Twinkle, twinkle, little star...

I've done it now. I've invested in some new camera equipment. My Nikon D40, my little workhorse, has been used and abused for almost four years now. It's been to the camera doctor for replacements and needs to go back again. I love this camera but something is wrong with it. It's not focusing all the time. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I think something is wrong with the lens and my pictures are out of focus more than usual.
This is my excuse paragraph(above) for buying a new camera. I bought a Nikon D5100 camera with all the bells and whistles. I will tell you more about my new camera in a future post.
When I was ordering some other camera things I saw this filter. It's called a digital star8- 52mm filter. It only costs $3.31 and well... I found it hard to believe that this inexpensive filter would do anything for three dollars and thirty one cents. So I ordered it. It came yesterday and I have been having some fun with it.
This is called a "twinkle" filter and what they say it does, is allow you to remove unwanted reflections from non-metallic surfaces such as water , glass etc. Well, I need to use it a lot  and experiment with it to get some of the effects that they showed as examples, but yesterday and this morning I took some pictures with the filter attached.
This is an effect that you have to be careful with. You could overdue it and you could also ruin a really good photo with it, but I think I will have fun with this.

The shot above was taken on my porch, as the sun was coming up in the east. Do you see the eight point star in the bush at the end of the porch? This is the 8 Point Cross created by the filter surface, that generates crossed ray beams. They emphasize glaring sunshine when you take a picture directly into the sun.

I really like this picture, above. It's just enough to let you know that the sun is there but it's not distracting. But, oops, there are some blue dots in the middle of the photo. Now that IS distracting.
I just realized what it is. I took this picture through the sliding glass door. It's a reflection of MY CAMERA.You have to look where you are shooting from. You can ruin a good print doing dumb things like this. Unless, of course, you want a reflection of something in the glass. That can be good too.

 I thought this one was going to be too dark but look... there's a double star! Now the sun IS the main attraction.

Cutter wasn't impressed with my new toy, but he kept following me around, so I took a picture with the sun behind him. I should have use a flash for his face. Sometimes you need a flash when there is too much light behind your subject.  I do like the light around his head, ears and feet... and , of course, one of those Corgi looks of determination.. the steady stare.

I like this one but, as I said, I needed more light on the "pooch". I love shots with the camera on the ground. I'm not really happy with this photo though, but it does show the star rays from the sun.

Back in the house, I caught this little sun sparkle in one of the sun catchers in my kitchen window... One perfect little twinkle.

The sun was flooding into the living room and it hit the plant, lighting up the leaves and the container. Can you see the little stars on the upper left edge of the ceramic vase? The star8 filter translates that bright spot of white into a familiar image... a star.
Below, you can also see the prism rays from the sun across the photo because this picture was cropped and the original had the sun in it. I'm not sure what happened near the crow against the wall. That an interesting light anomaly that I don't understand.

This reflection is really kind of cool. It's a reflection from somewhere else, because that part of the sign is just like the rest of it... ochre colored and antiqued.
So, as you can see, I will have some fun with this filter. It seems very substantial and screws onto the lens without any effort. I can't wait to try it at night, in town. All the lights, especially Christmas lights in a few months, will be wonderful and twinkle like stars . I can see it all now.
 I guess I'm easily entertained and can get pretty excited over little things... but for three dollars and thirty one cents it's a cheap date.