Brain on Fire Tim McCormack, distilled.

With my fancy new Powershot S5 I've been taking some pretty awesome closeups. I've been going back and photographing all the flowers and insects that I've shot before, since I can ridiculously closer now. And I'd like to share some of what I've learned while trying to get my lens right up in the face of various critters.

When my approx. 4-year-old Canon Powershot S1 IS started displaying an image sensor malfunction, I thought I was going to have to drop a cool $400 on a new camera. But Canon's website had a service notice stating that this was a known defect, and that they would repair this for free, including shipping.

What they sent me back was a Canon Powershot S5 IS. Sweet!

Hilda behaves naturally while I "set up" my camera

This past weekend I took some publicity photos for a local organization, and I was dealing with the most difficult photographic subject in existence (besides cats, of course): people.

BBC News recently carried a story on an anti-filming system in development at the Georgia Institute of Technology. I predict it will fail miserably.

I decided to post a review of my Canon Powershot S1 IS because there are some things about it that are not immediately apparant.