CAMERA STORE HAMILTON

When I first started, I bought a huge photography manual. It was, like, 3 inches thick. You could stun burglars with it. All it taught me was I had no idea what I was doing, and I needed a much thinner tome. I've since bought maybe a dozen books on 'digital' photography and sold most of them. They really taught me nothing...I'm just not at that level yet.

Currently, all I have is:
-- Basic 35mm Photo Guide 5th Edition by Craig Alesse. Awesome book, thin, easy to grasp, covers the basics. Highly, highly recommended. My only beef is it isn't portable.
-- Plastic Cameras Toying With Creativity by Michelle Bates. Again, highly recommended. Covers the basics of the cameras you really should be starting with: basic, simple, easy cameras with no cost overhead.
-- 40 Digital SLR Techniques by Darrell Tan. Haven't read this yet, only flipped through. Looks good, but am not yet conviced.
-- Photoshop CS2 RAW by Mikkel Aaland. Another I haven't read yet. Hoping this will help with D50 post-production.
-- Two books that cover the D50. They're ok, but not really that great.

What I'm really looking for is something that goes past the Alesse book, but stops well before the beefy tome I've sold. I don't think I'm past beginner, but I'm not at the starting line anymore. What I've found is that the film books have better information than the digital books, as they are more concerned with lighting, filters, colour correction, and all the things that are supposedly 'easy' with digital...the stuff I want to know more about.

I'd like a beginner's book on pinhole photography, and I'm also eyeing Beginner's Guide to Photographic Lighting by Don Marr.

Any suggestions? Remember, my brain bruises easily, so keep it simple.

Lighting: I had some difficulties with the lighting situation here. My big panel keeps getting blown away from the wind so I was about to just use a small soft box instead but I kept trying to continue with the light panel. It gives it a nicer effect than the mini soft boxes. I didn't have an assistant so I tried to go to locations of the park where the wind was not blowing as hard.

How to: A lot of people want to be able to blur the background like I did here in the above picture. With the popular digital pocket cameras it's impossible to get this effect. There is the macro setting that will do it but that's for flowers or other really close-up shots. This is why I carry around those big SLR cameras with different lenses that I can switch around. For a shallow depth of field you are going to need a zoom lens or a fixed 2.8 lens. I prefer the 80-200mm 2.8 lens. It's going to cost you anywhere from $500 used to $1,600 brand new. Yes, this is why Canon and Nikon are so stinkin' rich! There are two things about this lens that helps blur the backgound. The first thing is that it's aperature ("iris like" opening of a lens to let light in) opens up to 2.8! Not 3.5 or 4 like the beginner lenses you get in a kit. Secondly the zoom lens get you really close in or cropped in close. Other factors are; the background is far away from the subject and the sensor inside a digital SLR is a lot bigger than the sensor in your digital pocket camera. To sum this all up, you need to buy a digital SLR and a zoom lens like an 80-200mm. That's at least $1,000 of equipment already if you buy the cheap models. Or your other option is to hire me to take the portrait. =)