Snapshot Chronicles is all about my journey to become a better snapshot photographer. With my simple Canon Digital Elph point and shoot camera.

Taking better pictures of my son. Without red eye. Taking better pictures of my lovely Scottish Terriers. Without blue eye. Getting the pictures I want, not just pictures.

It’s also about introducing my son Douglas to photography. Teaching him how to frame pictures, not just point. I can’t tell you how many pictures we have of people with chopped off heads!

Exploring new things and new places with an eye to getting a few great images that sum up the place, not shot after shot in the hopes that we get something, anything. And of course, in the end, not enjoying where we are when we are there.

I got the idea when I was working on a recent blogger outreach project for occasional client HP.  No surprise, a lot of moms take pictures. It’s in the job description.  Many are, or become, very serious about photography. For them, there are tons of great photo sites on the internet to help them develop their skills, including a great photo blog just for moms, Tracey Clark’s Picture This.

But for moms like me, who just want to use their point and shoot cameras better without having to RTFM, explore some fun projects with their kids, maybe create a photo gift for grandmum? Who don’t want to deal with an SLR camera (at least not right now).  Not so much.

I had an SLR in college and loved messing around with it. Now with a kid and dogs and a desire to reduce, not increase, the weight of my handbag, the point and shoot is the camera of choice.

So here on Snapshot Chronicles, we are going to check out the “how to”  and tips sections from the major point and shoot manufacturers. Which ones are really helpful? We’re going to explore photo projects that you can find online and tell you which ones we like, and why. And you won’t just get my perspective. Douglas will chime in with his opinions.

We’ll look into photo gifts that you can buy online, and tell you which ones we like. So, Mum, Jan and everyone else in the family,  be prepared — your Christmas gifts this year are highly likely to have pictures on them.

We’ll also go on photo walks. Instead of aimlessly walking around the town of Woodstock, Vermont (near our vacation house), we’ll go with a goal. To find neat flowers. Or bird feeders. Having a goal will make it all the more fun for Douglas, and we’ll all enjoy the exercise.

For my family, this blog will also replace a Web site that we started in 1993 to share our pictures. I haven’t updated it in years, and now we’ll have the motivation to get our pix into Flickr on a regular basis. Versus the MASSIVE update I did in preparation for the launch of this blog.

We’ll also fool around a bit with the video recording capabilities of our digital cameras and maybe even do a little photo editing and composition. But we’ll keep things simple, using inexpensive photo editing software.

Most of all, we plan to have fun, and we hope you’ll come along.