2 Practise composition skills on your next walk

Exploring the great outdoors with a simple camera setup can be liberating, says Steve Gemmell. So why not pack a point-and-shoot for your next perambulation?

Last year I was suffering from a painful frozen shoulder, so the convenience of a slim and compact camera with a reasonable zoom range was hard to resist. Being able to reach into a pocket when needed, rather than having to hang a large camera and lens around one’s neck for a prolonged period, or extract them from a kit bag, is liberating. While

I love using my smartphone for snaps, it doesn’t work the same way as a camera – the telephoto options are limited and viewing the screen in bright conditions can be difficult.

During lockdown, my daily escape for exercise consisted of the same walk around a large field. With a compact camera in my pocket, I was free to seek out interesting compositions and scenes with a particular mood – whatever caught my eye.

The camera in question was a Panasonic Lumix TZ100, with a one-inch sensor and a 10x zoom lens. It has all the modes you’d expect to find on its more sophisticated siblings. The five images in this project were taken on the same morning while out walking. As I was often shooting onehanded, I shot in Program mode and made shift adjustments to alter the aperture or shutter speeds as required. The image quality is never going to match that of a bigger camera and interchangeable lenses, but they all prove what good results you can get with a compact – and here’s how you can, too…

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Digital camera Walking route (scenic, ideally!) Time: 30 minutes-1 hour