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All photos by the author.

Winner Page 3 of 4    Page 1    Page 2    Page 4

Working With Cameras while Traveling

Having a camera as a professional tool, a family documenarian or a means through which travel and memories are enhanced brings three different mind sets and three different types of equipment.

Night traffic, Shanghai. Olympus E-1.

The Money Shots
A professional tool may look like a camera, but it's a working partner in the process of making a living and is something that puts food on the dinner table, buys a car and pays bills. When a professional photographer selects a product it will nearly always be required to perform without fail and bring as many money-making features to life as possible. Professional photography involves seeing beyond the obvious and capturing images that have some fresh new point of view to them. That aspect often involves a narrative component--the story that the shot suggests. It's not just a picture of Brad Pitt attending a premier that gets the page space, but the one with him turning with an eyebrow raised in a moment of mini-drama. Special-ness in portraits, product shots, editorial and advertising images is what professional photographers constantly seek and their equipment needs to be ready Right Now.

Girls visiting Tien An Men Square. Olympus E-1.

Family Fotos
Family documenting needs a snap shooter--a camera that makes nice small prints, images for the Internet and can be operated by Naomi, Tom, Mary, Dick, Hank and Beatrice with ease and reliability. It has to be small enough to fit into your lifestyle so it is available when the mood strikes, and ideally it lashes to your finger, wrist or neck to lower the incidence of gravity-involved trauma. "Okay, you guys stand over there while I take your picture," means more than it says.

Hold that post! Canon 300D. Sigma 28-200.

It suggests that the shot is something that can tolerate several seconds of equipment preparation and that critical timing to the fraction of a second is not the prime feature. For more advanced photo enthusiast equipment the requirements go up a notch. Here a need for longer zoom ranges, faster shutter reaction timing, larger prints and more artistic goals all pull on the decision that purchases the camera. These needs have created the large enthusiast model market for camera that extends up to what is loosely called the Prosumer league.

On the Go
Vacation photos combine elements from all of the above. Like a photographer on assignment, a photographic tour of some interesting place keeps bringing novelty into view urging your shutter finger forward. The itchy trigger finger syndrome is a good thing, especially when the film doesn't cost you $1 per shot (or perhaps 110 yen or one Euro).

Yangtze wash day. Canon 300D. Sigma 28-200 lens.

You'll never have these first impressions again, so fast capture of the changing world around you is greatly appreciated. But you need to be able to hand the camera to Naomi (or Hank) from time to time to get another point of view involved, so passing to them something that is totally professional requires a moment or five of quick training. Better yet, the camera you hand them is designed to be ergonomically obvious to a novice.

First impressions. Canon 300D.

Small Encounters
No one camera does it all. When carry space drives the decision process, the best image from the smallest unit becomes the defining requirement. Our Nikon Coolpix 5400 came into play when something big was not an option and its enthusiast photographic abilities were accessed frequently. But this is the only camera handed to others to achieve a different point of view.

Winner's Circle Continues -->

China Trip Overview.

Canon Digital Rebel Gallery.

Canon Pro1 Gallery.

Olympus E-1 Gallery.

Nikon CP 5400 Gallery.

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