A year ago I posted to my blog about a new gadget I picked up. My Nikon D3000. Thus began a full year of getting back into Photography. As I have mentioned to many friends, I ended up a Nikon guy by chance. I like to kid with my Canon friends, but the truth of the matter is that if the Pawn shop I went into had an in-expensive Canon instead of a Nikon, I would be singing a different tune. Plain and simple, both brands have their merits and flaws and really I am not sure that any one is better. But anyways, I was talking about me now.
So, a year ago I started tinkering with an entry level DSLR with a single Prime 35mm lens. I look back on that now and realize how much I ave learned (and re-learned) over the last year. The first big outing I did with the D3000 was to the Pumpkin patch. No post processing, and I think a few of those shots may have been on the big Green Auto.
Since then I have learned to use Lightroom 3.x, Upgraded my DSLR to the D5100, Purchased more lenses/equipment than my wife is happy with, and expanded on my know-how for artistic shooting. I have also gotten the opportunity to attend an official Model shoot, attend a sporting event as a press photographer, do Wedding and Engagement shots, Concert photography, and a slew of other incredible life experiences.
I am extremly happy with how this hobby has ended up for me. There was a scare early on that I may just be doing it as a fad, but I think the last year has really cemented it into my life now. I hardly leave the house without my camera in tow, because you never know when there may be something.
This weekend we will be venturing back to that first pumpkin patch. I am excited to see what kind of shots an eye with a little more experience will churn out.
Tag Archives: D3000
One Year of DSLR
Workin for the Man
So here I am working on Super-bowl Sunday. I have a bit while I wait for some code to compile and figured I would write up an update to say what I have been doing for the last few weeks. I mean, that’s what the blog is for right? Lately it seems like my blog is more of a place where I forget to write things. I guess that’s what Twitter has done to me. I think ‘Oh I already updated folks on twitter so I don’t need to post to the blog as well”. The downside to that is that I really like writing. When I look back at all my posts from last year and beyond I realize that some of them get crazy long. I see other peoples blog posts and wonder how they can cram so much into so few paragraphs, then I realize that they have left out so much detail.
Perfect case in point for this, I have downloaded and started reading Stepto’s (Stephen Toulouse) new book, “A Microsoft Life”. It’s a compilation of a number of blog posts he wrote throughout his career at Microsoft. All of the stories are fascinating, but I am left wanting more details. Each chapter is a post from the blog but I read one and am left with the feeling that there could be so much more that could be fleshed out. I guess that could be seen as a complaint about the book, it was so good that I wanted to know more. If you are a geeky type of person and interested in the more inner workings of the MS world, I highly recommended it.
Meanwhile back on the gaming front, I mentioned last time that I picked up a new laptop. The ASUS beast, or Tumbler, has been an awesome addition to the house. I have found myself playing more PC based games in the last month, just because I could. Yeah, it could be a little more portable, but I love that it’s big and powerful. Because of this I picked up both Civilization V and Starcraft II. SCII is great for a quick 30min to 1 hour map, while Civ V is awesome if I want to kiss my weekend goodbye. It’s amazing, I feel like I have discovered time travel. Seriously! I start playing Civ V and suddenly I am teleported to 6 hours in the future where the dog is whining because he wants food and the plants are dying. I also realized how much I suck at SC II. I bought the game because I love the storyline and am I steeped in the single player game. I tried to play Multi-player though and was just swamped. I guess it’s because I love the building aspect and hate the idea of just fast building stuff to throw at the enemy. I want to build my troops up so they will survive the attack and that takes time!
On the photography side of the house, I am pining over a new camera. Unfortunately it doesn’t exist yet. I have seen lots of rumor reports of a Nikon 5100, and everything I see in the rumors lead me to believe that it’s the perfect camera for me. I really want to replace my D3000 before DragonCon, so while I still have a few months to figure it out. I love that the D5000 has the flip out screen and better everything than the D3000, but not as good as the 3100, the D90 is about the right price range, but lacks some of the newer features like an auto-focus while filming movies, the D7000 has all the best features (except the flip out screen) but is well over $1k. There is a great site that has been helping me compare models of cameras: http://snapsort.com/compare. There is some speculation that the February 9th press conference may bring an announcement, but even more rumors saying that the 5100 won’t be announced for a while still. Either way, I will be giving the D3000 a true test at PAXEast.
So for now, I sign off. I hope to finish up here soon and head home for some chili and Super-Bowl action. Not really a football fan, but I love watching the big game. Weird right?
One month later…
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Yeah, it’s been about a month since my last post and the reason that it’s been forever since a post is because I had some major changes in my life. Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad. I found my self looking for some new experiences on the job front and a few friends of mine that work downtown had the best opportunity for me. As of the end of September I am now a Senior Functional Analyst working for, yet another, agency in lovely downtown DC. I am in charge of designing, building, and maintaining a lab environment for a number of different applications. It’s a huge responsibility and a big advancement for my career. It’s also an ass load of more work and because of it my free time has started to dwindle. I am really hoping to continue posting, but it may not be once a week like I had been trying to do before.
So to catch you up on some of the various gadgets and games in the life of Steve, a number of games have hit my shelves in the last month. Shortly after DragonCon an eagerly anticipated game was released. Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions! I am a huge Spidey fan so this was a must for me. I hope to write up a full review on it soon (even though I know it’s kind of late for it). I also picked up Halo Reach. Believe it or not, I have not yet finished the campaign! I have been playing co-op with my friend Lee and haven’t wanted to spoil it. Lastly, just today I downloaded Comic Jumper from the XBLA.
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For gadgets I have only one real big toy purchase but it’s something that has been a long time coming. I picked up a Nikon D3000 DSLR camera. Many many years ago I used to be rally into photography. I was the primary photographer for my school newspaper and yearbook, and that was back before digital! I have always loved photography and have been yearning to get a decent SLR. The D3000 is purely an entry level DSLR camera and that works fine for me. Since it’s been a good 20 years since I did any work with F-stops and aperture I am just fine with having the camera hold my hand a little. I am very very pleased with it and have been having a blast taking pictures of damn near everything. It even got me to update my gallery linked here on the site (over there in the right hand side of the screen).
So until next time….
