Ricardo Sevilla

Out of no where I ask my wife on Friday if she wants to go to Tampa to attend MetroCon. She said yes and we begin making plans to rent a minivan and go with a group of friends but...it was so last minute that we were unable to get enough on board. Bummer.She then sneaks in her suggestion, "How about we go to Orlando to see the new Harry Potter park?". For the record, I don't like Harry Potter, but I agreed because Helen is one of the biggest Harry Potter fans I know. "Sure" I tell her. I also take advantage and tell her "Oh, and we are going to stop by Cape Canaveral to visit the NASA space center". Every time my wife and I visit Orlando, we could NEVER stop by to pay NASA a visit. This time I was going to stop by, no matter what :)

I originally wanted to take my normal camera, the 5DMarkII with my 70-200mm 2.8L Lens, but I figured I'd be going on a lot of rides and I wouldn't want to carry my bulky camera around. We decide just to bring my wife's Canon G10.


Canon G10 (G11 is also out)

A little info on this camera:
It's one of the best travel size, point n shot cameras out in the market.  It's easy to use for those unfamiliar with cameras in general, and it has manual functions that advance users can take advantage of. You can select ISO, Shutter Speed, f Stop, exposure compensation, control Flash Power, and it even even do bracketed shooting for example! Think of this as a compact DSLR. It also does VERY well in low light conditions, as I will demonstrate shortly. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Let's talk about using this camera on my weekend trip.


Waiting on a 2-Hour line at the Harry Potter theme park, in Universal Studios.


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Ricki Phone Home



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Having a conversation with someone while at the Kwik-E-Mart. (click on image for higher resolution)


Helen making a phone call. I wonder who she was speaking with?


So whats so special about the above photographs using this camera?
Well, nothing really. It just shows it can take regular photographs, like any other point n shoot camera (apart from the fact that these photographs are 14 megapixels and have less noise, less grain than typical point n shoot cameras (resulting in better prints)

Lets say we want to take more...sophisticated photographs.


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The sun was going down and this shot was taken with available light, no flash. Normal point n shoot cameras would force the flash, giving it a bad color tone to it or it would set the ISO very high, such as 1000+ making the image look very grainy OR the image would come out blurry. This camera has built in Image Stabilization that allows sharp images even in low light situations...hand held too! This shot was taken at just 1/8 of a second hand held!


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Here is another photograph Helen took under low light conditions with the G10. beautiful shot, hand held at 1/60 of a second, ISO 160. :) (remember, the lower the ISO, the better. The common range in point n shoots are between 400-1200).

Night time arrives and one thing that catches my eye is Harry Potter's....crib? (an attempt at being cool here).
Now, it's an extreme low light scenery. Even if you wanted to use flash...it will not reach, you will just get a black image (It's funny watching people in stadiums use flash when trying to take pics, as if the light will travel that far....but then again...most point n shoot cameras are dumb). There is no way a person can hold a camera still enough to capture night time shots like this. Normally you will need a tripod and give the camera enough time to absorb the little available light that there is. I set the camera to a higher ISO (Remember, higher ISO requires less light). I set it to ISO 400, my f stop to 3.5 (the lower it is, the less light it requires), and my shutter to be open for a full second (the longer the shutter is open the more light it will absorb but any small move the image will appear blurry). I place the camera on my cap, on top of a table. The reason why I put it on my cap was because I needed the camera to be tilted upwards a bit.


(Click on image for higher resolution. Once opened, you have a "maximize" button. Click on it to see the image better, for the photo will be resided smaller if you are using an old monitor that does not support high resolution modes.)

I did not like it. Too grainy, less detailed for my taste. It's a beautiful scene, and a beautiful scene only warrants the need to go the extra mile to get a beautiful photograph.

I decide to take the ISO all the way down to 100. If I drop the ISO from 400-100, the image will come out pitch black. What do I need to do to counter act this effect? Two options, lower the f-stop to or increase the amount of time the shutter is open to absorb the light. Changing the fstop in this scenario is not available to us, as I would need an fstop of about 0.5? lol My only option is to decrease the shutter speed. In this case, I choose a full 13 seconds. This is the result.

(Click on image for higher resolution. Once opened, you have a "maximize" button. Click on it to see the image better, for the photo will be resided smaller if you are using an old monitor that does not support high resolution modes.)

Notice how SHARP this image is? The colors are more vibrant, and you can even see the night time stars better! At 14 megapixel and 240 dpi, this image makes a very good poster sized print, without much quality loss.

TIP: When using LONG shutter speed exposure (consisting of more than 1 second for example), I highly recommend to use the self timer feature on the camera. The reason is that your finger will move the camera slightly as you press and release the the button to take the photo. So when taking night time photography on your tripod, remember to use the self timer.

On the following day we go off to Visit NASA! ABOUT TIME :)



Ahh NASA, One of the places I always wanted to visit. Think back and be in awe regarding just how far we humans have moved forwards in science. Imagine, leaving this Earth to walk on the soil of other worlds. I hope that I am alive to see man walk on Mars.


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Helen and I walking towards the moon. Regular photo, nothing special.







Look, I found a cute out of this world alien race! This is her reaction when she first spotted me! Fascinating creatures. I captured her and took her home with me :)

Now lets get into more complex shots shall we?


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Here is a photograph Helen took of one of capsules astronauts would use to land back on earth. Awesome shot right? not quite. She did not like how the flash killed the mood and washed out colors. Lets switch the camera to Manual and disable flash. Doing so will mean Helen would have to choose the aperture, f stop and shutter speed. Here is another shot of the same subject.


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Here is another photograph Helen took without Flash. Woah, big difference eh? By preserving the shadows that are falling on the capsule, one preserves the dramatic effect a visitor is expected to receive when they first see this thing. Lesson learned? Flash isn't favorable all the time. What we learned about the Harry Potter castle shot earlier in this post was applied to shoot this photograph.


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Here is a neat one that I see often. Taking photographs through glass objects. Most cameras will fire the flash when it feels the room is too dark. This is what happens when you aim the flash directly at the object. Cool photo...but the flash is preventing us from seeing the moon rock!

TIP: When shooting through glass using flash, try shooting the object from a top-down angle to avoid capturing the actual reflection of the flash. Here is an example.


Look at this? Flash without the flash itself appearing on the photograph. A beautiful shot of the object you are trying to capture. Different angles also make subjects look more interesting a swell. What happens if we don't use flash?



We get this, which is what I prefer. Again, just because the camera fires flash on auto does not mean it's the only way you can capture a great photograph. Take a look at the samples below.

TIP: Don't be afraid to literally lean the camera against the glass (if it's possible at your location). It will add extra stabilization that you will need if you do not use your flash.



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Helen and I stand before celestial maps that are back lit. I absolutely loved how you get a silhouette effect when someone stands in front of them. As a result, the photograph would look better if I take control of the settings (as opposed to auto) and adjust shutter speed, ISO, and aperture to my liking to get these results. Beautiful photographs!

You don't need high end, $2,500 Camera Bodies with $1,700 camera lenses to take great photographs during a vacation or trip. Just get a small point n shot (I'd recommend the Canon G10 or G11) that gives you manual options, and that's it! if you do manage to take the time to learn your camera's manual settings, your photographs will surely increase in terms of quality. I know there a few cosplayers that visit my site often. Take time to learn your camera's manual settings, the photos you take at a convention may very well yield interesting results should you shoot manually.

Feel free to ask any questions. Also keep in mind that I shoot just for fun, and all that I know is self taught. I may not be 100% accurate with my terminology, and there may be better ways of doing things. I'm just sharing what I know.

I'll end this article with the following image. I GOT A FLAT TIRE ON THE WAY BACK HOME >_<.

Doh'