Three stages

My photography in geocaching has taken three distinct phases. When I first started, I was still using my Minolta Maxxum, which I loved dearly, but was showing its age having been a wedding gift to me from my wife back in July 1987. Pictures came few and far between, usually when I was at the end of the roll of film. I'd take the camera out and take some pictures, none that good in my opinion, but just enough to fill out the roll. Once processed, I'd then scan them and add them to the cache logs after the fact.

Sometime in 2002, I purchased a point an Olympus point and shoot, Camedia camera. I liked using that one a lot since it rejuvenated my portrait picture abilities. I would take it to family events and take many pictures. The built in flash was the major bonus with this camera. The Minolta had only an attached flash, that was cumbersome and needed to be remembered, which was not conducive to candid portraits that I preferred to take at family gatherings.

I was, however, still wedded to my beloved Minolta. That summer, the boys and I went camping along the coast of California. I took both cameras along, intending to use the digital camera to record caching adventures and the Maxxum for everything else. At our first stop, my son said, "Dad, why don't you just use the digital camera for everything this time and see what happens afterwards?"

As most people know, there was quite a bit of lag time between taking the picture with an early digital camera and it actually imprinting on the memory card. This caused a couple of problems, but nothing that I couldn't work out. I worked on timing and it went well, although I have to admit that my son jumping the "mini" ravine in the one photo took several tries before I was satisfied with the end result. I've used the Minolta only once since that summer when my son suggested that I go totally digital and only then to empty the roll of film that was in the camera. I used the entire roll of film to take a series of pictures of my in-laws. The first picture was the best of the entire roll. I am so glad I went digital. There's not nearly as much waste as there used to be.

The third phase happened a couple of years ago when I purchased my first SLR Digital, a Sony Alpha. At first I was amazed at the quality of the images. The picture of the leaves is my first picture I took with that camera while on a caching run. This camera has combined the best of both worlds of my first two cameras, built in flash and SLR capability. With this one, I have an excuse to bring the camera every time. I don't necessarily use it at every cache. I mean, how many pictures of lamp post skirts would I have to publish before they would get terribly redundant? I'd say, probably two. But when the opportunity presents itself, I have the camera with me to record our caching expeditions. That makes for a more complete record of our experiences out and about.

Pictures were taken at or near the following geocaches:
A cache for Mike! aka Snake belly! - by BDC
The Redwood Barely There! - by Scott, Becca, Travis, Max
Cache Out - by CARGOLAX