Ok, I know, I completely failed on the whole "post pictures and see the progress as you take the photography class," especially since I finished the course three months ago and got an A. But hey, the photos are still there so maybe you can see improvement that I more or less felt I was making throughout the course.
As far as my dream list of equipment, I did buy a tripod that I love and was much much more stable that that crappy mono-tripod that I posted below (turns out they're really unstable, durrrr). Also, my gf got me a really sweet Nikon camera bag for Christmas so I'm not carrying my stuff in an MTV lunchbox anymore. I'll post more, soon, in hopes of bringing this blog up to speed and showing the evolution of my photography and equipment etc. without going in to waaay too much detail like I have a habit of doing.
Keep it real Shutterbugs!
More to come soon.
PS: Oh yeah, and I ended up getting Photoshop Elements for Mac, too! It's decent I guess, it's nice to fix little things in your photos but on the whole I'm more a fan of leaving shots the way they are... it feels more authentic, you know?
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Wish List
Forgot to mention this in the last post. In my wanderings on the internet through the wide and dizzying world of digital SLR reviews, I discovered this morning the announcement of what I hope to become my next camera: the Nikon D90! It has the features of the D80, a better imaging sensor, and other improvements taken from the D300 level DSLR's, and it takes movies in 720p HD! OK so I wouldn't take very much video with it, but that's a freakin' sweet bonus, you must admit. Throw in the increased burst shutter speed (4.5 fps!) and pair it with a 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens, and you've got my dream package for around $1,300 (at least that was Amazon.com's price). This made me think that I should put together a wish list, because I'm probably at least a year away from being able to justify purchasing a second camera, as nice as it would be to have a two-camera setup (no more switching lenses constantly!). Here are my most drool-worthy items, in no particular order:
AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED Nikon Lens
(In English: a super-zoom lens to take cool pictures of wildlife or to spy on the neighbors–kidding!)
Nikon D90 DX 12.3MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens
(A new camera just released by Nikon that looks amazing and exactly what I'm looking for in a DSLR, paired with a great lens with a very wide range of zoom, for everything from wide-angle shots to portraits to close-ups.)
A tripod. You know, for my camera. Or maybe just a monopod, not sure yet.
A big nice camera case for all this gear and the two cameras (D40, D90).
AF NIKKOR 14mm f/2.8D ED Nikon Lens
(Super-wide shots for landscapes, cityscapes, and peoplescapes. OK I made that last one up.)
Filters for all these lenses!
Photoshop?
Canon Powershot SD890 IS Digital ELPH or similar
(I know, blasphemy! The only reasons for wanting this are to have a compact point-and-shoot for occasions where an SLR isn't practical, and for the awesome color swap feature–check out my profile picture.)
Oh, and maybe a nicer flash than the one I have now, like the SB-600 or SB-900. Yeah.
Dream on, Jonathan...
-JPL
AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED Nikon Lens
(In English: a super-zoom lens to take cool pictures of wildlife or to spy on the neighbors–kidding!)
Nikon D90 DX 12.3MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens
(A new camera just released by Nikon that looks amazing and exactly what I'm looking for in a DSLR, paired with a great lens with a very wide range of zoom, for everything from wide-angle shots to portraits to close-ups.)
A tripod. You know, for my camera. Or maybe just a monopod, not sure yet.
A big nice camera case for all this gear and the two cameras (D40, D90).
AF NIKKOR 14mm f/2.8D ED Nikon Lens
(Super-wide shots for landscapes, cityscapes, and peoplescapes. OK I made that last one up.)
Filters for all these lenses!
Photoshop?
Canon Powershot SD890 IS Digital ELPH or similar
(I know, blasphemy! The only reasons for wanting this are to have a compact point-and-shoot for occasions where an SLR isn't practical, and for the awesome color swap feature–check out my profile picture.)
Oh, and maybe a nicer flash than the one I have now, like the SB-600 or SB-900. Yeah.
Dream on, Jonathan...
-JPL
The brief and wondrous early adventures of the 3700
Recently I have spent WAY too much time on the internet looking at reviews of digital cameras, and seeing how my (very uninformed) choices have fared under a more knowledgeable and critical eye. Well, let's just say I don't tend to pick winners. While I have yet to look at reviews for the S4 (my stepping stone from point-and-shoot to SLR), both the 3700 and the D40 get scathing reviews (at least from the website I looked at). Nonetheless, until I get a D3 and go pro (which will never happen) my equipment will undoubtedly continue to be flawed. However, to use this as a scapegoat for the abysmal number of quality photographs taken during my stint with the 3700 is just plain wrong. As any good photographer (or lover of good photographs) will tell you, the person behind the camera, not the equipment itself, is what makes the difference between poor, average, and stellar shots. So it is with full recognition of how bad I was that I present two more pictures I took back in 2004, withing the first 6 months of owning a digital camera.
This first one is of particular interest to me because it illustrates several things. Over Christmas break my family went on vacation in the rain forest (it's right here, why not?) and most of my pictures consist of blurry people in the dark understory where my camera would automatically set shutter speeds too slow for my unsteady hands. The best shots were at the end of our trek, when we arrived at the hummingbird gallery, full of feeders and bees and birds buzzing about at a dizzying pace. I have gone back here recently and taken hundreds of pictures of hummingbirds with my digital SLR, so a comparison is no doubt in order at some later date. I also think it illustrates some of the difficulties when shooting wildlife, especially with a compact camera. This was the best shot I got on that trip.
Nikon 3700, probably on the "sport" scene mode.
December 17, 2004
Monteverde, Costa Rica
This second photo wasn't even taken with the Nikon 3700, I took it at a Saprissa football (futbol) game that I went to. It's horribly out of focus, but I think it's a pretty cool depiction of how devoted football fans are here. I took it with my sister's camera (to be fair, my folks got her one when I got one).
Canon A80
December 29, 2004
Saprissa Stadium, Tibás, Costa Rica
Listening to: We sing, we dance, we steal things!
-JPL
This first one is of particular interest to me because it illustrates several things. Over Christmas break my family went on vacation in the rain forest (it's right here, why not?) and most of my pictures consist of blurry people in the dark understory where my camera would automatically set shutter speeds too slow for my unsteady hands. The best shots were at the end of our trek, when we arrived at the hummingbird gallery, full of feeders and bees and birds buzzing about at a dizzying pace. I have gone back here recently and taken hundreds of pictures of hummingbirds with my digital SLR, so a comparison is no doubt in order at some later date. I also think it illustrates some of the difficulties when shooting wildlife, especially with a compact camera. This was the best shot I got on that trip.
Nikon 3700, probably on the "sport" scene mode.
December 17, 2004
Monteverde, Costa Rica
This second photo wasn't even taken with the Nikon 3700, I took it at a Saprissa football (futbol) game that I went to. It's horribly out of focus, but I think it's a pretty cool depiction of how devoted football fans are here. I took it with my sister's camera (to be fair, my folks got her one when I got one).
Canon A80
December 29, 2004
Saprissa Stadium, Tibás, Costa Rica
Listening to: We sing, we dance, we steal things!
-JPL
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Late Bloomer...
It's been days. I've been procrastinating. Too many ideas for posts, not enough time to get them all in. Apologies. Baby steps. Here we go.
I like taking good pictures. I love taking great pictures. This wasn't always the case. As with most things in our childhood, I inherited my first photo philosophy from my parents, who by the time I was in middle school were sick of documenting my sister and I's every move. Thus the camera (an old point-and-shoot film 35mm, usually with Kodak 400 or 800 ISO film) would only make an appearance if we went somewhere cool like the San Diego Zoo or the Grand Canyon. If you were 12 and only took pictures when you left the country, how many photo albums would you have? Exactly. It wasn't until I was well into high school that my family got it's first digital camera, one of the first ever in the Nikon Coolpix series I believe. Still, this spent most of it's time collecting dust rather than collecting memories. Plenty of my friends were what I thought of as "picture people." They were the ones always taking self-portraits, making collages, printing and emailing and editing and taking and sharing. They were the photogenic ones too, unplagued by braces, retainers, glasses, pimples, and lack of fashion sense (all of which I have suffered from, some of which persist). I figured it was as simple as this: some people are picture people, and some aren't, and I just guessed I was born into the latter category (baby pictures, family reunions and the occasional birthday or special event didn't count in my mind). Then I got to college, and was somehow magically released from my the inherited and under-documented prison of my youth. OK, it wasn't nearly that dramatic, but in the first days of my freshman year of college my mom was gracious enough to pay for a digital camera for myself, the first camera of any kind I had ever been the sole owner of (well, that wasn't disposable). In my untrained hands, the first pictures produced by my new Nikon Coolpix 3700 were simple pictures of my dorm room, my new computer, my desk, bed, posters on the walls, and the first friends I made on my hall.
My first digital camera, back in 2004. Not very impressive, even by '04 standards.
However, one day I decided to explore the city of San Francisco on my own, on one of those glorious freshman year Saturdays without a care in the world or much studying to do. I took the hour long train ride with my camera, and empty memory card, and a full battery, and walked all day, documenting my solo adventure. Of course I took pictures of Alcatraz, sea lions, the Bay Bridge, SBC Park (I think that's what it was called back then), the Golden Gate Bridge (from afar), and anything else I thought was mildly cool. Between a 3.2 MP camera with a 3x optical zoom and a brand-spanking-new photographer, most of them are average at best. But one, the first "artsy" one I attempted, is possibly the first sign that I might develop a knack for picture-taking. I was on Embarcadero Ave. walking along the piers and came across a marina for sailboats right before the baseball park, almost immediately after getting off the train. I looked at all the sailboats, docked with their sails down and stored (a shame on such a beautiful Saturday) and thought to myself, "this scene would make an amazingly hard puzzle!" and captured it. Here are the results, and possibly one of the best pictures I ever took while I owned that camera. Ironic that it was also one of the first.
San Fransisco, CA
November 23, 2004
Nikon Coolpix 3700
-JPL
I like taking good pictures. I love taking great pictures. This wasn't always the case. As with most things in our childhood, I inherited my first photo philosophy from my parents, who by the time I was in middle school were sick of documenting my sister and I's every move. Thus the camera (an old point-and-shoot film 35mm, usually with Kodak 400 or 800 ISO film) would only make an appearance if we went somewhere cool like the San Diego Zoo or the Grand Canyon. If you were 12 and only took pictures when you left the country, how many photo albums would you have? Exactly. It wasn't until I was well into high school that my family got it's first digital camera, one of the first ever in the Nikon Coolpix series I believe. Still, this spent most of it's time collecting dust rather than collecting memories. Plenty of my friends were what I thought of as "picture people." They were the ones always taking self-portraits, making collages, printing and emailing and editing and taking and sharing. They were the photogenic ones too, unplagued by braces, retainers, glasses, pimples, and lack of fashion sense (all of which I have suffered from, some of which persist). I figured it was as simple as this: some people are picture people, and some aren't, and I just guessed I was born into the latter category (baby pictures, family reunions and the occasional birthday or special event didn't count in my mind). Then I got to college, and was somehow magically released from my the inherited and under-documented prison of my youth. OK, it wasn't nearly that dramatic, but in the first days of my freshman year of college my mom was gracious enough to pay for a digital camera for myself, the first camera of any kind I had ever been the sole owner of (well, that wasn't disposable). In my untrained hands, the first pictures produced by my new Nikon Coolpix 3700 were simple pictures of my dorm room, my new computer, my desk, bed, posters on the walls, and the first friends I made on my hall.
My first digital camera, back in 2004. Not very impressive, even by '04 standards.
However, one day I decided to explore the city of San Francisco on my own, on one of those glorious freshman year Saturdays without a care in the world or much studying to do. I took the hour long train ride with my camera, and empty memory card, and a full battery, and walked all day, documenting my solo adventure. Of course I took pictures of Alcatraz, sea lions, the Bay Bridge, SBC Park (I think that's what it was called back then), the Golden Gate Bridge (from afar), and anything else I thought was mildly cool. Between a 3.2 MP camera with a 3x optical zoom and a brand-spanking-new photographer, most of them are average at best. But one, the first "artsy" one I attempted, is possibly the first sign that I might develop a knack for picture-taking. I was on Embarcadero Ave. walking along the piers and came across a marina for sailboats right before the baseball park, almost immediately after getting off the train. I looked at all the sailboats, docked with their sails down and stored (a shame on such a beautiful Saturday) and thought to myself, "this scene would make an amazingly hard puzzle!" and captured it. Here are the results, and possibly one of the best pictures I ever took while I owned that camera. Ironic that it was also one of the first.
San Fransisco, CA
November 23, 2004
Nikon Coolpix 3700
-JPL
Sunday, August 17, 2008
What is this, you say?
Hello. My name is Jonathan. I have had several blogs, all of them defunct because most of the time my life is just not that interesting. Then, a couple months ago, I started a blog with the purpose of putting down random thoughts and philosophical ramblings that occur to me on a fairly regular basis. It doesn't have very many views, and those that it does have are mostly my own or a couple of my friends, which is fine, since it is not really intended for anyone in particular. However, in an attempt to make it a little sexier, I posted a picture I had taken and offered some thoughts on it. This is something I would like to do more often, so sexybeastphotos was born! Here you can see pictures I've taken from my wanton adventures and travels, and now and then you might even get some insight on my life and thoughts through words as well as pictures. Though it's still posted on my other blog, I'll start with the picture that gave me the idea for this blog.
Corcovado Beach Sunset, CR
December 2006
Nikon Coolpix S4
-JPL
Corcovado Beach Sunset, CR
December 2006
Nikon Coolpix S4
-JPL
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
