Well, it looks like a new camera is going to be a couple of weeks away for personal financial reasons. I’m looking hard at the Nikon D3200 now, along with a long zoom lens that comes as part of a nifty package.
In the meantime, I’ll just keep using what I’ve been using for a while, which is my little Canon Powershot A590 IS, a nice little point-and-shoot that has a few unexpected manual features.
One feature I think doesn’t get enough use on cameras is “scene” mode, where the flash will fire and then the shutter will stay open for a short while to allow a dark background to burn in. Of course, the camera has to be absolutely steady to make use of a mode like that. To that end I’ll employ my beloved “Gorillapod,” a small tripod with flexible legs capable of standing upright on nearly any surface or even grabbing onto railings and the like.
Below is a shot I took late in the evening last November 15th aboard the cruise ship Norwegian Gem, on its way to Bermuda. I wrapped the Gorillapod around a railing up on a balcony and set the self-timer to fire the camera after a few seconds. The camera was set to “scene” mode with the flash turned off. Many people, I think, would make the mistake of trying to get this shot by holding the camera in their hands and letting the flash fire, which would’ve looked horrible. Even on night-scene mode, the camera would simply try to illuminate the first ten to twelve feet of the scene and then camera shake would render the remainder of the scene blurry and indistinct. But given a stable surface, even on a pitching cruise ship, a humble point-and-shoot can take a nice photo.
Deck 12 of The Norwegian Gem cruise ship taken from the deck 13 balcony on November 15th, 2011
