Canon G11: new gear

I picked up a new tool (toy) today and can't wait to put it to work.

The Canon G11 is a pretty sweet pro quality compact that I've had my eye on for awhile.

I have a Lumix LX2 already, but haven't really been impressed with the image quality. What really drew me to the Canon is the hot shoe for off-camera flash possibilities and it's ability to focus at 1cm. I intend to use it as a small carry everywhere camera and for doing some cool macro stuff.

The key points for me are:
RAW files
Hot shoe
Manual controls
Compact enough
Low noise at high ISO
Close focusing

Burmese Nightlife: Star Trails Through History

Shooting at night is always a challenge. First off, the low light means long exposures and additional equipment. (tripod, cable release, flashlight etc.) I've always enjoyed shooting in low light, showing motion and in general the technical challenges of creating images in the dark.

In addition to my photography addiction, I also have an "Indiana Jones" complex at times. Those two coupled together led me to Bagan in Myanmar (aka Burma) to photograph the 1100 year-old temples by moonlight. It just sounded like an interesting trip. The complete story of that adventure will come in a future post, but for now I'll share one of the simplest shots from that expedition.

The above shot is a 40 minute exposure of some of the temple ruins just outside the town of Nyaung Oo. Shooting in the dark is always an experiment. In most shooting situations I'm pretty confident in the camera meter's ability to determine a proper exposure. However, in a night scene like this with virtually no light, I'm confident that the camera's meter has no clue. So what do you do? Go manual, guess and take notes.