Image of the Week: Worth Mountain Ski Lift in a Snowstorm, Middlebury College Snow Bowl, Green Mountains, Vermont

I've written before on the merits of always having a camera in hand, of always being ready for the unexpected photographic moment. But that doesn't always mean you need to lug around a backpack full of DSLR gear -- sometimes a Point & Shoot camera will do.

Today's P&S cameras are much more advanced than the birthday-party-snapshooting-toys of just a few years ago. With full-manual modes, the ability to shoot RAW format, flash hotshoes, Vibration Reduction technology, and high pixel counts, these technological triumphs pack a lot of quality and control into a small, lightweight package. Now, on short trips where I'd typically wince at carrying my shoulder bag with a DSLR body and two lenses, I can simply slip a P&S in my pocket and be (reasonably) prepared for that unexpected moment.

There are glaring drawbacks, however. P&S cameras aren't nearly as fast as DSLR's -- there's a palpable waiting period between the time you punch the shutter button and the shutter actually firing, so forget about shooting sports, hyperactive kids, or anything but nearly-static scenes. Additionally, the small sensors on these cameras can't deliver the high ISO performance of their DSLR big siblings. Anything higher than ISO 200 and your photos start to look like noisy video grabs.

This week's image was taken on the newly opened Worth Mountain Ski Lift at Middlebury College's Snow Bowl in Hancock, Vermont. I carried a Canon G10 P&S camera on a bandolier strap underneath my ski jacket. I slipped off my gloves (you can't operate the controls of the G10 with gloved hands), held a 2 stop graduated neutral density filter over the lens, and captured this frame just as the sun broke from the clouds.

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Technical Data

I photographed Worth Mountain Ski Lift in a Snowstorm, Middlebury College Snow Bowl, Green Mountains, Vermont with a Canon G10 camera and Cokin 2 stop graduated neutral density filter. The exposure was 1/2000 second at ƒ/4.

Other Images of the Week