Canon Powershot SX50 HS

My experience with exceptional cameras goes back to the Nikon F1 that I started using in 1969 when a college roommate and I headed off to Alaska.

Cameras have come a long way since then and some would argue that smartphone cameras are quickly on the way to replacing cameras.

Then there are those of us who believe the camera in your hand does matter if you are seeking to capture a memorable image.  You can bombard me with all the advertisements that you want but you will not convince me that the photographs that we will remember twenty years from now will all come from smartphones.  There will be some but there are times when having a real camera matters.

About sixteen months ago, I wrote an article, The Nikon Coolpix P500, My Favorite Beach Camera.  In March of 2013, after fourteen months of stellar service, my Nikon Coolpix P500 moved into the status of backup camera.

I made the decision to switch cameras because I was missing a lot of shots.  The Nikon Coolpix could not focus fast enough to catch many of the birds that I chase during the winter months. I tried switching to my Nikon D3100 but I could not afford a telephoto lens to match the 36X zoom power of the Coolpix. Even if I could have come up with the money, it would have weighted far too much for the type of hiking that I do.

I came very close to ordering a Nikon Coolpix P520 but after reading several reviews, I chose to go with a Canon SX50 HS.  There were a couple of factors but the two most important ones were the speed of focusing and the ability to take raw images.  The battery life is also much better with the Canon. On hikes of four to five miles, I often ran out of juice on my Coolpix

While I am still learning some of the features of the Canon, it has been a fairly easy transition.  About the only time that I really feel the need for my DSLR is when I want to take ocean wave pictures.

The 50X zoom on the Canon is amazing and I find that the image stabilization is very good.  The camera is light weight, turns on quickly, and has enough custom settings to please me.  I have not tried the video extensively but I have a video camera which I am more likely to use for video anyway.  One feature that I love on the Canon is the silent mode for the camera.  While many of the large egrets that I photograph seemed to hear the sound of the shutter in my Nikon Coolpix, the Canon in silent mode goes unnoticed.

The Canon lacks the GPS capability of the Nikon P520 but I have found a very satisfactory substitute through using MyTracks on my Android phone. I am able to import to the GPX file into Lightroom and sync the GPS data with my photos.  It is a simple and elegant solution which avoids waiting for a camera to acquire a GPS signal.  The GIS data in this album of a hike at the Point on Emerald Isle came from MyTracks on my LG Spectrum photo.  The photos are from my Canon Powershot SX50 HS.

Unless I have made a mistake and one of the images from another of my cameras slipped in, I believe all the pictures in this album were taken my Canon SX50 HS.  The Canon also does an exceptional job on landscape pictures.  I offer up this image of the Edenton, NC waterfront.

If you need a versatile camera that is light weight, quickly focuses, takes great pictures, and has an unbelievable zoom ability, take a close look at the Canon SX50 HS. 

I have been a Nikon user for over forty years and this camera is one of the best that I have ever used.  I paid only $389 for the camera. It is a fantastic camera for the money.

The camera was well worth the money and I think the shots that I got from it were welcome additions to our recent book, A Week at the Beach- The 2013 Emerald Isle Travel Guide.

There is no busier person than a mother with a child.  They often burn the candle at both ends and in the middle. 

Sometimes they work so hard that they collapse from pure exhaustion. 

I often wondered if my own mother ever slept.  When I was young she was awake when I went to bed and had been up for hours by the time I got in the morning.

When our children were growing up on the farm, I often marveled at how my wife, Glenda, managed to take care of three children, two dogs, and a husband, and still find time to drive a pickup truck home with a load of feed and bake dozens of loaves of bread.  That our children get raised and learn how to take care of themselves is a tribute to unbelievable patience of the mothers of the world.

Just as amazing to me is how the mothers of the world build networks of support where none are apparent to most of us.  That they can somehow find others to willingly help is a tribute to the importance of their jobs and their resourcefulness.

For sixteen years before my mother became a mother she was an aunt to a large extended family of children.  She might have had more influence as an aunt than she did as a mother. She certainly touched more people.  She taught a few of her nieces how to drive. Making sure that her nieces and nephews had a good Christmas morning was no different than what she would have wanted for them if they were her own children.  She even dragged one of her nephews off to another school to make sure he got a better education.

Not everyone is blessed with the opportunity of having children but that does not stop the best among us from helping to mother the children of the world.  I know there are times when a friend or aunt like my mother might come and rescue an overworked mother for a few hours.  I suspect those moments are precious.  Sometimes it might be delivering a carload of toys, clothes, shoes, and food for children whose parents' money just will not stretch far enough.  Maybe it is just taking a child for a walk when a mother needs just a few moments to herself or perhaps even a shower without company.

While I know God created grandparents just to help raise the next generation, somehow we all seem to live too far apart to help as much as we would like.  Maybe that is why on mother's day, I want to remember my mother as much if not more for the mothering that she provided to others.

I can still remember a trip to Roanoke last year when this young lady ran up and hugged my wife.  She was wearing the medical clothing of a profession.  It turns out she was a teenager who spent a few weeks with us when she and her parents could not tolerate each other.   She thanked us for the help we provided when she needed it the most. She has turned out well and as a mother can now appreciate the challenges that she created as a teenager.

There are a lot of aunts, cousins, grandmothers, and just good friends who help with the mothering of the next generation.  As we think about our mothers on Mother's Day, I hope we do not forget those whose timely help to the mothers of our children can sometimes make all the difference in the world. We live in a complex century and the children who will thrive in it need all the nuturing and support that they can get.