More N’tresting Neighbors

Here’s another in my series of N’tresting Neighbors photographs taken of funky or otherwise unusual homes around the neighborhood. Not sure what this one is all about but it’s definitely eye catching, especially the garden.

This photo was taken with the Pentax ZX-30 on automatic (green) mode and loaded with Velvia 100 film. The combination of the Velvia’s warmth and the intensely yellow late evening lighting conspire to dilute the effect of the lime green house color. Below is a close up of the garden I took with the P-300 which crops out the brightly lighted side of the house and in the shade of the front combined with the more neutral color of the P-300 provides a better depiction of the actual color of the house.

 As you can see even when I go out picture taking with my film cameras I often have the Nikon P-300 handy too. It’s just too convenient a camera to leave behind. The small size combined with the excellent picture-taking ability and the truly intuitive controls (even manual should I need or desire it) makes it perfect for a 24/7 camera. If only it had a bigger sensor, but of course then it would have to be a bigger camera too.

So continuing my earlier and ongoing discussion about “cameras of convenience,” I went online looking for an Olympus Stylus or Infinity 35mm compact zoom camera again just to check again to see if any were available. There are a few around but certainly no bargains. $100 for a 10-15 year old camera that only sold for about $100-$200 when it was new just doesn’t seem like a deal to me. It’s amazing really. You can buy a high quality used 35mm SLR that originally sold for $300-$400 for $39 but one of these little gems cost three times as much. I did run across a factory refurbished Olympus Infinity for $89 but by the time you buy a battery and pay shipping that’s $100+ and I confess I am not really sure what ”refurbished” means in this case.

Anyway for $30 or $40 I would likely jump on it but otherwise I’ll stick with the P-300 as my pocket camera. Even though it is a digital it has never let me down.