Three things I love about my point-and-shoot camera

Yes DSLR cameras have their place but not always in my bag. But I do always carry my little point-and-shoot. Here are three reasons I love my point-and-shoot camera.




1 Fits anywhere
Not just in a pocket either. One day I was trying to rewire the stereo receiver. I didn't want to pull it out and disconnect all the wires, just reconnect a couple. It was a tight squeeze and after a few tries of searching with my hand for the right connections I became frustrated. Then in a moment of genius I put my camera behind the receiver and took a photo. Then I could see exactly where I was trying to connect the wires. I made the right connections easily, thanks to my little camera.



2 Self-portraits
Never underestimate the power of a good self portrait. Point-and-shoot cameras enable easy self portraits. A self portrait is like a writing in your diary but you are taking a photo not writing. Too many people are self conscious about self portraits. But if you write a blog or write in a journal, you write about good days and bad. The same goes for self portraits take self portraits on good days and bad. The story behind this photo is here.



3 Kite photography
This is actually the real reason I bought my point-and-shoot. I wanted to take photos from a kite. Kite photography is most easily achieved with a big kite and a small camera. It is so fun to reel the kite back in wondering what photos are on it, [sigh] just like the days of film. I love the different perspective from the sky. I've since become addicted to having my camera with me always.

There are many reasons why I like my camera but these are at the top.

How to better use the camera you have

View of Manhattan from Governor's Island. It was such a nice day then and it is so cold now.

This post is inspired by my amazing cousin Candice. She commented on a previous post and said:

Maybe all of your teaching will sink in one day. I have been trying to use it, but sometimes pictures happen so fast, that I forget about 5 good things to do for a great picture.

Maybe I should try to pick subjects that do not move.

Basically Candice represents a huge percentage of people who own cameras and want to get better at taking photos. They wish they could justify buying a really nice expensive camera but can't because the one they have already overwhelming.

My solution is to underwhelm yourself.

Here is my recommended strategy to taking control of your camera. It's a three step plan.

1 Read the manual for your camera
This was the first thing I blogged about here. You don't have to read it all right now, or even this week, just keep it with you. Read through one specific feature at a time. If you don't have your manual the manufacturer probably has a copy online. I found mine on Canon's website.

2 Practice a single feature or setting
Take a photo. Then take the same photo but change only a single setting.
This might be easier in manual mode, when you can change one setting at a time and see what kind of difference it makes. Play with the same setting in different light. If you want to take better photos of a constantly moving toddler, then take a few hundred in a sitting. I guarantee you'll get better. Just don't try to learn the whole camera in that one sitting.

3 Rinse and repeat
Take lots and lots of photos. You can't get better at playing piano just by reading about it on the internet.

What to do with all these photos?

I'm so excited. I've been using iPhoto for years on my mac. And when people asked about what photo application they should use for their PC I always recommended Picasa. Now Picasa is available for Mac. I'm going to try it. I'll let you know how it goes.

From the Archives

My very first digital camera was a Canon A60. It had 2 Megapixels and a 1.5 inch display. I pick it up now and its heavy and bulky. It still works just fine.

When I took this photo and was very proud of myself. I look at it now and it's merely ok, but I don't think I've improved as much as I think I have. But I wouldn't do the photo any different, except maybe try to squeeze just a little more bokeh (blurriness) into the background. I would keep the framing and the color that was there, and of course the focus of the nail on the fence post.

Increase the depth of your photo

Depth is added by including the foreground.

In this case the rocks were in the foreground. This worked out perfectly since I used a timer and the rocks were "in the way". So I just took the photo, but it tells the story of the rocks we climbed on.



My daughter, Hannah, and I counted the steps up the stairs to the peak of Mt. Bonnell. There were 104 on the way up and 106 on the way down (it's a mystery!)

When we got there she kept asking me to take her picture. This one turned out the best.

Remember the Alamo!

We're out of town this week. I'm enjoying the warmer weather in Texas. Right now NYC has temperatures around 17 degrees. We were happily enjoying 65 degrees in San Antonio.

We went to see the Alamo and the Riverwalk.


There are thousands of photos of the Alamo. So in order to not have the same hum-drum photo that gets taken hundreds of times a day, I changed the perspective, and tilted my camera at an angle.

I haven't altered this photo at all. This is the way it came out of the camera. Not bad for just walking up and snapping the photo.

The same thing happened with the BBQ place we ate at last night. I wanted a photo of the outside because I really liked eating there. The whole experience was really fun. You walk up order and find a table. They give you wax paper to eat on and a whole loaf of bread. We made BBQ sandwich after sandwich. So delicious.



I only had time to snap one photo and this is what I got. Because it was low light I had to walk over to a garbage can and put the camera there to hold it still. I even got a small part of the can in the photo. The can wasn't even so this is what I got, straight out of the camera.

Both of these photos are made slightly better just by changing the perspective and tilting the camera.