Equipment used

McAWilliams

About 7 years ago a friend of mine once spoke about a mad idea of placing a blog on his web page but rather then basing it around words he wanted to put up pictures. I laughed at this idea and thought that it was going to be difficult to keep updating pictures on a daily basis and also would eat into server space rather quickly.

Look who is laughing now, suddenly photoblogging has taken off and I decided that now would be a good time for me to do it also. As I’m new to this I’m sure my composition of pictures will improve but if you can bear with me for a while, hopefully that wont take to long.

I was also shortlisted for “Best Photo Blog” in the 2007 Irish Blog Awards, and shortlisted and made the finals for “Best Photo Blog” in 2008. Last year I only managed to make the longlist and I imagine the same for 2010.

So what do I use.

Well my blog was for 3 years generated using Movabletype, which to be honest is a head fuck to get around at first but after a while is well worth it, but my head got fried again with the movabletype 4 upgrade and now I use Wordpress.

I also use Lightroom mainly but also use Photoshop to do minor things such as colour correction, sharpening and cropping etc.

The Hardware

My first encounter with Digital photography was a Canon Ixus V2 which is, like all other ix’i is a small compact camera, roughly the same size as a box of cigarettes. It has a really strong metal body and it has to be said, it is one of the easiest and reliable cameras Ive encountered for a long time. Unfortunately it was only a 2.1 MP camera, which in today’s standards is a little restrictive, so I had to go get a new camera which I did in 2005.

The Canon G6

Towards the end of January 2005 I purchased a Canon G6, which is what they call a prosumer camera, I had followed the G series of cameras for a while now from the G1-G5 and by all accounts, reviews on those made me want one and then along came the 5th incarnation (thanks for the reminder Eugene of the funny canon numbering as there was no G4), I just had to have it and so far I have to say its bringing fantastic shots to my computer, well in my eyes anyhow. Most of the pictures you will find here will have been taken by this beast although I may slip a few Ixus pictures aswell, see if you can spot the difference!

So next on my list of purchases is a hot-shoe flash of some description and possibly a Digital SLR like the Canon EOS 20D or something, hahahaha in my dreams.

Enter the Canon EOS 350d

I always knew one day I would own a Digital SLR camera and in September 2006 that dream became a reality, I decided against the 20D and was even considering moving brand altogether, but I stood by Canon and bought the EOS 350d, along with the 18-55mm kit lens.

I bought it from Jessops not only because they were the cheapest but instead of a black body camera you could buy a silver body with a 18-55mm USM lens, giving faster and near silent focusing. This should stop me wanting a camera for many many years, now all I need are some lenses, but I think I have this covered. Very soon I plan on buying a Canon 70-300mm f4 IS (image stabilizing) USM lens (went for the sigma lens instead) and probably at the start of the new year I shall buy a prime lens like the Canon 28mm f2.8 (did not happen, opted for that 430EX hot-shoe flash instead which I have been talking about for years).

And now in 2009 after 3 years I have upgraded the camera body to a 40D, same lenses remain but what a camera I have now!