Photography buffs?

[mrpinter]

I've got to start checking the Off Topic forum more regularly - I missed this thread until now. I was a professional photographer for many years. After I evolved into an advertising designer I still took a lot of my own photos or at least directed shoots. I've had and used Nikons, Mamiya and other medium formats, but what I used most and made most of my money on was studio 4x5 work. I've shown in galleries; shot fashion, music stuff, and did hundreds of magazine ads. I even did weddings when I was starting out. For many years I resisted going digital because I needed relatively huge images for my ads and artwork. I scanned 35mm or 4x5 transparencies on professional scanners to get 100+ and 200+MB files respectively, and once I had the scan in Photoshop the digital advantages were gone and I had my digital files. Digital equipment has just about caught up to film for usability now, but I still haven't gone digital professionally because I'm semi-retired and don't need to.

What I'm doing lately for my own enjoyment might surprise you - I use a point n shoot. Now granted it's about the best P&S you can get (a Canon G12), but it's still a fixed lens P&S. After so many years of needing big, expensive high tech equipment it gives me a sense of freedom again to just let the camera decide the exposures. I will admit that I can see situations where a manual over-ride is necessary, and the G12 allows me to do that, but most of the time the camera's brain is right.

I'm wating for the prices to come down on a higher res DSLR, but until then I'm just having fun. If you can afford nice photo gear, so much the better, but you can really take good pictures with modest cameras. People forget the two most important pieces of gear there is for a photographer: their eyes and their own two feet. WIthout using those assets, the most expensive stuff in the world won't make you a good photographer.

 

[Jusatele]

MRpinter
some of my favorite work I would load up a few bodies with about 50 frames (remember when we rolled our own film?) and start walking with just a 50mm lense. after about a 4 mile walk I would go into the dark room and see what I had, I sold a lot of those pictures, all auto metered but manual focused. I miss the days of simple equipment. And Yes as I said earlier, I like Cannons point and shoot cameras,

 

[jackthehack]

MRpinter
some of my favorite work I would load up a few bodies with about 50 frames (remember when we rolled our own film?) and start walking with just a 50mm lense. after about a 4 mile walk I would go into the dark room and see what I had, I sold a lot of those pictures, all auto metered but manual focused. I miss the days of simple equipment. And Yes as I said earlier, I like Cannons point and shoot cameras,

+1  :icon_thumright:

 

[mrpinter]

Ah those were the days. Like you, I was fortunate enough to have started out with simple gear. My first camera I got for my fine arts work in college was an old Contax cloth focal plane shutter SLR with just one lens. It didn't even have a meter built in! So I had to get good at judging light and exposures by eye (do you remember those exposure instructions that came packaged with Kodak film? Follow those guidelines and you could usually nail the exposure on most shots). Only after I developed my eye somewhat did I invest in bodies, lenses, light meters and so on. And of course I spent at least as much time in the darkroom as out shooting. I miss those days.

 

[erogenousjones17]

You guys are making me nostalgic for an era I never lived through. Strange feeling.  :laughing7:

But I do enjoy the "go out for a walk and see what you come up with" approach. It's something I try to do about once a week. I'll wander around my neighbourhood or take a bus downtown, snapping all kinds of shots. I really like urban photography; there's something beautiful in the mundane, the man-made and the dilapidated.

 

[B3Guy]

get yourself in a photography class at a community college with a darkroom. I took Photo One last year and that's where I really leaned to take photos. Used a Zeiss Ikon and Illford HP5 black and white film.

 

[mrpinter]

I just figured out what's missing in this thread. We've been talking about taking pictures, and there are no pictures! Here is an example of the "walking around with a camera and seeing what I can come up with" approach. A few years ago I had jury duty in downtown Los Angeles. We got out early one afternoon, before traffic started getting thick and people were getting off from work, and I took a little walk to the Disney Concert Hall (the famous building designed by Frank Gehry). All I had was the 3.2 megapixel camera in my Samsung cell phone, so I used that to take this series of photos. It made me feel like when I would prowl around lost in "making art" with a camera when I was younger.

these were all taken with this camera/phone:

 

[erogenousjones17]

I know, "pics or it doesn't exist," right?  :icon_biggrin: Sadly, I can't view pics at work, so I can't see yours for the moment.

But I'm planning on setting up a Flickr account some day, and I'll link to it when I do. I think I may have a few worthwhile shots. Sharing is fun!  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[B3Guy]

well, heres my vimeo page:
http://vimeo.com/calebgenheimer

and some photos . . .