Exploring Oregon

While getting familiar with my new Rebel XTi, at Crater Lake, I was reminded of my years shooting film by a casual remark made by another photographer.

Llama and I had pulled off at one of the many unnamed turnouts along the rim. It was late in the afternoon with lengthening shadows, and the lake was showing off with some incredible reflections of the crater wall. The photographer and his girlfriend arrived as I was busy shooting away.

After spending a few minutes admiring the view, the photographer started back to his car without taking any pictures. When his girlfriend questioned him, he said the pictures wouldn’t turn out because there was too much contrast.

I remember those days! High contrast didn’t stopped me from trying, but I didn’t experiment too much either. I might have tried 3-6 shots with film. In similar situations now, I will easily take 12 shots or more. I don’t worry about wasting a shot because there are no additional costs involved.

And high contrast or not, I think the photos I took of the lake and it’s reflections turned out pretty good…

Well, I finally did it. I bought my first digital SLR camera. I couldn’t afford the camera I wanted, (Canon’s EOS-1Ds Mark III,) so I bought the best I could afford: The Canon Rebel XTi. I like Canon cameras. I already own two Canon SLRs, the EOS IX Lite and the Elan IIe, so I won’t have to invest in any new lenses for a while.

It’s only been two weeks, so I’m not ready to do a full blown camera review. But I have to say I really like working with camera RAW images!

To show you what I mean, here’s a picture of my cat Munchkin, (one of five feisty felines “in charge” at our house–just ask them!) The top image is the jpeg created by the camera. The bottom image is what I ended up with after making only two adjustments to the RAW image: I lightened the image “one stop”, and selected a custom white balance.

Now Munchkin’s fur is the right color, and her face really stands out against the dark background.

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