GoPro camera revolutionizes sports photography

Bow Narrows angler Jeff Barg, fishing at camp by himself this week, has one of the new GoPro HD cameras mounted on the bow of his fishing boat. It lets him take photos and videos of all his fishing action.
This tiny camera, about twice the thickness of a deck of cards, is completely waterproof and comes with several systems to mount it to flat or curved surfaces and to things like handlebars. It also has a head mount.
This is the camera that Scott Cieplik used to get those spectacular photos of his brother, Tommy, in the previous blog.
The GoPro also takes high definition videos, bursts of single photos, self-timed photos and others.
I see that there is a remote triggering device for it, which would have been handy for Jeff, fishing by himself. Unfortunately he didn't have it set up the first afternoon when he caught and released a 42-inch northern pike!
We've seen several GoPros this summer at camp.
It takes a near 180-degree photo, however, it is not a fisheye lens but more of a panorama.
The real uniqueness of this camera becomes evident from the creativity of its operator.
Scott Cieplik was a wizard with it, mounting the camera underneath the boat with a suction cup to get underwater photos of fish being netted and released.
He even mounted the camera to the shaft of the landing net! Talk about a unique shot when one of Tommy's monster pike comes right into the lens, then the whole image shakes as the big pike goes berserk in the net!
Scott also had great videos of himself driving the outboard during a hard rainstorm, videos taken from the roof of the car driving up the Red Lake road, and many others.
I hope he posts them on YouTube so we can all see them.
The GoPro camera sells just about everywhere for only $299. It comes with a few basic mounts but there are many others that can be bought separately. I think the remote and the suction cup mounts would be especially good investments. It doesn't have a viewer so you need to have a laptop computer to see your images.
As I watched Scott's incredible videos, taken underwater, from the top of the motor, the end of the boat and the top of the car, I couldn't help but compare it to conventional photographers who have a suitcase full of expensive lens and are afraid to take them out in the boat for fear they might get wet and ruined. This GoPro camera is a game-changer.
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