{"id":7089,"date":"2012-12-14T17:39:05","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T17:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=7089"},"modified":"2012-12-14T18:00:09","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T18:00:09","slug":"knocking-off-the-rust-by-getting-moving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=7089","title":{"rendered":"Knocking off the rust, by getting moving….."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last June I had a great experience when I was honored to get to be a speaker a NECC, the New England Council of Camera Clubs annual event! \u00a0I met a lot of really nice folks, got to visit with some of my favorite Nikon people, and finally got to meet Mike Moats a close-up photogpraher whose work I have long admired! \u00a0I first met Mike through Jack Graham another great photographer friend. They use to do workshops together. \u00a0Mike helped me a lot when I was preparing to teach my two Kelby training videos on Close-up photography.<\/div>\n
So anyway, when I met Mike at the show we finally got to sit down and talk and I was very impressed with his philosophy of doping close-ups! \u00a0Now I must admit that I’m and equipment freak and couldn’t wait to ask him what gear he was using. \u00a0To my shock he told me he used Nikon D7000s as his main cameras. \u00a0Now don’t get me wrong, I love the D7000 I just thought with how spectacular his work was he was using an even higher end camera body!<\/div>\n
He told me that he used the D7000 for several reasons;<\/span><\/div>\n
1. \u00a0It’s 1.5 lens factor actually gave him larger images within his files with the same focal length lens. \u00a0\u00a0That made a lot of sense and in fact I’ve recommended that myself in the past.<\/span><\/div>\n
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2. \u00a0That he made 24″X36″ prints with ease from that camera. \u00a0I knew that was possible, but after seeing his prints up close, I was even shocked myself, they were breathtaking, and from a DX camera!!!<\/span><\/p>\n

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3. \u00a0His last reason was the one that shot me between the eyes!! \u00a0He said he wanted to show his students that you could do good work without spending a fortune on cameras and lenses! \u00a0I was stunned, I knew he was right, and I believe that myself, but I sure wan’t putting it into practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Here I write this blog and give advice on gear, but have been a little bit, o.k. a lot of a snob, about gear. I decided to turn over a new leaf, and this is what I plan to do;<\/span><\/div>\n
It’s time for some New Years Resolutions about my photography:<\/span><\/div>\n
A. \u00a0In the new year I’m going to force myself to learn some new things about the gear I own and how to use it to the best of my ability.<\/span><\/div>\n
B. \u00a0I will designate periods of time; \u00a0trips, assignments, maybe even a few weeks or a month at a time, and use just one set of gear to discover just what is possible with it. \u00a0I plan to do a period with just a point and shoot camera, actually several different ones. \u00a0A period of time with just one body and one lens, and probably not a zoom, just a single focal length lens, (like a D600 and a 50mm f1.4 lens). \u00a0I plan to do a period of time with just an iPhone, and even a small manual focus system, and just one zoom in my autofocus system. \u00a0I’m going to devote time to just DX , and time to just FX.<\/span><\/div>\n
C. \u00a0To keep myself honest, I will let you guys know what time period I’m doing what, and then show the results on the blog!<\/span><\/div>\n
So the big question is, why am I doing t his? \u00a0Of course the first part is Mike has shamed me into trying to think less about the gear and more about the image. \u00a0Part two is that I truly want to be less of gear snob!!! \u00a0But lastly, and most importantly, I am entering a new stage of my life and I have decided I want to become a serious student again, and learn as much as I can. \u00a0I know that I’m surrounded by people that excel at different aspects of photography and I want to absorb as much of that knowledge and wisdom as I can.<\/div>\n
No teacher is worth his or her salt if they are not also devoted students, so it’s back to school for this old dog! \u00a0Surely there are a few new tricks I can learn!<\/div>\n
So it’s starts today, for the next several days I’m \u00a0using the D600 and a 50mm f 1.4 AF lens to shoot Christmas themed stuff, expect to see some results soon. One camera – one lens, hey I’m excited, I just my learn something here!!! \u00a0Thanks Mike……<\/div>\n
Blessings,<\/div>\n
the pilgrim<\/div>\n
My buddy Kent Ervin sent this shot to me, thought it was appropriate for my new experiment, “suspended over the water!” \u00a0 Sure hope that old dog can swim!<\/div>\n
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Last June I had a great experience when I was honored to get to be a speaker a NECC, the New England Council of Camera Clubs annual event! \u00a0I met a lot of really nice folks, got to visit with some of my favorite Nikon people, and finally got to meet Mike Moats a close-up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles","category-learning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7089"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7093,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7089\/revisions\/7093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}