Photographic Friends
Over the years, without intending to, I’ve managed to surround myself with friends almost all of whom are into photography in one form or another.
It’s proven an invaluable resource to me as a beginner to have so much knowledge at the end of a phone call, email, forum thread or instant message.
I thought it would be interesting to list them here:
John : Known for ages from Surfers. Graphic designer, running sparkbox from somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Uses Nikon D200 and Nikon F100.
David : Typographic expert, author, new media guru, all round gay-guy with cool tattoos. Vegan (but I won’t hold that against him). Uses an Olympus E-400.
Carl : Best mates at school, but lost touch for about 10 years. Picked up where we left off last year. Uses a Leica M8.
Tracy : Trusted friend of many years. Ex-graphic designer & closet lesbian. Recently purchased a Nikon D40.
Mike : Another Surfers dude. Never actually met in person, but sold him an Olympus Mju II years ago. Technical guy who knows everything. Uses a Fuji S2 Pro & miscellaneous old russian cameras.
Richard : Colleague from work who likes to travel. Uses a Canon EOS 400D.
Ray : Runs a tattoo studio round the corner from my house (who do great work, btw), but who, strangely, isn’t tattooed himself. Uses a Canon 5D
Graeme : Photographer, turned filmmaker. An old friend, who was also my boss for a couple of years. Uses various high-end DV cameras.
Canon EOS 400D
So, why have I been so quiet here lately?
Here’s why. The Canon EOS 400D (or Digital Rebel XTi).
As a result, I’ve been spending more of my time out shooting (and being questioned by the police), and less time in front of the computer. I’ve been trying to learn how to take better photographs and gain a better understanding of the technical side of photography.
Thanks to some sound advice from Carl, David, John and Mike, I’m finally starting to get to grips with strange terms such as aperture priority, shutter priority, ISO settings, white balance, exposure, colour temperatures and many more.
I’ve also been spending time learning how to use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to fine tune images. It is far more powerful than iPhoto, and far easier to use than Aperture.
I’ve tagged all my recent photos with “400d” on Flickr, so they are easy to find.