Does your Power shot have super-macro? I finally made my choice in cameras..some of you may remember me posting months ago wanting to know what kinds of cameras you used. I chose the Canon Powershot S2 IS. I love it. I have not even begun to try all the different modes and settings. I am having a ball with the super macro though-I can put the lens actually on the object and take the picture. (only soft objects!!!) I am very careful with the lens. I will share a few soon. I love these macros posted here. They are excellent. Heather

I posted some tips with two examples on the Iris forum, will link. It's about using exposure compensation in bright sunlight. Also I use fill flash with an external flash w/diffuser sometimes, can also force the on board flash. That takes practice getting the right amount; I use flash exposure compensation set depending on how the light is and how close or far away I am. You will notice that many macro photos posted are blurry. That is because just a couple mm that close and the slightest camera shake will cause blur, also slower shutter speeds. Well, the trick is not to use the super macro setting but aperture priority and the regular macro setting. I could then stand further back and still zoom in w/o the other problems mentioned. But that was with my p&s camera I don't use any more. Usually I just use a regular zoom lens, get as close as the lens will let me (some lenses won't lock focus if you are too close), and since I have 8 mp to work with, I can crop in closer. I do not recommend ever using digital zoom though. One more thing. In shade, don't bother with exposure compensation, keep it at 0, but bump up your ISO to at least 400 sometimes 800 if very low light but not if your camera produces a lot of noise, better to use flash instead at normal ISO setting. That will force a faster shutter speed. Every camera is a little different, but it's worth your time to learn some extra skills. This is not going to make sense now after going through all that because I shoot aperture priority at least 90% of the time. That way I can control the depth of field and choose the aperture I want. Some people won't understand what that means and use the pre-programmed settings on their cameras. Here is a link that might be useful: My post in thread called misleading iris photos

These are all Kodak moments and BETTER. I like the B&W, Mac, it gets your attention in a sea of color. The perfect lacy design of the ferns compliments the streaked hosta leaves. Funn's moss shot....love it too--and of course Hostanista is passionate for "drops", this does show the rainbow of sunlight diffracted through the water droplet, quite nice to frame. Presently I've printed a lot, to send to family who wonder what I've been up to lately. Not framing anything yet because we'll be emptying the house for this upcoming remodel job after Labor Day. I'm SO ready for that to be OVER, so I can put my house back together! Even though I took several thousand photos and have over 21gigabyte uploaded to Flickr, I still miss the prettiest moments such as you folks take. I think I focus on the problems and the documentation and not the artistry. Very shortsighted of me, since for the longrun, it will be the beauty that endures and is obvious. My EYE sees the beauty, but when I look for photos which capture that, they are absent. A good video slideshow, or a slowhand short tour of the garden might be a better solution. For me anyway. I still have time to capture the garden before it goes down hill for the fall. But next year? Well, I'll be ready ready ready to rock and roll come Maytime. Then another one in June. Promise me you will try to capture a video of your gorgeous gardens? I'd love to see them.

Sharon, while I haven't been posting directly to your photo tip threads, I've been following them avidly. I so appreciate all the effort you've gone to to explain in such an easy way so many aspects of taking good [better for some of us] pictures. The last week or so I've been very busy organizing and then hosting our family reunion at a local fancy diner and have not had a real chance to digest the latest installments. The macro stuff interests me very much. I've tried to use my macro recently and found when I did the camera refused to take the picture?? Odd. LOL.. I'll figure it out but I suspect I'll have to dig through the manual to see what the problem is. Your post makes me suspect it has something to do with the camera not being able to focus on what I'm trying to do or the distance, or something..heh.. and it won't fire as self preservation. Smiles. I'll figure it out and then be back to digest more of your post. Btw, I got a tripod for my birthday! Yay.. I relative I had staying with me for a while apparently absconded with my last tripod. Grrrr... Needless to say I'm looking forward to using the tripod to work on some of your 'lessons'. Thanks for all your great work on our behalf.