POINT AND SHOOT

I've lately created sample presentation-storyboards to a client. I submitted several styles, from fully illustrated to an illustrated style that's really dependent on photo manipulation. This requires I either swipe lots of photos and manipulate them to make them unrecognizable to even their authors, or take lots of photos myself. I've done both, but I want to create my own stock of reference, which leads us to the subject of photography. I've got four wee ones (seven, five, three, and one) and I often miss plenty of those 'special moments' due to two reasons.

The first I call the "Warner Bros. frog moment". For those who recall, there was a Warner Bros. cartoon, "One Froggy Evening", wherein a construction worker found a box with a singing/dancing frog (this frog, I believe, currently serves as a logo-mascot character for the WB Network). Naturally the construction worker saw the monetary potential in such a find, so he takes the frog to talent agents and such, but when he shows them the frog, the thing just sits there. Everyone thinks the poor sap is looney, and by the end of the cartoon he really is off his nut. Well, when it comes to the fruit 'O' my loins, I'm often faced with the same phenomenon. There they are doing something so cute you just want to pinch their cheeks until they bleed, and I run to get the camera, and by the time I return, fumble to get the dang thing turned on and focused . . . "ribbet". Nothing. They just sit there.

The second reason I've failed to record those great moments is due to poor equipment. There I am, camera in hand, powered up, aimed at the little stinkers before they can foil me with another Warner-Bros-frog-moment, and . . . click. As I eagerly review my shot, I see that there's nothing to show for the moment but a blur. At those moments I want to throw the camera against the wall. Sure, I could have caught the action with my film SLR, but who in the world still uses film? Why waste money buying film and having it processed? It was an insufferable situation. Luckily my wife saved me from becoming an interminable whiner by graciously allowing me to move from a digital point-and-shoot to a DSLR. Yes, it's actually for work, but it'll allow me to capture the little tykes without blur should the need arise.

Finally, this brings us to the million-dollar question: Canon or Nikon? For those familiar with the two, and who manage to remain unbiased (if that's possible), both are equally capable (or so I've been told, confirmed by my own research). Sure, there are fan-boys on both sides, but I suppose you can't go wrong either way. My good pal uses a Nikon for sports, and he gets great pics. Another chum uses a Canon for sports and nature shots, and he gets great results. All of the cameras I've ever owned have been Canon, from my film SLR to all the digital point-and-shoot cameras. I saw no reason to jump ship, so I went with what I knew. The video below is a review of the camera I chose. Will it eliminate those 'Warner Bros. frog' moments? Well, not likely, but eliminating one out of two obstacles is progress.