SUMMER PHOTO TIPS

Summer is upon us and I know everyone wants to escape the heat. We went to Colorado and Northern New Mexico for three weeks and have a great time. Took the ATVees up over 12,000 feet and had to stop because of snow. We stayed a half hour above Denver and one day it didn't even get over 60! It’s a dry heat isn't it????? I think a chamber somewhere in AZ came up with that phrase to promote tourism when its 110 outside!

To explain my closing statement on film is better than digital, with a negative your possibilities are endless as to what you can do with the image. You can blow it up as large as you want but with digital images you're limited to the resolution you shot the image on. Many of us just want to take photo after photo with the digital camera on one card. That means one shoots in a lower resolution. Oh Oh, enlarge that low res photo and watch it fragment as its enlarged. On vacation, you never know what you're going to do with those photos when you get home. You need to shoot in a higher resolution and bring plenty of memory cards, or that family photo in front of the most beautiful background in the world will have to be no larger than a 4x6. That happened to me, we took the wives camera while my big DSLR was being cleaned and updated at the factory. Be sure to check the shooting mode you are in before you're on vacation because you'll forget it later.

Batteries and your charger are the next biggest problems while on vacation wether you have a standard, digital or video camera. While I had the shop, I always had people come in who forgot their charger for either their camera or video camera. Batteries die quickly and are expensive to replace if you can find one. There are so many different types that most stores do not stock what you need. Some cameras accept both a dedicated and standard alkaline type which makes life somewhat easier. I needed a battery while in Colorado and went to a camera store for one. Of course they didn't have one for an interesting reason. They can't compete with the grocery store so I got one there. The big message here is always check your gear and pack it all for your trip...you will need it.

Don't forget the film and your memory cards. A good practice is to develop and print your film asap so it doesn't get destroyed by the airport scanners and the TSA. And as for your memory cards, upload, store and printing your photos is a good practice. I always bring my laptop and upload the photos for storage and I don't delete the images from any card until its on my desktop.

Standard things like cleaning the view finder and lens, and the remembering the camera case doesn't need to be discussed. So have a great vacation and don't push the delete button on that camera!

Dave Darby

WESTERN TRAILS PHOTOGRAPHY

928-684-7385