Picture Taking

Even if I didn't have this blog to share pictures, I would still take lots of pictures when I'm out canoe camping. I'm in such a beautiful place, I want to remember every single detail. From every cloudless sky and glass-surfaced lake to even the marshy put-ins. The longer the trip, the more all the details go into your brain and get all jumbled. Was the gorgeous waterfall on the second portage yesterday? Or the last one on the first day? My camera keeps them all in order and I can figure out where all the details were. Which lake had the gorgeous campsite, which pond had the turtles.

Loon in early evening on Lake Clemow

I have a great Nexus cell phone that takes really nice pictures. It doesn't come on trips with me. It doesn't even come in the car in case sitting in a hot car over 4 days melts it. There's no power source to charge my phone in nature and I'm not going to buy one. I've drenched, and lost, two cell phones, both in outdoor situations. One while bike riding home from work through a heavy rainstorm and one while walking a half marathon again through a heavy rainstorm. For me nature and cell phones are a bad combination. But I have a lot of pictures of Mr. Winston on my cell phone!

No photos please!

I have a Canon Rebel digital SLR I bought to take on a trip to Old Havana, Cuba. It's a good camera and I should take more time to figure out how to use it better. 

Old Havana - old car

My Rebel!

This camera comes on some trips. It's big, bulky, heavy and I sincerely don't want to get it wet. It travels in its own dry bag.  On travel days it is mostly out of my backpack (in the dry bag) and occasionally gets dropped in the canoe. I think I need to get the lens checked. I also need a zoom lens to really get the good moose pictures. It's on a wishlist!

Santa can you hear me? Can you see me?

I only have a single battery for this camera. It lasts pretty good though. I charge it up before going on the trip. It takes some great pictures.

Amazing beach in Iceland - sand and rocks are all black

My go-to dependable camera is a Canon PowerShot. It's an oldie, a gift from 2010. The definition isn't nearly the same as a newer camera, but it has some advantages. 

My trusty mini camera

Believe it or not it survived being completely submerged when it fell out of my pocket into a lake. (See here for the full story.) I grabbed it and removed both the battery and the SD card. I didn't even lose a picture! But it did need a good week to dry out and that was the end of any more pictures on THAT trip (only day 2). The key is I don't care if something happens to it. Which seems to give it some sort of magical power, like a superhero!

Pond where I dunked the PowerShot, one of the last shots that trip

I carry the smaller camera in a Ziplock bag and it fits in the front pocket of my life vest. I usually carry a couple of extra batteries for this camera.

The camera isn't in my pocket because it's being used to take the picture....d'oh!

I am motivated to take more pictures now that I have the blog to display them. I'll take pictures of things that normally might not be of interest to my friends and family as I bore them with trip details. They really only want to see the animals and I've not quite perfected my ability to capture wildlife with my camera.

Potty talk? Click here to read the full story