Maggie's Farm

I love cellphone cameras, but that doesn't stop me packing at least 20 pound camera packs when I go somewhere good. I'm used to lugging lots of heavy gear around pursuing birds.

With such short vacations in beautiful places, the photos are sometimes the only way to remember the details. I lfind that things become a blur after a few days of worshipping art or tramping along one gorgeous hike after another.
Pzak
Taking photographs, for me, is a way of stopping my usual Addish frenzy and just paying attention, seeing the quirks and the beauty of God's creation that might otherwise whiz by in a blur the way things do on a merry go round ride. Also, I like to hunt skittish animals or candid shots of people selling things in markets etc where one needs good tele zooms or taking pictures without flash in museums or churches where it helps having something better than a cellphone.

The D800 takes divine pictures, but it's a beast, and the lenses are monstrously heavy so I tend to use them locally. For travelling, olympus micro four thirds w their wonderful primes are light, and the Sony rx100 Ii is the best point and shoot ever (big sensor).

My current walk around favorites are either the Nokia 1020 cellphone (amazing pix fr a 41 mp sensor) or the leica X vario compact camera w Aps c sensor w a fixed lens that zooms from 28-70 mm equiv. slow lens but awesome image quality. Tiny camera, built like a tank, German made. Obscenely expensive but still cheaper than most single Leica lenses.