Canon G12 on a Dog Walk Nabs a Butterfly (Images)

No Animals Harmed in this Series

 

The DSLR's are resting for a big event tomorrow and, I'm supposed to be, too.

When the wife and I took the dogs for a walk, I slipped the G12 in a cargo pocket.

She walks the little white rat, I take the huskies.

We were almost home when the missus spotted this butterfly.

These days, you can never be too careful.

Gizmo, checks things out.  Friend or, foe; we gotta know, before I start shooting.

All clear.  The subject is unarmed.

With the little Powershot, I pointed and shot from the west.

Then, snapped one to show you the road heading from east to west.

The butterfly is a Blue Triangle.

If I was smart, I'd stuff that Canon G12 in my cargo pocket, everyday !

The Canon G12 Powershot is Now One of My Three Amigos

This Canon G12 isn't ready for a full-blown Mad Mike's Review, yet but, I'm starting to like it already.

I just need awhile longer to put it through all its paces; get used to the little buttons and wheels.

It passed the Missus tests, which is ain't about happen to the other two amigo cameras of mine.

The photo above (taken with a cellular camera) shows the three types of digital camera you may want to consider if you are just getting into photography.  Brand name doesn't matter.  From left to right are a DSLR, a Bridge Camera and a Point and Shoot.  There are advantages/disadvantages for each of them. 

No one size or brand of camera shoots better than another.

In my case, I started off shooting digital with the Bridge Camera, a Panasonic DMC-FZ50.  It's a great little camera but, wouldn't reach out far enough for the wildlife I like to shoot.  So, I moved on up to a Pentax DSLR and the capability to change lenses.  That's not what everybody needs or wants to do.

A DSLR can get heavy.  Some of the lenses I use weigh more than two or three cameras.  Groan.

Photo above taken with the Canon G 12

The Canon Powershot weighs less than the Pentax 18-250mm lens I like to keep on my Pentax K5. 

Photo above taken with PANASONIC LUMIX.

The G12, which can shoot RAW files and can be operated in Manual Mode, fits right into my back pocket. 

Photo taken with PENTAX K5.

This allows me to sneak into places where someone with a DSLR can't normally go and take professional, high quality photos, theoretically speaking. 

So, theoretically, yesterday, that's what I did.  And that's how the Canon G12 became my 3d amigo.

No more spinning around on the floor after BEING THROWN OFF THE ESCALATOR FOR THIS OLD BOY !

This photo made me decide I should probably get someone else to do the modeling next time I need to demonstrate what you can do with a Powershot. 

It looks like some drunk outside the back door of my bar but, it ain't. 

I just hate throwing things away, as you can see from the pile of junk assembled in the alley.

The batteries for my three amigos are done charging so, I'll be headed out the front door anytime now.

Have a great weekend, wherever you are and drive safely !


VISIT MY HOMEPAGE FOR THE PHOTO OF THE DAY

Photography Tip: Cleaning Your Camera

IT'S AS IMPORTANT AS CHECKING UP ON AND CLEANING A BABY'S BACKSIDE:

I haven’t had to watch a diaper-wearing baby in quite awhile and hope it stays that way. But, I thought this would make a great analogy. If you were going out somewhere in public with your little tyke in tow, you’d probably check out their rear end before you left the house and several times while you were away. Treat your camera the same way and you won’t be embarrassed.

THE EQUIPMENT YOU NEED

In photo #1 my trusty Pentax is filthy from a twelve hour day crawling around in pineapple fields. So, it’s shrunken down in the background. The rest of the gear is what you need for the care of your baby (camera) whether it’s a Point and Shoot or DSLR. All that equipment fits nicely in my shoulder holster camera bag you see under the pile, all but the large black bulb (turkey baster-looking thing); that’s only required when you change lenses on a DSLR. So, for any camera, here’s what you need to clean:


1. A lens brush for removing dust and the bulb forces air to blow it away. The brush is removable, allowing you to use a blast of air for drying your lens.

2. Lens Cleaning Paper is probably no different than eyeglass tissues but, I always buy mine at the camera store. You wouldn’t buy baby wipes from an auto supply shop, would you?

3. Lens Cleaning Solvent, not Windex, or any substitute is what you want to use. Camera lenses have a protective coating on them which you’ll want to last forever.



A kit, with all three items listed above costs less than US $10.00 so, there’s really no reason to be caught without one. Yet, I have people all the time asking me how to clean a camera lens and they’re surprised such equipment even exists. Makes you wonder if they are allowed to have babies, doesn’t it?


 

HOW IT'S DONE

1. Use the brush and bulb to remove dust from the lens. If you have a lens shade on, remove it and dust it off as well.


2. Your fingers contain oil that you don’t want to get on your lens. Tear a piece of lens paper from the pack by one corner, at the edge, being careful not to touch the paper anywhere else.

3. Lightly, spray the opposite end of the paper with lens cleaner. This little bottle of spray should last the average camera-shooter about a year. It doesn’t take much spray at all to clean a lens.

4. Place the moistened portion of the paper on your lens and crumple the dry portion over it. Gently swirl the paper in a circular motion being careful not to touch the lens with your fingers.

Pretend it’s a baby with diaper rash but, be gentler. Cameras cost money.

5. Next, you pull out one more lens tissue and dry, if you need to. I’ve found that I can clean and dry a small Point and Shoot with just one lens paper, if I’m careful.

6. If there’s any remaining haze on the lens after you’ve done all that, use the bulb to air-dry with a few blasts and your lens should be ready to go.


 

THE BACKSIDE OF YOUR CAMERA

A closer look at the backside of my baby shows you why I wanted to hide it from public view; it’s filthy. When I’m out shooting in the hot sun, sweat, dirt, grime, pollen and whatever else can collect on a camera get all over me and my baby. This particular day, it got so bad I couldn’t even read my light meter through the viewfinder. I composed my shots through the viewfinder but had to use the external light meter (on top of the camera) for exposure settings). I had cleaned it twice, earlier in the day, but was facing a busload of tourists coming my way at the end of a twelve hour shoot and just wanted to finish, pack up and run. So, the camera and I came home filthy. It’s easy to remedy. Here’s what you do:

1. Grab the brush and bulb and clean the dust off everything. On DSLRs you can even peel away the rubber molding around the viewfinder for better access to the glass.

2. The viewfinder glass and LCD screen aren’t as sensitive as a lens. Many LCD screens even have a plastic coating you can peel off and replace with a new one. I still use the same method, spraying the lens paper first and repeat the process as above but, it isn’t really that critical.

3. The rest of the camera body, an old toothbrush is safe to use for dust and grime removal, just make sure your lens cover is protecting the lens you’ve cleaned before grinding away dust and dirt from the body of the camera.

4. Any soft cloth and some lens cleaner should remove stubborn spots from the backside of your baby.

5. One more thing you may consider doing before sticking your cleaner-than-brand-spanking-new baby back into its cradle (Camera Bag) is this: Empty that sucker, turn it upside down, shake it and whack the underside a few times. You’ll be surprised at some of the things that find their way into your camera bag while you’re out shooting. Pine needles, sand, spiders, ants, leaves and dust have a way of sneaking up on you while you’re busy composing your masterpieces. Every once in awhile, it pays to run a vacuum cleaner hose inside a camera bag to control the population of unwanted guests.

TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOUR CAMERA AND IT'LL STILL BE SHOOTING TERRIFIC PHOTOS FOR YOUR REAL LIVE BABY'S COLLEGE GRADUATION CEREMONY !

If you have a question or suggestion for my Photography Tips, please don't hesitate to give me a holler over on my Facebook Page. I value reader's input.

Wagon Wheels

A shot like this is one I rarely take in the form I used to get it. The light was just right for what I wanted to do; clear blue skies and it was a photo I'd seen done before only, I wanted to do it better.

No tripod, no LCD screen and no way to look through my camera's viewfinder, it was a cameraman's worst nightmare. Probably, about three feet from the wall were a bunch of telephone and electrical wires to mess up the wide angle shot, as well.

Here's how it was done. With my Pentax, equipped with an 18-250mm lens, I laid it on the ground and propped the lens up with my cell phone, a pack of smokes and a lighter. I set the 10 second timer.  In fully Manual Mode and Auto Focus, I read the lightmeter on the outside of the camera body. From perfect exposure, at f/8, I stopped down on the shutter to minus one (underexposing) because I knew it was a high contrast shot.

The angle I aimed the lens at was just pure guesswork. The shutter button was pressed and I leaned back and waited 10 seconds. The camera fired and I packed up and went home figuring if nothing else, at least I'd have a nice patch of blue sky with some wires in it to analyze and I could always use the shot to try and figure out how to do it better, next time around.

See, I figured the photographer who shot the original scene (I'd seen in a brochure) used PhotoShop or something to clone the wires out of his picture. I'm not into doing that sort of thing.

But, to my surprise, when I processed the RAW file, I discovered the wires could be cropped out of the picture. With a little tweaking in my RAW developer, I can take the lens distortion out of the wall, put the color and contrast (I removed to post this online) and I'll have as good, or better photo than the last cameraman that made this shot.

The other option, I've been thinking over is using a camera with a rotating LCD screen. Canon's got one of those little cameras that's a Point and Shoot.  It'd fit in my pocket, shoot RAW, it can fire fully Manual, I'd never be without a camera, even when I'm walking three dogs and It would help me explain how to shoot little cameras better. Hmm.... Canon G11's lookin' better every day....