"Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh."

~ Ian McShane, as Al Swearengen, in "Deadwood"

Originally, the title of this blog was to have a really nice night shot of Houston as a background. Then I realized that, since that shot was an image I found somewhere on the internet, there might be copyright issues with using it.

I explained that, in a text image replacing that shot, and announced, "So I will go out and do my own shooting, and when I get one I REALLY like, it will go here."

Today was a day off for me, and the Weather Channel predicted only partly cloudy, so I thought it a good day to go and do it. Well, almost nothing but solid overcast today.

I wanted bright and sunny, so I could try out my new polarizing filter to get really dramatic dark blue sky as a background. I loved those things when I was into 35mm photography, ages ago.

First obstacle to that was overcome weeks ago; to wit my camera wasn't made to accept filters.

Said camera is a new Canon Powershot SX-10-IS. It LOOKED as if it had filter threads in front of the lens, but in fact it did NOT. What it had was concentric ridges and grooves with which to hold the lens cap, fitting inside in front of the lens.

An internet forum search disclosed that some people had successfully screwed 52mm filters into those grooves, but I see real problems there.

If the filter has a steel rim and threads, you could probably do this fairly easy, cutting a new set of threads into the aluminum body of the lens assembly. So far, so good.

BUT, if you remove and replace the filter, you are dealing with the new threads that were cut intersecting the original grooves, giving wonderful opportunities for cross-threading, and eventually winding up with a chewed up mess. I wasn't too keen on taking that chance.

On the front edge of the lens barrel are a couple of very low flanges, making a bayonet mount for the strange little lens hood that comes with this camera.

An outfit called Lensmate offers an adapter that uses this mount, and has a rim threaded for 58mm filters. It's reasonably priced (mine was 17.99 + 3.99 shipping), and they'll get it to you, by first class mail, within a few days of you placing your order.

If you are, or about to be the proud owner of this particular camera, or similar Canon models, this is something you should definitely check out.

Full day tomorrow, so have to wait until Friday for another chance at getting the kind of shots I want. That night shot is going to be very hard to beat.

(Truth in advertising: After posting this, I've noticed a ton of typos, and gone back and fixed them. My writing is very undisciplined at this time; while commenting on the perversity of the universe, I managed to drift into a commercial for Lensmate. I don't have a problem with THAT; they ARE a good outfit. But, I need to practice staying on the point a little better. Maybe just doing more of this will be good practice. :-)

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