Oh, look. Camera settings!

I was reading about how to improve my digital photos the other day. In addition to, oh, I don't know, TAKING BETTER PHOTOS, one of the pieces of advice was particularly interesting: Play with your camera's settings. Don't just take shots of everything on automatic. ...Which is what I normally do.

So, lying in bed the other night, in a room with just one dim light on, I took my camera out* and took this shot, on regular setting with no flash:


Then I switched the setting to "Night" and took the shot again, also with no flash:


Kind of neat, but you also have absolutely no idea that this shot was taken in a fairly dark room. Which, in this particular case, doesn't matter, but other times you might lose some really neat atmosphere, so I think the "Night" setting should be used quite judiciously. Also, you have to hold the camera ri-DONK-ulously still for about 3 whole seconds. Which doesn't sound like a long time but when you're trying to be über-still, it's an eternity.

Anyway, I took these shots while lying in bed, looking to the right. (And yes, Mom, I have since cleaned up that corner.) Lying in bed looking straight across, this is what I see:


I love that wall. Some of my favourite things are there. I love that red painting. The grill on the left has 5 candles, and when you light them, the flames dance over the room, and the latticework design is like a beautiful Islamic mosaic. The cherry blossoms scroll (paint on fabric) is from my first trip to Japan in 2004, and the grey tea ceremony bowl on the left is from the year we spent there (2006-07). The hanging lamp is from northern Thailand (we have a larger one hanging in our dining room). Oh, and the folded scarf sitting on top of the pile of junk (since cleaned away) is from Egypt. The wall , however, is painted a chocolate brown, which certainly does not show here.


Next time, on pixxiefish in the sea: What Julie sees when she lies in bed and looks...to the LEFT!


* Upon writing this sentence, it struck me as perhaps weird that whilst lying in bed, one might have one's camera somewhere within arm's reach. Is it? Anyway, I don't always, but I did that night. So there.