Point & Shoot - With A Purpose Please

Like most people over the age of 30, my first camera had a funny plastic like strip inside it - better known as film. Film was expensive. And nearly as expensive, was the process of turning film into prints. This necessitated (for financial reasons) the curiously arcane combination of deliberation and deliberateness. A roll of 24 exposures seemed like luxury. 36 was decadent.

Then sometime in the late nineties and early noughties, film was replaced, as a light sensing mechanism by a digital sensor and as a capture mechanism by memory cards. And instantly, everyone became a photographer. Formerly insufferable slide nights were soon replaced by links to your friend’s best 700 holiday snaps. Because incremental costs were virtually zero, and economic theory being what it is, it stood to reason that there would be an exponential increase in the number of photos being taken. But just because something can be done, doesn’t mean it should be done.

When digicams first came out, some were decent but most were crappy. Nowadays, all of them are pretty much excellent. But no single camera can do all things well. Point and shoots will not give you Digital SLR quality. DSLRs will not give you the small form factor of a point and shoot. An interesting recent development has been that of micro four-thirds camera. The non-technical definition is a camera that gives close to DSLR quality but in a much smaller form factor (basically, they’ve removed
the mirror). And because the lenses are interchangeable, you can get pretty creative. You could mount a 50 year old Leica lens onto a Lumix GF1 or Olympus E-PL1(2) (both point and shoot size) and get some really interesting results. And Sony has just jumped into the mix with the NEX line of even smaller bodies with APS-C sensors (tech speak for really good) and the ability to use a wide array of lenses. And if you have the budget and want a true retro buzz with 21^st century convenience you could head down the Leica M path and create classic looking digital shots.

But, randomness is to be avoided at every step of the process. First, think about what you’d like to photograph and get a camera that is suitable (not just the one with the highest megapixel count). Then, even in automatic mode, think about the shot and what you want out of it. Experiment a little (but not randomly) with manual settings – even if it’s just to gain a basic understanding of ISO, aperture and shutter speed (the holy trinity of exposure) and most importantly - edit, edit edit.

I’m of the opinion that serendipity is the positive unintended consequence of deliberate action rather than pure, dumb luck. If you think about what you’re doing, you’re much more likely to get “lucky” than if you simply click away at anything that moves (or doesn’t). And if you exercise some level of editorial discipline, not only will you avoid being the person who sends the 700 photo link, you’ll probably even meet the definition of a professional photographer – someone who only shows the good stuff! 

The tools are there. Use them wisely. Happy shooting!

P.S. For those of you in the Bay Area, an excellent Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit commences at SFMOMA on October 30.

Gutenbergermeister - mustard and ketchup really CAN co-exist

I am comfortable with my own embarrassment.

I purchased a Gen1 Kindle the day it was launched in late 2007 (mostly because of the dorky video testimonials on the Amazon.com site – more on the power of video later). I purchased an iPad the day it was released in April 2010 (but please don’t think I lined up - I’m not THAT comfortable).

My first impression of the Kindle was that it was a game changer – and I still believe that. I have sold at least a couple dozen of them to friends by wholly unremunerated advocacy. Its form factor, screen technology and breadth of content have seen my physical book purchasing drop to nearly nothing over the last three years. The volume of my reading has increased substantially (but nowhere nearly as much as the length of my reading list) and I have even managed to embrace newspapers and books on the Kindle – somewhat.

Then along came the iPad. In the spirit of my preface, I was so smitten with the cutesiness of iBook that my immediate post iPad “bookings” were exclusively from the iBook store. How could I possibly live without virtual shadows on the back of the virtually turning page? Then I discovered the native Kindle app (yes, I did not buy the iPad with reading as my primary goal so I had not fully done my research beforehand). In a rather dimly illuminated light bulb moment, I realized I could continue to buy Kindle content and read it on both devices! This allowed me to re-embrace my trusted old friend (by technology standards), the Kindle, but also read the same content on the iPad which had now replaced it as the singular device in my daily kit bag (more on bags later – then we’ll test the limits of my embarrassment as we delve into the world of man bags and how to generally carry tech gear).

It took very little time for me to realize that the iPad and the Kindle only compete at the margin. The Kindle is still a far better pure reading device. Smaller, lighter, better screen (although not illuminated) and incredible battery life (although the iPad is excellent). But the iPad is always with me and is definitely the better night time reader (if you can figure out the ergonomics – the single biggest challenge as it’s a much larger and heavier device).

The combination of the Kindle and the iPad Kindle app also does a good job of keeping my bookmarks synched. If only some smart guy could figure out how to include the audio book medium in that mix so that I could have proper bookmarks across all my reading / listening formats (and extra bonus points if you can have it pick up from the point I fell asleep in the audio book – maybe an integration with Fitbit’s sleep tracker)!

P.Roy Havas – feel free to drop me a note proy@specialtys.com