i think i mentioned that teagan kind of broke my camera when we were in temagami in september. well, she didn't BREAK break it, it was working, and then she got out of the lake and stood over it and then it didn't work anymore.

toby is really into photography - he's got close to a professional set-up with a very complicated camera, different lenses including a telescopic lense, etc. so one of my xmas presents was a new camera - a panasonic lumix!

which is really nice, it's a point and shoot, but you can adjust the ISO/f-stop, it shows the light meter (or whatever all that stuff is called), has a grid so you can divide the photo into 3's easily, etc, etc. nicest camera i've ever owned, really fun to use.

right now i'm just playing around taking pics and working with them on picasa. my computer is kind of old and crappy.

toby's lent me a DVD on cameras/taking pics. he's got lots of resources, but since his camera is not a point and shoot, and is in a whole different league than mine - i was wondering if anyone had any resources on taking pics that they've enjoyed working with, that are good for people who aren't super technical (aka me!). any thoughts on programs for working with photos too would be appreciated

here's some photos i took yesterday of the dogs and fooled around with on picasa. had a lot of fun!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=92696&l=10136&id=630190844

Jenn, here is a site that links to free tutorials (short ones) that you might find helpful.(scroll down to see the subjects)

What's the most helpful is to just get out and shoot and experiment. With a point and shoot you need to be careful about the minimum distance that you need to be from the subject to keep the image in focus. The owner's manual should tell you that... Have fun!

http://www.photoxels.com/digital-photography-tutorials.html

Lynne, those are perfect!

Toby was just telling me about fill-in flash last night, actually (there's a tutorial for that). There's a setting for it on my camera.

I do use his camera during his races, but he sets everything up for me beforehand, so I still have lots of learning to do. He's explained some stuff to me, but of course, b/c I wasn't actually taking pics/using the info, I've forgotten most of it.

I'm playing around taking pics of the dogs for practice, and next Sunday for a date day we're going for a trail run and then to a gorge to take some pics (I actually thought it up b/c there's a pet supply store on the way I want to go to but I figure a trail run, winter picnic (hot foods, of course) and then some picture taking is perfect. I'm really looking forward to seeing what sort of landscape photos I can get!