This is gonna be short and sweet, since I hate long reviews.

I just wanna throw a little love for the Canon Powershot G11. It’s an old camera now, but it was the first camera I used to shoot underwater. I bought it used off another photographer and it came with this handy little plastic underwater housing. There was nothing complex about it, but I wanted to try something creatively new, and absolutely did not have the money for a proper kit. Turns out, the G11 happened to shoot 10 megapixel raw files on that little crop sensor.

I didn’t want to have to worry about what my shutter speed was, what aperture it was set to, or what ISO I should be using. I was mostly concerned with keeping my lungs full of air and my friend from getting wrapped up in the skirt she was wearing. Turns out I totally loved it. I even printed one of them as large as 24×24 inches on canvas and sold several copies, which for being in the early stages of my career was pretty huge.

Considering how far point-and-shoot cameras have come in the last 7 years, I can only imagine what could be done with them now. Resolution and ISO capabilities are getting better and better, and I do think really beautiful work can be made with any camera currently on the market.

I’ve since upgraded my underwater kit to a used Canon 5D MK2 and an Aquatech housing, but it was honestly less stress shooting with that little Canon Power Shot G11. The autofocus was much faster than my Mk2 and I had less buttons to fiddle with while a few feet away from easy breathing. I feel like being less concerned about my settings and more connected with the message and the feeling of what I was trying to create helped me become a better content producer. In the world of “This is the next best everything,” I worry we can get stuck in the wrong points.

We can argue about all kinds of details till we are blue in the face, but the reality is, if your work resonates with your audience, what it’s shot on matters to very few. I love this work, and still license and sell some of these images to this day.

Model: Lily Scott

All images Copyright 2018 Renee Robyn