This was a planned outing with my photography group - planned for some time, but uncertain because of the weather. At the last minute, the forecast was fine, so the outing was on. I'd had a restless night and was extremely tired, but decided to go anyway, thinking I would feel better for the exercise and the activity in the sun with friends. Because I was so tired, I took only my little pocket Panasonic, and turned it to 'intelligent auto', thinking it would be more intelligent than I could manage in my tired state.
Well, that was a learning experience! I'm very familiar with this little camera, and have taken it on all my long trips, previously documented here, but I've never used its iA function before. My 'default' mode of using my camera is to record in RAW, set ISO and white balance manually according to conditions, and turn the dial to 'aperture priority' (unless I'm photographing swiftly moving wildlife, in which case I'd probably use the 'sport' scene setting). And in my tiredness, I'd forgotten that iA mode records in JPEG format, not RAW.
So, getting my photos home . . . I was very disappointed. As with every digital camera I've used, this one failed to get its auto white balance right, generally making things too 'cold' in colour, especially if they were in shadow. Some of this could be rectified in processing, but not all. And the JPEG format seemed 'flat' to me, the adjustments I was making weren't having the effect I expected. To give the camera its due, it performed some very good auto-bracketing in high-contrast and backlit scenes.
So, overall, the photos I took on this occasion aren't what I would normally present. I've organised them into little collages because I don't think they stand up to being viewed full size on the screen - they don't have enough subtlety of colour, tonality, contrast, etc.
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