Beautiful! That last shot particularly is spectacular! Lovely to see - thanks.

Great shots, especially that last one! I love these kind of Winter Blues but I don't get them =(

Are these taken with your Nikon P80 that you have listed on your My Page? If so they are awesome pics for that kind of camera!! If not, what kind of camera are you using? Do you use any photo programs to adjust colors/brightness at all? Just curious I think the top three could use just a tad of shadow lightening but they are really great shots.

Donna

Gorgeous photos! What rich color - beautiful birds.

I enjoyed these so much - thanks for sharing -

Corunum and Donna,
Thanks for the comments. The first thing I'm going to do after posting this comment is go to My Page and change that info! I changed to a Canon Rebel XSi. All of the pics above were taken with the XSi and the kit lens EFS 55-250mm. I usually always do some cropping. I use the Windows photo gallery that was on my computer. I sometimes try the "auto fix" for the color, but I don't think there's ever been a time when I thought it helped the picture! All of this is still new to me and there seems to be so much to learn (and I don't learn as fast as I want!) Is the shadow lightening offered in "better" photo programs? Would that darken the entire pic, or give options for different parts of the subject? Donna, hope you don't mind so many questions! :) I am always open to suggestions! And....I hope your Blues return very soon!!
Thanks again!

mac60, I knew those looked like DSLR photo's but you never know. =) I would love an XSi!! The program that I use is Paint Shop Pro Ultimate, thier newest version 12.5, I also have an older version 8. What I like best in the newer one is the Smart Photo Fix, it isn't an auto fix where the program selects what to change it is manual so you can change it how you want it. It has individual sliders for brightness....overall you can make it darker or lighter, shadows you can darken or lighten and highlights you can darken or lighten. Then you can adjust the saturation for more or less, the focus too but I don't ever mess with that as increasing that adds noise. There are also sliders for the black and whites if you want the blacks blacker or the whites whiter. I tend to leave the blacks alone but sometimes up the whites. Just depends on the photo. I have found this tool many many times makes a good picture much better. I think it is truley helpful if you end up using to fast a shutter speed on a pic and then it is a bit dark, lightening the shadows really works well. I think the Paint Shop Pro program is like inbetween full blown Photo Shop and PhotoShop Elements, not as grand as Photo Shop but better than Elements. I think it normally ran for about $100 but I got mine on sale at Amazon for around $50-60 however since I have gotten offers through Corel for it for much cheaper.

Donna

mac60, hope you don't mind but I took one of your photos and adjusted the brightness and lightened the shadows so you could see what I meant. Here is the adjusted photo....

Not every photo can benefit and sometimes the change is only minimal but I like the program.

Donna

I think these are just great shots! If you haven't adjusted the color at all that camera is doing the blue extremely well.
Your camera is much more sophisticated that mine so I can offer no advice..... just admire them.

glenda

I clicked on one of the pictures which brought me to your album. I am really impressed. You have some fabulous shots on there. I wish I could take such clear, vibrant pictures. Those colors are just so intense.

Stunning!

Chickadeemelrose,
I think that's the 2nd time that I've missed your post because I was trying to post @ the same time! When I tried to post again yesterday, my message was rejected.???Had never had that happen before. Thanks for your nice comments though.

Glenda, Kendra, and neverenoughflowers,
thank you as well. I enjoy sharing these pictures and I appreciate your comments. Kendra, I didn't even realize that clicking a photo would take you to the gallery! I'm glad it does though! Thanks for checking them out!

Donna,
I don't mind at all your work with my picture. At first, I looked @ your work, scrolled back up to mine, back to yours, so forth and so on.....I actually was seeing no difference. Then I brought up both pictures side by side....Wow, there is quite a difference! Yours removed the "darkness" from his face. It looks good!
Thanks for info. about the photo software. I will check into that.

The XSi has a menu option of "picture style". Some pre-defined and some customizable. I had customized a setting for "vibrant blues and greens" and increased the saturation. I had actually forgotten that I had done that. I want to play with that some more to see how that affects pictures.
Thanks again for letting me share "my blues"!

Do any of you have suggestions for a good point-and-shoot camera for a novice for less than $250 - $300? My feeders are about 30 ft. away from my window and there's probably little I can capture from that distance, but it will be quite some time before I can afford a DSLR and a good lens (plus lessons). For now, the only camera I have is on my smart phone, which is useless. Are there any point-and-shoots that would be a serviceable alternative until I can afford something more appropriate, or would I just be wasting my money? Should I just save up instead? Thanks for any suggestion you may have.

The best I can offer is my experience with choosing a camera. It started with seeing some beautiful shots of birds that were posted by members of this site as well as a few others. I wanted to be able to take pics like that! There was no way I could justify the money needed for a DSLR. I ended up purchasing a Nikon P80. (a quick google search brings up $$ in the range you mentioned). The P80 does take nice photos and because of its small size is still a good option for travel. It also has a video mode which has come in handy. However, I realized very quickly, that for me, it just wasn't going to get me the kind of close up pics that I really wanted. My P80 does not allow options such as a filter or lens attachment. You might check out GW member Kenn3d's camera setup. The post in this forum titled "new photos this week" on Jan. 22 will lead to his info. I believe that his is a point and shoot that allows for a teleconverter.

Anyway, sorry for the long rant. I guess maybe here's what I would advise.
Really try to figure out what you want from your camera.
Think about the option of "having options" later on(filters, lens attachments.)
Give yourself time to learn how the different options on your camera work. (I have heard of so many people giving up too soon).
Practice and have fun!

Good luck!

Thank you, Mac60. I know that a DSLR is what is the only longer term choice that will give me those wonderful close-ups, but it's just not an option for me. Thank you for your suggestions and sharing your thoughts. Much appreciated!

jaand, 30 feet is quite a distance but you could maybe try the Canon SX10IS or the SX20IS they are close to your price range and have 20x zooms. I had the SX10 for awhile and it really took nice pictures however the continuous picture mode was too slow for my taste. I am still debating on cameras..would like a DSLR but not the price or all the lenses. The ones I am looking at now are either the Canon SX1IS or the Sony DSCHX1 which have faster continous picture modes but I am not sure of the IQ on them. Right now I shoot with a Canon S2IS in mostly shutter priority mode. I love this camera, it isn't a DSLR but I get lots of great shots out of it and it keeps on going even after dropping it twice from a window ledge and damaging it. Kenn on this forum shoots with both a Canon S3IS and a Canon S5IS with a sony 1.7x teleconverter, he gets beautiful shots out of this setup as close to DSLR outputs as you can get! Good luck!

Donna

Hi jannd,

When I read your post I understood right away what you are looking for in a camera - at Christmas I asked my husband for one that was very light, as simple as possible to use, but with as high a zoom as possible and as good quality picture as possible, for less than $200. (Gee I guess I didn't make it easy did I? lol)

I did consider more expensive alternatives but I wanted to be able to get a lot of practice just taking pictures, and not spend a ton of money without knowing I would really want to get into photography (I am new to taking photos).

I ended up with the Kodak EasyShare ZD15, for about $189 at Target. I love it. It has an optical zoom of 10 and is really easy to use. There is also a newer model, the 950 I think, which has greater capabilities and has gotten great reviews.

I am very new to bird watching and very new to taking pictures - but this camera has helped me get started.
Just one possibility -

Good luck with your search.

i never had a camera except for a polaroid instant camera.
I got into birdwatching cause my mother was in her 80's and lived with us. she would sit by the window and watch the birds and talk about the pretty ones she had seen, I got a couple of hummingbird feeders. and it all got going.
My sister got me a hopper feeder and a bag of seed. I checked yard sales and thrift stores and found more and different feeders. when i retired my sister gave me her old digital camera when she upgraded. It is an HP photoshare and is obsolete now but has a 5x zoom and does a good job for 10 to 15 foot distance for closeups. I'll never go into serious expensive models but hope to improve some. I have posted some on here and i think they are good pictures for a novice. Plus i can take all the pictures i want and eliminate the poor ones and save the best on the computer or memory cards. i have my feeders in a couple trees about 6 and 8 foot from windows and get a large variety of birds and instead of sending pictures of grandkids ect. i send the latest woodpecker or oriole.

Thanks for all the feedback! Donna and chickdeemelrose, your help is most appreciated, also mac60 and dklucius. Chickadeemelrose, it sounds like our situations may be similar and I'll take a look at the Kodak Easyshares. I've read a number of reviews for point-and-shoots and tend to get a bit overwhelmed by all the comparison data. Having feedback like this helps so much. Many thanks, all.