Re: [Paddlewise] Calling on the Collective Photographic Unconscious

Mark,

My kayak photography is more in documentation mode than anything else, so I 
doubt I have any insights beyond what you already know.

1. What ever system/camera you pick, make it one you can get to quickly, 
and put away quickly.  So many shots paddling are only fleeing glimpses of 
transient things.

2. Numbah one mandates either a waterproof camera or a quick release/close 
dry box.

3. I'm of the quick access to a dry box school of thought.  My Canon 
Powershot A570 IS fits into a Pelican 1050 MicroCase, which stays lanyarded 
to a deck eye.  It is the third point and shoot digital camera I have 
owned, and it is out, in use, and back in the box, where it stays, in a 
jiffy.  Plus, at its relatively low purchase cost, if it craters, I am out 
very little compared to what a DSLR would cost.  And, for my kind of 
photos, it covers the bases.  I'd have to be a lot better photographer to 
justify a DSLR.

4. I like Canon's P and S units for three reasons:  good optical image 
stabilization (mandatory on the water, for me), pretty good glass, and they 
have a _freaking_ _viewfinder_!!!!!!  In bright sunlight, the usual LCD 
display washes out and is PFU most of the time.  Plus, bifocal people have 
a hard time with those things.  And, if you set the camera to blank the 
LCD, it prolongs battery lifetime by a ginormous amount.  Viewfinders are 
mandatory on kayaking cameras for me.

5. Forget digital zoom. Optical zoom is all that counts.  Dial the lens to 
whatever zoom level you need to compose the shot, but stop before it 
transitions to digital zoom mode.  If you want the effect of more zoom, do 
it later, in processing, by cropping.  You will have the same resolution, 
and the leisure to get it just right, at home.

6. I have a waterproof camera, but it is film-based, and it stays home, 
partly for its added cost of use, but more because its glass is inferior to 
Canon's (it is a Pentax Zoom 90 WR).  It is heavy and bulky as hell.  And, 
it chews through expensive lithium cells like crazy.  I guess I hang onto 
it for nostalgia's sake.  I find waterproof cameras problematic, because 
the lens is always wet with something, compromising the images, although I 
take a 4 inch by 4 inch chamois cloth to clean it up.  The cloth also keeps 
my specs clean.

7. Last thought:  put another boat in the foreground of scenics, unless the 
scene is artful in and of itself.  There is nothing more boring than acres 
of water in the foreground with tiny images of other stuff in the background.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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