And, Kristin showed me this this weekend. Couldn’t stop laughing!

If you can’t get enough, here’s the first one from a year ago.

In case you’re curious about why I’m selling it, read on.

I bought this camera earlier this year for exactly three reasons: it has a super-affordable underwater housing.  And let’s be honest, that’s cool. Next is, it has a hot-shoe mount and a pretty good focal length, and it’s small enough to disappear in my camera bag, which makes for a really nice back-up camera when I’m on a job.

And lastly, it does 720p video.  This was really cool, because I’ve been wanting to do more video interviews, so it would come in handy for my second angle.

A few months later, here are my thoughts.

Underwater?  Really??

Small, yes. It’s still small. Nothing wrong with that.

Video.  Alone, it does good video and I like it.  But when I put it next to the 5D, it just doesn’t hold up.  Without getting too technical, the smaller sensor in the G12 extends the depth of field and puts a lot in focus.  And making a video with that and the 5D looks like I filmed half with a pro-rig and half with a home video camera.  Again, the quality itself is fine, just nowhere near on par with the 5D

So now what?

Well, I’m looking at getting either  a Canon 550D or 600D. This would be an entry level DSLR, but fits all my lenses and has really good video capability (partially due to it’s larger sensor size).

In addition to all that, I’m thinking about selling my 40D, and just using this as my backup to my main.  Although the 40D’s an older camera, it still beats the 550/600D in fps and build-quality. Plus the 550/600Ds are smaller cameras. After a lot of shooting, I’ve worked out what I can need and what I don’t.

I’ll probably do another blog post just like this in 7 months with all new stuff  :)

making my flash portfolio mobile…
setting up some more video situations…
living off-line.

In the meantime if you’re viewing this via RSS, click over and check out my new pages.

more to come
:)

For five dollars a transaction she’s buying internet time for “a little while” from “this guy,” but sending video over such a limited bandwidth is shaky at best. Each time she calls, it looks like’s she’s been locked up in a cold, dark room, and she’s somehow sneaking a glimpse to the outside world. I think it’s just a combination of bandwidth and the camera on her computer.

She gave us a quick walkthrough of her room. Quick because it’s so small that any slower would actually be not-moving. When she got to the bathroom, she noted that it was missing one critical item.

As she began to pan her laptop camera, I saw the shower, check…the sink, check…the toilet…uh, where’s the toilet?

Oh, the toilet, yes, that’s next door.

Okay, that’s weird.

But its sink is here.

What?

Yes, there’s a communal toilet, but there’s no communal sink to wash your communal hands when your done, uh…communalizing. You have to go back to your room for that sort of fluffiness.

I laughed and cringed at the same time. Anyway, that’s a quick excerpt from Denise in Haiti.

Now to make a grinding change of gears. I want to give you some of what you can expect on my blog soon:

I recently bought Jon Acuff’s new book. With that he offered to give blog critiques.

On my drive home the other day my phone rings from a Nashville number. I answer, and it was, “hi joe, this is jon acuff, got a few minutes?”

uhhh, yeah i do!

We talked about my blog for a little while, and he gave me some good ideas and strategies curtailed to what I want out of my blog.

In the past, I’d committed to posting five days a week. And that lasted for a good six months. But as my interests change, my schedule evolves, and my time is reshuffled, so that everyday-thing just doesn’t happen any more.

Lately I’ve been posting whenever and whatever. But in the last few months I’ve been tossing around a few different strategies, and with Jon’s help, I think I’ve settled on one:

I’ll be posting once a week, and it will be somewhat theme-oriented with a little more structure than in the past. My goal is to make my posts good enough for readers to always want more.

Sound good, right? Yeah, well, that wasn’t the revelation. What I’ve been thinking about is how to do that.  In short: weeding out the crap.

In other words, when someone comes to my blog, they should be able to take something away. Otherwise, why would they come to my blog…

And I still plan to include guest bloggers (in addition to my one post a week). This has always been an important part of my blog. And I am indeed very thankful for Michelle and Beau taking the time to write posts for me.

So, thanks again for sticking around.  More coming soon!

On this past Martin Luther King, Jr day Kristin and I got engaged!

Next…it’s going to be the the wedding.

:)

P.S. Check back tomorrow for pictures of us being…engaged and stuff.

He replied back: “idealist or just moved up from antiresolutionist.”

Okay, busted. I love bandwagons. I’m not gonna deny it.

Maybe this is just a coincidence, but I have been working on a goal for this year. A realistic one, too.

Here it is:

Make money with photography.

I don’t mean in a quit-my-job-and-open-up-shop kind of way.  I just want to off-set the cost of my equipment. Which in itself is no small feat!

Okay, admittedly, I’ve had this goal before. I majored in business because …I like business. I’m a capitalist through and through. And I’ve never had any aversion to making money.

But two things are different this time.  First is, I’m older. And presumably, I’ve learned something. Somewhere. I’m sure of it. I can’t think of it right now, but I know it’s around here.

Second is, I’ve defined what parts of photography I enjoy the most, and of those parts, which are marketable.

It’s taken me a while, but I’ve updated my website to include the three sellable areas I think I do the best at, and there is also a need for.

Speaking of which, you can see my redesigned website here.

I redesigned it to look more professional and help the viewer find their place faster. After all, that’s what it’s about, right?

I’ll admit it, I’m proud of it, but I know it’s far from perfect. So, I would be very honored if you would take a quick look and tell me your opinion on it. You can comment on this post or email me.

If you’re not a blogger, you might not realize the significance of comments and feedback.  But they’re huge. I love them! It’s the best way to let me know if you’re like, ugh, what were you thinking??…or Ooo! More of that!

Whether you’re reading this at work, or catching up on blogs over the weekend, or settling in after having just moved to Australia (Happy Anniversary, Sean and Erin!), I would love to hear your thoughts. Would you hire me based on what you see? If not, what could I do differently?

P.S. How do you like the blog’s new look?  I’ve been looking for something light, simple, and to-the-point.  Is it working?

Side note: if you’re thinking about sending any toys to kids in Rwanda, the government put a ban on plastic bags. Messing up the country or something. But in the picture below, you can see a few in the right side of the photo.

We remembered all that after we finished packing the box.

Had to extract them.

It’s all good.

Super cool panoramic stitching…from your iphone (AutoStitch Panorama is $1.99 for a limited time).  See Drew Gardner’s short post about it here.

The second is a quick little lighting video post on David Hobby’s site today. Talks about a very simple set up from a shoot with Tyra Banks.

I know the blog’s been sparse from my regular five-day-a-week posting habit, but I’m still working on what direction I want to take it in. I want to get into a regular posting habit, but I also don’t want to flood it with crappy content, so until I get all that figured out, thanks for sticking with me!

To put a little more perspective behind it, Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria and its now largest city has a population between eight and fifteen million (depending on who’s counting), and the country as a whole has a GDP (purchasing power) of over 300 billion. Although that’s only 2% of the US GDP, in Africa, it’s the third largest behind Egypt and South Africa.

But back to Nollywood. I first came across the this trailer on Emeka Okafor’s blog, The Timbucktu Chronicles.

Brooklyn Shakara Trailer from Adam Pray on Vimeo.