Pat's Christmas Camera Picks for Black Friday 2010

It's not entirely uncommon for me to get a phone call or email this time of year asking me what camera someone should buy for their spouse/child/parent/sibling. Usually, I have a list of questions if I don't know the potential recipient that help me qualify my recommendations.

This year I've decided to put together a pre-Black Friday list to help equip some of you as you fight your way through the goings-on of this eventful time of year.

My list of cameras is based on some criteria; value (not just price), user skill level, and application. I've got four groups, or categories, that I like to look at; The Cigarette Pack, The Traveller, The Super Amatuer and The Pro. Let's begin.

The Cigarette Pack

This particular category is one that I see falling off the radar in the next two years. Formerly, The Cigarette Pack camera's greatest single feature was its size and convenience. But, as the ubiquitous smart phone camera continues to advance in ease of use and quality, the need for this type of camera is on a rapid descent.

Ultimately, this type of camera outshines the smart phone in the lens department. They're actually harder to use than most smart phones when it comes to reviewing your photos because the buttons are so incredibly small. Additionally, as a space savings measure there are fewer buttons which cause the engineers of Tiny Fingers Incorporated to hide essential menus and options under countless submenus. Very frustrating. The smartphone handles this by sing a touch screen. I'm not sure why camera manufacturers have resisted this temptation of making their products easier to use but, alas, they do.

So, If you're the type of person that takes no joy in using your smart phone as your point-and-shoot I recommend thusly:

The Olympus Stylus family of cameras is an excellent choice. They're economical, the lenses are generally quite sharp and they don't carry the financial weight of the name-brand cameras like Nikon and Canon.



If you're a particularly adventurous, check out the Stylus TOUGH Series. They're rough, tough, light and ready for a beating.

The Traveller

When someone tells me they're about to take a journey invariably my first words are, "shoot something!". What I mean to say is, with the advent of digital cameras there no longer any reason to NOT take lots of photos. Seriously, what's holding you back. Oh, it's your camera...

Not anymore. If you enjoy traveling, day tripping or just shooting a lot of photos but the cell phone just doesn't cut it, you fall into "The Traveller" category. The Traveller needs something to capture scenes that are likely available only to one who takes great pains to get off the beaten path. Once there, the creative juices begin to flow and you need something with more horsepower than a smart phone but not as heavy and bulky as a full on DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflect - a digital camera with interchangeable lenses).

My favorite batch of cameras for this type of photographer comes from Fuji. The FinePix series of cameras offer a great quality lens with some control over exposures. And, one of my favorite things, they mostly all run on AA batteries.

Check out the S2550HD



or the S200EXR for some good options.

The Super Amateur

We all know who these people are. At birthday parties they're found standing on chairs or squatting down low to get that perfect shot. They grab a camera without the owner's prior notice to shoot a few photos and put the camera down at the end of the evening having filled the memory card, and are, henceforth, handed the camera on every occasion.

The Super Amatuer needs a few more tools to achieve their goals. I can't think of more well-stocked creative toolbox than the Canon Rebel series of DSLR. The EOS Rebel T2i is one of my favs.



Equipping a Super Amateur with something like the EOS Rebel is a great way to either open the door to a professional career in photography or ensure that you never have to ask your beloved photog what they would want for Christmas ever again. If the shooter doesn't jump to pro, you'll always know that if you buy a lens or memory card, you're pretty much in the clear.

The Pro

Okay, so you're sitting around, counting all your gold and the name of a Super Amateur pops into your mind. You know they've shot a couple of weddings and they really, really want to quit their day job to go pro. They've got the eye, the drive, and they're making a little dough on their scenic photos or senior portraits. It's time to get them a heavy hitter.

I'm not a real fan of Nikon. Anyone who's spent time with me knows that. It's no secret. But, I'm not ANTI-Nikon, they're just not for me. Add to that the fact that the camera I'm about to recommend is becoming one of the most widely recognized camera of choice for the all-around pro.

Behold, the Canon 5D Mark II. We use this rig at the agency I work for in Eugene. It's got everything; high enough resolution for high end commercial work, HD video, expandability and quality glass. The 5D MkII is used to shoot the opening sequences of Saturday Night Live and it was used to shoot the last episode of "House" las year. In addition, we use it for clients like the U of O and several other demanding clients.

Get a 5D Mk II and you wont be sorry.

One other recommendation I might make for the pro is a light meter. It's a tool that will allow the advancing pro reak away from the pack creatively and it's a tool I wouldn't go anywhere without.

The Sekonic L358 Flash Master is the king in this field.

It comes highly recommended by professionals worldwide. If you've got the money and your pro already has a camera they're working well with, this is the ticket to their heart of hearts, whether they know it or not...

Wrap up

There you have it! If you still can't decide, drop me a comment and I'll see if I can help you nail down a solution for that light-loving photogeek in your life.

From Lebanon to Lebanon

As a photographer, the better part of my job is less technical and more relational. Making people feel at ease is one of the greatest challenges a photographer faces when photographing people. As a matter of course I ask a few questions about where the client lives, where they're from originally, likes, hobbies, etc.

Over the years I've honed my list of questions, often giving me a quick insight to the client, allowing me to joke about things that might be common in their life. Things that are not too personal but just close enough to be disarming.

When I detect any kind of an accent, which my wife and children say I'm good at, I generally start down a mental list of questions that lead me to an understanding of the person before me. Within minutes I can generally find out where someone is from, where they're headed, and why they've chosen 'here' as their stopping place. Much can be learned from simply listening for an accent.

Normally, this quick banter leads to some smiles, a few laughs and hopefully some great photos. I love this part of what I do because I love people. As much as I love people and their stories though the greater percentage of the information I've gathered gets locked away in the deep vaults of my brain and rarely brought out again for deeper introspection. I've occasionally wondered if in my waning years when I begin to 'go vague', as my Nana used to say, those stories will arise as if from nowhere and completely confuse the nurses tending my bedpan.

Occasionally, though, a simple comment elicited by one of my questions touches some direct nerve in my soul and electrifies the deep spirit. All at once a word or sentence pulls back the veil and I discover I am locked in a prison of blessing and complacency. The awareness made real by the comments of a stranger, a person I'll likely never see again.

Today I'm photographing doctors for one of our clients. We've been on a campaign to photograph all 100+ doctors, on location with the same portable studio. We'll use the images for marketing and such so they all need to look somewhat identical. As one can imagine doctors are busy people who, generally speaking, don't enjoy having their photo taken. It's important for me to coax out that inner happy person that interacts with the patient. So, the list of questions comes out to help me gain just a bit of insight in the five or ten minutes we have together.

"Where did you do your residency?", or "What made you choose your specialty?", and "What brought you to Oregon?". All these roads lead somewhere that help ease the tension.

But, today, it was that last question that blindsided me. My client had a name that seemed to originate from the Middle-East. His accent told me he hadn't been in the states for a short time or possibly his parents spoke english regularly prior to arriving in the US. The accent wasn't deep but it was unmistakeably, an accent.

We worked through a list of softball questions, occasionally laughing at this or that, until I asked "What brought you to Oregon?". Simple enough. Hassan told me that it was war that brought him to Oregon from Lebanon. He didn't sugar coat it but he didn't say it as if I had insulted him either - just a matter of fact. He grinned and said "I didn't want my kids growing up in a war", then joked that he chose Oregon so he could still be close to 'Lebanon', even if it was Lebanon, Oregon.

War. I don't want my kids to grow up in the midst of war. There I was, instantly transported to my aforementioned inner prison of complacency. I wanted to ask so many more questions, dig deeper - father to father, man to man about the days, and months leading up to his decision to leave everything and, like our pioneering forfathers, find that elusive 'better place'. But, I had set my own trap. I lead us down a path of easy conversation only to find us teetering on the edge of an abyss.

After the photos were done and Hassan was on his way I gethered my thoughts. Life, for us anyway, is so much easier. Please don't take this as some public television appeal to your environmental conciosness theat occurs at the last ten minutes of every nature show. I'm not trying to lead you to a place of some repentance for an ill you didn't know you had committed. It's not that at all.

But, I would appeal to what I'm affraid we allowed to atrophy in our society; the sense of basic understanding that most of us have it pretty damned good. I spend nights awake wondering how I can afford that new computer or find time to get my children involved in something that will allow them to bloom in the fertile soil of this peaceful and contented life we lead. All the while ignoring the reality that exists beyond our borders; that war, famine and corruption viciously shreds the hopes and potential futures of people just as deserving as any one of us.

The argument can be made that we all have a choice to leave that which holds us, find a new future - chart a new course. But do we, really? Or is it because we live in the richest nation in the world that we flippantly belive our freedom exists throughout the lands?

Today, I met a man that looked into the abyss with me, and shrugged off the uncomfortable silence with a look of, "I bet you didn't expect that for an answer did you?". Unfortunately, I think he was able to shrug it off because here, in the land of plenty, he's probably quite used to the blank stares of complacent people like me who have no idea the deplth of what he's been through.