Bahama Cruise 26 - At Sea

This and the previous two postings really are nothing more than copies of art done by someone else. This one, however, is a cut above the other two. This huge mosaic occupies a wall adjacent to a double stairwell in one of the cafeterias. Could not get a good, head-on angle, so made liberal use of the Perspective and Free Transform tools in Photoshop. Thanks to the high resolution possible with the Big Cahoona, each individual tile is clearly delineated from its neighbors when zooming way in.

This is the last posting from our vacation cruise. Now that it's all said and done, was it worth it lugging the Big Cahoona around? I would say yes and no. I learned a few things, and gained some confidence in using some of the adjustments and controls. It was certainly a good sign that the professionals on board were all using the D300. Some of the images turned out fairly well.

On the other hand, my heart sank more than a few times when a companion (my brother-in-law's brother) consistently pulled from his shirt pocket a little bitty point-and-shoot and snapped pictures that had equivalent resolution, better white balance indoors, a much faster lens, and optical zoom capabilities that rivaled the Big Cahoona. Some of his night shots of the ship taken from shore were astounding. All of this with hardly a thought about controls and keeping up with this and that. It would be possible, but I would have to spend a lot more money to buy lenses that can achieve the same results. Several times during this trip I struggled to convince myself that the potential will one day justify six times the money spent on my new friend, once I really learn how to use it.

Then I relaxed a little. After all, that was the purpose of buying the Big Cahoona in the first place! ... to conquer something that has, for me, a steep learning curve. This is a hobby, a distraction from the stresses of job and life in the big city. As such, it is all the camera I will ever need. With that I feel grateful and blessed.