stepsgoodhockey

Bulldog brindle w/Santa Hat ornament Sandicast

XSO02203 Internationally renowned San Diego artist Sandra Brue has been bringing sculptures to life for over 30 years. She founded Sandicast in 1981 and was a success right from the start. Her animal replicas became famous for their stunning realism and incredible attention to detail. Features: -Brindle bulldog Christmas ornament. -Constructed of marble dust and poly resin. -Hand-cast and hand-painted. -Sandicast creates the most realistic ornaments by finding poses and expressions that cause dog lovers to e, ''That's My Dog!''. -Perfect gift for the dog lover in your life.

I came across this indoor Christmas display with decorated trees and packages at a college library in mid-November. "Christmas" keeps appearing a little earlier every year, but I don't mind too much as long as it doesn't take away from my beloved Thanksgiving celebration of family and thanks.

I was amazed at how well my Canon 40D's DIGIC processor is able to balance the color on this florescent-lighted scene. Notice how neutral-gray the floor is (white balance was just set to "Average" or "AWB"). Ten years ago, a professional photographer (like me) had to carry around a $2,000 color temperature meter and hundreds of dollars worth of assorted, 3-inch square, gelatin CC (color compensating) filters (from 2.5 CC to 50 CC in magenta, yellow, cyan, red, green, and blue) to place over the lens! Once the image was exposed to film, you couldn't adjust the color (especially any cross-overs) like we can today using Photoshop and the RAW image.

I was also impressed with the new Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. I just recently replaced my $600 17-85mm IS lens with this new $800 lens. While the specs of this new lens are not much different than the previous lens, Canon was claiming that image stabilization and optical performance had improved over the older design. I agree: the annoying red/cyan "fringe" or chromatic aberration near the image corners, when zooming to the widest angle settings, has almost completely disappeared; and this 1/10 second hand-held shot was tack sharp. Typically, with the older IS (Image Stabilization) technology, I rarely could go slower than 1/20 second and get consistently sharp results. With the new IS, I've been able to consistently shoot as slow as 1/6 second with sharp results (I'm comparing both lenses at a medium zoom setting of about 35mm).

For the HooHaa52 groups theme "Holiday Spirit"
For the last three years my aunt in Ireland has sent my mother a tree decoration, made of silvery metal. This is the first one she sent.