The Freedom of Point and Shoots

Ice fog at noon. ADMA mushing trails, Fairbanks AK.

Canon S95 Point and Shoot. RAW capture, post processing in Lightroom 3

Since my Ironman adventure back in November I've been rather obsessed with riding bicycles. This is something I've always enjoyed, but it has reached, I don't know, obsessive (?) proportions. I now own three main bikes, and have an older 4th bike that doesn't really get ridden. The most recent addition to my stable is a Salsa Mukluk. Now for those of you who don't live in Alaska, and aren't familiar with "Fat Bikes" this beast is something like a monster truck that you pedal. The tires are huge balloon things that are almost 4 inches wide, and can be ridden on extraordinarily soft pressures, which allows the rider to float along on top of snow where a normal set of tires would punch right through. Think of it as snowshoes for your bike. 

What does this all have to do with photography? Well, not a great deal, aside from the fact that the new bike will be getting me out more over the remainder of the winter. Which means more images. Now I realize I'm not going to be carrying an SLR and a quiver of lenses, but I will be toting along my S95. Many a photographer will raise their eyebrows at such a silly little camera, but don't scoff. If I weren't carrying it, I wouldn't have a camera at all. And that would be bad.

I'm also finding that the point and shoot is reigniting some of my creativity. It is simple and lacks pretension. That relieves some of the internal pressure to find an image that others will deem a "good" photograph. With a point and shoot, I am free. Free to be creative, to screw around, to just shoot some of the goings-ons in my life. If I get some usable images out of it, great, if not, still great because I had a good time out doing it. Sharing is the purpose of photography. It is about sharing what we care about, what we do, what we see, and our vision of the world. And if I'm not carrying a camera because it is too big and delicate to lug around on my snowy biking adventures, then I'm not a very good photographer am I?

Plus it shoots video!

New Year, New Light

Canon S95 Point and Shoot

This winter has not been easy for me. I'm used to some escape, and while I did spend nearly two weeks in Mexico in late November, I was so pre-occupied by preparing for, racing and recovering from the Ironman Triathlon, it hardly seemed to be an escape. In fact, this holiday season is the first I've ever spent in Alaska. Strange eh? I've lived here for 12 years and this was the first time I spent Christmas here. Basically, this means that I'm seeing this darkest time of year, in its entirety, for the first time. 

Now that we are past the solstice we are gaining back the sun in the range of 3 minutes a day, and that is enough to feel. Each day feels a bit brighter than the one before, the light lingers on the southern horizon for hours after sunset. But when the sun is up, it sheds wonderful, low-angle light across the landscape. Yesterday, New Year's Day 2011, was one such day. It is days like yesterday, when the the world no longer seems so black and white, so gray on gray, but rather an explosion of color. 

Canon S95 Point and Shoot

The 2 images here are mostly grab-shots, made with my new Canon S95 point and shoot. Got to say I'm impressed by this little machine. With a little work in Lightroom, the images are nearly perfect. I'm curious to see if my stock agency will accept a couple. I may try that this week.