This post is part three of the series, completing my about page with more than just short paragraphs.

Doing just web-development and a little design stuff for quiet a long time, I discovered a new passion of mine. Photography. It was some years ago and the only cameras our family owned have been a ‘Nikon Coolpix 2200′ and a ‘FinePix 2800Zoom’—we still own that cameras. The first steps were taking pictures at private parties and than discovering some other gear my dad owned.

The gear I’m talking about is a set of lenses and 2 analog SLR bodies which caught my eyes. I was hooked by the simplicity and the abilities which you have with such a camera and wanted to have one my own. I have to admit, that I just tested the cameras without film because I didn’t had films and didn’t wanted to buy some—being a tech guy, I’m not was not willing to wait for the pictures to be sent home after they had been developed—, but the testing and playing with the cameras was enough for me to gather more information about the field. And there was one second thing that raised my interest. Some people around me had just bought their first DSLR showing up everywhere with the new gear to shoot. I went out searched for the best gear I could afford and pretty fast got to know that I would have to invest more than I first thought it would cost me and the thought was forgotten numerous times.

But finally, someday early year 2008 I decided to go for it. The first decision I had to make was, which family I wanted to buy—Nikon, Canon, Sony or Olympus. In the end it came down to a fight between Nikon and Canon cause I thought—and still think, but slowly it’s changing—that these are the big players. One more part of these decision was which gear people around me had chosen and there are way more Canon users than Nikon users. So I decided to go for a Canon that I could trade gear with other people I know.

The family wasn’t the problem but now I had to decide which body of that family I wanted to choose. A friend of mine and photographer told me, that if I can afford it, I should go for the last semi-prof model, which was the EOS 30D, while the EOS 40D already was at the marked, than with the amateur-model, which would have been the EOS 450D. In the end I choose the semi-professional model like my friend advised me and in mid March I bought a ‘Canon EOS 30D’ with the kit lens ‘Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6′. Followed buy a rucksack from LowePro to get the gear everywhere I would need it.

Playing with that camera was, and still is, a lot of fun and I’m glad I bough the one I decided to buy. Over the course I expanded my gear with a prime lens—Canon EF 50mm f/1.8—, a zoom lens—Sigma 55-200mm f/4-5.6 DC—a wireless shutter remote, a external flash—Canon SpeedLight 430 EX II—, a battery grip and a carbon tripod. Which makes it all a heavy gear to cary but also a great gear to shoot with.

Of-course the gear is not the best but I think it’s pretty good for what I need and able to use. I would like to replace some of the lenses with light stronger and maybe stabilized once but there is no need special need for spending a great amount of money on that. I also would love a Fisheye but that has to wait!

Being just happy about the gear is not enough. You have to use it and, much more time consuming, you have to sort and edit the shots you’ve taken. My biggest problem is that I struggle with sorting and editing the photos, especially if I was on vacation and took like 3000 of pictures in 2 weeks and than have to sort all of them. There you have to invest time. I hope that I get this done in a better way in the future. If you’d like to have a look at my pictures, I publish them at flickr.

Update
I got my self a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the editing is now done on an iMac 27″! The lenses are EF 85mm f/1.8 and EF 28mm f/1.8. More information about my gear and photography can be found at CHRISSP.com/colophon.

The next post is about my my design story, even though this story wouldn’t be as happy as the photography story. Stay tuned for part four of the series. If you want let me know your feedback or maybe tell your story.

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