Pottered around this afternoon in the ravine behind David Balfour Park. Lots of green and buggy things down there to enjoy. Far too many of the 2 legged creatures today using the paths so no chance of catching any wildlife. Still a nice day, all in all. 

I've decided to save for a better Camera in the fall. I'm currently using a Canon PowerShot SX130, which is a pretty decent point and shoot camera, but it's frustrating if I want to set up a close up shot. The macro zoom sucks. I've given up on it. It takes forever to set up close ups and is severely restricted in how close (especially with macro) I can actually get. Second issue is the view screen. I can't see close up very well so it's kind of irritating setting up shots at weird angles because the screen is pretty much a big blur. I'm going to see if a Canon with a swivel view screen is in the budget. Also, the new camera must have a better colour balance - this is a MUST. I find the Powershot, although fun to use, often bleaches out colours. The greens are never quite right and lean more towards a bluish tint, which I'm constantly correcting with Photoshop. A proper DSLR camera will also let me pop filters onto the lens to compensate for intense sunshine. Hopefully cloud cover will come out with more depth. 

I'm thinking of sticking with Canon and hopefully will find one in my bracket. Henry's Cameras usually has a good selection of used DSLR and lenses. I also need read up on f stops. Fussing with it on the PowerShot seems to be a lesson in futility - does bugger all.  It's pretty limited in what it can do. Oh and the biggy on my wish list? Better control over focus. I'm tired of the camera trying to pick the focal point. I end up with more blurry shots than I can count. I'd prefer to be able to manually focus. The Canon PowerShot says it has manual, but it's more a glorified "point and we'll help you focus" kind of focus. Also be nice if the ISO were a bit more sensitive so night photos would actually look decent. Lots of research to do. I'm a bit wobbly with the mechanics of DSLR cameras and the ins and outs of photography. Time to educate myself about fstops and iso settings so I know what I'm actually doing. 

In the meantime, here are a couple of photos from today. 

It took me forever to catch this moth. Well, okay, not forever, but it felt like it. Taking a photograph of these little white moths is like trying to bottle a will-o-wisp. They flit about so quickly, plus my camera really does stink at close ups. Got a lot of great shots of blurry white spots on thistles! Want to see those?