This morning I was thinking about constraints on photography.  We all have our individual constraints.  Personally, I am some-what constrained by not traveling and not going out much; but I have changed that into a challenge to see what I can keep finding to photograph close to home.  Another constraint is my inability to carry much weight.  That constraint limits my use of my Pentax DSLR and long lenses so I have been using my smaller lighter cameras more.

This morning I started thinking about a new constraint.  It seems that the price of cameras is rising faster and they are getting out of reach.  The latest rumors, etc. indicate that future cameras are going to be priced even higher since the camera companies are concentrating on the high-end, technologically loaded cameras.  This situation started me wondering if I could just make-do with my Ricoh GR if I had to in the future.

I was out this morning with my GR in my pocket while I was waiting for someone.  I looked up and saw the sun trying to peek through the clouds.  I knew that getting that image would be a challenge for my GR with its’ effective 28 mm lens.  Due to that wide coverage I knew that I couldn’t see the sun in my LCD when I composed the shot.  In addition the image of the sun would be so small that I doubted I could even see it in the final picture; but I took it anyway.  Below is what I got shooting a raw file with -1.3 exposure compensation using the program mode and then developing it in LightRoom with no adjustments.

I then cropped the image down small enough to see the sun and made the following picture.

It is not a great picture but I did learn some more about what can be done with the Ricoh GR.  I’m not sure that I would want to be forced into only using it for my pictures, but I am sure that I could adapt.