This year I dove head first into the wonderful world of photography.  Okay, so I’m not that good at it yet, but I am getting better.  The first thing I learned is that a camera isn’t just a camera.  I used to think that any point and shoot camera would do just fine.  Then when my camera died on me in the early spring I decided I would go out there and compare cameras and get serious about my picture taking.

I shopped around, read photography and camera blogs, compared cameras, and talked to other photographers online.  I came up with a great recommendation for the Canon Powershot S5.  My friend Alli had the previous model and very much loved it, and after reading some reviews online I decided the S5 was perfect for me.  It’s as close as you can get to having an SLR camera, but with all the ease of a point and shoot camera!  It literally is the best of both photography worlds.

On a recent trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium I really put my camera to the test. There were crows of people to see all the recent new additions to the zoo. A baby tiger, two baby elephants, and plenty of other babies to be seen! It was hard to get up close in some of the viewing areas, especially to see the elephants! There was a large crowd gathered in all three viewing areas for the elephants.

Everyone was trying to get close to the front to snap pictures of the baby elephants while they played in the wet clay. I was way in the back and didn’t feel like pushing through to the front and then fighting to get back out again. But, that didn’t stop me from getting great pictures!

I flipped open my viewing screen, held my camera up high enough that I could see over people’s heads and snapped away. A few of my shots did end up with random people’s hair in the view, but for the most part I got some good pictures without even trying hard.

My old camera would have never been able to zoom in like that and get the shot from far away. I have to say that I’m really pleased with my Canon Powershot S5, it gets the job done and makes me look good even when I have no idea what I’m doing.

Posted on September 17th, 2008 by loretta