The Third in a Series of Fujifilm Blogs: Sarah Goes West
I just got back from our annual ‘western tour’: summer visits to Saskatoon to visit the in-laws, the highlights of which are usually fun camping trips with the cousins, and lots of good food and wine, and Canmore, where my family gathers at my parents’ mountain home, the highlights of which are usually hiking trips with the other set of cousins, and more good food and wine.
This time we had a new member of the family along – our Fuji XP20, and it was a great addition.
The camera is shock-proof, waterproof, freeze-proof and dust-proof, making it perfect for our outdoor adventures. For such a small camera, it’s loaded with easy-to-use features. So easy in fact, that most of the pictures were handily taken by my nine year-old son.
Hiking in the Valley of the Ten Peaks, home to stunning scenery which used to grace the back of the Canadian $20 bill, was the highlight of our time in the mountains. To access this area, which is near Lake Louise, you are required by Parks Canada to hike in groups of four or more due to bear encounter danger. We’d been hoping to get there for many years, and finally my brood is big enough to get us there with the requisite number.
An hour into the six hour hike, we paused to admire the stunning view of Moraine Lake. The automatic scene recognition feature was able to balance the happy faces along with the beautiful scenery for one of my favourite shots of the trip (see above).
At our destination on Day One, I took some great shots of Laine with Eiffel Lake in the background, again with the automatic scene recognition mode and the special flower macro mode for the best flower shot I have ever taken (I am told it is Globeflower, but I love how you can even see the tiny flies).
And as we left this beautiful place, I used our favourite automatic panorama feature to capture as many of the 10 peaks in one shot as I could.
On the way back down the mountain, Laine tried a little off-roading, which I captured with the sport mode, which allows you to capture action shots without the blur.
That night back at the hotel, gearing up for another day on the trails, we took the kids to the pool, where they had lots of fun with the underwater mode. I love the tiny bubbles in this underwater action shot.
And at the end of the day, I finally managed to get the camera back from Adam, and capture a great shot of him relaxing, with the portrait mode, which adds a softer tone. I love how his blue eyes are picked up by the blue shirt.
I was thrilled with how well the pictures captured the happy memories of our summer trip, and possibly the best part is that I can look back on them with ease too, as the upload from the camera to my iPhoto was as easy as plugging it into the USB cable.
Want your very own Fujifilm XP20 camera? Enter our Capture Your Memories with Fujifilm contest for your chance to win one of two family-friendly digital cameras.
Wondering how you can improve your picture-taking skills? We asked the Fuji Guys for some tips on the best way to take pictures of kids on the move, get creative with composition and best capture the moment. Capture your memories with these tips from the Fuji Guys.
Note: No children, spouses or significant others were embarassed (that much) in the production of this blog post, sponsored by Fujifilm.
