Odd title I know, it just that it’s been a hard, very hard, 2 weeks. I have had no time to even open my camera bag, let alone shoot with the LensBaby. So forgive me for not posting some photographs, how-to’s or experiences. Tomorrow is another day, maybe I will find some time, I can only hope. Maybe I’ll even find some inspiration… I saw a rainbow today and went “awesome” and carried on walking, that is bad, very bad.
As you know I don’t often deviate from photography on this blog, but from time to time there is something to, well, shout about and this is the case. Head over to Shout for a safer South Africa, an initiative to create awareness around the raising criminality in raise funds to combat it. They currently only accept SMS donation for the song in return but you will also be able to download it for a R20 from their website as of next week. Now when you consider that a downloadable song will cost you R10 the donation is really cheap. There are comments on YouTube that you can downloaded it for free from YouTube but then is that not defeating the purpose and joining the criminal element?
I want to thank to Danny K, Kabelo Mabalane and the other 37 great South African artists that made this possible, a good idea for a good cause. And if you worried about where your money is going go to Shout for a safer South Africa and click on the question mark icon on the left and check out the sponsors.
For a united, crime free South Africa, let’s Shout!!!
After much research and deliberations, I decided to switch brands at that time, Nikon and Canon both had tempting offers and I tried both. Canon came out tops and a few months later I bought a Canon EOS 300D, the digital age downed on me…
I got a good package for the price, a Canon EOS 300D with the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, a Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 USM and the battery grip, to begin with I was satisfied. I bought a Sigma APO 170-500mm F5-6.3 DG lens to compliment and be able to do wildlife as well. I was working within my budget of the time and, retrospectively, the gear did the job very well. It was not yet a hobby though I started to like photography far more that in the film days. The simple fact that the results are immediate and that there is no printing cost associated made it easier for me to experiment and that is when photography became a hobby.
Unfortunately, my Canon EOS 300D with the Sigma attached took a serious fall at Augrabies Falls in the Northern Cape and had to be replaced quickly. I was lucky to find a Canon EOS 400D in Upington at a reasonable price. You got to understand that Upington, whilst being one of my favourite cities in South Africa, is very isolated for the rest of the world. I was lucky to find one before I went into the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Peace Park and so armed with a Canon EFS 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and a Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 USM I entered the park, click here for the photographs. I found the 55-200 barely adequate for my needs it just did not have the reach, but I suppose the results were satisfactory.
After that unfortunate incident I had some serious decisions to make, my insurance did not cover the full amount (my mistake I under insured) so I simply got a replacement battery grip, a Canon Speedlite 430EX flash, a Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod with a Manfrotto 322RC2 Heavy Duty Grip Ball Head and a Crumpler bag. That was 2 years ago. I eventually got the nerves to add a lens to my collection, I was looking at the Sigma APO 170-500mm F5-6.3 DG again but I wanted something better, something more solid, I tested the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens and found it to be heavy and rather pricy at the time, after all I was barely a hobbyist photographer, what would I do with a near professional lens? It took me a couple of months but the need got the better of me and I bought it along with a Canon Extender EF 2.0XII. The sheer quality of the images I could get with this lens changed my position and I became more than a hobbyist, closer to a junior amateur. That lens opened a whole new world for me and it did not stop at wildlife photography. It took me a further 18 months and a lot of research to chose the right “all purpose” lens, I finally settled on the Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8 USM L and I am not sorry. As I say, once you have had exposure to Canon L lenses you will never go back. I sold my Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 USM and through away my Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6. Today I still have my Canon EOS 400D and with my investments in Canon lenses I am committed to stay with Canon. I have also added a Manfroto 804RC2 Basic Pan Tilt Head for my tripod, a polarising filter and a Lowepro SlingShot 300 AW bag to my gear.
Last year I started my Flickr collection which now includes 1422 photos and growing. This year in March this blog became a photo-centric website committing me to improve and learn more on photography, though I do not intend to become a professional, an amateur status will be good enough.
In part 3 I will discuss how I learned to photograph since I committed myself last year.
Until the digital age downed on me my worries where about getting the shot, so I pretty much left the camera on automatic and hoped for the best, after all that is why there is an automatic setting right?
It’s not until I acquired my first DSLR, a Canon EOS 300D,that I started fiddling with the settings and the settings I fiddled with where not all that exiting from Auto to Sport to Auto. The advantage was I could see the results immediately in that 2.5 inch screen. When I got my Canon EOS 400D, things changed, I wanted to be able to do more and discovered a whole new world.
I am often asked what courses I took and so on and so forth. The truth is I never took a photography course in my life, I am entirely self taught. OK, I lie, not entirely, I have had some help but not in the form of courses…
If you want to learn about photography the first stop is your camera bag, read your manual! Seriously, read it, now. If you know what your camera is capable of, it will open possibilities for you, so stop reading this blog and get on it.
Now that your are aware of your camera’s abilities and features, go and test them, do some photographing, see results.
Your second stop should be at your local bookshop for “The Ultimate Field Guide to Photography” (Kalahari.net / Amazon), it is brilliant and inspiring not to mention educative. It covers taking photographs with mobile phone cameras past compacts to the professional DSLR in a fun manner.
Your third stop is the internet and here is a list of my favourite sites:
And there are many more websites to visit…
At the end of the day it’s all up to what you see through the lens, happy photographing.
Pascal Photography Studio Web Site by Pascal Parent is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 South Africa License.
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