California winter and camera review

At last, I have found my USB cable for the new camera. Full specs first: This is a Nikon Coolpix L14. After uploading the photos and seeing them large on the computer screen, I got a much better idea of what this camera can do and what it's shortcomings are. First of all, it performs awesomely (is that a word?) in situations where the light is adequate. If you like to use flash (and I don't unless absolutely necessary) it does what all cameras do when the flash goes off: blow out skin tones. If you shoot without flash in low light situations, the image tends to be grainy and of course, a little blurry. But for about $130 bucks you get 7.1 megapixels and it's small enough to put in your pocket or purse. This makes it easy for me to get those snapshots of everyday things. Because I shoot photos professionally, I fall into the trap of thinking that every single photo I take has to look like artwork. Unfortunately, this eliminates about 95% of every day situations. I want Kian to have a record of his life, and not just awesome portraits. What's nice about this little camera is that it allows me to "turn off the inner editor" to quote my publishing professor and just shoot. The photos in this post are all straight out of camera (SOOC). This means that other than resizing them for the web and watermarking them, I did absolutely NOTHING to them in photoshop. So all in all, I would highly recommend this camera to anyone looking to pick up a nice little point and shoot. It's the perfect thing for those of us on the go. And the battery really does last a heck of a long time. About the pictures themselves: The first one is on the beach in California. In the previous post, you can see one from the same day taken with my D80. With the light conditions, not much difference. The other photos are of one of my favorite places in the world. Just 2 miles from the house where I grew up, there is this amazing hiking area called Point Mugu State Park. There is a 9 mile trail to the beach as well as a nice climb to Mt. Boney (3,800 ft). I could go on and on about this place but I'll just say that it is like a little bit of heaven on earth. See how nicely this camera does in good light? I was loving that backlight and those silhouette shots. That last shot is my dad with Kian on his shoulders. I think I will blow it up big.