Anyone familiar with me knows that I have a camera on my person at all times. If you see me walking down the street, I have a camera. I’m here, therefore I shoot.
Wait. My first post for GeekMom and I’ve told a lie. The truth is that I’m usually carrying anywhere from 3 to 4 cameras most of the time. My daughter, Vivienne is coming up on 17 months and she’s already more photographed than Princess Di. No joke – we’re talking necessary-2-terabyte-external-hard-drive kind of photographed.
The thousands of pictures are the result of a perfect storm. It starts with the fact that I’m, of course, very much in love with my little girl and find her utterly FASCINATING. It’s also because I keep my DSLR on “burst” mode, a little trick I learned in photography class for “not missing a moment.” Some of it is because I’ve been a writer over at G4 TV for years, a very tech-oriented network, so I’m very interested in and attracted to the latest cameras with their shiny bells and whistles. Â And of course, there’s a dash of something I like to call: WHAT THE HECK IS MY PROBLEM I THINK I AM ADDICTED TO CAMERAS PLEASE SEND HELP.
So, going back to our imaginary scenario where you “see me walking down the street,” you can rest assured that in my diaper bag, I am carrying my point and shoot (which just replaced my Canon SD940 as of this Christmas) and my Flip Mino HD. And of course, in one of my pockets somewhere will be my ubiquitous iPhone, which doubles as a still and video camera in a pinch. And depending on how hectic my morning was, I will be lugging my Nikon D90 around too.
Maybe it sounds excessive, but for realzz and true, each one serves a unique purpose.  The DSLR takes gorgeous photos, so why a point and shoot too? Because a) sometimes I don’t want to lug the Nikon around and b) sometimes you can grab moments with a point and shoot that you just can’t get with a DSLR.
As for the point and shoot vs. the Flip: Yes, my point and shoot takes video – very nice quality video as a matter of fact, so why carry the Flip? Because it’s a pain in the butt to email video I’ve taken with the P&S. But the Flip has software that makes it super easy to blast email the grandparents! As for the iPhone? Â Well, now you’re talking instant gratification. Baby does something cute, Grandparents know in a matter of MOMENTS. Especially the ones hip enough to receive SSM.
And I haven’t even scratched the surface of the myriad of camera apps available in the App Store that transform the iPhone into all manner of toy cameras. But that’s a post for another time. Right now, I’d like to know what you’re shooting with out there, and what you love or hate about your cameras. I truly would.
A fellow camera crazy mom! SO happy to meet you! I’m jealous of moms who had their kids after digital cameras became common. I have twenty five photo boxes (hold 1000 pics each) full of pics of my four kids from birth to 2006, when I finally gave up buying film. Some day I’ll scan them all…some day.
No apologies necessary. It will always be better to have too many pics of your daughter, than not enough.
Great post!
Judy
omg yes. <3 Unfortunately, I had a crappy camera when my daughter was a baby so while my pictures are cute and plentiful, they're a bit lacking in the artsy department. I've since gotten a Canon Eos T1i and omg I'm in love. The best part is that now that my daughter is 8, she has her own camera and we can take pictures together.
Varin, that sounds like heaven. There are a lot of things I’m looking forward to doing with Vivi. Taking pictures together and watching Monty Python for instance… 🙂
So the question I’ve been struggling with is how and where to post all the pictures I’ve taken to share with family. Facebook seems almost the obvious choice for ease of sharing, except that the ever changing privacy policies makes me really twitchy. Flickr would be great as it has controls to limit things to friends and family, but that would require friends and family to actually be on there which isn’t exactly the case.
Actually, once you have a flickr account, if you click on pics you’ve uploaded, there is a “Share This” drop-down that allows you to email, blog or grab the link for the photo…so: people on flickr with permission can automatically see your photos but other people can be emailed easily enough. I think it is smart to be suspicious of Facebook’s changing def of privacy and how that involves personal photos…that being said, I have a ton of pics of my kids on there, as well. (Flickr’s photo resolution is MUCH better!)
I’m thinking there’s another post in this – photo organization and display!
This post reminds me of a song by one of my favorite bands, Rabbit! Check out their song ‘Camera’. Check em out on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/saverabbit
I second, or is it third now(?), the recommendation for flickr. I put a few select photos on facebook, but mostly just spur of the moment stuff I’ve shot with my iPhone since I can then send the photo(s) to fb right then and there. Everything goes onto flickr though, and like Andrea said there are ways to share private photos on flickr with people who don’t have flickr accounts. I’ve also tied my fb account to my flickr account so flickr “posts” to my wall whenever I upload new photos to flickr (it posts a link/announcement, it doesn’t post the photos themselves to fb).
As far as cameras go, I’m still very much a newbie. I’ve always been too cheap to spend the coin on a DSLR (I’ve already got one expensive hobby – Jeeps) and too lazy to learn all the intricacies of all the manual settings, so I’ve mostly stuck with point-and-shoots. When my son was born just over 3 years ago I picked up a Canon SD750 elph. The thought there was as the old saying goes, the best camera is the one you have, and an ultracompact would be able to always be with us. And as long as you’ve got decent lighting it takes decent shots. I also got the waterproof case, which cost nearly as much as the camera did at the time, but was absolutely worth every penny for summertime pool photos. If and when my SD750 has to be replaced, I’ll definitely be getting a waterproof ultracompact.
After envying the fantastic shots my friends were taking with their DSLRs though, I recently picked up an Olympus PEN E-PL1. I caught a package kit on a weekend sale and had an extra 15% off coupon so all told I was out the door for under $450, including a new 8GB Class 10 SDHC card. It lacks some of the features of it’s full size big brothers, but so far I’m amazed at the photos it takes on just the auto settings. For me at least (for now anyway), the compact size of the PEN is worth the trade-offs. I nearly went with the Canon G12 (in fact it was my first choice until I discovered the PL1) but the lack of a direct mode movie button and the smaller sensor turned me off when compared to the PL1.
If I ever see you walking down the street, it will probably be because you are on your way to get a pastry, eat a pastry, and take pictures of pastries. I think I solved the puzzle! Your daughter is a pastry!
Related: I can’t wait to take pictures of my daughter eating pastry!