About
Hello,
About
Philosophy
Equipment
About
This is my photography site, that I hope will keep up with my exploits as a ‘tog. Right now it’s pretty basic, as are my skills behind the camera. Should there actually be any improvement then I guess it will be documented here. I’m uploading plenty of images that I know are bad. I am aware that the composition may be bad. I can see that some shots are just out of focus. I know I sometimes failed to use the right shutter speed or aperture. I’m sure many competent photographers would throw almost all my work away if it was theirs. But this site is a journey. It starts here with me knowing very little and that’s reflected in my images. How far things improve is down to me. Time will tell
Hmmm, they say everyone should have a philosophy. So what’s mine? I’m not sure I have one regarding photography. However I do believe the following. Digital photography is in part the manipulation of digital data. Some of that manipulation takes place inside the camera and some of it happens outside the camera. The ratio between the two defines the nature of the photographer.
At one end of the spectrum you have the ‘pure ‘photographer. The ‘pure’ photographer captures images with a camera and then displays those images either in print or on a computer screen. What you see as the end result is no more or less than what the photographer has been able to achieve with their eye, their skill and their camera.
At the other end of the scale you have the digital artist. The artist manipulates images to create new and hopefully improved results. They use the images, or often several images as the raw building blocks of their art. Their tools are the pieces of software they use and their canvas is a computer screen.
A photographer does not need to be able to do what a digital artist can do in order to take great pictures. And likewise a digital artist need never pick up a camera to create their art. There are many digital artists in the world but probably very few pure photographers. Almost all of us as amateur or professional photographers manipulate our images, even if it is just to crop and correct white balance. Many photographers sit somewhere in between the pure photographer and the digital artist. Where they sit is up to them. Arguments about how much manipulation of an image in post processing is ‘allowed’ are pointless. The point at which a person has manipulated their pictures so much that they can no longer be termed photographs is not set.
For me, I aspire to be a photographer. I will to the best of my ability do as little post processing as I can. I will not save a bad photograph and make it into something worth viewing. And that means I will be throwing away a lot of images. I may tweak an image to make it appear more as I saw the original scene. But I will not create something that did not exist in the first place. If I did not see it, neither will you.
Camera: So far I’m using mainly a Nikon D80 DSLR.
I’ve just added a Nikon D300 DSLR which will become my main camera, leaving the D80 as a back up and light weight alternative.
Lenses are pretty average.
Nikon 16-85mm F3.5-5.6 ED AF-S VR Nikkor Lens
Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF NIKKOR
Nikon AF-S VR 70-300 f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED
Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG Macro
Sigma 150-500mm F5.6-6.3 APO DG OS HSM
Nikon 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 ED-IF AF-S DX NIKKOR
Accessories:
Nikon SB 600 Speedlight
Sigma EF 530 DG ST Flashgun
Lowepro Slingshot 200AW sling backpack
Tamrac Expedition 5x Camera Backpack
Velbon CX-660 Tripod with Head
Velbon RUP-43 monopod
Software
Photomechanic
Nikon Capture Nx2
