August 25, 2018

Learning Speedlights with Nikon SB-900

6 minute read

A few days ago I wrote about my experience shooting with the Nikon D700. At the time, I mentioned that I had borrowed the Nikon SB-900 speedlight (now discontinued) with which to learn the beginnings of flash photography; not wanting to go on a complete tangent about my learnings about flash photography, I didn’t dwell on it then. Today, though, I’d like to share some of my earliest learnings using the SB-900. I used the book “ Understanding Flash Photography ” by Bryan Peterson as a learning reference. (I don’t think it’s necessarily the best book for this purpose, but it served well enough as a learning reference. If I was looking to get into professional portraiture or event photography, I’d no doubt get a book on that specifically.) ...

August 21, 2018

The Switch – Nikon D700

5 minute read

At the beginning of July, I commemorated one year with the Fujifilm X100T. Although it is more targeted and limited than an interchangeable-lens (ILC) camera. I really believe this limitation is a huge boon for learning. The rangefinder-styled camera, with a fast fixed-perspective lens, moves without my conscious intervention to capture a fleeting vision, the same way that a spoonful of soup just rises from my bowl and up to my mouth without really registering in my mind. When I think back to my high school photography, tinkering with my father’s DSLR, that whole affair seems rather crude by comparison. “A more elegant weapon, for a more civilized age,” is an apt comparison between the nimble, even diminutive rangefinder over the overwrought, glass-clad hand-cannon we call the SLR. Only once I freed myself of the concerns of lenses and zooms, and sat down to learn exposure in earnest , could I come back to face the terrible SLR. So when my father offered to lend me his main SLR gear bag for a few weeks, I accepted with trepidation, and lent him my X100 in turn. ...

August 12, 2018

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review

14 minute read

This summer, I finally pulled the trigger and picked up a Nintendo Switch, so that I could play “Breath of the Wild”. (A friend was kind enough to lend me his copy so that I didn’t need to pay $60 out of pocket.) I know I’m well over a year late to the game, but I still wanted to briefly share my thoughts. TL;DR skip to the conclusion already! Warning: Very minor spoilers below, unless you skip the conclusion. ...

July 4, 2018

One year with Fujifilm X100T

5 minute read

One year ago today, I resumed my long-adjourned photography hobby, with the Fujifilm X100T. There’s two thoughts I’d like to share today. You can see some of my photos at my photo gallery. Fujifilm X100T – a retrospective I still think that the Fuji X100T was one of the best possible cameras I could have picked up at the time. Its great manual controls and compact size made it a great camera for learning and taking everywhere. Its classic styling and compact size makes it a secret weapon in the hands of someone moderately experienced, as it can go toe-to-toe with a crop-sized DSLR in its areas of strength, all while not intimidating to friends and family. And its integration with the Instax SP2 smartphone printer are great, both for starting conversations, and for handing out keepsakes. ...

June 24, 2018

Photoswipe Hugo gallery

3 minute read

As I’ve recently gotten more into photography, I’ve been feeling the dearth of a gallery on this site. While I’ve recently dusted off my Instagram account, I still want to be able to share my better pictures without forcing my visitors to enter Facebook’s internet dragnet. So I started looking at options. The first, and most obvious choice, was to see about whether I could scrape photos or photo links from my Instagram and mirror them here. While this does exist, and there are third-party services who will mirror images for you, there isn’t an easy and standalone way to mirror my Instagram here. Not being interested in linking individual Instagram posts onto this blog, I went looking for something a bit less heavy and overwrought. ...

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