Info from the Internet

The 'allmighty' Internet, your source for everything you always wanted to know about anything, including photography of course. The search for info probably starts with the big question 'what DSLR is the one for me?', followed by 'ok, I got my basic stuff, what else do I want/need'.

And what about 'I probably know the basics, but I want to do more, much more'. Of course, you could sign up for a course or study (I'm still thinking of doing the basic course at the FotoVakSchool (NL) myself), but there is also so much to learn from the Internet: YouTube, Blogs, FaceBook and all the rest!

I found some pretty interesting stuff that I would like to share with you, starting with one of my favourite YouTube channels:

DigitalRevTV

http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalRevCom

Often compared to Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Kai Wong presents this YouTube show with a lot of humor (together with Lok C. and Alamby). In this channel you can find equipment reviews (from the latest camera's to the best camera bags, and everything in between), camera-stress-tests (pretty hilarious), what to do on a rainy sunday afternoon, and what happens if a professional photographer has to shoot with a toy camera.
Also, the big question is answered: '5 Reasons why you need a 50 mm lens'. (But actually you don't need a reason, really. Just go and get one now! ;-) )
It's realy very entertaining, but still very informative and educational as well! If you happen to like Top Gear, and are also into photography, this one is a 'must see' I would say :-)


Jeff Cable

http://jeffcable.com/

I while ago, I stumbled upon a youtube video about 'how to make money with photography' which of course sounded very interesting to me! :-) In this video, that lasts more than 1,5 hours, this guy called Jeff Cable tells about his work as a professional photographer. And while doing so, he shares some of his 'secrets' about how to stand out of the crowd as a photographer. Some of these ideas are as simple as they are brilliant! One quote from Jeff in this video really got to me:
"We're historians, not photographers..."
After a bit of further investigation, I learned that Jeff Cable is a professional photographer from San Fransisco that does weddings, bar mizvahs, but also took some amazing images during the Olympics of 2008, 2010 and 2012. On the web you can find several video's, articles, a facebook page and what not about Jeff Cable. But one of the coolest things is his blog (one of his tips from the video, that actually inspired me to start one myself). In this blog he shares his experiences as a photographer. Wether it's a family trip or 'on the job', Jeff always has something interesting to share!


Karl Taylor

http://www.karltaylorphotography.co.uk/

A colleague of mine (thanks Sarah) pointed me out to the website of Karl Taylor. If you register on his website, you get a free mini-course! Every day a new video is unlocked (19 of them). Karl shows you the basics about camera settings, light, filters, flash, photoshop, you name it. From this course I got the idea to buy myself a slingbag when my first camera bag became too small. Also, I purchased a Cokin filter set that fits on all my lenses, also inspired by Karl's videos.
If you like the mini course, there's more from Karl Taylor: He has several great courses on dvd that you can buy from his webshop.


Facebook group: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 Fan Club

http://www.facebook.com/groups/55481042944/

As an owner of the 'Plastic Fantastic' or 'Nifty Fifty' or just 'Canon EF 50mm f/1.8' lens, I was looking for photo's that fellow owners created. There's plenty of examples to find on the net, and maybe also many that are much better than this one, but still I like it: The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 Fan Club! You don't get an immense flood of images every day, but there are some really nice photographs in there, some of which are very inspirational.
I sometimes try to re-create some of the gems that I find there, which I find very educational.


Of course, this is a very small selection of what is out there to find. But these are my personal favourites. Hope you like them as well :-)

A new Hobby

In 2012, I decided it was time to start with a new fresh hobby. For a while already my interest shifted from video to photography, so I decided to buy a Canon  EOS 600D with the EF-S 18-55mm kitlens, and a small camera bag with room for an extra lens (from which I wasn't sure I would ever buy) or my Sony HDV camcorder. This all went fine for about 2 months, then the camera bag became too small! The first extra lens was the 'Plastic Fantastic' Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, and the second a nice Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. The 'old-new' camera bag had to make place for a bigger model, the Vanguard UP-Rise 43 Slingbag, which could hold my entire kit, including the camcorder... Until... Until I bought a Cokin filter set, and a Canon Speedlite 430 EX II. But that's ok if I leave the camcorder out of the equation, which is fine. So everything still fits... for now... :-)

Canon workshop

One of the things that 'excelerated' the 'photographic fire' was the 1-day digital photography workshop that Canon provided (for 25 Euro's) with the purchase of the camera. So I went to the 'FotoVakSchool' on a saturday and had a great time with some fellow enthusiasts (and all fresh owners of 1100D, 550D or 600D camera's). The (basic) in's and out's of the camera where explained in a very nice and understandable way. I can really recommend this workshop to anyone starting this great hobby! (But be prepared for the consequences ;-) )

Favourite Lens

My favourite lens at this time is definately the 50mm. You can create fantastic images with it with a very shallow depth of field, as shown in the image above in this post. The price is around 90 Euro's so anyone starting with a Canon dslr should buy it!

Purpose of this Blog

With this blog, I want to share my experiments and learnings in the field of photography. And hopefully it can be of some use to the starting DSLR user, like myself. Maybe we can even help each other out with burning questions!

Let's just see what happens :-)