Diane Birch

I was given the opportunity to review ">Diane Birch new album Bible Belt, which was released June 2.

A little about Diane :

Bio:
For singer-songwriter Diane Birch, music was a refuge. Although Diane was born in Michigan, her childhood was spent on the move as the daughter of a preacher, living between Zimbabwe, South Africa and Australia, before her parents finally settled in Portland, Oregon. When she was in her early teens, Diane absorbed a unique and cosmopolitan perspective on life that shines through her music and makes a simple categorization of it impossible.

The result? Diane Birch sounds like an old favorite, with all the sparkle and magic of a breakthrough talent. People says she sounds like a combination of early Carole King, Linda Ronstadt and Stevie Nicks, with a little Joss Stone and Cat Power mixed in. Bible Belt is only her first record, but it’s one of the most accomplished albums you’ll hear all year. From the opening track “Fire Escape” to the closing “Magic View,” Diane’s stunning voice is mesmerizing.

Written entirely by Diane, Bible Belt was recorded in New York City and New Orleans with an impressive team of Grammy-winning producers: S-Curve Records founder Steve Greenberg, soul legend Betty Wright and Mike Mangini, in their first project together since producing Joss Stone’s first albums.

As soon as I saw the album cover art, I knew that this album was going to be something special. What's not to love when you capture catch lights in eyes like hers?

She has an amazing soulful voice that can really appeal to everyone.

My favorite song on the album so far is Valentino. It's a toe tapping song that I really needed to hear right now.

Be sure to check out the Diane Birch widget on the right. For every album purchased through that link , from now until June 23 a $1.00 will be donated to Share Our Strength- Helping to Fight Childhood Hunger. You can go here and get your widget to support many wonderful charities.

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Purse Camera- A Review

Several years ago for Mother's Day , The Husband & kids, got me a Rebel XTI. This was a huge step up from my old Point & shoot camera, but after lots of learning I've been able to capture some really amazing shots with it.

For the last six months or so I've been wanting a "purse camera". Something small, light weight , and easy to take with me all the time. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've been driving around, saw something that would make a cool picture, to only miss the shot because I didn't have my camera with me. After doing a lot of research I settled on this one.

One of the many features of this camera I liked was the ability to use P, TV, AV, & M. This gives me creative freedom like my XTI does. It also has functions like Portrait, Night Snapshot, Indoor, Landscape, Kids & Pets and movies.

With my first point and shoot camera the only zoom it had was my own two feet. Now that I have a camera that can give me all the zoom I want, I knew that I wanted as much zoom I could get. This one has 10X optical zoom, which is perfect for the type of photos I will be taking with it. With the 4x digital zoom you get 40x total zoom. While I've never been a fan a digital zoom I will try it out to see if there has been any advancements with the picture quality over the years.

Even though I'm use to looking through the view finder to frame the shot, I knew I also wanted a large view screen. At 3 inches , this one fit the bill perfectly. Now I just need to try my brain again to look at the view screen LOL

Below are some shots I took with it yesterday. Except for some cropping these are straight out of the camera. While I normally would of shot these on full manual, I choose to let the camera do all the thinking for me and shot on Auto. Since I'm still learning how the camera works I thought it was my best option. I also used the on board Macro function, and it wasn't half bad I'm sure I will be using that function again in the future.

Please click on the pictures for larger view

All in all it's a nice little camera and I'm sure it will get plenty of use.

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