April 24, 2007-Back to basic's

Hello faithfull reader. In keeping with the main spirit of my blog, that being horses and photography, i'm happy to announce that i have found a College night class that will allow me to hone up on studio lighting and Portrait photography.

Its a bit of a drive from my humble abode, about 80 Km's, but its also the closest facility i can find. Over the past 8 years or so, after putting photography on hiatus for most of the 90's, i have managed to remember, or atleast find classes, in all that has been forgotten. Several classes in B&W darkroom, now gone the way of the Dodo bird in most areas, general tips of the trade from the good folks at Pentax Discuss Mailing List(PDML), and now pretty much my last learning curve, that of studio lighting.
After this, next will be a specific class on Photoshop for photographers. I have just enough experience now, to be dangerous.

LOL

I have read up on the internet about this, but i tend to need to be able to see it in action before it really sinks in.

I was a bit disappointed that the school i took the B&W classes in, had stopped the class due to low enrollment, but i have enough experience now to be able to develop and get out some sort of print, if and when needed.
I still love film B&W prints, but digital software has come along way over the past few years, and coupled with printers like the Epson 2400 and Canon i9500(i think) excellent B&W conversion prints are now possible.

Well thats it.

Thanks for stopping by.

DJB

April 17, 2007-From desert to spongy grass

Hello faithfull reader. Sorry about nothing posted for a week or so, but i was on vacation in Las Vegas last week and am just getting back into Ontario life. We had a great time, as we always do, but its always great to be back home.

I don't mind flying to destinations, i just hate the very act of getting to an airport. Left the house early as suggested and arrived to an almost empty terminal. I did our check in over the internet and it only took a few minutes to get past Air Canada desks. For everything i dispise of AC, these ladies were great. So now we have a long wait, and beer is $10.00. Arggg.:-)

The hotel we stay at is a smaller one near the Flamingo, and is a nice, quiet building. It used to be our favorite place to play, and still is, but they don't have the ever popular $1.00 beer, so we now have two extra hotels we like, O'Shaes and Casino Royal. Dollar beer tastes great.:-)

Went on a tour to Valley of Fire National Park and that was excellent (insert Mr Burns here). A lot of nice photos were shot that day. The SO and i loved the quiet enviroment.
Went and saw the Wynn and Venetion hotels and the Secret Garden at the Mirage. Got my night shots around town, i missed last time in Vegas. It took a bit, but we managed to find our favorite slot machines that used to be at the Flamingo, but we found them at Bally's. The double diamond McDonalds one. Get the bonus lady and play a snakes and ladders type of bonus for extra points. I seem to be able towin on this one.

Even managed to come back with a few bucks.

Thanks for listening

DJB

April 5, 2007-Up down and film meets digital

Good day all. Well it may be the end of the first week of April, and Easter Weekend to boot, but you sure can'nt tell from here ist spring. The great weather the last few days, even of it did rain, it was warm, has turn sour again, and we had a small blast of winter over night. The wind picked up, the temp dropped and over 2 million people in Toronto and the GTA all forgot how to drive all at once. Amazing 1 cm of snow and cars and truck bounce off each other lik a pin ball game.

People, SLOW DOWN. How hard is that.

On a good note, a friend of mine, i have a link to his blog, knarf, recently bought a Pentax istD camera. Why is this so important, well because now, film is officially dead. He was probably one of the last hold outs of the members of the PDML.

Notice though i said Pentax, not Nikon or Canon. This is for all you people brainwashed in to thinking only N or C can produced good pictures.

Well, all i have to say is that Pentax has made excellent film cameras and lenses for over 35 years, and it proves some people think for them selves and not let marketers rule there lives.

Pentax makes a very good Dslr in the K10D and K100. Shake reduction in camera, great image quality and viewfinders.

Now don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with N or C cameras, i just wanted to let you know there is another choice.

I use Nikons BTW for my equestrian work as Nikon had better dslr;s before Pentax came out with theirs.

I use both and for different reasons. Do your self a favor, and try a Pentax when looking for your next camera.

Thanks for listening
DJB

April 1, 2007-Is it time to slow down folks

As i sit here in my livingroom, that serves as my "Office" and watching the rain beat down on an already soaked environment, i thought today might be a good day to jot my thoughts down, as i'm having a slow day, and thats what i wanted.

I, and I'm sure many others out there, find it hard to get up and going in the mornings. It takes me a good hour to get up, stretch, pour some wake up juice down my throat and talk my self into joining the mad rush, the 24/7 people, the traffic jams, and the company voice systems, so dominate in our lives today.

I don't know about you readers out there, but i long for the good ol days. Not so much nickel bread or $4.00 a case of beer, although that would be terrific, but the way things were up to the early/mid 80's.That being, stores that actually closed for a Sunday off. Beer, liquor, gas, grocery all of those things. Was it so hard back then, to actually think a day or two ahead and STOCK UP on things you'd need for 1-2 days.Heck i can remeber when Beckers actually closed for Christmas, the only day of the year.
They don'nt do that now, do they. Gotta sell the 1/2 expired jug of cream and a few packs of smokes.

I quess the whole point of this, is that there never seems to be that slow down or shut down day to unwind and enjoy life. Oh i'm out of tick-tack, quick to Wally World.

I think it would be nice to head back in that direction, don't you. I know i would not mind. Then a long weekend actually becomes a long weekend, not just Monday off.
Of course, i still live in the 60's so it may be the herbs talking, or that voice i keep hearing in my ear, the one that says, "buy more camera gear". Thought is was going somewere else there, did'nt you.

Point is, less stress equals less problems. Seems simple to me.

Now if we could do that,AND, get rid of company voice mails, that would be just as nice as stopping global warming.

Thanks for listening

DJB