Taking pictures with my Lensbaby, and new Car

I was at a picnic Saturday, took about 250 pictures with the Lensbaby 2 lens,and f 2.8 aperture disk, with 1.6x telephoto. Not many keepers in the bunch (series), still weeding through them all. Artistically I like some of them, but they are not in the normal sense, to the average person, the idea of what a picture should look like. A lot of blur/bokah (selective focus), and softness.
I choose the wrong aperture. I should of went with f5.8 or higher. I thought with the overcast, lowlight, indoor ,and outdoor change of shooting scene, the 2.8 aperature would give me a lot of light to work with, but it also gave me more blur and softness, when I wanted more strong focus. Plus the fact I am shooting from the hip, not composing many shots, and then the indoor lighting giving the yellowish tint, I should of changed my camera setting to reflect the indoor lighting but forgot. Even with the 1.6x telephoto, it is still bascially a foot zoom lens, meaning you have to move with your feet to focus, rather than moving the lens, so sometimes you get the picture, and sometimes you don't. I should of known the 2.8 aperture was too low, so unless I have the time to compose the picture, take my time, and review afterwards, I will go with f/4 or above from now on.

Bought my new car on Wednesday. A 2008 Suzuki SX4 Sport. 0% financing. Took about 1 1/2 hours at the dealer to seal the deal, and then I drove home, and got a ride back in to pick up the new car. The car has everything I was hoping to get when I started my search. I will have to write more on this later, especially the fact that the Ford Focus looks strikingly similar to the Suzuki SX4 Sport. Just like my Suzuki 2 door Vitara, looks like a Chevy Tracker. In both cases I got the better deal with Suzuki. Once the weather clears up I will post some pictures of my new car.

Favorite things discontinued - And some New Things

I was going to order another vacuum coffee maker this weekend, either the 5 cup model, or another 10 cup model, but Bodem-Santos has discontinued the electric vacuum coffee maker. The stove top model won't work for me. The electric model has a timer, and is nicely compact, works great. It is even a form of entertainment watching the coffee brew through the clear plastic. The steam produced by the heated water in the bottom pushes the heated water up into the top where it mixes with the coffee grounds and boils, then when the heat is off, it all comes back down into the bottom again, ready to drink. Hot! 196 degrees at least. That is just one of the 3 or 4 items in the last month that I tried to get that is now discontinued. I am on a roll here.
I am going out car shopping tomorrow. My little 4 wheel drive is now in it 9th year, and I think it needs to be driven less for it to last me a few more years. I was hoping to wait about 2 more years to get another car, but tomorrow might be the day.
Another Suzuki for me. Either the SX4 Sport ( good financing till 9/30) or the SX4 Crossover.
The picutures here are of a pine cone in the drive way, looks sort of interesting/abstract maybe, and the wasp on the yellow flower is one of my favorites.

Lensbaby came out with some new SLR Lenses today;

"THREE LENSES,INFINITE POSSIBILITIES
No two eyes are exactly the same – especially when they belong to an artist who sees for a living. Given these infinite possibilities, Lensbaby offers three distinctly different lens bodies for different types of shooters. Each lens gets you to the same place: a Sweet Spot of sharp focus surrounded by graduated blur. But each one gets you there in a way that reflects your individual personality and shooting style. Are you fast and loose? Smooth and precise? Methodical and step-by-step? Your first decision is: which Lensbaby has your name on it?"

I think the Lensbaby Composer has my name on it....