An Accidental Discovery

Yesterday, I accidentally learned about a feature of my point-and-shoot digital camera.

It happened while Tim and I were taking a Stairway Walk through the Maple Leaf/Thornton Creek area of north Seattle. A signature feature of the walk is Thornton Creek itself, which has undergone daylighting over the last 15 years or so.

Much of the walk meandered through residential neighborhoods (not very interesting), but the walk led us by a pond with a beaver dam and through a small wetland oasis.

Beaver dam

Pond next to beaver dam. You can see steam rising from the water.

Wetland

Buds

Mossy log

Our route, following the guidebook, also took us through the area by the Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel. While I considered it pleasant to walk through, it is not without its critics.

Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel

In addition to the environmental aspect, there was some fun public art to look at.

Spires

Glass mosaic circles in the pavement

Floaty things

Globes

Anyway, back to my accidental discovery. At some point, in taking a picture, I hit a button on my camera which caused a display called "Exposure compensation" to pop up on my screen. It took me only a minute or two to figure out that it was controlled by pressing on the wheel control on the back of my camera next to this symbol.

Intrigued, I took a series of test photos this morning of this is the pile o’ yarn.

Its the intended destiny is to become this sweater, called “Better Than the Real Deal” from The Yarn Girls' Guide to Knits for All Seasons.

Here are the test photos. The only difference is in the shutter speed. I can see where this feature might be handy when taking a picture where the subject is against a window and the light outside is too bright.

The yarn is not as pink as it appears here. It's actually more of a brick-y red.