Hungry Sam - Hungry Sam

The only photo that came out was of the sliced olives.

So here's the deal -- last weekend, I made an EPIC Moroccan tagine-style stew ("style," because it was cooked in a dutch oven, not a tagine. It had chickpeas, a thick, tomato stew sauce, ripe green olives, plump raisins, and delectable, fall-off-the-bone chicken thighs. It stewed in fresh-ground coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and paprika, and the meat just exploded with those flavors. I ate it over a quinoa couscous which I made with chicken stock, cumin, parsley, and oregano. The dish was sweet, it was tangy, it was filling, it was satisfying -- and I don't have a damn picture to show for it. Not really, at least.

You see, I take my pictures with my real camera, not my camera phone. That camera is a four or five year-old Panasonic Lumix, a point-and-shoot, and it's taken some brilliant photos of breath-taking beauty. Glacier National Park, Israel, cherry blossoms -- this camera has done great.

Except my camera can't do low-light, and guess what? I cook at night.

The flash washes EVERYTHING out (and with food we want color and vibrancy!); without the flash, all photos are blurry. There are probably technical terms for all this, but I dunno.

Now, I know I could set up little soft, white light lamps and screens or something, but I live in a house with roommates and don't feel like constantly setting up and taking down stuff like that. Plus, I'm going on some big boy vacations this year (back home for Acadia National Park for sure; Mayan pyramids in the Yucatan for maybe) and want awesome, better-than-totally-amateur photos of these jaunts.

So, readers with answers: I'm going to invest in a new camera. I want it to be a high-end digital point and shoot, something that will take great pics, something worth learning the ins-and-outs of, but nothing SLR or huge/wicked expensive. Can someone point me in the right direction? I'll, you know, make you pickles or cookies or something.

Thanks in advance!