Wandering and Photography

I have had discussions with some of my acquaintances about my outdoor photographs and cameras. Sometimes I can get a pretty decent close up picture by using the macro feature on my little Nikon point and shoot, but for the most part I am intensely jealous of the beautiful pictures my fellow blogger friends are posting. And so, out of this conversations came some interesting questions that require some thoughtful reflection time. Questions like; you have to decide what you want to accomplish with your photographs, are you out for a steady paced walk / hike and taking quick snapshots or are you actually taking time to observe your surroundings. These people (my husband among them) kept telling me that I need a better camera, especially for taking nature photographs.

There are things I just can’t do with my little point and shoot, but I do know, for the most part I like being able to stick a small camera of very little weight in my pocket and go. Most of our walks are short, so I usually don’t carry a backpack and the thought of strapping a heavier camera with a big lens over my shoulder is just not appealing. The downside of a small camera is that there are way too many times that I have not been able to get a clear image; times when my camera has decided that I really want to focus on something behind the object I am trying to photograph. My husband reminds me, that this would not happen if I had a camera with a view finder and actual focusing capabilities.

With all this information swimming through my head, we headed back out to Barrett’s Cove with my husbands Canon Rebel. First I needed a lesson in how to focus the darn thing and received an introductory lecture on f-stops and apertures. Now my head was really spinning but I jumped in and started taking pictures. My first attempt was to try and get a clear image of the tiny flowers of what I think is Shepherd’s Purse. Still a little blurry, but a second attempt of the unknown yellow flower was better and I think the Eastern Starflower was even better. (Anyone who wants to help with my flower identification attempts should leave a comment).

 

At Barrett’s Cove, we took the trail once more to catch some of the wildflowers we found in the woods. Since we were both using the camera, I’m a little confused as to who took which photo. I believe I took the False Solomon’s and the small unidentified group of white flowers. I’m not sure who took the Jack-in-the-Pulpit and the Wild Sarsaparilla. I know I made several attempts at the Wild Sarsaparilla because it was such an interesting plant, with the leaves hovering over the fireworks shaped flower like an umbrella. The close up may have been done by the expert.

After my photo-shoot outing, I admit that the “real camera” takes much better images than my little point and shoot but I still think I like the lighter weight of my little camera. Hmm. I wonder if I can find a camera that combines all these features, offering me the best of both worlds.