Sunday, August 14, 2011

Using What I Got

It's an overcast day down here on the Texas Gulf Coast and, in between prayers for rain, I thought this week I'd share with you some photos I've been taking on any and all of my three cameras (a Canon Powershot SD1200is, an old but healthy Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 dslr, and my cellphone). Today I'm sharing cellphone pics.

In a world of iPhones, Blackberries and Androids, this is my cellphone:
The PanTech Jest
It can be a smartphone but doesn't have to be, so that is why I chose it 18 months ago, that and the fact that I really wanted a slide phone bad. I also wanted a phone that had somewhat of a decent camera, removeable storage for my pics and music and no need whatsoever to connect to Verizon (my carrier) to access or store them.
My goal was to NOT pay Verizon the $30 extra a month for internet apps and access, because we already pay $40 a month to Comcast for a high speed wireless internet network at the house. At first blush, this appeared to be an impossible task to find such a phone, and my bet is it really is impossible now, but I managed to finally find this phone and maybe two others that fit my bill among all of their offerings. The other good thing was that both mine and Hubs' phone were free, thanks to New with Two.

As things often happen with me, it was not until recently that I even attempted to learn how to use my phone's camera, and I have learned a few things about it. One: it sucks at taking indoor photos, but the outdoor ones are nice, especially on a sunny day; and Two: the camera has Options! I have white balance and brightness settings, a self-timer, and something called Color Effects.

Today I played with the Color Effects option. I have four of them, and they are basically overlays for the pics I take. Mine are Normal, Black n White, Ancient and Negative. The first two are self-explanatory. Ancient is vintage sepia, and Negative is like an x-ray negative of the pic.

After using them all, my hands-down favorite is Negative, although I'm happy to have them all. I like Negative because anything terra cotta becomes teal. For example, our pool:

Pretty cool, huh? I love the look of the pebble deck, the clouds and treetops reflected in the water, and the orange fence looks teal-ish as well as the terra cotta brick coping and the brownish leaves on the water.

I'm a big believer in everything happening for a reason, and discovering my cellphone's camera options came at just the right time. I'd been feeling increasingly covetous of the many app overlays for the iphone, yet now that Verizon has capped unlimited online access, I'm even more determined not to pay to play online. I'm not saying that my new found app toys are as good as I could get with the iphone, but atleast I have some to play with, too. I know, I know. I could go online and get android apps. Yeah. You're pretty sneaky there, aren't ya? Not. Going. Online. With. Cellphone.