Smitten with the Samsung Epic 4g Camera

Taken with Samsung Epic 4g

I have something to admit. I have a crush. A big one.

I’m completely smitten with the camera that’s built into my Samsung Epic 4g “cell phone.” “Cell phone” is in quotation marks because to me, what I have is a camera that also happens to function as a cell phone and run Android apps.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog or Food for Thought (my Posterous account), you’ll know that I enjoy taking photos of things I run across as I experience my days. I especially like taking extreme closeups of flowers.

Today was a day for experimentation. I chose to venture out on a floral photo safari with only my “cell phone” camera; my Canon PowerShot stayed at home. I wanted to see how far I could push the macro setting on my Samsung Epic. Could it take the same kind of floral photos I usually take?

So I decided to go visit Hollis Garden in my community of Lakeland, FL. It was supposed to open at 10 a.m., but no one showed up to open the gates. I gave up and left at 10:30, but I spent a few minutes with the roses outside the locked gates before I went into my office at Southeastern UniversityActually, I probably spent longer with the roses than I normally would have. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise?

After a few hours in my office, I returned to Hollis Garden and was able to go in to explore. I wandered around for an hour and took about 85 photos. In the slideshow below, you can see 30 of my favorite photos taken today. Which ones do you like best?

Bottom Line: The Samsung Epic 5-megapixel camera is stellar for my floral photography. With the macro setting, I can take closeups at least as crisp and clear as on my Canon PowerShot. My one wish is that it would be a little quicker to take several photos in a row. But I can live with that, knowing that since I will always have my Samsung Epic in my pocket or purse, anytime a beautiful bloom beckons me, I’ll be able to capture it.

The Line Below the Bottom Line: Many, many thanks to the MobilePhotoVideo blog for sharing a thorough tutorial on using the many settings of the Samsung Epic. I never even realized that it had a macro setting until I read its review.

Floral Photos :: In Memory of Barbara L. Anderson

After a several-year battle with lung cancer, my mom (Barbara L. Anderson) passed away in her sleep at her home last night. She loved gardens and flowers. So after I got my kiddos out the door to school this morning, I went to Lakeland’s Hollis Gardens, took a long walk and snapped these photos. I am confident Mom would love all of them — except maybe for the one with the dragonfly on it 🙂

Thank you, Mom, for inspiring in me a love of flowers  . . . and cooking. (I just made her famous Chicken Cacciatore for my family for dinner tonight.)

A Little Surprise




Calla Lily

Originally uploaded by barbara_nixon


Yesterday afternoon, I was at the Savannah Botanical Garden with my #2 son. He was helping me find flowers to take extreme close-ups of. We came across this calla lily. I was struck by how white the petal was. It wasn’t until last night when I was showing my husband my latest photos in Adobe Photoshop Album that I learned that there was a little surprise inside the lily. Can you see it? It made me smile.