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Articles and Reviews
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Home >> Learning >> e-Book on Photography Table of Contents Photography e-Book Chapter 1 - Introduction Welcome to the next phase of the Camera Hobby website evolution. This new section, which I consider to be an E-book project, is to try and move away from a predominantly equipment review site to a commentary site that reflects my own evolution from a tech-geek to a learning and hopefully maturing photographer. There is still a generous amount of comments about equipment but as time passes, I hope to add much more content about photography as a passionate pursuit of creativity and not just of technical paraphernalia. The commentary in this section will be familiar to those who have read the pages on the main site. That is the nature of discussing photography equipment and there is likely some regurgitation of the same ideas. I just hope that my basic philosophy will carry through for both sections of the website and that there is not too much overlap. For experienced and advanced photographers, my comments in this section will be nothing new or original. This section really is for the beginning photographer looking for another source of information of the basics. I would love it if the Camera Hobby website were to someday be considered in the same breath as the other high quality photography websites on the Internet. This website can be considered a personal website since you will find pages discussing me and my background but I would like to see it evolve into something more. A reference web site that provides beginning photographers with useful information. A site that I would have like to have had access to when I started out in photography (actually I found it in Philip Greenspun's Photonet). A site that has a good amount of user experiences rather than mere regurgitation of technical data. I like to think that my goal of evolving Camera Hobby is succeeding with the new feature addition of this, the Camera Hobby Photography e-Book section. Like many other non-commercial web sites, Camera Hobby is a one-person show that I created, maintain and update on my time with my own resources (mostly). Doing things myself does mean limited resources available for equipment reviews but I am at least free to express myself freely without fear of losing the favor of sponsoring companies or advertisers. There have been opportunities to associate Camera Hobby with commercial contacts (not solicited by me) but after some thought, I felt it would be better to keep it "pure" so long as I was able to afford to do so. Other examples of noncommercial pages that I like and visit regularly:
I do not begrudge other excellent content-rich sites for having ads or sponsors, it is merely a reflection of economics as few of us can sustain large sites and generate content free of costs (if I had to actually pay for this site, I probably would have never left the free webhost 50megs.com). I do abhor ads that take too long to download and consequently waste my time as I wait for the actual information I seek to come through my slow dial-up connection. Flashy graphics and jammed pack pages also annoy me and this is reflected in the rather stark look to the Camera Hobby site. I would probably be more forgiving of such pages if I had ADSL or cable connections and as it is I worry that readers and viewers get ticked off when the Gallery pages take their time in downloading. Examples of excellent content-rich sites that are commercial:
You will read many references to Nikon, Bronica, Lowepro, and Gitzo (among a few more brands). This is not because I am wholly loyal to those brands but simply a reflection of what I own and use now and have some understanding of (some through expensive trial and error experience). I am less inclined be a brand loyalist today than when I first started but old habits can sometimes be hard to change. If there is going to be one overriding message throughout this section it is this, you make the photographs, your choice of equipment is merely about how convenient you wish the photo taking process to be. This is an important consideration too as comfort and ease of use of your equipment will play a vital role in your photographic success, however, never forget that the Nikon or Canon camera and lens did not see the scene and composed and captured or created on film, you did. If you know the process and techniques of photography, the brand of equipment becomes superfluous. You choose the film to use. You choose the lens for the perspective and angle of view desired. You compose the scene and choose how to expose it on film. You choose the enlargement factor allowed by the exposed film by using a tripod or not. You choose how to edit the image if you are into the chemical or digital darkroom and by extension, how the image is printed. Do you see the common thread here? YOU! You make the conscious choices for the photographic process not the equipment. This point will be expanded in the meat of the project in various individual sections. Why this project Whenever you start a new endeavor, the first stages are always the times you look back on with romantic nostalgia. Those were the days when you were virginal and uncorrupted and you took in everything around you about the craft. It is a wonderful time when you learn so much and look in amazement at the images you come across. You become inspired and creative and try to accomplish as much as your limited knowledge will allow you. I found this same sensation through my other interests such as computers and paintball while in university and then high fidelity audio after graduation. Those first stages are the best because you have little in the way of preconceived attitudes, you take things at face value. However, as you develop more experience and knowledge, the more jaded and hardened you become and biases develop about what is right and what is not. What one has to keep in mind is that what works for you may not work for others. Individual choices and attitudes should not be foisted upon others as found in many newsgroups discussions. Find your comfort zone and fine tune it for your requirements but do not expect others to follow. Now I am in a position to give back a little bit to those budding photographers who are experiencing the sensation of something new and creative. I think the Internet is a wonderful medium to get your message across to other interested people. Where else can a serious amateur photographer publish his own comments about the craft and actually receive instant feedback on his contributions? Certainly not from the traditional print medium that only caters to those who have already found success as professional photographers. As mentioned earlier, I think of this project as a book but there is no chance that I could ever have it published even if I did finesses it with good writing and fantastic images from around the world. To the traditional methods of publishing, I do not exist. In the cyber world of publishing, thousands have already read my words and seen my images. The Internet is the great equalizer for those of us who wish to contribute on a specific topic. I benefited greatly by those who contributed to the Internet first and now I wish to contribute a little something back to the community. Altruistic and Pollyanna for sure but it does only go so far as I am not in the Philip Greenspun or Michael Reichmann money territory. Without the benefit of a benevolent brother-in-law (big thanks Ben) providing me with software and hardware as well as Internet access and web hosting, this project and indeed this website would not be possible. Just remember one thing, my comments are based upon my experiences in photography and I have my own biases that you will have to understand and take account of. I also highly recommend the purchase of basic photography books as a means of having the information always at your finger tips. My current favorite is National Geographic's Photography Field Guide but there are also quite a few good ones out there. The NGS Photography Field Guide is written by Peter K. Burien and Robert Caputo, ISBN 0-7922-7498-9, and costs $25 US or $37 CAN. For digital photographers, Martin Evening's Adobe Photoshop 6 for Photographers is highly rated and sells in the $60 CAN range, ISBN 0-240-51633-8. Personal Philosophy The personal approach will guide you for future equipment needs. You may be pumped up to become the next Moose Peterson only to find that you really do not like to be humping the outback in search of wildlife. Problem is that you blew a big chunk of your retirement savings on the massive telephoto lens and state of the art auto focus body before finding out that you prefer to walk the urban trails doing more relaxed street photography with a small compact manual focus camera. Before doing major purchases find out if you really need to and make damn sure that you will actually use the equipment you desire. My own personal desire is own a nice complement of super telephoto lenses to round out what I have now in the Nikon kit and although I do enjoy the hikes along trails and camping when I can actually do it, I am not much for wildlife photography. Thus, my bank account continues to be in the black instead being in the line of credit red from having to buy a massive telephoto lens. Most of my photography is covered within the 24mm to 200mm focal length range and I am fortunate enough to be able to cover this range with both the 35mm and medium format kits. Desire will always exceed need but a bit of discipline will help to save you money along your photo journey. I kick myself with the number of ill-conceived and ill-thought out purchases I have made over the years and I have only been doing this for four years. Now I am trying to stave off the intense desire to go all digital, the battle never ends... Technical notes Now having admitted that my examples images for this project are of little creative merit, I do consider myself, if a not great photographer, to be at least a competent one. I never thought the images I posted on the site would be of interest to anyone but I know that some of them have been downloaded despite my copyright notice at the bottom of every web page. The JPEG images are not of high enough quality for me to concern myself with this and now that I have experience with Genuine Fractals, I know that they would not be able to print anything of value with those low-quality JPEGs despite the Fractals hype. There are other photographers who are voracious in protecting their images but the very nature of the Internet works against such protection unless you do some major digital marking of the image, which could very well negate the purpose of posting an image for view. The vast majority of the images in this section were taken with the Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera for its ability to provide an instant view of the image taken and the speed of access and editing of the images into the website. If I had to use film, I would have choked at having to spend many hundreds of dollars shooting off a number of samples and choosing the best one. Of the over 170 images shown in this project so far, over 800 images were taken meaning a rejection rate of almost 80%. I would be in the poorhouse if I had used 35mm or 120 chrome films to illustrate these pages, as it is, the Nikon Coolpix 950 has just about paid for itself with this project alone. For those who have followed the progress of this website for a while, I think you will notice a gradual change of attitude in my approach to photography. Although I do not generally date my articles or reviews, my writing as a whole has certainly changed as I develop my philosophy. Less about equipment and more about the image and the craft of photography. It is perhaps the case that although not overly blessed with a plethora of equipment, I still have access to some very good pieces of equipment that serve me well. I am satisfied and though I admit to pangs of envy and desire at the latest and greatest, I am aware that my skills would not necessarily improve with a change in system or with another lens or body. When I first started in the hobby of high-end audio, I quickly become the technophile trying to use every little trick read in the hi-fi press to tweak the system for differences I could never hear. Eventually, I tired of the never-ending process of lifting speaker cables off the floor or putting signal cables at right angle to power cables. I spent more time fussing than listening to which I had to ask, what was the point? As a photographer, I went through a similar path and worried about how I could get last bit of resolution out of an image or how apparently sharp a 20x24 inch print looked scant inches from my nose instead of viewing it at a more appropriate distance. A photographer should never lose his or her capacity for fussiness and obtaining the best from an image but don't lose your perspective, have some fun with it. |
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Correspondence & About this website Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong |
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