A Little Dab'll Do Ya

The afternoon sun did a great job of lighting up the amaryllis. There was no way I could pass up this particular photo op. Just so you'll know, I did a bit of messin' with the stuff this time. Most of the background for the blossoms was a dramatic black -- except for the corner of the western window. A few passes with the spray-paint tool and the window was rendered null and void. Then I hit the blossoms with the unsharp filter and, shazaam! There ya go.

Then I clicked the mode dial to Program and started having fun with the Super Macro setting. I have to assume the Image Stabilizer is working up to par because all these shots were hand-held and I wasn't lollygagging. It was click-click-click and I'm-outa-here-Clyde because I'm also listening to the football games on my radio feed this afternoon and didn't want to be missing too many plays. As we speak, in fact, it's almost half-time in the Giants-Packers game. Which means -- did you notice? -- long gaps between sentences while I listen with bated breath and then shake my head and blink my eyes and recover my wandering attention so the next sentence can be typed.

This one is simply to appreciate how well the camera picks up the texture of the blossom petals at nearly point blank range. I'm also happy with the way the red tones come in so accurately, even in the bright light. Dayum. Gotta say -- this little ol' camera is some kind of kewl beans.

And now, back to our discussion of the clarity -- or lack of same -- in the incredible mass of instruction material we try to understand every day, whether it's how to use our cameras or how to do our taxes. The name of the game, of course, is communication and the problem is how well we achieve quality of same. All too often, quality takes a back seat to double-speak, insider jargon and ill-considered reliance on ten-dollar words when the fifty-center will do a better job.

One of the most interesting -- and fun -- online sites to deal with this is Plain English Campaign. I really recommend signing up for their newsletter and, while you're at it, browse around on the site. There's some valuable information there, not to mention free guides and software.

Hmmm. I haven't been to the web site in a while my own self and didn't know about that software. I'm eyeballing it with a certain degree of uneasiness. DrivelDefense, it's called and it's supposed to check readability issues on web sites. Do I want to turn it loose here? Eeek. I have enough trouble with Spell Check, for cryin' out loud. Don't know if I'm up to defending my drivel. Isn't a little bit of drivel a healthy thing? Can't we consider a dab of drivel to be like a pinch of spice in the stew?