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Going out, an example

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Building on the last five posts or so, the next few days will be examples of photographs taken by following my technique (more-or-less).  I’ll describe the situation, the settings, and then display a photo for the day.

Today, I start with a picture from last November.  We were on vacation in Wailea, Maui.  If you know about the area, you know how nice it is.  The weather was unnaturally windy, though – rough for that area.  It even rained one day!  And by wind, I mean “light breeze.”

So here we are, in a beautiful area, but there are clouds.  Spotty clouds, mostly sunny. Going down to the beach, I have the sd500 in the waterproof case.  ISO is pre-set to 50, white balance to daylight, EV to -1/3.  At the beach (same area as the image posted on April 5th), I noticed a rocky area to the south, and some rocks stacked up by (assumedly) the locals.

Stack of rocks, setup by locals (I'm assuming)

Stack of rocks, setup by locals (I'm assuming).

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No fear of salt water

Sunday, April 5th, 2009
A view from the ocean.

A view from the ocean.

The beautiful thing about having the full case and camera package is the lack of fear.  Here we have a mid-November afternoon, where I’m standing about 20 ft out.  I’m about mid-thigh in the water, with occasional waves up to my waist.  I wouldn’t be taking this picture with a DSLR. It’s well over a grand for the case on one of those guys, and walking in this without a waterproof case?  Insane.

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Why this setup?

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

First of all, this isn’t my only camera.  It’s my go-to camera, though.  Why did I buy the sd500 and waterproof case?  Well, the case really followed the camera.  The camera?  I liked the sd400 (at the time, it was one of the best compacts out there), and this was the newer one.  And it was on sale – the sd550 had just come out.

And addition reason: I was motivated.  A burglary had relieved us of all cameras (along with the video of my daughter’s 1st birthday – I still wish eternal suffering to those bastards), and with a year-old daughter, I needed something.  The case followed that summer.

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Extra equipment for the Canon sd500

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
The waterproof case for the sd500 (click for larger view)

The waterproof case for the sd500 (click image for larger view)

About two months after I bought the sd500, I picked up the WP-DC70.  That’s the camera’s waterproof case (and well worn, as you can see).  I personally grabbed it for snorkeling on the rare vacations, but quickly found it indispensable for the beach, pool, and most anywhere with dust or other contaminants.

You do have to be careful about the glass in front of the lens.  Many of my beach shots have a bit of a soft-focus touch to them, or blurry spots.  This is either water droplets that haven’t come off  or my 4-year-old’s fingerprints.

The main thing, for me, is that it’s good to 120 ft (30 meters, really).  See, just in case I ever go SCUBA diving, I want it with me.  Proof of concept: in late February/early March I did exactly that, going down to 70 meters at the deepest.  The  two-year-old poorly maintained case still held up spectacularly.

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