A New Addition

One of my favorite and most-utilized gifts of my entire life was the DSLR that Brent got me for Christmas in 2009.  I wore the thing out.  I cannot even estimate how many pictures I took with it, but I filled an entire laptop.  The camera fell off of the ledge with me at Rock City, went to the top of most of the mountains in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, went to the Grand Canyon, went to Las Vegas twice, and was well-loved and well used.  Unfortunately, when we went on our last hike to the Jump Off, Brent was carrying it in his backpack and fell down backwards, landing on it.  It is now cracked & broken beyond repair. So, since then, I have been mostly using my iPhone for photos.  The iPhone is a good camera for capturing things you want to remember, but not really for playing with - different angles, low light, etc.  Plus the pictures are not sharp and while they look fine on the iPhone screen, they don't look good as prints or blown up on the blog:

We are planning a 10-year anniversary cruise next month.  We will be visiting New Orleans for a couple of days, then cruising to Belize, Roatan and Cozumel.  In light of this, we knew we wanted a new camera, but I also realized that I was willing to sacrifice picture quality for something that was more compact/portable, especially for an active vacation and future hiking trips.  It really is a hassle to haul the big DSLR around when hiking and sightseeing.  Plus, at this point I'm just not ready to pay for another DSLR.  So after MUCH research, we finally decided to go with a point & shoot, specifically the Canon Powershot SX 260 or 280. They seemed to have the best reviews online for cameras in that price range and they are compact. I knew that it wasn't going to be taking pictures like the DSLR, but decided that was okay because it would be easier to carry around.

Well, we went to Sam's to see if they had the Powershot because it wasn't at Wal Mart.  While at Sam's (they didn't have it) I happened upon an Olympus that looked pretty neat. I don't have any experience with Olympus, but this one got my attention because he original price was $499 but Sam's had it on sale for $278, which was less than what we were planning to pay for the Powershot.  It was an Olympus Pen Mini EPM-1.  Never heard of it.  It was very small & compact, but had an interchangeable zoom lens.  Right away in the store I started looking at reviews online and after we went home I really started reading up on it.

 

 With every single review I read, I liked it more & more. It is essentially a compact DSLR. I really didn't even know this technology existed!  And the controls are SO simplified.  There aren't a lot of buttons, etc.  Basically, instead of setting the ISO, aperture, etc, you choose from numerous settings like candlelight, fireworks, sunset, landscape, portrait, etc. You choose a setting to improve the color saturation and blur the background. Ha! Easy as pie. But you can also go to the settings and adjust all of that manually if desired. There are three different macro settings (my favorite setting).  And it also has six different "art filters" that are applied at the time the photo is taken  - kind of like Instagram, but different in that Instagram filters are applied after the image is taken.  And it has a fisheye filter & a tilt shift filter.  I actually looked at a tilt shift lens for the DSLR and it was over $1,000, which I could not justify for something that I would likely (mis)use recreationally and infrequently.  (See dramatic filter below.)

So Brent took me back over the Sam's (I was so nervous they would sell out or it would go off sale) to pick it up.  We got the last one, and it appears that it was a return but we are not 100% sure.  It came with 1 interchangeable lens, a 4GB SD card and TWO rechargeable lithium batteries with the charger, along with the usual accessories - camera strap, camera bag, etc.  I felt like this was a great deal and I was so excited to get home & try it out!

Macro

Soft focus

Dramatic filter again

Macro again, above & below

Dramatic filter again!

The pictures below were taking in very poor lighting:

Pop Art Filter

Another macro setting -> Macro Nature

Pop Art filter again!

Needless to say, I'm very pleased!!  I don't think the pictures are as good as they were with the DSLR, but for the price, the size/portability and the easy functionality (I really don't care to understand the technicalities of photography or post processing; just want to take photos that are on the good end of average), I will gladly sacrifice some of the image quality.  Can't wait to take it on our trip!

My Mother

"All women become like their mothers.  That is their tragedy.  No man does.  That's his."  ~Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895

We are the same, and the older I get the more I realize this.  Sometimes when I see a picture of myself or even see myself in a mirror, I am shocked by how much I look like her.  This is not a bad thing.  But it's not just the looks that are similar.  We have the same thought processes, the same feelings, the same sense of humor.  Neither one of us do very well with subtleties.  We are both sincere, both afraid, both worry a little too much.  We love thrift store shopping, pajamas, getting absorbed in a good book and sweets.  We will both always struggle with our weight.   We don't like loud noise,  we love naps, and would not be caught dead in a bathing suit in public.  We express ourselves much better in writing than by the spoken word. We are literal, deferential and uncertain.  We wait to be spoken to, don't like crowds and prefer a night at home to.......well, just about anything.  We like to take care of things and can easily be convinced that we are wrong. I am who I am because she is who she is, and always has been.

In honor of Mother's Day I have a story to share.  When I was in the 7th grade, Mama told me that she could see me being a pediatrician when I grew up.  I almost fell out.  I always thought I would be a teacher.  I mean, I had been practicing my ENTIRE childhood with all of the dolls.  I didn't know anything about the health profession, but I knew that to be a doctor you had to be SUPER smart, and I while I had always done well in school, I never thought of myself as smart or capable.  When she told me that one little comment, I completely internalized it.  I began to believe that I was smart and that I could do something challenging. (Not that becoming a teacher is not challenging - it certainly is and I still sometimes think I should have done it. I had just never before considered that I had options or the potential to do whatever I wanted to do.) And although I did not become a physician (a wonderful decision, as it turns out), I did something I NEVER would have thought that I could do as a child - I graduated college and moved out of state to go to pharmacy school, then got an MBA. Then did a residency. Then passed the BCPS exam and now have a job as a clinical pharmacist in the ICU.  It has been the hardest thing I have ever done - not so much the coursework or the actual work, but the living away from home, meeting all new people, leaving my comfort zone, learning how to interact professionally with others and be more assertive, etc.  And I know that a pharmacist is not a nuclear physicist or a physician or a CEO, but that's not the point. The whole process has been challenging for me because of my personality. And leaving my comfort zone has been one of the best and most rewarding decisions I have made. But I would never have thought that it was even a possibility if not for Mama.  She has never doubted my abilities (academically, at least, I'm pretty certain there were some doubts about my various athletic endeavors, Jr. Miss, choices of hair styles/colors etc.). And because she never doubted, I believed.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the many other ways that Mama has influenced my life.  At a very early age, she taught me the importance of lighter hair, especially around the face.  She taught me how to diet, how to wear makeup (sadly, I received a few follow-up lessons recently), how to get a tan, how to fix my hair (well, she did the best she could).  She taught me how to thrift shop, how to yard sale, and recommended books that I would like.  She taught me about the Midwest Center and the Believer's Voice of Victory.  She took me to Tammy's before my 8th grade prom & didn't laugh when she teased my hair to high heaven (until the pics came back).  She glued white rosettes to some navy blue dress shoes that matched my prom dress perfectly. Dancing with her to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" at Kourtney's wedding will be one of the highlights of my entire life, as silly as that sounds.  When I am old, I will not remember our temporary disagreements or hurt feelings.  I will remember both of us, awkward as possible, letting go and having fun together for a few minutes.  She taught me how to make harvest casserole, mexican cornbread & Rice Krispie treats. She told me Brent was the one.  She's always been right, somehow.  About me, about life, about the future.  I cannot wait to know her as a grandmother. 

Because of all of this, I must disagree with Mr. Wilde.  Becoming more like my mother is not my tragedy. It is an honor.  And what I said at Jr. Miss still stands.  She is, and always will be, my best friend.