Once a legitimate blog. Now just a collection of memes 'n menz.
While Ben was at class this morning, I took the opportunity to go downtown and wander with my camera. It seems that whenever I'm about ready to give up on my DSLR, it surprises me:
Big Blue Bear
Colorado Convention Center, Denver CO
Union Station
Denver, CO
Dancing Aliens (aka "The Dancers")
Denver, CO
RTD Light Rail
Denver, CO
Wassup?
(blatantly stolen from DanielRyan.)
All taken with my iPhone and run through Camera+. I am seriously starting to wonder if I'll ever use my DSLR again…
Ben and I wanted to check out the light rail system in Denver, so today we hopped on the RTD and rode it downtown.
It was interesting. It wasn't BART, nor was it the SF Muni. If anything, it reminded me more of light rail in Phoenix, although not quite as new and shiny. It is definitely an easier and less stressful way to get downtown than taking the freeways; that much is certain.
I was hoping to begin my photographic journey of Colorado in earnest today. I even brought out the "good" camera and lens, but I was uninspired and sorely disappointed with the results. Perhaps I'm just a little out of practice with the heavy-grade equipment, but what does it mean when I get better pictures (or at least ones I like better) from my iPhone than I do from my DSLR?
One of the most interesting things downtown (at least from my very limited exposure so far) was the big blue bear at the Colorado Convention Center:
I love public art, and I'm thrilled at the prospect of all the new photo surprises that await me here. We haven't even scratched the surface of downtown, much less the rest of the city and the mountains to the west.
The two stores we didn't hit yesterday:
FlatIron Crossing
Boulder
Before we left Phoenix, Ben and I visited all of the Apple Stores in the Phoenix metro area to get a photo of each (it's a Geek thing). We had nothing scheduled or pressing that we had to do today, and wanting to decompress a bit from the events of the past week, decided to do the same thing now that we're in Denver. We didn't make it to all the stores today, but we made a decent showing.
Aspen Grove
Park Meadows Mall
Cherry Creek Shopping Center
We'll hit the remaining two over the weekend.
I am continually amazed at how good the pictures are that I get from the Sony DSC-W330 Point-and-Shoot camera that Ben got me for Christmas last year. Granted, they don't have the detail that I get with my DSLR (at least not when blown up), but for posting to the internet, they're great. And the fact that the camera fits in a pocket makes it all the better.
Anderson getting his tires rotated: one last bit of car maintenance before the big drive.
50mm, f1.7, ISO 400, 1/6 sec
One of the things I wanted to do before leaving Phoenix was visit and get a photo of each of the local Apple Stores.
Yes, I am an Über Geek.
SanTan Village
Arrowhead Town Center
Biltmore Fashion Park
Scottsdale Quarter
Chandler Fashion Center—where photography is not permitted!
This past weekend I bought a new lens for my camera. The 18-70mm zoom that came with the Sony was fine for the first year or so, but last November it just stopped producing the kind of results I wanted. I remember one particular road trip where I became so frustrated with it not staying in focus I simply put it away and stopped making pictures that day.
I even started questioning if it was the camera itself, and was about ready to eBay the whole kit and then after it sold, start fresh with an entirely different brand.
Fortunately cooler heads (Ben) intervened and suggested I start doing some research to see what the problem actually was. In very short order I learned that the lenses that come as part of a camera kit (from any manufacturer) are generally pieces of crap. The Sony 18-70 in particular received some extremely unflattering comments. At the same time, I read one review after another praising the long-discontinued Minolta 50mm f1.7 prime; a lens that could be found on eBay for about $75.
Before throwing the baby out with the bath water, I decided to pick up one of the Minoltas and give it a try. I figured that if it too was a piece of garbage I could sell it along with the rest of the camera.
Well, it turned out to be anything but. It was exactly what everyone had been saying: crystal sharp with incredible sensitivity and a beautiful bokeh. The Sony Alpha body was fine; it was the Sony lens that was at issue.
Several months passed, and with extreme patience I managed to squeeze a few more decent shots out of the zoom, but it was more trouble than it was worth. The 50mm prime produced beautiful shots consistently, but being a fixed focal length really limited its versatility as a walk-around lens.
I wanted a new zoom with about the same range as came with the camera, but the more reviews I read, the more confused I became. Tamron lenses were great. Tamrom lenses were crap. Sigma lenses were great. Sigma lenses were crap. Everyone had an opinion and at the end of the day they all canceled each other out. Sony of course offered a wide range of lenses for the Alpha, but after my experience with the 18-70 I was understandably reluctant to shell out any more money on another piece of Sony glass.
I needed the kind of help that only a knowledgeable sales force at a brick and mortar store could provide. Fortunately, Phoenix still has a few good local camera shops.
I ended up coming home with a heavily-discounted Tamron 18-250 (last year's model).
Unlike the all-plastic Sony lens, the Tamron is a serious piece of glass (with a much wider zoom range than I had been hoping for at the price point I had settled on) so that's an unexpected and much appreciated bonus. After only a few days' use I'm very pleased with the purchase, but we'll see how well it ages. Check back with me in about a year.