am anxious to get on it. The Aperture product manager from Apple gave a free seminar on the main features at Sacramento State yesterday. As a token of Apple's appreciation, all attendees received a free, fully functioning, non-demo and "not for resale" version of Aperture. That's a $150 value - and money I probably would have spent on this package eventually. Below is the same shot with a few tweaks. I was just playing around - I have no idea what I did. The cool thing is that the original "master" has remained unchanged. All of the alterations are saved in a much smaller file and applied when the image is rendered. I think I'm going to like Aperture.

4 comments:

carmilevy said...

Love these images - though I tend to be partial to the first one because it more aptly represents the original scene (I'm too much of a purist for my own good!)

The world of macro is infinitely enjoyable, and your experience proves it. You've motivated me to shoot more as well!

Anna said...

DUDE....I'm jealous. I am hoping to get a macro lens for my D50 thanks to my first paying photo job....and when I was at the APPLE store here in London I was drooling over the Aperture program....very nice.

Have fun with it Mike and I love these shots!

michelle said...

my sister has the ae-1 and she says its the best camera she has ever used. ihave a digital rebel and I, too, am saving up for the 100mm macro lens. Can't wait!

rashbre said...

I use Aperture for storing and basic non destructive editing to photos. Works a treat and can fix all manner of blooper.