Joan was opening the office again this morning, so she was up early. Yep, we're all up early. I have a list of things that need to get done, and had most of them done before 8:30. It's Saturday, and I am looking forward to a walk through the Farmers Market and some tasty, spicy pizza... after 10:00 am, 'cause that's when they open.
This means I had some time to play with the GoPro this morning. I walked up to the truck to get some supplies, and two scooters that have always been covered were greeting me at the parking lot...
A Vespa and a tropical looking Honda Metropolitan. Yeah, I miss my scoot. The GoPro does an admirable job on this subject. And, a close up...
Nice detail. But, for someone who spent over 30 years composing through the viewfinder, the GoPro is the opposite of a professional tool. Oh, it has great resolution, and couldn't be smaller, but this is the ultimate "grab shot" type of camera. Well, it would be if the controls on it were more intuitive. You have to scroll through the menu with two buttons, meaning a bunch of "press this one, press that one" moves to get to the setting you want on the camera. It also means I get a lot of this type of image...
A most attractive up-the-nose shot. Press the wrong one of the two buttons, and you get 30 of these in one second... 'cause, as everyone knows, just one up-nose is never enough. In this image, I am trying to read the miniscule monotone screen to switch from extreme wide angle to a more normal view.
A stop to view the marina, on wide view...
I was standing right at the edge of those shrubs. With any other camera, you'd see lots of marina and maybe just a bit of shrubs on the sides. No, this is a lot of shrub and not much marina. No viewfinder, so it's a "grab shot."
I took a few more images up my nose, then got the camera set to "normal view"...
Yeah, not much different. The camera is really designed for up-close-but-really-wide views... that's where it shines. With my little point & shoot, I find I use the zoom lens on a bit of telephoto most of the time... with a viewfinder so I can compose.
That's not to say that you can't crop the heck out of the image...
but, that really doesn't bring in the boats. I don't think will be my favorite camera anytime soon, but it will be fun to experiment with it for action shots, like on the scooters or kayaks (neither of which we have with us). The waterproof housing is a nice feature... if I ever get to have the use for that.
Walking down the ramp on the way back to our boat...
Again, a LOT of foreground... but the boats are the most interesting part of this image to me... and, you can't make any of them out.
Back in "the day," I had a Hasselblad SuperWide that I would pull out for the occasional shot that could only be conveyed with an extreme wide angle view. I'm pretty sure that's how I'll be using the GoPro.
I was asked how this camera would be for whale photos - the worst, since it makes thing at a slight distance appear to be at a great distance. And, 200 yards away would barely be a spec in an image from this camera. But, it is possible to strap this to the boat and set it to take a photo every 30 seconds (or .5 seconds, 2 seconds, etc, etc)... after you have taken 30 or more images up your nose while trying to get it to the other setting. ;-)
We'll see if I have the patience... or the need for a LOT of up-the-nose images. "Delete" is my friend.
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On edit: a couple shots of one of the boats I drive...
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