Tonight, cruising eBay for lenses, as I am wont to do, I came across a Canon 28-135mm IS f/3.5-5.6 USM lens (IS: Image Stabiliser and USM: Ultra-Sonic Motor, ie. quiet auto-focus). I already have the similar 28-105mm USM (no IS) lens, but would love the extra reach and IS would be handy. So far it's sitting on $22.50 with three days to go. Why? In a word - fungus. That's right, there's stuff growing inside the lens. Damn.
But it got me thinking about how I might go about cleaning it up myself (or how much it might cost to get it done professionally and whether that would be worth it - short answer is "probably", but hard to tell sight-unseen). Which got me thinking about the old 70-210mm f/4 I have, which had a bit of an infection itself, and I did a little reading...
This lens came with the EOS 650 that I bought not so long ago as my second film body (after the 3000N). I bought it mostly for the lenses (although I've been using the body too) - the 70-210mm and a 35-105mm and I think they're both out of the original EF lineup. Certainly they have the AF motor noise to prove it! Anyway, the 70-210mm had a little fungus on the inside (where else?) of the front element, and I was suitably terrified of actually opening a lens myself, but the three little Phillips-head were just too tempting. After, I told myself, I don't use this lens much, if at all, and if I kill it dead (which I thought unlikely), I can deal.
So, three screws out and the front element can be removed without too much trouble. I want to go easy on the glass so I try a little alcohol spray and a blower but the fungus won't budge. I try an experimental nudge with my thumbnail (which I keep long for playing guitar) and end up smearing it a little. Ick. OK, so my earlier reading suggested that vinegar (of the white spirit kind, not the apple cider or red wine kind!) was a good tool for this job... and it is. I apply some with a cotton-bud and the fungus basically dissolves. I blot it clean with a lens-cleaning cloth and things look good. This being a push-pull zoom, I can also get to the rear element easily and clean that up too. Make sure everything is dry, put the front element back on and screw it up. Done.
And the result? Well, it looks clean enough although I'll know better when I do some comparison shots against its previous performance. Happily, the lens with the fungus was the easiest one to pull apart, out of my collection. The others look a little more daunting... Meanwhile, I think I'll bid on this 28-135mm and see if I can't somehow clean it up. If I can get it cheap it may even be worth having it professionally cleaned. :)
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
I love my AE-1 Program (or, primes rock)
So I ran a roll of Kodak Ultramax 400 through my AE-1 Program. I wasn't expecting too much from this film - it was really a test roll for my recent FD lens acquisitions. And when I saw the prints today, the first few shots were out of focus or shaken so I was a little sad. Then I had a chance to look through the rest and was pleasantly surprised.
One of the most interesting shots was with the 24mm Sigma. I had managed to get the lens slightly "cross-threaded" on the mount and I couldn't get it to focus - I thought I'd broken it somehow but took the shot anyway, of the grand old Exhibition Building in Melbourne, and it turned out a look like those tilt-shift pictures you see (makes sense, I guess). Then I figured out what I'd done, mounted the lens properly and got a beautiful, focussed shot - amazing blue sky and brushed clouds, almost like an HDR (high dynamic range) digital image. Like so:
Next I tried the Sigma 600mm f/8 mirror lens. I pointed it at the little tower on top of the dome and got a beautifully sharp of something that was only a tiny detail in the frame from the 24mm lens. The background was that bright blue sky, so there were no "donuts" in the background "bokeh" that are a drawback with the mirror lens design. I also shot some long-range "portraits", both against a background of trees (yielding donuts) and a blank wall. So long as I managed to get the subject in focus, they were wonderfully sharp. The donuts are a little trippy but I think are an interesting effect if used tastefully.
Finally I shot some portraits with the 135mm f/3.5 (pretty close equivalent to the 85mm I love using so much on the 350D, focal length-wise, anyway). Again, nice and sharp with beautiful colours.
I'm tempted to say this is the roll of colour film that I've been happiest with, but that wouldn't be quite true, having looked back at some of the Fuji 400H and Velvia 100 I shot at the Melbourne Zoo on the EOS 50. Still, I'm really glad I bought the AE-1 Program and I have new respect for Kodak Ultramax 400.
One of the most interesting shots was with the 24mm Sigma. I had managed to get the lens slightly "cross-threaded" on the mount and I couldn't get it to focus - I thought I'd broken it somehow but took the shot anyway, of the grand old Exhibition Building in Melbourne, and it turned out a look like those tilt-shift pictures you see (makes sense, I guess). Then I figured out what I'd done, mounted the lens properly and got a beautiful, focussed shot - amazing blue sky and brushed clouds, almost like an HDR (high dynamic range) digital image. Like so:
Next I tried the Sigma 600mm f/8 mirror lens. I pointed it at the little tower on top of the dome and got a beautifully sharp of something that was only a tiny detail in the frame from the 24mm lens. The background was that bright blue sky, so there were no "donuts" in the background "bokeh" that are a drawback with the mirror lens design. I also shot some long-range "portraits", both against a background of trees (yielding donuts) and a blank wall. So long as I managed to get the subject in focus, they were wonderfully sharp. The donuts are a little trippy but I think are an interesting effect if used tastefully.
Finally I shot some portraits with the 135mm f/3.5 (pretty close equivalent to the 85mm I love using so much on the 350D, focal length-wise, anyway). Again, nice and sharp with beautiful colours.
I'm tempted to say this is the roll of colour film that I've been happiest with, but that wouldn't be quite true, having looked back at some of the Fuji 400H and Velvia 100 I shot at the Melbourne Zoo on the EOS 50. Still, I'm really glad I bought the AE-1 Program and I have new respect for Kodak Ultramax 400.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Focus screen blues
A while back I ordered a split-circle focus screen for my 350D. (I won't mention the vendor by name at this point because my issue is still unresolved and I don't want to prejudge the result.) I was getting frustrated with a very hunt-happy autofocus system (especially in low light) and was finding the manual focus option to be very difficult with the standard screen. Losing a lot of shots that I was sure I could get if I could only _see_!
The screen arrived a couple of weeks back and I procrastinated about putting it in, because the screens are very easily scratched and/or dirtied and next to impossible to clean. Now I'm wishing I had just left well-enough alone.
Long story short[er], the screen went in fine. But the viewfinder focus was wrong, because I had put it in backwards (it's hard to tell, OK?). So I flipped it. And it was still out, but closer. So I put the copper shim back in (the one they said you didn't need). And it was worse. And so on and so forth, taking the screen out a lot, having trouble placing it back in. And it got dirty. And scratched. And cleaning with isopropyl alcohol left a mark. And blah. I tried putting the original screen back, but couldn't get it to line up. At 2am I declared defeat, emailed the support address and went to bed for some fitful sleep.
I was so annoyed I didn't take _any_ cameras with me when I left the house today (well, except the one in my phone). As anyone who has seen me recently will know, this is highly unusual. I was that sad.
Support email came back and said I should try with the extra bits of sticky stuff to extend the shim. That made it worse. So I took out the shim. Better, but not right, and nowhere near good enough for manual focus (which was the point of this, remember?). I need to move the screen further back. Or make it thinner (tricky).
So, email to support again. I figure they'll either declare me incompetent, come up with some trick I haven't thought of (no, I'm not taking a scalpel to my camera!) or admit there's an issue and get me a screen that fits.
Hopefully I get some joy - I can see the potential of the split circle to really enhance my work and I can't wait to have a working one on my only digital body. Maybe shooting some film will cheer me up in the meantime...
The screen arrived a couple of weeks back and I procrastinated about putting it in, because the screens are very easily scratched and/or dirtied and next to impossible to clean. Now I'm wishing I had just left well-enough alone.
Long story short[er], the screen went in fine. But the viewfinder focus was wrong, because I had put it in backwards (it's hard to tell, OK?). So I flipped it. And it was still out, but closer. So I put the copper shim back in (the one they said you didn't need). And it was worse. And so on and so forth, taking the screen out a lot, having trouble placing it back in. And it got dirty. And scratched. And cleaning with isopropyl alcohol left a mark. And blah. I tried putting the original screen back, but couldn't get it to line up. At 2am I declared defeat, emailed the support address and went to bed for some fitful sleep.
I was so annoyed I didn't take _any_ cameras with me when I left the house today (well, except the one in my phone). As anyone who has seen me recently will know, this is highly unusual. I was that sad.
Support email came back and said I should try with the extra bits of sticky stuff to extend the shim. That made it worse. So I took out the shim. Better, but not right, and nowhere near good enough for manual focus (which was the point of this, remember?). I need to move the screen further back. Or make it thinner (tricky).
So, email to support again. I figure they'll either declare me incompetent, come up with some trick I haven't thought of (no, I'm not taking a scalpel to my camera!) or admit there's an issue and get me a screen that fits.
Hopefully I get some joy - I can see the potential of the split circle to really enhance my work and I can't wait to have a working one on my only digital body. Maybe shooting some film will cheer me up in the meantime...
Sunday, December 13, 2009
eBay is eeeevil!
No shooting today, just a fair bit of eBay madness. I've augmented my FD collection by three.
First up, a 28mm f/2.8 prime made by Sigma, which should be nice for landscapes (and the inevitable posed group shots that people seem to force upon me from time to time). I would have preferred a Canon lens, but I'm willing to give this a shot.
Next we have the Canon 135mm f/3.5 which should suit me well as I like to do really close-up portrait shots. It's a little slower than I'd like, but I can't really complain since it's a 135mm lens. I find a little distance is useful from my people subjects so I can grab unposed shots before they realise they're being photographed and put on some awful pose face. I realise this sounds sneaky but it seems to be the only way to get the shots that I really like (which I will generally show people after the fact if I can). And often, the subjects really like them too. ;)
Lastly, moving toward the realms of the crazy, I also bought a Sigma mirror lens, with a focal length of... wait for it... 600mm! Now since I haven't won any lotteries recently there are obviously some drawbacks to this deal ('cause, you know, the Canon 600mm f/4L IS _would_ be preferable... *grin*). The mirror lens design means you get a fixed aperture (f/4 in this case) and not-so-nice bokeh in the form of little donuts if you happen to chose the "wrong" background. But... 600mm! On the upside, it's not as heavy or big as you might think.
The grand total for all this manual-focus mayhem? Around $A200. Now I just have to wait for it to show up... Looks like I'm getting a little carried away with this FD thing... (not to mention the film thing!)
First up, a 28mm f/2.8 prime made by Sigma, which should be nice for landscapes (and the inevitable posed group shots that people seem to force upon me from time to time). I would have preferred a Canon lens, but I'm willing to give this a shot.
Next we have the Canon 135mm f/3.5 which should suit me well as I like to do really close-up portrait shots. It's a little slower than I'd like, but I can't really complain since it's a 135mm lens. I find a little distance is useful from my people subjects so I can grab unposed shots before they realise they're being photographed and put on some awful pose face. I realise this sounds sneaky but it seems to be the only way to get the shots that I really like (which I will generally show people after the fact if I can). And often, the subjects really like them too. ;)
Lastly, moving toward the realms of the crazy, I also bought a Sigma mirror lens, with a focal length of... wait for it... 600mm! Now since I haven't won any lotteries recently there are obviously some drawbacks to this deal ('cause, you know, the Canon 600mm f/4L IS _would_ be preferable... *grin*). The mirror lens design means you get a fixed aperture (f/4 in this case) and not-so-nice bokeh in the form of little donuts if you happen to chose the "wrong" background. But... 600mm! On the upside, it's not as heavy or big as you might think.
The grand total for all this manual-focus mayhem? Around $A200. Now I just have to wait for it to show up... Looks like I'm getting a little carried away with this FD thing... (not to mention the film thing!)
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Band in a boat
Had a fun afternoon with some friends of mine, known to fans as John Flanagan and the Begin Agains (http://www.myspace.com/johnflanagansings). John asked for someone to help out on a photo shoot - holding a reflector or whatever. Of course I volunteered as I hadn't seen these guys in ages and... well, it was a photo shoot, so a great chance to observe a professional in action.
Turned out the light was such that a reflector wasn't needed, so I was free to shoot alongside the "real" photographer, mirroring the shots she took on her Mamiya and doing "behind the scenes" type stuff too. And I had a ball - shot mostly B&W film - I thought the 1600 ISO I had loaded up in the EOS 5 would be excessive but I think it worked well, especially since the EOS 5 will do shutter speeds up to 1/8000 (it didn't blink at me once). Also shot some slides (50 ISO Velvia!) and a bunch of frames on the 350D. Oh, and a bit of AE-1P action for good measure to finish up a roll.
The locations were great - an old convent (where I had wandered earlier with the AE-1P) and later on down by the river, with the band in a rowboat! The day's highlight was the band floating by looking somewhat regal, John standing up in the back with his banjo. Kudos to the photographer for that particular bit of vision and planning - the boating theme really fit the old-timey/bluegrass feel of the band and putting the banjo in the boat was just gold. And thanks for letting me shoot too - looking forward to getting that film processed.
Turned out the light was such that a reflector wasn't needed, so I was free to shoot alongside the "real" photographer, mirroring the shots she took on her Mamiya and doing "behind the scenes" type stuff too. And I had a ball - shot mostly B&W film - I thought the 1600 ISO I had loaded up in the EOS 5 would be excessive but I think it worked well, especially since the EOS 5 will do shutter speeds up to 1/8000 (it didn't blink at me once). Also shot some slides (50 ISO Velvia!) and a bunch of frames on the 350D. Oh, and a bit of AE-1P action for good measure to finish up a roll.
The locations were great - an old convent (where I had wandered earlier with the AE-1P) and later on down by the river, with the band in a rowboat! The day's highlight was the band floating by looking somewhat regal, John standing up in the back with his banjo. Kudos to the photographer for that particular bit of vision and planning - the boating theme really fit the old-timey/bluegrass feel of the band and putting the banjo in the boat was just gold. And thanks for letting me shoot too - looking forward to getting that film processed.
Friday, December 11, 2009
AE-1 Program
My new (old, but new to me) Canon AE-1 Program arrived today, vintage 1981 or so. This is one of Canon's more famous FD-mount cameras (as opposed to the newer EF EOS cameras) and is a little special because it has the automatic "Program" mode, where the electronics in the camera take care of shutter speed and aperture for you. Remember, we're talking 1981 here.
But, no auto-focus - what you do get is a nice circle on the focus screen with a pattern that will tell you at a glance if you're focussed or not, which is fine by me. The shutter speed only goes to 1/1000, but you can still do plenty with that and I don't really plan on super fast action photography with this thing.
Why _did_ I buy it? I'm going to admit I have a problem with collecting stuff. When I become passionate about something I tend to start collecting... for history's sake, you see. In this case, I'm also hoping to find some nice FD-mount L-series lenses for a reasonable price (although it seems I'm not the only one with this idea). There's also the cool (for me) factor of taking hopefully nice shots with an older camera (although thesedays just shooting film is enough to draw comment).
I will probably buy at least one other FD-mount body (maybe an F1-n, or a T70) but for the moment this is it. I may also acquire a motor-drive base for the AE-1P, although I'm quite happy with the manual wind functionality and I like the compact size of this one with just the 50mm f/1.8.
Anyway, I've loaded up some Neopan 400 and tomorrow I'll go see what jumps in front of the lens. Meanwhile, I just love the shutter "squeak" sound on this thing - it's no soft click, that's for sure!
But, no auto-focus - what you do get is a nice circle on the focus screen with a pattern that will tell you at a glance if you're focussed or not, which is fine by me. The shutter speed only goes to 1/1000, but you can still do plenty with that and I don't really plan on super fast action photography with this thing.
Why _did_ I buy it? I'm going to admit I have a problem with collecting stuff. When I become passionate about something I tend to start collecting... for history's sake, you see. In this case, I'm also hoping to find some nice FD-mount L-series lenses for a reasonable price (although it seems I'm not the only one with this idea). There's also the cool (for me) factor of taking hopefully nice shots with an older camera (although thesedays just shooting film is enough to draw comment).
I will probably buy at least one other FD-mount body (maybe an F1-n, or a T70) but for the moment this is it. I may also acquire a motor-drive base for the AE-1P, although I'm quite happy with the manual wind functionality and I like the compact size of this one with just the 50mm f/1.8.
Anyway, I've loaded up some Neopan 400 and tomorrow I'll go see what jumps in front of the lens. Meanwhile, I just love the shutter "squeak" sound on this thing - it's no soft click, that's for sure!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
First, some history...
How was I transformed from snapshotter into photo-nut? This mostly happened over the last few months, but I think it started backed when I was around eight.
I was given a little Hanimex camera (probably a 110 IF), which took film in the form of a cartridge. Many of the photos I took with this were awful (yes, I still have them). But not all. Then teenagerdom took over and I became extremely paranoid about having my photo taken.
[The rest of this post is possibly somewhat tedious. I'm mostly writing it for myself - you might want to skip to the last couple of paragraphs!]
I also forgot that I liked taking photos - I certainly don't remember having a camera. I didn't really return to a more normal attitude until I was seventeen when my father lent me a Minolta SLR to take to France with me my student exchange odyssey. The other kids on the plane actually asked me if I had Japanese blood, I was taking so many photos on take-off (in fact, I was trying to capture as many images of Melbourne (from the air) as I could, preempting some serious homesickness). I took some photos over there, and continued off and on for a few years after I got home but nothing serious. I eventually gave the camera back to Dad sometime late last century and left photography alone again. Maybe film was too much hassle? I don't know. I was certainly still interested in imaging, but bought a 8mm Sony camcorder (analog tape) instead of an SLR.
Fast forward to around 2001. Serious DSLRs were still stupidly expensive but my inner geek needed to get in on the action and I got some crappy little "digital camera" (now lost in a box somewhere), with a massive 0.3 megapixel (640x480 VGA) resolution. It was not great - I gave it to my daughter and she had a ball taking mostly out-of-focus shots of all sorts of things.
2003 - enter mobile phones with cameras. I got a Nokia 7650, again with VGA. I didn't buy it for the camera, but of course I did take pictures with it, especially since, due to work, I was living two states away from wife and children. Being able to take pictures of where I was and send them via MMS kept us in touch. (Thankfully I got to move back home after a few months.)
Then I spent my $1000 Christmas bonus (only one I've ever had, mind) on a Canon A80 for my wife. That's right - for my wife, since she wanted to have decent photos of our children, among other things (happily she had still been shooting film, mostly on disposable cameras, while I was busy ignoring photography). Of course, I couldn't resist completely and used it too from time to time, mostly when we went somewhere involving trains. But some reason I didn't take it to San Francisco and instead used the second-hand Nokia 3650 (still VGA) I bought over there because my dual-band 7650 wouldn't talk US-style GSM. Gargh!
2006 - Another travel-induced phone upgrade (this time to Japan, so I needed a 3G W-CDMA phone) got me a 2MP camera on the Nokia 6233. And I did take the A80 this time. And took some halfway interesting photos - with the phone as well, even. Damn, those temples are fascinating.
2008 - The 6233 had become decidedly flaky, so I upgraded to an N95 8GB (wow, Carl Zeiss optics...) And this thing has a Flickr upload capability built-in, right there in the camera application. I wasn't really one for sharing, but I did start upload shots of odd signs and things I found in the street. And then...
[things get interesting]
A guy at work offered me a Canon 350D for $A350. I knew I'd been wanting a DSLR for years (startup times and capture delay on the things I had were driving me nuts, for one thing) so I jumped at it, 18-55mm mostly plastic kit lens, 8MP sensor and all. I spent the first little while just seeing how quickly I could take a photo from the time I flicked the camera on. *grins* (But still the obsession has not really taken hold...)
Then, a guitarist I play alongside in amateur theatre pit orchestras brings along his 500D. And he's taking photos in low light with no flash. And they're good. And I get interested... oh, so you need a lens with a wide aperture... and the 50mm f/1.8 is under $A150... and then it takes off for me. I buy the 50mm. I buy the 75-300mm telephoto zoom too. I quit my increasingly boring and frustrating job. I hang out at the zoo a lot and also shot more at gigs. I resurrect my long-disused eBay account and wind up buying a 3000N because I thought the 28-80mm lens it came with would be fun. And I start shooting film as well... then I buy an EOS 5, a monopod, a decent camera bag, an EOS 650 (mostly for the 70-210mm f/4 push-pull zoom, but also for the history) and an EOS 50 (for the 28-105mm USM) etc. etc.
At this point, I have more camera gear than I can comfortably carry and have to start deciding what to take with me. And I can't leave the house without at least two cameras (digital + film). I'm in love! I'm obsessed! The people at the film lab know me by name...
If this is wrong, I don't wanna be right. ;)
Onward!
I was given a little Hanimex camera (probably a 110 IF), which took film in the form of a cartridge. Many of the photos I took with this were awful (yes, I still have them). But not all. Then teenagerdom took over and I became extremely paranoid about having my photo taken.
[The rest of this post is possibly somewhat tedious. I'm mostly writing it for myself - you might want to skip to the last couple of paragraphs!]
I also forgot that I liked taking photos - I certainly don't remember having a camera. I didn't really return to a more normal attitude until I was seventeen when my father lent me a Minolta SLR to take to France with me my student exchange odyssey. The other kids on the plane actually asked me if I had Japanese blood, I was taking so many photos on take-off (in fact, I was trying to capture as many images of Melbourne (from the air) as I could, preempting some serious homesickness). I took some photos over there, and continued off and on for a few years after I got home but nothing serious. I eventually gave the camera back to Dad sometime late last century and left photography alone again. Maybe film was too much hassle? I don't know. I was certainly still interested in imaging, but bought a 8mm Sony camcorder (analog tape) instead of an SLR.
Fast forward to around 2001. Serious DSLRs were still stupidly expensive but my inner geek needed to get in on the action and I got some crappy little "digital camera" (now lost in a box somewhere), with a massive 0.3 megapixel (640x480 VGA) resolution. It was not great - I gave it to my daughter and she had a ball taking mostly out-of-focus shots of all sorts of things.
2003 - enter mobile phones with cameras. I got a Nokia 7650, again with VGA. I didn't buy it for the camera, but of course I did take pictures with it, especially since, due to work, I was living two states away from wife and children. Being able to take pictures of where I was and send them via MMS kept us in touch. (Thankfully I got to move back home after a few months.)
Then I spent my $1000 Christmas bonus (only one I've ever had, mind) on a Canon A80 for my wife. That's right - for my wife, since she wanted to have decent photos of our children, among other things (happily she had still been shooting film, mostly on disposable cameras, while I was busy ignoring photography). Of course, I couldn't resist completely and used it too from time to time, mostly when we went somewhere involving trains. But some reason I didn't take it to San Francisco and instead used the second-hand Nokia 3650 (still VGA) I bought over there because my dual-band 7650 wouldn't talk US-style GSM. Gargh!
2006 - Another travel-induced phone upgrade (this time to Japan, so I needed a 3G W-CDMA phone) got me a 2MP camera on the Nokia 6233. And I did take the A80 this time. And took some halfway interesting photos - with the phone as well, even. Damn, those temples are fascinating.
2008 - The 6233 had become decidedly flaky, so I upgraded to an N95 8GB (wow, Carl Zeiss optics...) And this thing has a Flickr upload capability built-in, right there in the camera application. I wasn't really one for sharing, but I did start upload shots of odd signs and things I found in the street. And then...
[things get interesting]
A guy at work offered me a Canon 350D for $A350. I knew I'd been wanting a DSLR for years (startup times and capture delay on the things I had were driving me nuts, for one thing) so I jumped at it, 18-55mm mostly plastic kit lens, 8MP sensor and all. I spent the first little while just seeing how quickly I could take a photo from the time I flicked the camera on. *grins* (But still the obsession has not really taken hold...)
Then, a guitarist I play alongside in amateur theatre pit orchestras brings along his 500D. And he's taking photos in low light with no flash. And they're good. And I get interested... oh, so you need a lens with a wide aperture... and the 50mm f/1.8 is under $A150... and then it takes off for me. I buy the 50mm. I buy the 75-300mm telephoto zoom too. I quit my increasingly boring and frustrating job. I hang out at the zoo a lot and also shot more at gigs. I resurrect my long-disused eBay account and wind up buying a 3000N because I thought the 28-80mm lens it came with would be fun. And I start shooting film as well... then I buy an EOS 5, a monopod, a decent camera bag, an EOS 650 (mostly for the 70-210mm f/4 push-pull zoom, but also for the history) and an EOS 50 (for the 28-105mm USM) etc. etc.
At this point, I have more camera gear than I can comfortably carry and have to start deciding what to take with me. And I can't leave the house without at least two cameras (digital + film). I'm in love! I'm obsessed! The people at the film lab know me by name...
If this is wrong, I don't wanna be right. ;)
Onward!
Raison d'Etre
On the relatively inauspicious occasion of the creation of this, my new "blog" (which term I'm getting used to but is still a little foreign to me), it behooves me to say a few words. (No, no... please don't run away - I promise I won't write like this all the time!)
I have it in mind that this will be a place where I document my various photographic endeavours (as opposed to my romantic indiscretions, which are somewhat thinner on the ground). For while I have had cameras of various kinds all my life, it is only of late that I have begun attempting to maximise their potential. It seems to me that keeping a record of my journey may prove amusing to me in later life and, more importantly, potentially useful to some other poor soul who finds themselves bitten by this particularly tenacious bug. Of course, it will likely provide amusement, or perhaps act as a trigger for fond memories to those who are already more advanced than I!
And so, without further ado, we advance the camera from its fully-automated mode into the realms of human control...
I have it in mind that this will be a place where I document my various photographic endeavours (as opposed to my romantic indiscretions, which are somewhat thinner on the ground). For while I have had cameras of various kinds all my life, it is only of late that I have begun attempting to maximise their potential. It seems to me that keeping a record of my journey may prove amusing to me in later life and, more importantly, potentially useful to some other poor soul who finds themselves bitten by this particularly tenacious bug. Of course, it will likely provide amusement, or perhaps act as a trigger for fond memories to those who are already more advanced than I!
And so, without further ado, we advance the camera from its fully-automated mode into the realms of human control...
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