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Vacation Photography – New Generation Camera Shoots Stills and Video

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Published: 07Oct2008
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You have worked hard all year, and now it is time to take a vacation and recuperate. This is a time that many people look forward to and prepare for most of the year. It is a lot of work to prepare for properly, plane tickets, hotel accommodations, car rentals, clothes to pack, pets to take care of, making sure the other family members and friends can contact you in an emergency etc. But one of the items sometimes left to last, is photography equipment to record your vacation. Do you want to take along a lot of equipment, still cameras and lenses, accessories, plus the video camera to record all the action on your trip.

When taking a vacation, most people will take a still digital camera or a video camera. Some will take both, and do their best to contend with the hassle of switching between cameras. Some scenes are better suited to being photographed with a video camera, obviously as with things that are moving, ,such as a parade or at the races, while others are better suited to a still camera, such as landscapes and cityscapes.

Using the two different types of cameras does require a different technique to get the most out of the camera. For instance, when shooting with a video camera, all the experts will tell you that the best method to make sure that the video you shoot is as exciting as when you took the video, is to take a series of short clips, rather than one long boring clip. Video needs to be interesting, and we humans get bored very quickly, so make your videos short and to the point.

On the other hand, taking photos with a digital still camera offers you the opportunity to take a little more time to think about the composition and framing of the image, and the time of day you take the photo. Digital still cameras also offer a much higher resolution so you can make enlargements that you can hang on the wall for all to see. The digital DSLR is a very versatile system.

If you are not fully aware of the benefits of a DSLR let me do a quick summary. The first, and some believe the most important feature, is that you look through the viewfinder and you see exactly what the camera sees. In other words, the light from the subject enters the lens of the camera, and this is the image you see. At the moment of the exposure, when you take the photo, the camera re-directs this image onto the digital sensor, and captures the image. In normal daylight, this happens so quickly, it is barely noticeable. In dim light conditions, you will not be able to see through the camera until the exposure is finished. With the new generation of cameras, they employ a system called live view, where the image you are photographing is shown on the rear LCD screen. So you can compose and see the image as you take the photo.

Now, in the old days, and I am talking about a few months ago (things happen so fast in this digital age), you had to compromise on taking a video or a still camera or both on your vacation. But today, you have a new choice. The major still DSLR camera manufacturers are now combining the best of both worlds into the one camera body. Now you can take high resolution still photos, and HD quality video with sound, on the newest range of DSLR cameras. This is exciting news, as now you really do have the best of both worlds, a HD video camera and a high resolution digital still camera, all in one unit.

And by using the DSLR body as a HD video recorder, you have the option of using all the accessories you would normally only be able to use on the DSLR but now also with video. All those optional lenses will enable you to take some amazing videos, and by adding filters and other accessories, this opens up a whole new genre of available effects.

Another rally cool tool for use with this new generation of camera, is the available GPS tagging of your images. This technology will tag every picture you take with GPS data so that you will always know exactly where you were when you took each photo. With some kinds of photography, such as bird photography, where you may have taken a photo of a particular bird, you will always be able to find your way back to the spot where you took the photo by referring to the GPS data.

Like many professionals, Tom Jackson began his career by shooting weddings. Tom has been a consultant to the graphic design, advertising and publishing industries, teaching digital technology. You can get more info on photography and see examples of his work here; For free tips visit Toms blog.

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