OmegaMom

Okay, so my rant about the “scene” setting on digital cameras in my previous post set me to wondering.  So I finally dug up the manual for my digicam and read up on the whole “scene”.

(Har!)

So the scene about the “scene” is that digicams apparently have a bunch of pre-set settings that are applicable to particular types of photos.  The “scene” setting, in conjunction with selecting the proper “scene” type, supposedly changes a variety of settings for your camera to make, for instance, the process for sunset photos different than the process for ski-slope photos different than the process for backlit photos, etc.

This is not the first time that I’ve tossed a rant based on total ignorance out onto the blog, then researched the subject, and had to recant.

I recant!

And I will not say, E pur si muove! like a certain famous scientist did.  (My recantation being purely voluntary, his not.)

The problem, it seems, is that the default “scene” on the scene setting on our digicams is one that produces generally dreadful pictures for run-of-the-mill snapshots.  I’m quite happy with the results from the “auto” setting, but guess that now that I am informed properly about what the “scene” setting does that it behooves me to play around with it a bit and report back.

Del asked:

Hey, aren’t moose really big animals with cranky dispositions and are best left alone? And you have these things wandering around in your backyard???

Yes, moose are really big.  Yes, moose have cranky dispositions.  Yes, they are best left alone.  And, yes, we do have these things wandering around our backyard–though we’ve been here more than a month (!!) and this is the first time they’ve appeared.

Moose are truly big and truly cantankerous.  The neighbor of a coworker of OmegaDad’s had a dog kicked to death by a moose recently.  One blow.  Blam!  And, as I wrote about early in our Alaska experience, the school district specifically requests that parents instruct their kids who walk or bike to school about What To Do In a Moose Encounter.

Having grown up on Rocky and Bullwinkle and Whassa Matta U, I must say that this has come as a paradigm shift for me.  Elk, which plagued us in Hippy Dippy Enclave in the Woods, were pretty laissez faire.  You leave them alone, they leave you alone.  No warnings were posted about how to deal with elk.  Hitting an elk on a dark highway in the middle of the night was much more likely to total your car than, say, hitting a deer, but word has it that since moose are bigger (males average 1200 pounds, females 900 pounds; elk males average 750-950 pounds, females around 550 pounds) you’re more likely to just plain die if your car hits a moose.

All that said, moose seem to be the mascot of Alaska.

We will no doubt get more moose in the yard over the winter, and I will try to get better pics.

So there I was, schlepping down to the office after getting something from upstairs, and I notice something dark in the backyard.

Lo and behold, it’s this:

Yes, Virginia, there are moose in the great Alaskan suburban wilds!

Now, Virginia, we need to discuss digital camera settings.

I kept wondering why, why were my pictures so blurry?  Was I shaking with excitement?  Was it just cold?  Are my eyes becoming so bad, so quickly?  And then I happened to notice that the digicam was set on “Scene”.

Please, Virginia, tell me what on earth the “scene” setting on digicams is good for?  Just a clue??  All it does it give you blurry pictures.  Gah!

And tell me why, Virginia, it’s so damned easy to switch settings on digicams from “auto” or “portrait” to that useless “scene” setting?

Do any of my illustrious readers actually use the “scene” setting?

Of course, by the time I realized the pics were blurry as the result of that setting, the moose had wandered on, and were tormenting neighbors’ dogs by simply existing.