A few weeks ago we had our trampey club’s annual photo competition, which is quite a lot of fun and it’s an excuse to see photos people have taken throughout the year. It’s the second photo competition the club’s run which I’ve entered, and the third (and last) to be judged by Shaun Barnett, who’s decided to focus on other things. Shaun authors and co-authors a variety of books about NZ tramping, typically full of photographs, and just recently he’s taken over as editor of the Federated Mountain Clubs Bulletin, which I bet is a lot of work considering he already judges lots of photo competitions for other clubs.

I’m not a photographer by any stretch (even as a hobbyist), but I do like to wave my camera around a lot on tramping trips, and this is typical for the demographic of our own photo competition where the majority of people (but not everyone) are primarily interested in tramping, but might pull out a camera from time to time. My own current toy is a Canon Powershot A720IS, which is almost exactly the same as my previous Canon Powershot A710IS, but the A720 has less water inside so tends to switch on. It’s not a typical tramping camera in the sense of being shock-proof or water resistant or extremely light-weight (it’s about 300 grams), but it takes the best photos on short notice that I’ve been able to manage for any camera in its range with which I’ve had a chance to experiment, so I just try to be careful with it and avoid damaging it.
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