Fall Beauty 2012

A few years ago Steve and I went to Lithia Park in Ashland, Oregon, to take autumn pictures. It would be my last photo walk in Oregon with my SX-30 super zoom camera. It was on this day that I put my foot down and insisted on a DSLR like Steve's 5D Mk1. It took me a while to truly understand two things: 1) I had outgrown my nice but inferior camera and 2) you basically need to have a DSLR with a proper lens if you want awesome bokeh, among other things. Still, I got some good pictures with my super zoom, and here's one I thought turned out nicely! :)

This was one of the last pictures I took in Oregon with my old Canon SX30 superzoom camera. Steve and I went down to Ashland for autumn photography and spent a few hours taking pictures and enjoying lovely Lithia Park. I would soon have my current camera, a Canon 5D Mk II, but while the SX30 was my main camera, it gave me the chance to learn so much! Here is a study of light glowing through a maple leaf.

I learned a bit about myself when I moved from my older Canon SX30 camera to my current Canon 5D Mk II. For a very long time I wanted to distance myself from the old and embrace the new. So, whenever I saw an older picture from my previous camera, I immediately hated it. I could only remember the frustration that built upon itself as I outgrew the capabilities of that camera. I didn't think about all that I learned. The fun I had with it. The joy it brought to me and the gift of being able to take any sort of picture I wanted to take because the lens would go from macro to telephoto. It was--and still is--a wonderful camera! It may not be able to produce the quality of picture I wanted so badly, but for a great many situations, the pictures are very nice! This picture is a great example! When compared to my husband's 5D Mk 1 pictures, I was sick and tired of the richness of his pictures, super details and the incredible background blurring which I so adored. All I could see were the flaws of my images. Now I can look at these older pictures with joy and pride. They are still really pretty and I'm happy to let people see them! :)