Weekly Wrap-up With Far Too Many Photos.

Happy Mother's Day to you a day early!  It's been a nice week here.  Busy taking photos (as you will see below) working, running, and that's about it.  I ran 16 miles this week, which is the most I have run since before the Princess and that included a 5 mile run this morning.  I've been doing 4 consistently, but 5 is the longest I have run since the half marathon.   It felt nearly effortless, so I guess I'm finally officially back in the saddle! I registered for a 10K in June, but more on that another time.

 The big news in my world is that I had to get a new phone.  Two very important buttons on my Samsung Galaxy S3 decided to die and when clients started to call me and my phone was not registering that I was even getting calls, it was time to upgrade.  I'm glad we had one available.  When I went on the site to look for free upgrades, I came across the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom.  I had no clue that Samsung had a camera phone available and after looking into some reviews, I ordered it immediately.  

Right up my alley. 

 Those of you that follow me know that I have a love for all things photography related, so having a phone that takes decent pictures is important to me.  I can't always carry around my DSLR. In fact, I have less and less desire to lug it around but still want fabulous photos, which leaves me with a dilemma.  By the way, I wasn't asked to do a review or anything, I've just been having fun with the phone and thought I would share.    

The biggest complaint others had was that it was bulky because it has a lens on the back of the phone.  Well, if you have ever carried around a Nikon D90 dslr, you know what bulky is.  This is not bulky for me and I was aware going into it that it would be a little thicker because of the lens.  It's a necessary evil. You cannot get good photos with just a little tiny camera hole on a phone.  Believe me, I've tried!  I actually think the bump/lens make it easier for me to hold, there's no way it will slip out of my hand.  It also has a real shutter button. I could never quite get the hang of pushing a button on the phone screen to take a pic without moving the phone, which makes your shot blurry or not as sharp.  Hope I'm not boring you with all my photo talk, you can always skip down to the photos!

It was important that I have bokeh in my shots.  In the simplest terms, bokeh is the blurry background in shots.  Most camera phones and point and shoots cannot produce bokeh at all.  This baby can!  Now granted, it's not as "creamy" as the bokeh on my D90, but I'm still pretty pleased with it.  You kind of have to force the lens to give it to you though by getting VERY close to the subject that you are focusing on.

Here's a comparison from a shot I took a few years ago of the same flowers that bloom under the tree in my back yard. This will give you an idea of the differences. The first is from my new phone:

This is from a couple years ago with my dslr:

I'll admit, the camera phone takes really sharp pictures, but if you look at the dark areas on both the photos, you'll see what I mean about "creamy bokeh".  Both nice shots though and I'm happy that the phone can even produce this kind of shot.

Ok, enough comparing, I LOVE the camera on this phone and I'm really happy with it.  I'm not giving up my dslr anytime soon, but this really satisfies my need to have something easy to carry around that takes great photos. 
Here are a ton of shots I took this week with it!

My furry running partner twice a week, Normie-

 

  It has a really WIDE angle too, which is great for sunrises and a bunch of great presets for things like dawn, nighttime, fireworks, macro, etc.

The way the sun was coming up through the trees, it reminded me a bit of my tattoo!

My tattoo, in case you have no clue what I'm referring to.  

(any excuse to show it off!) LOL

 See the horsey in the background??

So I'm pretty pleased with my new toy!  I'm glad I have something to take some quality pics when I'm out and about.  

How about you?  Any new toys lately?  Do you carry around a dslr or point and shoot for photos or just rely on your phone? 

I hope everyone is having a fabulous Mother's Day weekend!!