The camera has full manual controls which for me is much needed, I’ve owned various point and shoot small cameras over the years and they have never lived up to what I want from a camera. I want manual controls like my DSLR. Many a time my old small point and shoot cameras have taken control and changed totally the type of picture I wanted to take. Now if I take a bad pictures its all my fault….. I know this type of camera isnt for all but it is for me. While it cant be compared to the 30D I have it is the best of the smaller camera brigade and small enough for me to carry around most of the time, unlike the DSLR and all the lenses, tripodand  accessories.

Pros: Smaller than DSLR, Full Manual control, External flash mount, IS, 6x zoom, 12MP, well built, picture quality (low ISO)

Cons: Not pocket size, Lens not fast enough at zoom, not really wide angle. poor high ISO

The Pros for me are what I have bought the camera for, while the cons are annoying, no small camera is perfect and this is the best of them for my needs by far at the moment. It wont replace my full DSLR in anyway as the over all control with the better lenses and depth of field just doesn’t exist on a small camera.

Now Its down to me to get the most out of the camera and see what its like after a full weekend of using it. As I am off for a long weekend there is a good chance that it will get a lot of use as I wont be taking my DSLR to force myself to use the G9 all the time, so I will know exactly what I think come Monday, see how close it comes to my perfect small camera and where it falls over.

On a side note I also got a Gorillapod with the camera so I could do long exposure pictures without having to carry one of my large tripods around, this camera is all about freedom and not having to carry tonnes of gear around. I will post my verdict on that once I have used it more. Got a few good ideas I want to try out so will see if I can pull them off.

I will post some of my favourits pictures over the coming weeks but in the meantime I have included a few to start it off below. More of the pictures are hosted on flickr here.

As for my trip, I landed in Calgary and picked up my little hire car I had ordered. (In, joke as they run out of small cars and I got the biggest they had). Got in and turned the wrong way out of the Airport which wasnt a good start but to my defence, they had major road works going on at the time and I just found myself in the wrong lane. From then on it was a 1 1/2 hours drive over a flat landscape wondering where these mythical Rockies I had heard of were.

The first night I stayed in Banff Springs and got ready for the next days long drive up to jasper, during which I stopped as much as I could on the way. It has to be said that I had the most clear skies for my first 4 days of the holiday, so on the drive to Jasper I made the most of it and stopped at, Cascade ponds, Waterfowl lake, Bow Lake, Peyto Lake, Tangle Creek, Sunwapta Falls, Athabaska Falls along with various roadside stops to take in the landscape. All in all it must have took me twice as long as it would have without making any stops.

Once at Japser I actually stayed in a new look log cabin just outside of Jasper, Becker Chalets for 3 days which I have to say was just perfect. Just far enough from Jasper and yet quiet and surrounded on two sides by the river. On one mornign I had a wake up call of a herd of the local wild animals eating outside. Quite a site as they walked thru the camp site.

During my time at Becker Chalets I managed to get quite a lot done, visiting most of the local lakes and taking in a few walks. Lake Patricia, Horseshoe Lake, Pyramid Lake and Maligne Lake to name a few.

While also taking the Tram to the top of Jasper Mountain and then the long walk the rest of the way, in all close to 2400m high which was breath taking, partly due to the altitude. The views were stunning, I managed to make it on one of the few days when Mount Robson was visible in the distance and not covered by cloud or mist, all 4,000m of it. The 2nd highest mountain in BC
Jasper, as a town, had all I wanted and was quite a bit larger than Banff. Much more to do if you wanted to do a day of visiting the town, lots of gift shops to pick up those much needed holiday reminders. Train station for those that wanted to take the train to another part of Canada….
On my last day In Jasper the weather turned slightly and I started to get clouds in the sky, which I must say was very pleased to see. You can only take so much of perfect blue skies. I wanted clouds and you will see why in the coming posts and the pictures I managed to get.

Then it was the drive back down to Lake Louise for my last 3 days. As the weather had changed I could stop at a lot of the same places I stopped at on the drive up and get completly different experiences, different sun position, cloud filled skies. Well worth stopping twice.

At the resort of lake louise I stopped at Deer Lodge, which turned out to be about 200m from the lake. Again this was a magical place to visit and I made a few trips the Lake Louise itself and Moraine Lake which are the two best known lakes in that area. Lake Louise is made for people to stay and relax, horse rides, mountain biking and well marked walks are all available as well as the ability to hire canoes to take on the lake.

After this it was time to head back to the airport and back to the UK. I will visit Canada again and try and take in the sea to Sky highway among other Canadian national parks I missed on this short trip.

Above is just a small selection of the pictures taken on the drive to Jasper.

Well that is a short guide to my holiday and now comes the good bit, I get to post some of the magical views from the holiday. Keep a look out for more details and my favourite pictures from the trip the future posts.

If you cant wait the more of the pictures are hosted on flickr here.

Try again….. but what…

Taken in Woodbridge marina, Suffolk, UK as the sun sets.

More pictures here.

Woodbridge Tide Mill as the sun set behind me. It gave the clouds a fake light for some reason as if the sun was behind them when it wasnt.

more pictures here.

Woodbridge marina in Suffolk In the UK. Taken looking inland as the sun was going down on a cloudy day.

More pictures here.

This was taken 2hrs before the sunset picture in the previous post. So ok, it can look ok in day light too, its quite a structure.

More pictures here.

One of the few times the Orwell bridge outside of Ipswich in the UK looks nice. The rest of the time its a hudge pile of concrete.

More pictures of it here.

More photos can be found here.

We stayed at a place called Morzine which is just an hour from Geneva, so easy to get to by plane which was lucky for me as at the time driving wasnt possible.

As with most of the alps during the winter it’s a Ski resort but during summer months it has turned into a haven for downhill mountain bikers, who use the ski runs and ski lift’s meaning its more of a year round resort now. Even with these crazy loons going down the mountains at silly speeds (with no soft snow to cushion falls) the landscape as can be seen below is beautiful. This picture was taken at the top of one of the two mains lift’s out of Morzine.

A basic 5 picture stitched panoramic as you find it hard to express the size of the Alps without taking wide angle pictures to help.

Below is yet another of the views from the top of the mountains. Once at the top of a lift you can usually walk along the ridge line to find another lift leading down into another valley. In theory you can do this all day.

Dont let the clouds fool you, at this height the sun is warm and burns easily. Cool breeze because of the height yet warm sun, being new to this I took too much the first day that I didnt need.

Two of those mad fools I mentioned. Stu and Steve. Half way down a mountain waiting for the slower ones to catch up.

Now onto the last day which was one of surprise.

Myself and Stu went to try and catch a glimpse of Mont Blanc which meant jumping in the car and bombing up those typical twisty mountain roads. Not knowing exactly where we were going, what we found was a small mountain lake that was mirror still, which provided us with a view of Mont Blanc in the background. Stu being Stu, he had to have a picture of his car and I have to say it looked good with the two of them reflecting in the last bit of sun.

Was that the end of the holiday, noooo. What we had forgot was that it was Bastille day in France. By the time we got back to the challet it was dark, food was ready (which was mmmm) beer ready and then……. From the valley we were staying in came explosions and light.

Firewoks lighting up the sky… But to see them you will need to view the holiday pictures on flickr.

Even tho I had owned cameras for years before this and have various pictures going back to the 80’s taken by me on camera’s I owned, I was only just starting to use cameras more and more for fun around this time, not just when on holidays or special occasions.

That was until one day I went and got a BnW film and tried it out. Looking back on this now I need to force myself to take more pictures in BnW as it does make you focus on the way light falls and the different contrast in a picture. A different style of composing a picture as what looks good in colour wont always make a good BnW picture.

Before it clicked that I liked this photography thing, I had looked at and read up on photography (yes I do read) and it came accross some wise words which I thought I understood at the time but only really understood around the year 2000. Its strange how 7 words can be important

The subject is irrelevant - Photograph the light

I can see when I mention this to people, the look they give me must have been the one I had when I first read those words, they dont understand it fully as all they see are the subject and cant grasp that the subject is nothing without the right light.

A picture can be good when taken by lifting a camera and pressing the shutter. But moving say a person to the left 5deg will make the light fall over the face a different way and enhanced the picture to make it a great picture, yet the subject is the same person. It was the light that made the picture better. This is the same for landscapes, waiting for the right light, be it the sunrise, sun setting or just the sun moving behind some cloud. Its the light that can make or break a photo.

Its all about the light. Now all say with me…. I see the light………

But hang on, is that all there is to photography, Noooooo. This is a rule to help, it’s not the holy grail of answers and does not improve all photographs but helps. It’s one of the many rules which you should think about when taking a picture.

And on that final note I am off out to try and get some BnW pictures.

• French Alps Holiday:

A trip taken in July 2007 to Morzine in the french alps with a group of friends. A lovely part of the world and a place I will try and visit again.

• Canadian Rockies Holiday:

A quick 8day trip to Canada, taking in the canadian rockies from Banff, Lake Louise to Jasper. WOW, what can i say except it was stunning and I had what can only be describe as perfect weather.

• Abode Lightroom:

The first point of call for all my photos once out of the camera and quite often the last, photoshop is not used as much as Lightroom does so much. A lot more to this bit of software than first meets the eye.

• Photomatix:

A purpose built tool for HDR and tone-mapping of photographs. Currently the best HDR tool out there and one I want to expirement with more.

• Photoshop:

Which to choose with the arrival of elements to the expensive CS range. Expensive or cheap version?

• Epson P-3000 Photo Viewer:

Purpose built storage for the digital camera users colour space calibrated etc….

• Various Lenses:

The ones I have and the ones I want. Oh to have £2000-£3000 to spend just Lenses.

• Ipod Touch:

My latest and greatest gadget. The most used Ipod I have owned by far and the way they are going to be going in the future. A more feature rich wireless device.

As to when i get to each topic, only time will tell. I aim to keep upto date with new posts as my priority and will post topics from the above list when I have little or nothing new to say. And just to be awkward my first few posts are already decide upon and are from the list above.