The Sorry Gardener

UPDATE 1/8: Are you gardeners really going to let me get away with accidentally mislabeling the lavender in the last photo as rosemary?

As luck would have it, my Christmas gift from Mr. Sorry just happened to be a sweet little point-and-shoot to carry in my purse. Turns out, it’s the only camera I can lift due to my leaf blower elbow, so I’ve been playing with it a lot.

It’s gleefully light compared to my full-body digital SLR. And since I use the LCD screen instead of the viewfinder, I don’t need to bend my sore elbow to hold the camera up to my face. Sometimes I can even shoot the little camera down low, from the hip, or even one-handed with only my good arm.

But there’s a skill to using the point-and-shoot that I don’t quite have the hang of yet. Even if I’m not literally shooting from the hip, I never feel quite certain what photo I’m taking.

One of the things I love about photography is feeling a sense of control. I can focus on the beauty instead of the ugliness in the world—which is why I prefer flowers to photojournalism—although that hellebore looks like it was hit by a truck.

Photography is also the oasis where I pause and relax in my otherwise go-go-go day. I’m forced to slow down and take the time to compose a shot that shows only what I want to show. And in the Sorry Garden, that’s no small feat.

The other thing I love about photography is the utter precision of the equipment. Turning the focus ring ever so slightly on a finely tuned lens and watching a flower come to life is a such a sensual pleasure for me that I may enjoy the act of taking photos as much as I enjoy looking at the images.

But with the point-and-shoot, that’s all turned upside down. Seeing the image becomes the most important thing because I feel disconnected from the camera and uncertain that I got the shot I was hoping for. And using the point-and-shoot is so quick and easy that I hardly pause at all, let alone relax in an oasis of sensual photography precision. It’s just a much different experience.

Once I learn how to take a picture with the point-and-shoot, I’m going to love it like a puppy. When I power it on, it greets me with a friendly chime. And it’s got a bunch of cheerful icons that, like the wizard behind the curtain, do all kinds of magical things for me that I don’t even have to understand. I just set the dial to the little green AUTO square, press the shutter, and presto! It automatically takes a pretty good picture.

And, hey, when I want to zoom in close, I don’t have to attach a 7-inch-long, 2-pound macro lens and set up the tripod. I just press the little flower icon.

And when I turn the dial to SCN, I can use the snowman setting! Ah, the snowman setting. Who knew it could be so easy to expose perfectly white snow instead of the dingy gray I get with my middling skills with the big camera.

As for not feeling like I have a clue what I’m shooting, the uncropped photos at the top of the post are so nearly identical in my test shots between the two cameras that I know I must be “seeing” the same with the point-and-shoot, even if it doesn’t feel like it yet. So while my elbow recuperates, I plan to have a little more fun point-and-shooting from the hip.

How about you—Do you feel like you’re shooting from the hip when you take photos?