Equipment used

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, photoblogging took off and I decided 6 years agothat it would be a good time for me give it a shot.

Over the years I have been shortlisted for “Best Photo Blog” in the 2007 Irish Blog Awards, and then made the finals for “Best Photo Blog” in 2008. In 2009 and 2010 I only made the longlist, but this has not deterred me from carrying the blog along.

So what do I use.

Well my blog for 3 years was generated using Movabletype, which to be honest was a head fuck to get around at first but after a while was 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, 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 it brought fantastic shots to my computer, in my eyes anyhow. Most of the early pictures you will find here were taken by this beast although I did slip a few Ixus pictures aswell, see if you can spot the difference!

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

Enter the Canon EOS 350d

I knew one day I would have to 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 have stopped me wanting a camera for many many years. Very soon after I planned on buying a Canon 70-300mm f4 IS (image stabilizing) USM lens (went for the sigma lens instead) and I was also thinking about buying a prime lens like the Canon 28mm f2.8 but that did not happen, I opted for that 430EX hot-shoe flash instead which I had been talking about for years.

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

Equipment List

Cameras
Lenses
Accessories
  • Canon 430EX Speedlite
  • Lowepro Slingshot 100 AW
  • Assorted filters