Thank you technology for the digital camera!
My 11 year old friend, Danni, asked me the other day if there were cameras when I went to school. Okay, I will be 63 next month and I assured her that photography was much older than I am. However, photography, unlike me and my ageing body continues to improve with age. I used to travel with 2 camers, one an Instamatic (point and shoot) and a heavy single lens reflex camera. Along with the SLR I also packed a telephoto, and a wide angle lens.
Since many of my vacations were on a bike, the cameras alone took up bike bag all on their own. Additional room was taken up by film cartridges both used and waiting to be used. Rain was the enemy.
Then there was the fact that I could only plan on five or six of the thirty-six photos turning out based on composition, lighting, etc. after paying for the full roll to be developed.
So now, pocket sized cameras with enough memory on the cards to fill St James Cathedral - life is good!
On my first Camino I was somewhat disappointed about the fact that I had only a 10 times zoom lens on the digital. In addition, I had only brought a 4gig card and I ran out of space. I bought a second one in Leon so no problem there.
It also turned out that the 10Xzoom was not a problem either. After seeing the photos on my computer on my return, I realized that if I had zoomed in any closer on some of the long distance shots, I would have lost "the look" I wanted in the photo. Editing is easy so for the long shots I sometimes chose to crop the photo to bring up the scene I really intended. This keeps the grain or pixels clear and crisp. If you zoom in too close or in bad light, the pixels may not be sharp.
For the Camino Portuguese I took the same camera but I purchased an 8gig card for that trip. The cost of digital cards are coming down significantly so I have decided to keep the photos on the cards and buy new ones for each trip.
Now, I am not the most creative photographer but I am prolific. I keep my camera close by and easily accessible and generally take 30 to 50 photos a day! At night, I delete the ones I don't want because some of the photos are not good or are not the best of the 3 or 4 I took of the same subject. At times I get lucky with a short or two a day.
Below, is "My Orange". It took about 20 shots to get this one and the poor orange was in pretty bad shape by the time I got what I wanted. My sister-in-law was throwing the fruit into the air so I could take the photo but she did not always catch it! Anyway, this is my favorite photo of the Camino Frances trip - go figure.
My favorite shot on the Camino Portuguese is the "Pink Portrate" taken outside the albergue in Ponte de Lima. My young Japanese friend has been walking for 4 years, non-stop. To keep himself entertained he has taught himself how to juggle. He does it for fun, refuses to take money for his art and pilgrims and locals alike, love to watch him. I caught him just as he was about to roll the ball up his arm, behind his neck and back down into his other hand. I got lucky with this shot, the alignment is great, the sun was just at a beautiful shade which enhanced the building and shadows behind. I have enlarged both these photos on canvas and they hang in my home as a constant reminder of my good fortune.
My 11 year old friend, Danni, asked me the other day if there were cameras when I went to school. Okay, I will be 63 next month and I assured her that photography was much older than I am. However, photography, unlike me and my ageing body continues to improve with age. I used to travel with 2 camers, one an Instamatic (point and shoot) and a heavy single lens reflex camera. Along with the SLR I also packed a telephoto, and a wide angle lens.
Since many of my vacations were on a bike, the cameras alone took up bike bag all on their own. Additional room was taken up by film cartridges both used and waiting to be used. Rain was the enemy.
Then there was the fact that I could only plan on five or six of the thirty-six photos turning out based on composition, lighting, etc. after paying for the full roll to be developed.
So now, pocket sized cameras with enough memory on the cards to fill St James Cathedral - life is good!
On my first Camino I was somewhat disappointed about the fact that I had only a 10 times zoom lens on the digital. In addition, I had only brought a 4gig card and I ran out of space. I bought a second one in Leon so no problem there.
It also turned out that the 10Xzoom was not a problem either. After seeing the photos on my computer on my return, I realized that if I had zoomed in any closer on some of the long distance shots, I would have lost "the look" I wanted in the photo. Editing is easy so for the long shots I sometimes chose to crop the photo to bring up the scene I really intended. This keeps the grain or pixels clear and crisp. If you zoom in too close or in bad light, the pixels may not be sharp.
For the Camino Portuguese I took the same camera but I purchased an 8gig card for that trip. The cost of digital cards are coming down significantly so I have decided to keep the photos on the cards and buy new ones for each trip.
Now, I am not the most creative photographer but I am prolific. I keep my camera close by and easily accessible and generally take 30 to 50 photos a day! At night, I delete the ones I don't want because some of the photos are not good or are not the best of the 3 or 4 I took of the same subject. At times I get lucky with a short or two a day.
Below, is "My Orange". It took about 20 shots to get this one and the poor orange was in pretty bad shape by the time I got what I wanted. My sister-in-law was throwing the fruit into the air so I could take the photo but she did not always catch it! Anyway, this is my favorite photo of the Camino Frances trip - go figure.
My favorite shot on the Camino Portuguese is the "Pink Portrate" taken outside the albergue in Ponte de Lima. My young Japanese friend has been walking for 4 years, non-stop. To keep himself entertained he has taught himself how to juggle. He does it for fun, refuses to take money for his art and pilgrims and locals alike, love to watch him. I caught him just as he was about to roll the ball up his arm, behind his neck and back down into his other hand. I got lucky with this shot, the alignment is great, the sun was just at a beautiful shade which enhanced the building and shadows behind. I have enlarged both these photos on canvas and they hang in my home as a constant reminder of my good fortune.
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