MistyCastle

Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

Wow! I could not believe how much I had forgotten about running a real camera. It’s almost like starting over from scratch. I picked up a nice book published by Kodak at the local used bookstore for a few dollars and began re-educating myself. Mmmm.. let’s see… depth-of-field is greatest when the aperture is smallest.

Ok, I can see this will take some time. The first few rolls have come back and they are a mix of ‘not bad’ and ‘yuck’. I have opted to use Walgreens film and developing services for this learning phase. The film is remarkably inexpensive and the processing has been surprisingly good.

I made a trip up to the Arts & Crafts Shop at the Air Force Academy the other day with Kristina to have a look at the facilities and see what they had to offer. I was pleased to find the manager (John Elford) was an accomplished wildlife photographer, not to mention a very nice guy. I returned a few days later with my equipment and pictures and gleaned some pointers from him.

I have decided to sell my prime lens and go with a pair of high quality zooms. I am also going to pick up a polarizing filter, and a graduated neutral-density filter.

Photography has always intrigued me. The art of capturing a moment in time and preserving it for future generations to marvel at is what it’s all about. At least for me. Anyone can pick up a camera, point it and push the button but that doesn’t make it art. The art part is the tricky stuff. Learning to compose the picture and take into consideration lighting, shadows, etc. is what sets apart a photograph from a snapshot.

I have rejoined a journey begun long ago to master this thing called photography. To begin I needed some equipment. More than the battered Polaroid point-and-shoot had to offer. I deliberated over the digital vs. film issue for all of two or three minutes. Film is the medium to record high quality images. Yes, I know digital has a lot to offer but for the amount of money I wanted to spend on gear I decided on an older manual focus 35mm SLR. Besides, I don’t want a computerized camera that tries to correct everything for me.

I did most of my research on photo.net where I was able to view the opinions of many who have earned the right to be called photographers. I decided on an Olympus OM-2n body. It seemed to have the right mix of features that I was looking for. It took me several weeks of waiting but I located a good one on Ebay. I bought it from Pacific Rim Camera, a company based out of Oregon whom I would heartily recommend. I snagged a 50mm lens, a 135 mm lens, and a camera bag from a fellow up in Alaska, and a Yashica T4 SuperD Point-and-Shoot from someone in Ohio that same day (EBay is a marvelous thing!).

All in all I had invested about $450 which was almost exactly what I had gotten from selling my camcorder which I never used. Not a bad days work.