Okay, so maybe I do take the occasional, impromptu portrait from time to time.

Continuing with the unofficial theme this week of sifting through previous Door County photos, this is from Sept. ‘08 and from brunch at the Inn at Cedar Crossing in Sturgeon Bay. It was the following morning after our 5th wedding anniversary the night before. Although both the previous and following years’ anniversaries were spent on Maui, that year’s getaway was still very nice.

They’re from our first visit to Sturgeon Bay back in Sept. ‘08 and were taken during their annual Harvest Festival. It was neat walking around and seeing all the booths and people from all across the county coming for this get together.

But when it was time to eat, we picked up a little lunch and found ourselves an open stretch of curb to sit. As we sat and ate lunch, I looked around at things around me, and in between bites I picked up our little Canon SD890 and snapped a few photos.

A Different Point of View

You often hear and read a lot about how perspective is a powerful tool in photography. And while these aren’t dramatic compositions by any means, they are a neat view of what you can do sitting on your bum.

Just beware of slobbering dogs.

Came across this scene with the flag and the little Main St. sign while walking around Fish Creek in Door County this past weekend, and was inspired to steal Cindy’s camera from her hands and grab this shot.

One of the areas of feedback I received from my portfolio reviews at the Maui Photo Festival last month was to “get closer.” Much of what I’m used to shooting are wide open landscapes or big, black, night skies. So taking that advice, as with all the other tips I receive, I took it to heart and starting putting into practice.

Granted I only had a few hours to shoot the entire weekend, I did get a few more close ups, like this one.

Maybe not the best image in the bunch, but again, it’s practice in action and helping to train my brain to expand my vision when I’m shooting.

And we all know what practice makes.

This was the sunset that welcomed us back to Door County when we arrived in Ephraim last night. In fact, it was the only thing that was here to welcome us. Even the office at the resort was closed already, which made for a nice, quiet evening.

I wasn’t entirely ready to start shooting pictures yet, so I snapped this one with (now Cindy’s) Canon SD890 on the way to dinner. I’m hoping we have just as lovely conditions tonight and tomorrow so I can get a little more focused for these.

We’re heading back up to Door County, WI this afternoon for an extended weekend, so I thought I’d kick off a mini-series today. We’re staying at the Edgewater Resort in Ephraim this trip, and though we’ve never stayed there before, we’ve driven passed it numerous times and even snapped some photos of it back in September.

We leave Sunday morning, and earlier this week I started packing up my camera gear and getting it ready for the journey west. I’ve always brought a lot of tech toys with me on our Maui trips, but this year more than ever, it seems to be almost all I’m bringing with. I took a few shots of the camera gear I’m bringing this trip, along with an inventory just to make sure everything makes it back. Photos and details below.

My DSLRs
First up, my two DSLR cameras. This will be my first trip carrying two, and while they won’t both be going everywhere with me, it will come in handy in a few key situations.

Pictured:

• Canon EOS 20D Body
• Angle C Finder
• Remote Switch RS-80N3 (for 20D)
• USB Cable for 20D
• AC Wall Charger CG-580 (for 20D)
• Additional Battery BP-511A (for 20D)
• Canon Rebel XSi Body
• Speedlite 430EX II
• Difuser
• Canon Powershot SD890 IS
• AC Wall Charger CB-2LX (for SD 890)

Lenses

Pictured:

• Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
• Canon EF 18-55mm (bringing the IS model from my XSi, though)
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8

More Cables

Pictured:

• AC Power Adapter ACK-E2 (for 20D)
• AC Power Adapter ACK-E5 (for XSi)
• USB + Video Cables for XSi
• Remote Switch RC-1 (for XSi)
• AC Wall Charger LC-E5 (for XSi)
• Additional Battery LP-E5 (for XSi)

Video Gear
In addition to the camera tech, I’m also bringing our HDD video camera, too.

Pictured:

• Sony HDD HandyCam DCR-SR82
• HandyCam Station + AC Charger + USB Cable
• Standard Battery NP-FH40
• Extended Battery NP-FH70
• Video Light HVL-HL1
• Wide Angle Conversion Lens x0.6 VCL-HA06
• Telephoto Conversion Lens x2.0 VCL-2030x
• Filter ND8 30mm
• UV Protector 30mm
• RCA Video/Audio Cable

Filters
Things are getting a little crowded here, aren’t they? Here’s a list of the filters I’m bringing for my different lenses.

• 52mm Quantarray UV Filter
• 52mm Quantarray Circular Polarizer
• 58mm Qunatarray Circular Polarizer
• 58mm Hoya Circular Polaraizer
• 58mm Canon UV Haze Filter (2x)
• 77mm Tiffen Neutral Density 0.3 Filter
• 77mm Hoya Circular Polarizer
• 77mm Hoya UV Haze Filter

Rental Gear
In addition to everything above, I’ve also rented the following gear from CameraLensRentals, which is making the trip with me.

• Canon 400mm f/5.6L Telephoto Lens
• Canon 1.4x II Extender
• Giottos Tripod MT-8340

Why all this stuff?
I plan on covering quite a bit of ground during our two weeks on Maui, including a wide arrange of shooting conditions, subjects, and locations. Pretty amazing for such a small island, actually. Everything you see above is being brought along for one or more of those different situations, and while I wish I had the time to list them all out now, I’ll have to save that for future posts.

A look at the Visitor Center in Ephraim, Wisconsin.

While I witnessed history from the comfort of my living room, and in 42″ flat screen and full HD glory, my brother and his buddy were at the game with about 40,000 others. He was kind enough to bring along my Canon SD890 for the afternoon and took some really great shots that I wanted to share. Even though the main focus of this site is aimed at showcasing my work as a photographer, I felt the quality of these photos was a strong testament to how versatile the Canon SD890 really is.

Perhaps the biggest thing that sticks out with this set of photos is the image quality using the 5x optical zoom of the SD890. While his seats were pretty decent, the optical zoom got him closer to the action without introducing noise and other distortions that digital zooms are known for. Even in the hands of someone that just picked up this particular camera for a few hours, this Canon did a very respectable job of capturing some great memories.

You can see more of these photos in the Flickr photoset Winter Classic 2009. And if you like these, check out my hockey page in Viewfinder section for more.

These photos are courtesy of Bobby Nelson.

When I tried to shoot the flurries outside here in Chicago yesterday during my lunch break, all I had with me was my SD890 (again anywhere, anytime). Trying to catch the giant snowflakes whizzing around my car window with the normal modes from the SD890 just wasn’t working. They snow was flying too fast and the shutter was taking too long. Everything was coming out blurry.

The Solution
Flipping through the Scene (SCN) options, I found the ISO 3200 setting and gave it a shot. To my amazement, the photo appeared on the screen almost instantly, way faster than using the normal shutter mode. After a few attempts, I was able to snap the photo on the right here, which was just what I was looking for. While you can only see the biggest snowflakes in this small thumbnail, click on the image to view the large size on Flickr to see the tiny flakes in more detail.

Not only was I happy to get the photo I wanted, I was also excited because I had a way to capture a wider range of photos for moments that wouldn’t be possible with slower shutter speeds. Remember, I’ve been shooting mainly with a DSLR, so this was a new problem to me.

Drawbacks
Of course, something this helpful will also come with it’s share of drawbacks. The first is in relation to the photo’s size, which isn’t too bad. Shooting with the SD890 in ISO 3200 mode puts your image size to a maximum setting of 3M, which is roughly equivalent to 3 MegePixels. It also restricts the resolution of your image to 1600×1200. Still, that’s pretty decent to use in cases where you would otherwise miss out on a shot altogether.

Now, just like with DSLR and even film cameras, the higher the ISO setting for film or an image processor, the more “noise” you will see in your photos. Depending on the situation, this can mean quite noticeable degradation in the fine details and quality of a photo. For example, the photo on the left here was taken in ISO 3200. Now, this is just a set scene and there’s no real reason why it has to be taken in the SD890′s ISO 3200, but it proves the point about the image noise that can result.

Once again, click on the photo to view the larger size on Flickr. If it was taken with the normal shooting mode of the camera (which I should have done for further comparison here), the details of the handwritten note on the Post-It would be a lot more legible, and you could probably even read my own chicken scratch on the pages underneath the bottle of water. With a proper settings and exposure time, this image, and all of the camera’s 10MP glory, would have been so much better.

What took so long?
Why did it take so long for me to figure this out? I can’t really tell you, other than the fact I don’t really read instruction guides as much as I should. I have known for years now that, for low-light and night photography, raising the ISO setting will allow you to shoot with faster shutter speeds. But I guess I never applied that line of thinking to a point and shoot camera like the SD890. Live and learn, I guess.

The first one I shot was taken back in September, when it was still nice out here in Chicago. A little background, a few coworkers and I spent most of the summer rollerblading during our lunch break, and this little clip was me following them down the overpass on our normal route. As you can tell, the audio isn’t that great on a windy day when you’re whizzing down a fairly steep hill, but it kind of clears up near the end.