Normally when I go on vacation, the family offers a collective moan Knowing I will bring a 12 pound tripod, the big camera, 3 bags of accessories, and stop every 10 feet to capture the moment. We just vacationed at Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, and the Tetons and given the forecast for thunder showers, I left the big rig and gear behind. Instead I took only my Canon S3 PowerShot still camera with movie mode, a 16Gb SD card, and a few lens wipes. I had a lot of fun, enjoyed the family & sites and took spontaneous footage without stunting the family's fun. Beware, before viewing, you may want to have your meds handy; here's a 4 day trip in 4 minutes!:

2009 Family Vacation to Jackson Hole on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/5122161)

I was trying to play off of today's video game mentality where they have a game with multiple screens playing, a TV and music in the background, and talking on the cell phone at the same time. My kids didn't much care for the finished piece but I've decided I like it anyway!

As fun as this was, I have a huge need to lug out all the gear and redeem myself.

Nice shoots Roger.

Cheers for you & your family.

J.

Hah, I know what you mean. We recently were on a cruise for our anniversary with out kids, grandkids and a few other folks. I didn't even bring a video camera, just my at least 4 year old FujiFinepix still cam that shoots video AND I bought my wife a new point and shoot that's waterproof so she could go into the pool with the grandkids. Man was it nice to be a "participant" instead of a "worker bee". And a lot less baggage to worry about too. :-)
I loved it.

I didn't even mention what a joy it was to work with Standard Def on a SD card. I have shot almost exclusively HD for the last 3 years and had forgotten how easy and fast SD is. I was able to weed through the clips and trash 2/3's of them; import into Vegas; and organize/edit this simple piece together in about 4 hours. What a pleasure.

Is it too late to talk the world back into Standard Def?