Computer joy!

Finally today! I am stoked with the home setup!!!  

The tried and true old desktop has been sitting silent for the last few days, replaced by our new netbook! for a quarter of the price I paid for my old desktop, I have the same processing power, more ram, extreme portability, SILENT operation, HDMI goodness, and a portable computer should I need one onsite for photography!  But the most important feature of the new netbook... it replaces the dead laptop my girlfriend used to own!

This new netbook plays HD quality sound and picture by simply plugging in the HDMI cable from my tv to the port on the computer!! one cable!  

On the "new" Office computer, since the video card, and ram upgrade, I had to replace a faulty Motherboard fan, for a whopping 12 dollars, I now have a computer that doesn't sound like a bench grinder!! And I have added a 1.5TB external drive which should give me enough space for my photo's for a good long while! 

It may seem I'm a little computer centric the last few posts, but the computers are today's darkrooms, you can't catalog, develop, share, or promote your photos without getting a handle on computers!! 

Next post, my new Sigma 10-20mm lens! I haven't had much chance to play with the new lens as Vancouver has been blessed with a daily deluge of rain for the last several days.  I will have photos to share and comments soon!

Sunrise at the Wigwam

This photo was taken at my cottage in ontario in Sept 2009, My familiy has had a cottage on this lake since the 30's.  This photo was taken using the latest in high tech Rock Tripod. Any where you find your self needing a steady mount for your camera, Rock Tripod can help!

Computer suck

So, you've got a new fancy camera, you want to do something with those photos so you download some hot new editing software, and you start importing your huge RAW files and then..... you wait.... and you wait..... and you edit, and wait.... and you watch the software crash... and you curse... and then you go buy some new ram, and new video card, and you swap computers from the office to the living room and NOTHING WORKS!!!!!! So you swap a wireless card, and then one thing works, you sit on hold with telus.... and then you talk to telus..... then your call gets dropped....

you find an old wireless card and stick it in... and it works.... then you sleep... wake up and then it doesn't... and then you pull the ethernet card out of another machine and...... FINALLY!!!

Headache? YES

was it worth the effort vs buying a new machine?? It doesn't feel like it yet

Does lightroom work way faster?? YES!!

LBA Lens Buying addiction

My new camera came with an 18-55mm lens, its a nice starter lens, kinda wide, not too zoomy, its sort of the equivalent of the old film 35-80mm general purpose lens... I also have a 50mm, 28mm, and a 28-135mm from my old film camera. Sounds like I'm well kitted out eh? Well since Pentax has been making Auto focus zoom lenses since the 80's there's a decent amount of them that are perfectly well suited to my new camera! And old lenses are great for being artsy, but an auto focus lens is going to help make some great shots I'd otherwise miss, and Craigslist, is so easy to troll for deals!

So my first acquisition was actually a fairly new lens, a DA 50-200mm lens. These actually come as part of a 2 lens "kit" bundle with certain pentax cameras. A great budget Zoom, especially considering I paid $85! I've taken some pretty nice shots with it, and infact I really like it as a Portrait lens.

My second new toy is a 75-300mm Pentax, I just got it tonight, so kinda hard to give you any first hand reviews, but it definitely has a nice spy on your neighbor kinda feel to it! this one was 80 bucks!

Next new lens will be the spendy one! I've been researching the hell out of. I want a wide zoom lens. a 10-20mm Sigma or a 12-24mm Pentax. Both are corrected wide angles, both are more than the cost of my camera body!!! So for now I count my pennies, and troll craigslist for more cheap and fun glass to spy through!

How to Choose a new Camera

So I decided to get a new camera. I have a Pentax P5, I've had for over a decade, the only time its let me down is in really cold weather, and the batteries died! I have owned an Olympus film point and shoot, a pentax, a canon, and a kodak, Digital point and shoots, and clearly have no favorites there!

I was told about the site www.dpreview.com and thats where my research started. The amount of information on that site is kind of staggering, and if you're not up on your camera lingo can be a little confusing. Plus I'm the kind of guy that likes to compare reviews to make sure the camera I'm interested in is respected by other sites as well. Cameralabs.com has a series of videos on you tube, I found these great as they show the camera in operation and compare cameras using the same scenery. Asides from dedicated photography websites I am a member of a Mountain bike website, and a few other forums, so I asked around, what other members use and recommended. I got a lot of people pointing me in different directions, but if you look at the peoples photos, and go with the peoples opinions from the photos you like, chances are you're headed in the right direction!

Next Stop, the Pros! Go find your local professional photography retailer. Find the hardcore camera geek who knows it all inside and backwards and, try and absorb as much as you can! I had a lot of online sites suggest I go with Canon, or Nikon, because they are the BIG 2 DSLR brands. The Camera guys I spoke with, suggested that I stick with Pentax at my level since I already own 3 decent lenses that when attached to a new Digi-pentax will work great and be image stabilized!

So am I brand Loyal? Maybe.

Have I used my manual lenses on my auto-hypertech camera? YES

Was Pentax the right call for the future?

30+ years of used lenses that work plus many affordable new options, seems to indicate I'll be fine for years to come with this brand!

Next post, LBA Lens buying addiction...

From the Beginning!

I've had a few addictions over the years, Cycling, Snowboarding, Motorcycles and Photography. My Learning years in Photography started shortly after I moved out to the "left" coast, from Ontario and was blown away with the natural surroundings of my new home of Whistler...

My Trusty Pentax P5 with its Mammoth 28-135mm lens was slogged up the trails, through the snow, down the glades and strapped to my motorcycle, however being a "ski bum" in Whistler the cost of both film and developing left me with a delema... beer or film. So the fuji 400, was often left on the store shelf, and the P5 got left behind on my adventures.

Then came the dreaded point and shoot years.... the ultra cool light weight digital point and click camera became the weapon of choice. I started to loose my joy for photography and was doubting that I had an "eye" for photography, mostly because of the crappy washed out photos my point and click camera provided!

This summer, I've been trying to take more photos of my life, and of my natural surroundings, and I hit the breaking point... I was ready to throw my digital point and shoot against a brick wall!!! I was ready to go buy an High end Cannon G10, or Panasonic LX3, in an attempt to get the kind of shots I want, but the more I researched and the more I talked to some friends who take the kind of shots I wanted to take, the more I was steered towards a full DSLR...

So I tried an experiment, I dusted off the old trusty P5 film camera, loaded it up and took it Mountain biking, it was like rediscovering an old friend! And the shots weren't too shabby either!

If I can do this with a manual focus film camera, surely a DSLR will fit in my pack!

A few Days later I was the proud new owner of a Pentax K-m DSLR with an 18-50mm lens!

This Blog is going to be my journey of learning the art of Digital Photography, and hopefully help others in their journey to become better photographers in the process!