Great Cook Out Photos with a Point and Shoot Digital Camera

Lightning Photo by Eli

This was not a good night for grilling as anyone can see, but my son did have a great time playing around with my Canon PowerShot camera. I showed him a few tricks, and he spent about an hour outside capturing the storm. He got a number of great photos, and you can too - without splurging for a $1000 camera.

Tips for Making Good Family Memory Photos with a Point-and-Shoot Camera


Friends sometimes tell that they wish they had a nice camera so they could take terrific pictures at family gatherings. It really is great to capture the memories. I know I enjoy looking back through the blog here and seeing all the food and fun.

Most of the Barbecue Master photos are actually made on an inexpensive Canon Powershot camera. That’s a basic point-and-shoot digital camera and not a high end camera. I have access to the Canon Rebel (a digital SLR), but I generally go with the grab-and-go camera for quick pictures.

A digital SLR is wonderful, but it takes much more effort to get really high quality photos. If you’re in auto mode, then you won’t see much difference between the expensive camera and the point-and-shoot. So, if you don’t want to read the instructions and play around with the settings, then the $800 and up camera wouldn’t be the best pick.

Also, the high end cameras are much heavier if you’re carrying them around your neck instead of tucking them in a pocket, purse, or backpack like a point-and-shoot.

With point-and-shoot digital cameras, there are a few little tricks to getting decent photos . . .

First, it really does help to have a stabilizer built into the camera which is why I went with the PowerShot Canon. Yes. You can find point-and-shoot cameras cheaper, but you need a steady hand, unless you like blurry photos.

Learn the menu. You can get by with the auto mode most of the time, but there are situations where little tweaks will make all the difference. I adjust for lighting under florescent lights, so people do not look yellow. I also turn off the flash for some shots. If it’s dark outside, you have to be really close for the flash to actually work. Otherwise, you have bad photos as I can attest. With the low lighting, you need to hold very steady. You can also get a mini tripod which helps for those kinds of photos.

The main tip I would give is to take LOTS of photos. It’s not film. You don’t have to pay to have the pictures developed. So, shoot away. That increases the likelihood that you’ll have a nice collection of good pictures. If you’re just glancing at the review screen, you will miss focus issues, red eyes, and eyes closed. So, always take way more shots than you plan to edit at the end.

Speaking of photo editing, that’s a grand idea. It does make a difference. Allow extra space around the subject your photographing. Then, you have some wiggle room on cropping. Many sins can be corrected with a photo editing program.

I’m not a professional photographer though have sold some of my best pictures with magazine articles. So, these are just the kinds of things that the typical person would need to know about taking nice family party pictures.

For some more advanced tips (but still quite easy to understand), check out Making Party Photos by Bob Kovacs. He’s coached me for a couple of years and is the one who suggested the Canon PowerShot camera which I love.

Fun for the Whole Family at Mr. Shaver's Yearly Barbecue Picnic

Mr. Shaver's annual barbecue is a family affair. Everyone turns out from seniors to infants.


Entertainment included a bluegrass band and also this year a Mexican-American band. Our community is getting more multicultural.


Mr. Shaver's fly boy buddies always come up with something cool. This year they had guests parachute down to the party.


There were lots of neat activities at the barbecue party for the kids and even wax hands - fun for all ages.


Mr. Shaver sure knows how to throw a party. In addition to all the great barbecue, he also had live music and activities for the kids and adults too.

Since Mr. Shaver lives on a farm, he had tractors pulling hay wagons. Those were running all day and toured around his entire farm. We arrived later in the day, since I had to work, and it was raining a little. We didn't take a hay ride, but those are fun. We've done that in years past.

After we chatted with some friends and neighbors, we got some barbecue and settled down to enjoy some bluegrass. That's always a hit in this area as well as gospel music. The local diner has a gospel music night and packs the place every week. My mom enjoys that. I lean more to flat out bluegrass myself.

This is the first year I remember a mariachi band at the party. They did a great job. This is a farming area. We've always had some migrant farmers in during the growing season. Many families are now staying and calling this area home. My next door neighbors are Mexican American. They throw some pretty lively parties I must say including some strob lights. They may think our barbecues are dull over here. Perhaps I need some cool lights too.

Although Mr. Shaver does not have any little kids, he does remember them at his yearly barbecue. He rents those big blow up slides and jumping toys. He had rock climbing this year. Some kid got up there and started yelling, "Momma." That always gets my attention even now that mine are teens. The rock climbing man crawled up ther and got the kid, because I don't think his momma was too keen on scaling the wall to get the kid down. All is well that ends well.

Another new activity this year was wax hands. You put your hand in ice water, dip your hand in wax, back in the water and so on. You come out with a hollow wax hand formed from your hand.

I had to get a wax hand. One of the men at the table said, "What good're them?" I said, "Well, I think they're just for fun." And, off I went to wax my hand to save for all eternity or until we manage to knock it off the piano I guess.

The wax hand man said I could make any shape, so I thought I would do the "hang loose" hand sign. I learned that when we went to Hawaii. Well, I guess I did not learn it too well. Mom asked me what I made. I said, "Hang loose." She said, "Well, that's acutally 'I love you.'" Oops. She took sign language. I decided I better not flash my way cool purple wax hand around after she told me it was "I love you." Oh well. Next time, I'll get "hang loose" right (-:

All during the party, some of Mr. Shaver's friends who fly small airplanes went over and even dropped folks out by parachute. That is not a sight you see often in a town of 800. They were good landers and hit the strip. I kept wondering if anyone would land on one of the tents or something. Their aim was good. Thumbs up to the fly boys and the ones who literally dropped in on the party. My 15-year-old sure would have loved to do that. Maybe someday he can take lessons and parachute. He is the daredeveil.

There were a lot of pretty young girls at the barbecue party and one special one. My son caught a ride home with a friend who was staying later. Hum. I think the kid is growing up. I must say he has very good taste. The young lady who caught his eye was definately cute and seemed very nice to boot.

All in all, it was a super barbecue. Mr. Shaver had everyone covered from the youngest to the oldest. He even gave out gifts. I got a tote bag, since I get really bad hat hair. My son loved the white Shaver Products ball cap. It was white. My mom thought maybe he should get beige. A nice lady told us the trick to washing ball caps - put them in the dishwasher. So, he got the white one. One problem though. We don't own a dishwasher. Teehee. Oh well. I'll figure something out.

Shaver Wood Products Annual Barbecue

Mr. Shaver has his annual barbecue at his farm behind his sawmill business.


This year the barbecue was pork and chicken plus the fixings and even corn dogs.


Here is one of several huge tents where everyone could get together and talk and pig out on que.



Mom and some of her buddies have finished eating and are thinking about the homemade ice cream - vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and banana.


Mr. Shaver sure knows how to throw a barbecue party. I guess he's had some practice, since he does this every year. It's kind of a company party, but he invites the whole community. I barely remember when some of the big companies around here would do nice things like that for the community. That was a long time back. Mr. Shaver is a small business owner. He has a saw mill operation, but he remembers everyone at this time of the year.

After I got off work, I picked up my son at the high school and then dropped by my mom's house to get her. Then we drove a couple of miles down the road to Shaver's for the annual barbecue.

Mr. Shaver always has pork barbecue which is a local favorite. Here in North Carolina, that's chopped pork. It's slow pit cooked to get that smoke flavor. The sacue is a thin vinegar based mixture with some hot pepper to give it a kick. Most folks eat the Carolina barbecue on a bun, but some just go at it with a fork.

There was also barbecue chicken and fried chicken - both favorites in this area. This isn't a huge chicken farm area, but some local farmers do keep chickens. From what I hear, that's a lot of work.

The sides were barbecue baked beans, red cole slaw (generally put on the bun with the chopped pork barbecue), French fries, and hush puppies. There were corn dogs as well though I don't guess you'd call those sides. The kids really liked those.

Sweet tea was the beverage, and that's just as Southern as it gets. They did have some unsweetened tea which is what I actually prefer. Shhh. Don't tell. That's very un-Southern of me. I got used to tea without sugar when I lived overseas and just never really went back to the sweet stuff. I have loads of vices, so that was a good thing.

For dessert, there was home churned ice cream. I got my favorite which is strawberry. Boxed strawberry ice cream - no thanks. That stuff is not very good. Homemade strawberry is fabulous. Everyone at the table was talking about how good the banana ice cream was, so I hate to confess, but I had to go back and get a serving of that too. Shame on me! Oh well, I didn't drink the sweet tea, so maybe it balanced out. The banana ice cream was fabulous, and I enjoyed every bite. I do, however, feel like I ate a bowling ball. Two servings of ice cream isn't a great idea - but it was at the time.

If you're looking for a great home churned ice cream recipe, I have our old family recipe up at Yes You Can Grill. It won't feed the multitudes like at Shaver's party, but it does make a big container. We've used that recipe for about 40 yrs. It's hard to beat.

I don't think I'll need to eat for a week after that party, but I'll probably be up and thinking about something good to throw on the grill tomorrow. Then again, the weather man is saying Hurricane Hannah may be giving us some rain love tomorrow. In fact, we got some rain at the party, but no one minded. It was a good time as always! Thanks Mr. Shaver!

Make Great Barbecue Party Pictures

Don't forget to pack the camera and plenty of spare batteries when you're headed to a barbecue or out tailgating. It's really fun to have photos capturing special memories - even better if the photos are good (-:

My photographer friend, Bob Kovacs, wrote a great photo article for my Yes You Can Grill web site about making Party Photos. Above you'll see one of his photos of friends out on a boat. There are more great shots over at Yes You Can Grill as well as tips so that your pictures turn out wonderful.

Bob helped me with my party and food photos. You should see some of my early ones. Not so special )-: He gave me some ideas on what to do to make my shots better, and I was thrilled that he put some tips down to share with everyone.

Happy photo snapping!