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[Photo by KPA]
The tall ship Kajama, which sails tourists around Toronto's Lake Ontario, has a lofty history. This is what the promotional website writes about her:
Launched as the Wilfried in Rendsburg, Germany in 1930, the Kajama traded under sail for nearly 70 years. She was a familiar ship in ports from Northwest Spain, through western Europe, and as far north as Norway and Russia. In 1999, Kajama was delivered transatlantic by Great Lakes Schooner Company and restored to her original profile.I took the above photo yesterday, along with shots of a hazy lake Ontario. My camera is an old digital apparatus, with an optical viewfinder and a liquid crystal display (LCD) viewfinder. I have problems with taking photographs outdoors - just a minor inconvenience :-). When there is too much light, the LCD viewfinder screen gets washed out by all the light, and it's hard to see the image. I can always use the optical viewfinder, but I find framing shots difficult through the tiny device. I asked a camera salesman what to do about the LCD viewfinder, and he exclaimed "It's a little tank. You can drop it, and still have a functioning camera!" He meant don't worry about small details like viewfinders, I guess. And I haven't yet followed his strategy to test the camera's hardiness.
We are proud to offer this 164' three-masted gaff-rigged schooner, which can comfortably accommodate parties of up to 225 people. Your group can enjoy deliciously prepared meals in Kajama's spacious single dining room (a 1006 square foot, open, and airy venue that enjoys natural lighting and ventilation through massive skylights).
The camera nonetheless takes good photos. To solve (somewhat) the problem of framing shots, I determine what's in the frame based on the shapes and objects I recognize on the LCD screen, and through the optical alternative when the screen is just too bright, and by viewing the scene directly. It takes a while, but it is also helps me (forces me) to make better decisions about what to keep in the frame and what to leave out. This often results with better shots.
I took the above shot of the schooner in full daylight with lots of sun, and with the added complication of light reflecting off the lake. It didn't help that the schooner started to move - pretty fast! - during my trial and error attempts. I didn't see the gull, and I must have released the shutter just as it was entering the viewfinder. And not only that, it was positioned exactly along the schooner's horizontal rope, as though using it as a guide for its flight. The gull's presence anywhere in the photo would still be interesting, but chance (or luck) was on my side in its perfect positioning. The streaks of pale blue in the sky would have been a difficult nuance to see on/through the viewfinders, and I was concentrating on the whole ship to take these delicate lines into consideration. With so many uncertainties, technical and natural, I have to somewhat forfeit control to nature, chance, human activity, etc. when taking photos.
My frustrating camera has become a fixture in my handbag, covered by a lens secured with masking tape (the camera salesman told me that the lens cover is not available since the camera in no longer being manufactured). How can I abandon it now that I've figured out its idiosyncrasies, and it has never really failed me?