Regular readers may realise that I have a best mate called Canon. In fact I have two best mates called Canon. Canon (x2) and I go back many years; we’ve shared many experiences together, and I’ve certainly mentioned Canon a million times before on this blog. Without Canon my memory of how amazing the French Alps, private ski instructing and certainly Méribel would be a little more fuzzy.
But you see Canon (x2) has, how can I say it, put on a fair bit of weight over the last few years. Canon’s body weight has increased, along with associated cling-ons , and this has made the whole experience of our life together a little more tiring.
‘What the hell are you banging on about?’ I hear you cry. Let me start talking without my usual riddles. As a professional wedding photographer in the summer, I am very fortunate to have in my possession some quite amazing photographic hardware. I won’t go through the list of my collection for fear of being burgled, but let’s put it this way, my annual insurance cover of said kit would easily surpass the average car insurance bill.
To have such exposure (get it, exposure) and use of my equipment in Méribel is just amazing. But you see the thing is, it all weighs an absolute ton. In the past I’ve taught and skied with one Canon body and a couple of professional lenses in my rucksack. And to be honest, other than the odd shocker, I’ve been able to take some half acceptable photos. Which is great – but at a price. Here goes with a confession that I’d never thought I’d own up to on this blog….. I get utterly knackered as the ski season progresses.
There, I’ve said it. I get tired, very very tired. To the point where last summer I gave myself a good talking to and attempted to figure out how to improve the situation. Firstly, I realised that working and skiing less wasn’t an option. Secondly, improving my fitness had to happen, which by the way I’ve done by increasing strength through gym training. Thirdly, be more intelligent with what I carry each day. And fourthly, figure out how to recover physically better on the rare days off skis, i.e massage, stretching, less coffee etc.
Any marginal gains would be beneficial. I couldn’t help but notice that perhaps some ski instructors are sensible through the season, but few if any at all carry their mates called Canon around with them all the time. Hmmm. With that in mind, my professional kit is being kept at home almost all the time now. But that’s a problem. I’ve tried the iPhone thing where I’ve taken photos and published them on Facebook and Twitter. This is brilliant for speed and convenience, but with awful image quality in my biased opinion.
The next stage was to buy another camera (more kit to be insured), this time a small compact that fits inside a ski instructor’s jacket pocket, which is what I did just a few days before I left the UK. Let’s call this new camera ‘Canon Junior’ shall we? Junior is much better quality than my iPhone will ever be, and with similar ease of use. Plus my legs don’t get anywhere near as tired as carrying my heavy Canon ‘Senior’ kit. Bargain, job done. Or is it?
Nope. Granted I can take a snapshot very quickly and efficiently (of people taking a splat) as anyone else can. And yes, every single one of these images on this blog post have been taken by Canon Junior over the last few weeks, which aren’t too bad. And the hard drive on my computer isn’t quite creaking as much under the strain of the colossal file sizes. But being a perfectionist I know that better images can be captured by my overweight, if not obese, buddies.
But life is a compromise isn’t it? How can I possibly complain? I have two of the best jobs in the world with ski teaching and photography. Ski teaching with fresh legs carrying Canon Junior in my pocket is a pretty damn good existence compared to Ski Teaching with knackered legs lugging heavy Canon kit.
Martin
P.S. After a very busy Festive period, I’m back over in Val d’Isere for a week’s work. To be honest both Canon Senior and Canon Junior (called S100 for the record) will be coming along for the trip to keep me company !?!
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