My experience with photography began at eight years of age
when I received my very first camera, a shiny black Kodak "Brownie Bulletin",
as a birthday gift. That camera was my constant side-kick on a family camping
trip where I used it to catalogue my summer fun with numerous poorly composed,
and often times hilarious photographs of my parents and siblings. Sadly, the camera
lasted only for that brief summer vacation as I mistakenly left it on the
dashboard of the car where the magnified heat of the sun melted the plastic
case making the camera inoperable. The tears that I shed over my ruined camera
are long forgotten; however, the photos, and the memories they evoke, remain. I
have them all pasted into a dog-eared album (even the blurry ones or those
where the heads are cut off) and to this day I still enjoy flipping through them,
reminiscing about childhood escapades and a simpler and slower paced time of my
life.

Fast forward to present time and cameras (not to mention
lifestyle), have changed considerably.  The
technology enabling digital images gives even a fledgling photographer the
opportunity to experiment with settings and lighting prior to printing them (thereby saving time and
money), plus the fun of other features such as video.

Over the past ten years I’ve purchased numerous digital
cameras with models from Kodak, Sony, Olympus and Nikon, all of them varying in
price and features. My camera purchases were brought about not by the urge to
have the latest technological camera gadgetry, but rather by necessity, as I
seem to have the innate ability to either lose or break my cameras (perhaps my
Brownie Bulletin debacle was foreshadowing this curse?). To add insult to
injury, my latest camera acquisition, a Nikon S8100 , barely 6 months old, seems
to sporadically malfunction, which is totally frustrating, especially when  trying to capture that elusive, over-the-top-cute dog shot, or wrap-party action shot.
Rather than swear at it, I should simply bring it in for servicing, but you
know what it’s like, it’s hard to find the time. 

So, when Nikon’s PR people contacted me to see if I’d be
interested in trying out Nikon’s new Coolpix P300 camera, I thought it would be
a great opportunity to compare it with my recently purchased Nikon.  In a nutshell, I wish I had waited on my
previous camera purchase, opting instead for the Coolpix P300. I LOVE it! (only
wish I could keep this tester). Besides being incredibly user friendly, it’s
hard not to take a good photo with
this camera. Plus, for those who have mastered photography and enjoy the
versatility of manual settings, this camera has that capability. It’s
light-weight (fits in a pocket… a very important feature if you want to have
your camera action-ready at the dog beach), and you can take great low-light
photos without using the flash. It’s also got a wide-angle zoom lens. Trying
out this camera has convinced me to stay with Nikon and also to finally get my
current camera in for servicing.

For more info on the Nikon P300, click here.

Here are some examples of different shots and lighting conditions that I captured with the Nikon P300:

Dog’s are often difficult to photograph as they don’t sit still for long. I really like this one… a photo of Faith the famous two-legged dog, taking a much-needed rest on the shoulders of her human.

Here’s one I took while taking an evening stroll down to the Kitsilano dog beach to watch the sun set.

Penny’s sweet face is bathed in the warmth of the setting sun. 

At Universal Studios in Orlando the Nikon P300 saw lots of action. Here I captured the magical mystery of Hogworts, at Harry Potter’s World. 

Do you remember the talk about the Super Moon, March 19th? I stole outside around 11pm that night to snap this photo. Without the use of flash I was still able to capture the surreal glow of the moon on the evening sky without too much blur.

We even tested the camera by taking some of the style shots you’ll see in our summer ’11 issue.