Photography fun and public transport excursions

I couldn't have asked for much more of our Friday public holiday, otherwise to be known as a Bonus Day of Exciting Outings and Fun.

For a start, I am now the very happy owner of a new Sony Nex-C3 interchangeable lens camera. I haven't been so thrilled with a purchase since I bought my KitchenAid food processor back in April.

I also haven't spent so much money in one hit since I bought my KitchenAid food processor. 2011 seems to be the year of expensive purchases.

This camera is more substantial than my old Sony point-and-shoot, and it's main benefits will (I think) be in low-light and close-up shooting. My old camera was fine in good light conditions, if I kept my hand steady and didn't try to get too close to my target, but that only happened in about 1 in 10 photos. And in fairness, it was 7 (ish) years old.

The lens shown above left is the 18-55mm zoom lens. I also have a 16mm wide-angle lens that I haven't even tried, and it probably goes without saying that I have a long way to go before I know how to use all the features. 

Despite that, I already like this camera very much.

I spent quite a bit of time playing with it yesterday...

New camera

Old camera

New camera - different picture effects

Auto: 

Pop colour ("creates a vivid look by emphasizing colour tones"):

Retro ("creates the look of an aged photo with sepia colour tones and faded contrast"):

Partial colour - red ("creates an image which retains the specified colour, but converts others to black and white"):

High key ("creates an image with the indicated atmosphere - bright, transparent, ethereal, tender, soft"):

Toy ("creates the look of a toy camera with shaded corners and pronounced colours"):

[Note to self - shaded corners don't work so well on a black background!]

Posterization ("creates a high contrast, abstract look by heavily emphasising primary colours")

...and, clearly, had rather a lot of fun.

I need to learn the 'real' features too, but I'm sure I'll get there. I'm already looking forward to the experimenting!

(As an aside, I may do a post at some stage on how I settled on this model, because I noticed a number of you expressed uncertainty over how to choose cameras / other large-scale technology-related objects in your comments on this post. I have a whole spreadsheet on camera research, so may look to modify it for general consumption :P)

In addition to camera testing, yesterday involved a large-scale public transport outing to make full use of the free train / bus opportunities that are in place this weekend. We went as far south as one can go by train from Perth (about an hour), a route neither of us had done before, and entertained ourselves for several hours at the other end.

This trip allowed me to discover, and be rendered near speechless by, PantryMan, a bulk-food store that has a selection of flours, dried fruits, nuts, seeds, confectionery, baking ingredients, spices, and legumes unrivaled in Perth itself. I bough sugar free peppermint carob buds, carob cherry bites, and wholemeal spelt flour, thus contributing to a rather full bag for the rest of our outing.

Old camera because my new one doesn't yet have a case :)

We also had a Subway picnic on the local foreshore area, in delightful weather, and were impressed that we could have a highly enjoyable 6-hour round trip for the cost of a Subway sandwich and either bulk food purchases (me, $4.90) or a Coke (Mr Bite, $3-ish).

It's a pity every Friday can't be like this.

Do you ever use public transport for 'fun' outings? We rarely do but I'm now thinking we should consider it more often.

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