Hi all,
I'm a middle aged guy who was very into photography in college and for a while after - back in the days of film and cameras that had internal light meters (usually) but everything else was manual. Zoom lenses were crap, so everything was shot with a prime and if you were lucky maybe you had a wide angle also. The bulk of my work was with a Pentax K-1000 and a 50mm prime.
I did a ton of B&W, mostly working with tri-x, and am both thrilled and a little insulted at how now you just have to push a button for that "grainy film" look. We used to kill ourselves for that - many very very long nights in the darkroom. Usually shot slides when I traveled.
Once I had kids, I got tired of spending more time documenting life rather than living it and I realized it was not practical to carry a big SLR and a child or two and get the most out of either. So I gradually migrated to P&S snapshot photography, which has gotten better and better over the years, with the change over to digital.
The kids are out of the house, the work is part time, and I've developed an interest in photography again. Particularly now that the darkroom is chemical free and lives in the same Mac that my writing studio and recording studio live in. On my desk, with plenty of bright sunshine easily available through the window. M43 seems a perfect compromise between the convenience of a P&S and the image quality of a DSLR. I'll carry one of these - I probably still wouldn't carry one of those.
Got a lot of pre-purchase info over at the DP Review site and joined the forum there. I was recently pointed to a discussion over here regarding a question I'd posted and the discussion was very in-depth and helpful. And civil! Then, browsing the site, I noted a plethora of respect and good manners and little or no "my camera's awesome, yours SUCKS" kind of stuff that is too big a part of other discussions I've seen. So I thought I'd sign up and say hello. I'll post a few shots in a while. I still have a bit of an eye, although the technical vocabulary is a WHOLE new language to me.
And, oh yeah, I'm one of the legions who now own an E-PL1. I'm not afraid to use iAuto for family snapshots and I'm not afraid to go full manual when I'm out "shooting". I'm shooting in RAW and learning how to use Aperture 3. I'm fairly amazed by what can be done without all of those chemicals and breathing warm air onto prints as you're trying to bring out a particular area of it!
I'll post some pics after a while.
-Ray
I'm a middle aged guy who was very into photography in college and for a while after - back in the days of film and cameras that had internal light meters (usually) but everything else was manual. Zoom lenses were crap, so everything was shot with a prime and if you were lucky maybe you had a wide angle also. The bulk of my work was with a Pentax K-1000 and a 50mm prime.
I did a ton of B&W, mostly working with tri-x, and am both thrilled and a little insulted at how now you just have to push a button for that "grainy film" look. We used to kill ourselves for that - many very very long nights in the darkroom. Usually shot slides when I traveled.
Once I had kids, I got tired of spending more time documenting life rather than living it and I realized it was not practical to carry a big SLR and a child or two and get the most out of either. So I gradually migrated to P&S snapshot photography, which has gotten better and better over the years, with the change over to digital.
The kids are out of the house, the work is part time, and I've developed an interest in photography again. Particularly now that the darkroom is chemical free and lives in the same Mac that my writing studio and recording studio live in. On my desk, with plenty of bright sunshine easily available through the window. M43 seems a perfect compromise between the convenience of a P&S and the image quality of a DSLR. I'll carry one of these - I probably still wouldn't carry one of those.
Got a lot of pre-purchase info over at the DP Review site and joined the forum there. I was recently pointed to a discussion over here regarding a question I'd posted and the discussion was very in-depth and helpful. And civil! Then, browsing the site, I noted a plethora of respect and good manners and little or no "my camera's awesome, yours SUCKS" kind of stuff that is too big a part of other discussions I've seen. So I thought I'd sign up and say hello. I'll post a few shots in a while. I still have a bit of an eye, although the technical vocabulary is a WHOLE new language to me.
And, oh yeah, I'm one of the legions who now own an E-PL1. I'm not afraid to use iAuto for family snapshots and I'm not afraid to go full manual when I'm out "shooting". I'm shooting in RAW and learning how to use Aperture 3. I'm fairly amazed by what can be done without all of those chemicals and breathing warm air onto prints as you're trying to bring out a particular area of it!
I'll post some pics after a while.
-Ray
Really glad you found your way here, and I do hope you'll find the time to both post a few photos now and again, as well as get involved in any discussions that might interest you. Welcome aboard!
