My wife and I are fortunate to have a large park next to our apartment here in NYC (by large, it is not REALLY large...LOL, just large for NYC). The parkland is the only 'virgin' forest land left in Manhattan, and for brief periods of time, you can approximately see how the island looked 500 years ago. It is magnificent.

Typically I bring my camera when we go hiking into the woods. I often don't really get anything decent as I find it hard to reduce the mish-mosh of trees and vines into something photographable. Still, I normally bring it along just to try. With this tidbit of information in mind, I decided to not take my camera along as it has been raining.

While out in the hills, I came across a bloom of tiger lilies. Beautiful rich oranges, covered in fine droplets of water. We decided to go back home and pick up the camera. By the time we made it to the street level, it was raining quite hard...thereby washing out what I thought was my first real nice photograph in the park!

So, there are really two morals of this story then. The first, of course, is to always bring a camera. The other is that I need a small point and shoot camera...preferably something with relatively decent ISOs at 400 or 800. Any ideas?

James

These are some shots from the local park on two different days. Nothing too exciting, but pleasing none the less.

Cheers
James

James, Nice flowers. They are difficult to shoot, at least I think so. They are everywhere, out here, and I only have a couple shots of them I like. As for a 400-800 ISO P&S, I have no experiance. Maybe that new SONY with an APS size sensor, DSC-R1?

Nice to have the park close by, sounds real nice. I do know what you mean about bringing the camera. I’ve resolved myself to just bring it nearly all the time. My wife gives me the look, but then I grab the tripod too. I have two size backpacks and either bring a big or small kit. I am not allowed to have a camera in work, and am unwilling to leave it in the car, so my frustrations are during the commute. I have seen MANY nice raptor shots on the side of the highway on the way back and fourth.

Speaking of ISO, another frustration of mine is my bad memory. I don’t know how many times I have thought I got the best shot only to find out I was at ISO 800 or something. Or to try that fleeting bird shot and then notice I am still set to f14 and ISO200 from that last landscape. I was in such a rush one day, I shot a landscape on a tripod at ISO 640, Full sun and never even looked at the focal length on my 12-24. It was at 24. OHhh the list goes on:)