Hmmm...my dad started me with the SRT-101 then I migrated to a Spotmatic :)
Welcome ... Bong On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 2:56 PM, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: > Howdy folks, > > I joined the list this afternoon, after meeting John Francis at a > photo-meetup lunch I instigated. Some of you may know me as "ellarsee" > on the dpreview pentax forum. Ellarsee is just a funny way of spelling > LRC, my initials (and part of my destiny to be an Electrical Engineer, > but I digress, often). > > My involvement with photography seems to be a very common profile. In > 1973, when I was 12, Dad got a Spotmatic II and taught me some of the > basics. I'd frequently play with the camera, setting up shots, > exposure etc. but rarely actually taking any shots. Someplace, there's > a print of my first photograph, but I haven't seen it in a while. The > following summer, I took photography in summer school and learned the > basics of darkroom work. My first camera was an Argus C3, which I > still have. That September I got a used Minolta SRT-101. Sometime > around then, Dad and I set up a darkroom which I spent a lot of time > in over the next several years, until my folks got divorced and Mom > rented out the downstairs apartment. > > I had intermittent darkroom access in college, but after I lost access > to a darkroom, photography became something I did, but not > seriously. Lest this post rival a Norse saga in length, I'll skip > forward to November 2007 when I bought my K100D super. I almost got a > Nikon D40 but when I found out about the Pentax, came to the > conclusion that even if Pentax didn't have any offerings at the top > end, what they did offer gave a lot more for the money than Nikon. I'm > afraid that I've never shot a Canon SLR that "felt good in my > hands". The plan was that the K100 and kitlens should be enough to > last me a couple years until the performance that I wanted was > "affordable". My favorite lens on 35 had been the Vivitar 28-105 and > the kit lens was not too far from the equivalent range. > > One of my key reasons for getting a DSLR rather than replacing my > stolen FZ50 was low light performance. The following weekend, I > determined that the kit lens just simply was not fast enough. Cutting > to the chase, the next week I spent more than I had on my camera and > kit lens on an FA 31 limited. > > The past year has been a pretty typical one of spending stupid amounts > of money on toys. A few very nice lenses, and quite a few inexpensive > used ones. My latest gear acquisition is a katzeye focusing screen > which to someone who grew up with manual focus, is like growning an > arm back. When I'm not exhibiting fiscal irresponsibility, I'm working > on the theory that the best way to learn from your mistakes is to make > sure that you make a lot of them. So, I've been shooting a lot of > photos, basically whenever I can find a few minutes to play with my > camera, and 40,000 frames later probably have almost a dozen that I > don't need to ashamed of. > > I've been posting pictures on my flickr account: > http://flickr.com/ellarsee > > Since I do a lot of blues dancing ( http://fridaynightblues.com ) and > nobody else has much luck shooting dancers in the ridiculously low > light environment, I've been working on that, experimenting with both > IR flash with my K100 and an FZ20 I had converted to IR. > > I tend to keep my 18-250 on the camera as my "Ready for anything > lens", but when I can I prefer to shoot with a prime. I'm currently > toying with getting a DA40 to see how close to a "carry in a coat > pocket" sized camera I can get. I've also toyed with the idea of the > 43 or the 21, but while the 40 is just over my threshold of financial > pain, the other two are quite a bit over. > > I was wondering if anyone in the San Jose/Santa Cruz/Bay Area had any > of those lenses and would be interested in getting together so I could > try them out before spending money on one. > > Another Pentax related question is that I have a friend who lives in > Sacramento who is very interested in the K2000, but who would much > rather try one out before buying it. Does anyone know of any stores > in her area where she could check one out? > > Larry > > > -- > It's not the steps in the dance, it's the dance in the steps. > Larry Colen [email protected] http://www.red4est.com/lrc > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- Bong Manayon http://www.bong.uni.cc -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
