Sunday Stills - Best of 2012

This week's challenge is: best of 2012.  I took a LOT of photos this year.  These are some, but certainly not all of my favorites from this year.  All were taken with my Canon PowerShot A570 point-and-shoot camera, which was given to me as a gift 4 or 5 years ago.  I carry the poor thing around with me in my pocket where it suffers a lot of abuse and near constant barn dust.  I know it is not good for the camera, but I also know that if I didn't have it in my pocket, I just wouldn't take pictures.  I don't have time to set aside for photography and most of the photos I take are opportunistic, spur-of-the moment shots that I could never duplicate or re-capture.  I decided some time ago that it is better to risk the camera then leave it pristine and unused.  I probably won't ever own a really expensive, high quality camera for just this reason.  I would be afraid to use it.

Aside from some rare cropping, all of my photos are SOC and are usually taken on the "auto" setting on the camera.  I do play around with the settings and have learned a lot, but I have found that, with this camera, they don't make that much difference.  The things that I have the most trouble with are action shots (the camera thinks slowly), macros (you have to be at just the right spot to get anything up close), and low light (it just doesn't do low light, end of story).  Still, I am happy with it and I have taken a lot of photos that I like.  They may not measure up to professional standards, but I like having them, sharing them and I have enjoyed taking them and learning more about photography in the process. 

Those of you who have been following along for a while will probably recognize many of these.  Some of them are not great shots, but have significance to me regardless.  In no particular order...

 

 

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