In the three previous posts in this blog, I've told the story about "old" photos and gear I "rediscovered" while finally unpacking several boxes and containers that we had moved here from Indianapolis in July 2017 but left unattended until now.
One of the "finds" in those boxes was my Canon PowerShot G12 compact, which I acquired about 10 years ago. I used it a lot early on, just to do photography when I didn't want to lug around my bag Containing the Canon 7D I was using at the time and the lenses I could pack into it. The most recent post has pictured of that G12, if you want to go back and review them, because I'm using this post to display some of the photos I took with it last week when I did a walk-around my property in Raleigh.
The G12 enables me to shoot using RAW files, which most shooters know means you have some decent control of critical image features -- such as color and lighting -- when working with the files in post-processing. In 2010, that was a nice featured about the G12 -- it was a light vehicle to do picture-taking, and it allowed me to shoot in RAW format, which in 2010 I had been doing only for about a year or so on a regular basis. (I use RAW exclusively with my current DSLR, a Canon 6D, which I acquired in November 2013).
The G12 also had another important feature for shooters -- built-in stabilization. The top-end DSLR camera bodies produced by Canon and Nikon did not have built-in stabilization then, and I don't think they've done so even today. (Camera-makers Olympic and Sony, however, exploited that flaw by making built-in stabilization a major draw to their DSLR and mirrorless camera bodies, and Canon and Nikon managed to put it in their mirrorless bodies they would soon release to compete with the new "trend".)
So I found that because the G12 was much lighter in heft as well as smaller to hold than my DSLR bodies, I could get relatively sharp images even when the shutter dropped three to four stops slower than 1/60 (which always seemed to be the camera-shake red line for me with my DSLRs). Which I soon found out was a big deal when I shot interior images. The G12's ISO noise factor, however, was not very good. I saw more noise than I'd like at ISO 800, which quickly became my threshold for that camera when shooting in dark scenes.
But I digress. Last week, I charged the G12 battery and set off on my shoot around the property. These are images from that shoot. I begin (with the lead-off) with the very first picture I took, an interior shot of the wall of framed photos and art work in my office. It was late-afternoon -- between 5 and 6 p.m. You can see solar reflection on the Beatles art drawing. Below it, the reflection totally obscures detail in a blue-tinted monochrome version of a concert photo I took of Darden Smith in the Indy Acoustic Cafe Series concert.
The G12 photo turned out pretty sharp; I was seated in my desk chair and holding the camera. I used the Program mode, and it took the photo at f.2/8 and 1/13 using ISO 400.
So I went outside, and took the shot you see of the deck above. The image settings are f.4, 1/80 and ISO 320. I was able to keep the ISO under 400 for the remainder of the shoot outdoors.
Above: Elsewhere on the deck are remnants of our celebration the previous day of Lee Ann's granddaughter Lizzy's graduation from preschool.
Above is a look at the most of the transformed area behind the detached garage. The previous owner allowed this area to go attended, so it was a scene of tall green grass. We didn't do anything with it until the second year we were here, which is when the transformation began. It was completed -- a good dozen or more raised garden beds -- this summer, although we'd cleared the grass by the end of the second year. Lee Ann and her daughter did the yeoman's detail work with the bed development, planting and care; I helped with a lot of the heavy lifting and soil hauling. Below is a gardenia bush (we have five on the property), which is on the other side of (and to the left) of the black fence you see in the foreground of the photo above.
Above: This view looks over the fence into a neighbor's yard. It's farther down the property line from where the new garden beds are now. This unshorn grassy landscape is what we had behind the detached garage when we moved in.
Above is a closeup of a bloom on the bush you see below, which is along the driveway to the detached garage.
Above and below are shots of leaves I saw in the bush next to the one two photos above. I liked how the dried-up leaf colors contrasted with the thriving green foliage.
The end of the deck looks over a drop of about 6 feet or so, and above, I'm standing in the drop area for this dramatic angle shot. Just to the left of where I'm standing is the spigot (belot) where Lee Ann has her garden bed irrigation valve hardware connected.
Above: A closeup of blooms from a weigela bush that we recently transplanted from the back yard to a sunnier spot along the driveway to the main garage.
Above: Another of the gardenia bushes, this one along one side of the sun room. The bush will need tramming once the blooms are spent. Below is a closeup of one bloom, and below that is the bud of a new bloom on the bush.
Above: Another color-contrast foliage shot.
Above: A crop of an attempted close-up of a very small bloom on a plant the women of the house are waiting to plant somewhere. I learned with my closeup attempts that the G12 doesn't handle those very well. This one turned out pretty sharp; others I attempted were not. Below is a closeup of early fruit on a lemon bush (the fruit starts green and later becomes yellow) that we have on the patio next to the deck. We also have a lime bush, but while its foliage is plentiful, no fruit or buds yet.
Above and below are two more floral closeup attempts. I forget the name of the flower above; the one below are blooms from a pink yarrow. We also have some yellow yarrows, which last year Lee Ann learned are a key ingredient to a home recipe to minimize itch from poison ivy. That was important for her, because being so close to wooded areas on two of our four property lines, we come across a lot of poison ivy.
In what Lee Ann developed as a "puppy garden" -- memorials to her dogs Bear and Molly, as well as dogs owned by her son here in the Triangle and a dog owned by Lee Ann's sister back in Indiana -- the figure of a Molly-like puppy (Molly was a purebred Yorkshire terrier) sits with an angel (above) that Lee Ann acquired to watch over the dogs. Below is the holding area of a bird path in the puppy garden. The boulder is for the benefit of smaller birds.
Above: Garden gloves gathered in one spot at the end of a hard day in the yard.
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