Do I go big & bulky or small & nimble? The choice was simpler than it seemed.

I’ve hauled the Polaroid 600 SE around on a previous Santa Rosa getaway and made some nice photos using it, like the memorable picture of the Alcocers on their wedding day in 2010. But truthfully, it isn’t the camera to bring on holiday. It weighs  in just under 5 pounds and measures roughly 6 inches tall by 8.5  inches wide by 7 inches deep and needs a hand-held meter, to boot. Think of a shoe box with a neck strap. I love that camera, but not that much.

I purposely left the work stuff at home. Yes, the Nikon has a much leaner design than the 600 SE and is exponentially more versatile, but it also weighs more.  Then throw in extra glass and a flash, and suddenly the camera bag’s weight begins to tip into double digits. Besides, this was vacation; why should I be hauling around vestiges of work every place I went?

So small prevailed; a pair of Polaroids, the Playsport, an iPhone, and a table top tripod made the trip while the big boys stayed home. It was nearly the perfect call. The gear I brought along couldn’t have weighed more than six pounds total.

I knew I might not bring any masterpieces back from vacation, but at least I’d be able to stand up straight.

Then  Cassie and Bryce and Enedina and Marcus got a hold of of my bite-sized Playsport camcorder and for one minute and four seconds, the 600 SE didn’t seem like too bad of a plan;  judge for yourself:

Anyway, like I said, the choice to go small and travel light turned out to be good one, for the most part.

For what was really the first time, I played a lot with the iPhone camera and had fun with it. I found combining “Camera+” files with “Snapseed” (a pair of iPhone photo apps) worked out well for me as long as I had my reading glasses with me.  I shot alot with the SX-70, too: five packs of 779 film. I was using what was to me, a new film in the Spectra Pro: the Impossible Project’s PZ Silver Shade UV+. It was quickly evident I needed to read up even more on how to properly expose that film as the picture of Ali and AJ I took using that film was disappointing. The Spectra spent the rest of the trip at the Hilton.

So I suppose the $64 question is: was it worth it going small, photo-wise, on this trip. Yeah, I think it was. Cassie and Bryce, et al, probably think so, too. I  think I managed to document the trip, via snapshot, in an interesting way. Would I have a Sonoma County iPhone photo matted, framed, and hung on my wall? Maybe; the family photo Frankie took is certainly worthy from a sentimental perspective. But aside from that, I think if I really wanted to display a phone photo, I need to dial back the vignettes and sloppy borders just a hair before heading off to the framers. Will the bulky 600 SE ever make another Sonoma County appearance?  I hope so.