New Blog Challenge And My Photography Evolution

I had almost forgotten how much of a challenge it is to either start a new blog right from scratch or, as in my case, to simply “switch horses in midstream” by changing to a new blog while wishing to maintain all of my loyal readers.  I appreciate your understanding as I work through this process. You may have noticed that I have published 2 Auto-Redirect Posts to my old Rick and Paulette’s RV Travels that ended up on your sidebars if you happen to follow my blog.  That’s now ended.

Originally, I had planned to publish 5 Redirect posts but yesterday I decided that was pretty annoying.  Instead, I’ve scrapped my idea of keeping the Archive of my old blog and replaced it with my full original Rick & Paulette’s RV Travels blog including a full search capability. Instead of the Redirect I’ve put a notice banner at the top with a link to my new blog.  What I thought was a clever idea at first turned out to be not so clever.  I made one final post to my old blog to clarify all this.

My first 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera – Pentax Spotmatic - 1964

Long before I ever became interested in computers I was a photography buff.  I remember owning a series of small Kodak cameras along with a few other popular brands but it wasn’t until 1964 when I got my first computer job that I was able to afford the camera of my dreams – a Pentax Spotmatic 35mm SLR.  The Spotmatic was one of the first SLRs on the market to offer a through-the-lens (TTL) exposure metering system. Since 1964 I’ve owned at least 2 more Pentax SLR’s.

My last 35mm SLR camera – Pentax Program Plus - 1988

The last Pentax 35mm camera I bought was a Pentax Program Plus and I still have that camera today even though I haven’t used it in at least 15 years.  I think I bought this one in the late 80’s and I took thousands of photos with it over the years.  It’s a heavy, bulky camera and having to lug around a huge telephoto lens made it that much harder.  But, that’s all there was in those days as high-quality and inexpensive digital cameras were not an option.

My first digital camera – Kodak DC20 with a .2 MP sensor - 1996

It wasn’t until 1996 that I got my hands on a Digital Camera and what a revolutionary idea that was. No more waiting for expensive film processing as my photos were available immediately.  Better yet, even if they weren’t all that great I could enhance my pictures with Kodak’s photo-editing software.  On the downside,the first Kodak DC20 only had a .2 MP sensor which was rather pitiful in comparison to today’s digital cameras which boast 16MP sensors and higher.

My current camera – Canon Powershot G15

Once I got some experience with digital cameras though I knew I’d never use film again. Even though the quality wasn’t great with the first digitals it was improving at lightning speed and not being restricted to just 24 or 36 pictures on a roll of 35mm film was a godsend. Since my first digital camera I’ve owned a Kodak DC4800, a few Nikon models and now I’ve kind of settled on the Canon G series.  After buying a Canon G10 and loving the quality and features of it I upgraded to a G15 last year.

Here are a few pics from our Saturday hike alongside the Cowichan River

For the purposes of blog photography I’ve long believed that it makes no difference whether you use one of today’s excellent point-and-shoot digital cameras or a big, bulky, expensive DSLR. In blind comparison tests even pro photographers are not able to determine whether a digital DSLR or a point-and-shoot camera took a photo. The main reason for this is the fact that the quality of a photo shown on a computer display is totally dependent on the characteristics of that display.

Good photos are the result of subject matter and composition not the camera being used. An amateur can foul-up pics with the best Canon DSLR while a pro can take a real beauty using a Panasonic Lumix. Unless you happen to be a professional then I’m guessing that like me you take pictures for fun and enjoyment whether the shots are of grandchildren or the Grand Canyon. All of today’s digital point-and-shoots deliver excellent photos while set on “Auto’ so it’s pretty easy..

There are a wild variety of excellent, affordable digital cameras available today.  In fact, it’s a rather dizzying number which makes deciding what to buy difficult. Over the next few weeks I’m going to be looking at various digital photo sites to see how they rate this year’s crop of cameras.  I’ll make those results available on my blog as soon as I’ve finished those reviews.

Thanks for visiting.