cgkoonce's Journal

While clearing out older files in my photo editor, I'm coming across items suitable for iNaturalist and other wildlife monitoring platforms. I took a lot of photos before I joined any of these forums, enthusiastic about my new ultrazoom point-and-shoot camera; however, I'm finding many taken with my old Canon ELPH 100 compact camera. Even with some deterioration in its optics and intrusion by dust specks or stains, it gets some good shots when the light is bright, and later editing can make them even better. (By the way, I discovered with the help of tips posted online by other photographers, that some of the specks and stains in the camera's optics can be removed by holding a vacuum cleaner over the extended lens. I've done that a couple of times, and now I keep the camera closed up in a bag to protect it from dust when not in use.)

Butterfly photos [to be] linked to this post were taken with the ELPH. The American copper and great spangled fritillary are species we are not finding as much recently in our Howard County Butterfly Survey. There is also a golden-backed snipe fly, taken with my ultrazoom.

(Another camera tip: Resist temptation to take quick shots in light rain or any rain with an ultrazoom. The retracting lens when you turn the camera off carries moisture into the camera body, and I have had to buy a new ultrazoom as a result of the damage to the optics and electronics. Somebody online had suggested that taking such shots was possible, but they probably were thinking of DSLR's with separate lens component which does not retract into the camera.)