Labor Day at the beach with a point and shoot

Elaine

As my 40D is in the shop, I went to the beach armed with a new Canon SD 870 IS. It was fun to use, but I did miss my lenses!

We went to lunch with friends and were seated near a window with great light...
1


We stopped at a little play ground after lunch so the kids could play. Underdog!!!
2


Then we hit the sand and waves...
3


Our friends...
4


5


6


7


It was a fun day! Thanks for looking!

Vinnie

Some really nice shots! Thanks for sharing. You do a good job of demonstrating what I've heard everyone here say a thousand times - it's not the equipment it's the photographer.

I truly believe that a photographers best friends are good technique and good light. Now, if I could only get to that point...I might be able to do half as good...

Cheers!

Swartzy

Way to go Elaine!!! A p&s you say? You've done a fine job!

ShepsMom

Very nice, P&S can do a lot when you know how to !!

DavidS

Wow! Those are very nice. I would never have guessed point and shoot.

Paulcao

DavidS wrote:

Wow! Those are very nice. I would never have guessed point and shoot.

Seriously,

Elaine

Wow! Thanks for such nice comments! I did have to give these some pop in PSE 5. I charged the battery for the camera in the car on the way to the beach, and it was brand new, so I had only had the thing on for a few minutes before I started using it. I hadn't figured out how to have the histogram display after a shot yet, so I did underexpose a bit (can't rely on that LCD!). And it was strange to not have direct control over aperture and/or shutter speed! But it was fun to shoot without much pressure. Anyway, for documenting a fun day at the beach, I was pleased.

Thanks, again, for the looks and comments.

Scott_Quier

As others have already said, it's not the camera that matters, but the brains behind the camera that counts. These are great.

Gotta ask - what happened to the 40D that it's in the shop?

jeffreaux2

The family portrait #4 is incredibly good Elaine....especially taking the harsh sunlight into consideration. My daughter is looking for a good P&S, but I can't get her to think past the color of the thing. She wants a pink camera!

Scott_Quier wrote:

As others have already said, it's not the camera that matters, but the brains behind the camera that counts. These are great.

Gotta ask - what happened to the 40D that it's in the shop?

I think a shutter failure.

urbanaries

ooooh these are great, E! I have been eyeing a G9 thinking it would be fun to go backwards for portability sometimes, but I still freeze up when people hand me their P&S to take photos, I don't know what to do with them anymore!

I just love #6. they look like they're in their own little world, but the amazing depth of focus of those point and shoots (when you're going for this effect, even f22 on my 40d doesn't seem to get there...) remind you that they're in a sea (bad joke) of others.

Beautiful shots!

I gotta ask how you shot #5. Very nice lighting on him, I can't even begin to think how you accomplished this It appears to be somewhat backlit, as if fill flash was the only option to light his face, but as we all know the flashes on P&S are soooo "flashy" and this one looks very natural.

Scott_Quier

urbanaries wrote:

I gotta ask how you shot #5. Very nice lighting on him, I can't even begin to think how you accomplished this It appears to be somewhat backlit, as if fill flash was the only option to light his face, but as we all know the flashes on P&S are soooo "flashy" and this one looks very natural.

I would guess that there quite a bit of light bouncing off the sand back into his face - he is quite close to the sand there.

But, however she managed it - it turned out wonderfully.

Elaine

Scott_Quier wrote:

As others have already said, it's not the camera that matters, but the brains behind the camera that counts. These are great.

Gotta ask - what happened to the 40D that it's in the shop?

Thanks much, Scott!

40D...Err 99...I think shutter failure.

Elaine

jeffreaux2 wrote:

The family portrait #7 is incredibly good Elaine....especially taking the harsh sunlight into consideration. My daughter is looking for a good P&S, but I can't get her to think past the color of the thing. She wants a pink camera!



I think a shutter failure.

Thanks, Jeff! The family shot was impromptu. The parents and little ones just happened to be standing together watching their oldest one in the waves. I called her over to join them and fired off about 11 shots. The big rock behind them (Haystack Rock) has meaning to them as it's where their engagment shots were taken 14 years ago. They haven't even seen these yet! I think they'll be pleased.

about the pink camera! I guess whatever works to get one shooting is a good thing.

Elaine

urbanaries wrote:

ooooh these are great, E! I have been eyeing a G9 thinking it would be fun to go backwards for portability sometimes, but I still freeze up when people hand me their P&S to take photos, I don't know what to do with them anymore!

I just love #6. they look like they're in their own little world, but the amazing depth of focus of those point and shoots (when you're going for this effect, even f22 on my 40d doesn't seem to get there...) remind you that they're in a sea (bad joke) of others.

Beautiful shots!

I gotta ask how you shot #5. Very nice lighting on him, I can't even begin to think how you accomplished this It appears to be somewhat backlit, as if fill flash was the only option to light his face, but as we all know the flashes on P&S are soooo "flashy" and this one looks very natural.

As we already have a Canon Powershot S2 (ultra-zoom P&S with manual controls) that my son has taken over, we decided to go ultra-compact this time and let it be my husband's. And it's exactly that...a point and shoot! Although for these shots, I did ride the EC and ISO can certainly be adjusted. This cam is great with a 4 gb SDHC card in it...has room for over 1000 pics at the largest size and with an empty card will take 1 hour of video. The video is kinda fun...I used it yesterday to get my son learning to tie his shoes.

On #5, the sun was basically off to my left and as Scott said, the sand was being a nice reflector on his face. In PSE, I also selected his face and chest area and brightened it just a smidge. No flash.

Thanks for the great comments, L!

Elaine

Scott_Quier wrote:

I would guess that there quite a bit of light bouncing off the sand back into his face - he is quite close to the sand there.

But, however she managed it - it turned out wonderfully.

Yep...I also selected his face and chest in PSE and brightened it just a wee bit.

Scott_Quier

Elaine wrote:

Yep...I also selected his face and chest in PSE and brightened it just a wee bit.

Well, you did a goooooood job on the PP - it looks very natural.

Elaine

jeffreaux2 wrote:

She wants a pink camera!

Maybe she'd be interested in the new Canon Powershot E1.

http://www.dcresource.com/news/newsitem.php?id=3786