After giving Jun a 101 reasons why he shouldn’t buy a G1 as his DSLR, what do I do? Go out and buy a G1!

I’m nothing if not (in)consistent :)

I lost my P&S sometime in the past three weeks. A bit of a bummer because it was just 2 months old, but I’m more bothered about having lost the memory card than the camera – the camera wasn’t too hot.

As a DSLR replacement, I don’t think the G1 is great – limited lens selection and banding at ISO1600+ are two reasons why. However as a P&S replacement, the image quality is miles ahead of everything else. Sure, it’s bigger, but still smaller than my Sony 707, and it has a lovely 360 degree rotating screen. As I found out yesterday when using my D60, it’s a real pain to crouch down and look throw a viewfinder when using a tripod – the G1 should be right at home in that situation with live view, rotating screen, and no need to use high ISO.

Now if only the damn battery would finish charging, I could get to play with the thing!

XP via Wifi; laptop:

Vista via Wifi; laptop:

Vista via LAN; desktop:

Both machines are connected to the same Wifi router – one by Wifi, one by LAN. Slower Ping seems to be a Vista/XP difference.

A friend at work dropped this book on my desk on Monday. I’ve tried a number of times to find a good book on digital photography and failed – they generally concentrate on explaining technicalities about aperture, DOF, rather than stepping back from the jargon and offering creative technique and insights.

This book was actually helpful. In fact it gave me an “ah-ha” moment which will change the way I take photographs. And that’s what I needed. I know about DOF, etc, but what I didn’t know was how to improve my technique and take better photographs.

In an nutshell, what changed my attitude was this: reading about the times of the day professional photographers take photographs, and how they deal with direct sunlight.

Landscape photographers only take photos around dawn and dusk, according to Kelby. And when photographing people or flowers, the person or flower should be out of direct sunlight.

This is completely the opposite to the way I’ve been approaching photography: I try to have the sun directly on my subject. Why? Because then I can get a steady shot handheld.

The number of times when I’ve looked outside and thought “It’s overcast today. I’ll do something else rather than take photos.” – I’ve been giving up the best conditions; the conditions that pros look for.

What I’ve learnt is that I can make those times work for me, if I have the correct techniques to do so. And it’s those techniques which separate the pros from the amateurs.

Taking immediate action, I bought a gold/silver collapsible reflector disk from Amazon using a 1000yen voucher that I had. I figure that for 10 bucks, it’s worth buying it to experiment with. I’ve also started reading the follow-up, which discusses lighting and technique in more detail. It has ignited a lust in me to buy some extra lighting gear, but for the moment, until I decide whether I’m going to stay with Nikon or move to Canon for the 5D mark II, I’m holding off build anything expensive.

Incidentally, I highly recommend this book by the same author – a book which I regard as the best, at least of the ones I have read, at explaining how to use Lightroom.

You know how it is. First week in the job you’re wrapped up with HR, arranging your desk, finding where the toilet is.

The man hasn’t even arrived at the office yet. He’s still walking the streets.

Decided to take out my old Sony 707 digital camera at the weekend. That camera was state of the art when I bought it 8 years ago. These days I’ve become so used to the speed, ISO range, and VR of my DLSR, I can’t imagine how I used the 707. But I did at the time, and I enjoyed it.

In Kichijoji at the weekend, though, I just found it too painful to go back. I ended up experimenting and trying to take Lomo-esque photos with it instead.