Our Weekend Away..

Welcome to my new followers... who find me in the process of getting to grips with my new camera!  It's a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX100V, which comes with a very nice Carl Zeiss lense.  It has a couple of 'Intelligent Auto' settings and a very useful 'SCN' setting.  This allows me to select the kind of photo I'd like to achieve - soft skin tone, hazy background, food, pet portrait etc - and then it does it's best to make sense of what I'm taking!  There's also heaps of semi-manual settings.

We've been at a 'formal weekend' with family and friends in Bournemouth for the last couple of days.  This has been a great chance to put the camera through it's paces.  From the start, we've had a fabulous time.  We were up-graded (without asking) to a recently refurbished room with an epic sea view.  It even had a little balcony where I could try out shots of the bay in the different light conditions.

The teddy bears loved the view (taken on 'pet portrait' setting for maximum plush definition!)

This was the view they were enjoying...

Here I was playing with the 'hazy background' setting...

And this was my starter on Friday evening (taken with the 'food' setting ofcourse!)

These are some of my friends, taken before the formal dinner started last night.  The light was very poor for portrait pictures so the camera triumphed again!

And artistic shot of our champagne (taken on 'intelligent auto')

On top of all this camera fun I've also learnt how to crochet a square this weekend.  My dear friend A. has overcome my mental block.... she showed me what to do while we were enjoying a slow breakfast this morning.  I have also discovered that I can crochet while Mark is driving - which has made me extremely happy.  I've always felt quite resentful of the 80 minutes I waste commuting each day.  Now I can crochet my way round the M42!!!