Cameras at Philmont

[Gold Winger]

I took a small Kodak digital camera to Philmont with a 2GB SD card and I didn't quite fill it up. Over 1,000 shots and the card would have held 1,300.

 

A couple of the Scouts and one of the advisors brought a bunch of single use cameras, the type that most call "disposable" which in retrospect doesn't make much sense. When I say a bunch, I mean five or six apiece.

 

Why doesn't it make sense? Those camera cost between $5 and $10 each and only take about 25 pictures, so you've invested between $30 and $60 for cameras with no zoom and can take only 150 snaps.

 

If you shop carefully, you can find a decent digital with a 3-5 power zoom and video capability for about $50 to $60.

 

That said, what else do you need with your camera? Batteries. Look for a camera that can use AA batteries. Mine uses a special rechargable battery but it can also use AA batteries. Alkalines don't last in a digital camera. More on that in a bit.

 

Ran across a fellow at Philmont who had a nice camera but it could only use a rechargabel flat battery pack. He had two packs but noplace to recharge them. I suppose if he had planned a little better he could have brought a $150 solar charger . . .

 

I correctly assumed that I wouldn't be able to charge my camera and might not even be able to buy batteries on the trail so I set out to figure how many batteries I'd need.

 

First I started off with Energizer alkaline batteries. Amazingly, I could shoot over 300 shots with them but then the strange thing would happen. Overnight, the batteries would die. The same thing happened if I only took 100 pictures, overnight the batteries would die. I contacted Kodak to see if they had an explanation but all they said was, "don't use alkaline." (sounds like dealing with Scoutstuff.org).

 

I then tested the Energize e-lithium battery and found that I could get between nearly 350 photos out of a set. Life does depend on flash, zooming, and use of the screen (I'm old fashioned, I use the optical viewfinder). Energizer also sells e-titanium which were recommened by someone with a blog but the according to Everready, the e-lithium is better for cameras.

 

Now, I've found my batteries. How many do I need? I thought that if I got really exicited and filled the card, I'd need four sets of batteries. So I put a set in the camera and put three extra sets in my ditty bag.

 

I think that I was pretty clever with the batteries. I taped them together in pairs, one up and one down so I could just drop a pair into the camera without much fuss. I also put tape over the terminals so that they wouldn't accidently discharge against something (fold the tape over on one end to make a tab so it is easy to get off).

 

I didn't want the extra weight so I didn't take an extra SD card. :-)

 

Seriously, I figured that over a two week trip, I'd have to take nearly 100 shots a day to fill up the card. I nearly did it but some of that was video another advantage of digital cameras. One disadvantage to digitals is that they take time to "turn on". Two deer came through our camp one evening and started fighting. By the time that my camera booted, the fight was over and they had left.

 

My camera and all of it's batteries weighed less than half a pound. The camera was going to ride in a pouch on my pack's belt but I found it more convenient to keep it in my short's pocket.

 

 

 

[Gold Winger]

Now that you have your digital camera, what do you take pictures of?

 

I took pictures of everything. I like photography so I experiemented.Sunrises, sunsets, trees. . . different f-stops, different ISO settings.

 

Most importantly, to capture the feel of the expedition, you need to take pictures of EVERYONE and get candid shots. Two guys posing next to a tree isn't as interesting as the same two guys examining the mushrooms on the tree. Of course, some posed group shots are obligatory like on top of Baldy.

 

I said take pictures of EVERYONE. If you're a dad, the natural temptation is to take zillions of pictures of your son. Fight it. The other boys don't have their dads (or moms) there. Anyone who was doing anything interesting got their picture taken. Another adult on my crew who had a digital camera made sure that most of his shots included his son. Not very interesting for the troop slide show.

 

There is a temptation to take many pictures of the mountains, just the mountains in the distance. Try to frame those with a couple of the boys hoofing it down the trail with the mountains in the background. After all its about them. I did take pictures of just the mountains but I like the ones with the boys much more.

 

Look for unusual angles. For example, if the boys have climbed up on some rocks, a picture from a distance is sooooo boring -- people on rocks. Get a couple shots looking up at them. In my mind, that's more appealing.

 

Shoot everything. I have pictures of cooking, eating, the red roof inns, mini-bears, burros, hummingbirds, napping, trees, sunsets, frost, bugs, and much much more.

 

Of course, you also need pictures of the boys doing stuff like climbing, riding, sleeeping, shooting.

 

I also tried to get pictures of all the staff that we encountered. The young women were especially open to being photographed. More than once, when something ruined a shot of a staff member, she'd say "would you like to do that over" and then pose for the picture. Maybe it was my charming old guy smile with my week's worth of beard or maybe it was because the staff there are just really nice people.

 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I must have taken an encyclopedia's worth of pictures.

 

Out of the hundreds of shots that I took, did I not like any? Sure, some were out of focus. Some were poorly composed. But the great thing is because I have so many, I can get rid of those without feeling any sense of loss.

 

Those are my thoughts. Random as they may be. Now I have to get going and do something to earn money.

 

 

[prof]

GW,

Great advice!

One thing I like to do after I have taken a lot of photos at an event is to burn them on a CD. I then make a copy of the CD for everyone in the group who attended that event, so even if they didn't bring a camera, they still have photos.

Prof.

[Gold Winger]

That's what I did. Actually, I had to burn them onto a DVD because there were so many.