La Jetee

This morning I watched a beautiful and interesting film, La Jetee, by director Chris Marker. Not only are the film's images and narratives beautiful, but also the feelings and themes that the film projects. In some ways the film felt like a sci-fi movie, with the time travel and all. However, it has more. Something that is hard to put a finger on exactly.

As the main character "traveled back into time" or as I interpreted it, dreamt about what the past could have been, I got an overwhelming feeling of familiarity. When we dream, we remember certain images, it could be a long lost friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, really anything. He remembered the image of that woman on the pier at Orly as a child and created memories in his dreams about her, something that we do every night when we drift off in REM sleep.

His dreams were a way of escaping from the horror around him: World War III, the collapse of Paris, and human torture. He was able to feel and experience feelings of happiness, and go to a place where he felt alive and free.

The man loved this woman on the peir, even though he may have never really been with her during his life. As humans, we meet people, create friendship, fall in love, and sometimes fall out of that love. But we never forget how we felt when we were happy. Dreams allow us to keep a certain person close to us even though they may be far away and out of our lives. Sometimes we wish we could forget someone but our mind will not let us, and every once in a while, we'll dream about that person. Dreams are an amazing part of our existance that I sometimes think we take for granted.

My Canon PowerShot SX110 IS

I bought a new camera before heading to France. I chose the Canon PowerShot SX110 IS because it is overall a nice camera with many features. The small size, optical zoom, 9 megapixels, and $240 price tag all grabbed my attention, and I ultimatley bought it.

But, like most things, there are pros and cons. The point and shoot camera that has scene settings, a 10x optical zoom, 9 mega pixels, and manual settings that allow its user to control ISO, aperture, and shutter speeds.

The Good:

• Its compact size: this camera weighs 10.4 ounces and its dimentions are 4.4 inces wide by 2.8 inces high by 1.8 inches deep. It's small enough to fit in a jacket pocket and to hold in your hand.
• The megazoom allows optical and digital zoom combination
• Photo quality is very nice, even at higher ISO settings
• excellent exposure and color
• Image stabilization
• Great usability: If you are camera literate, the different functions and dials are easy to read and understand. Having a helpful user guide always comes in handy, especially for beginners. The user guide is easy to follow and understand.
• Large 3 inch LCD screen.
  

The Bad:

• The camera will only use double A batteries, which quickly die. I've been in Lyon for over a week and I've gone through at least 18 batteries. It's annoying and expensive.
• The camera feels a little slippery in your hand, especially because of its small size. Make sure to always have the wrist strap on.
• There is some shutter delay, especially while using the flash at night.
• No electronic viewfinder, just the LCD screen
• Movie mode is limited and the quilatiy of the videos are poor. Optical zoom in unavailable in movie mode.
  

Important Features:

• Scenes: night scene, foliage, beach, aquariam, sunset, snow, fireworks, portrait, indoor, landscape, and children & pets. It also has a setting for macro photography.
  
• Flash: manual flash. Sometimes this feature is tricky because in the past I've always taken a flash for granted. If it's dark, then the camera will flash. Not with the Canon SX110 IS.
• ISO settings: ISO can be manually changed to ISO 80, 100, 200, 400,800, 1600, and 3200.
• Aperture/ F-Stop: When you select an aperture setting, the camera will automatically select the best shutter speed to match the brightness. The lower aperatures take nice portrait photos, and a higher aperture focuces on many things in the frame.
• Shutter speed: you can manually change the shutter speed like the ISO and aperture settings. There is an "exposure level indicator" that appears on the LCD screen to help guide you to a correct setting.