Kerrick James

Pentaxian Profile

By PF Staff in Pentaxian Profiles on Jul 28, 2011

I grew up with cameras in the house, of all types, but my first SLR was a Pentax ES, the first ‘automatic’ camera, as it was then touted. My early love in photography was for landscape and nothing else, and I carried that screw-mount body with a 55/1.8 Takumar, a nice 21mm Soligor wide optic and a so-so quality Vivitar 135mm for several years, all through high school in California and college in the American Southwest. Later my favorite Pentax 35mm film bodies were the K2 and K2DMD, the LX, PZ1-P and the fine MZ-S, of which I still hold three in reserve. I amassed a hoard of quality Pentax lenses, from the 17-28mm Fisheye zoom to the 250-600mm beauty that is still superb today. I’ve shot Pentax my entire career, which makes me a rarity among my professional brethren, and I like that.

PentaxForums Pentaxians

New site section featuring bi-weekly stories

By PF Staff in Pentaxian Profiles on Mar 19, 2011

We are happy to announce a brand new section of our site: the PF Pentaxian Profiles.  Accessible via the navigation buttons on the left side of our homepage, this new section will be dedicated to you: the Pentaxian.

Every two weeks or so, we will be posting the story of a forum member (or a group) that uses Pentax and has shown the Pentax spirit or has been successful in professional photography, Do you feel like a true Pentaxian?  Are you a pro?  If so, share your story with us!  It might just make it on the front page.

We expect to have our first story published by the end of this week.  Stay tuned!

Looking for more ways to stand out?  Submit a photo to our Exclusive Photo Gallery or participate in a Monthly Photo Contest!

Dave Mitchell

Pentaxian profile

By PF Staff in Pentaxian Profiles on Mar 19, 2011

Welcome to our first PentaxForums Pentaxian profile!  To read more about this series, click here. Without further ado:

Dave Mitchell - An Experienced, Enthusiastic Photographer

It was fall of 2008 and I had been using a point-and-shoot digital since the summer of 2002. Prior to that, I had used a Canon film SLR for six years. My photography had reached a point where I was longing for the flexibility of an SLR once again, and the price for DSLRs had reached a point where they were much more affordable. I saw the enjoyment that a good friend of mine was getting out of his DSLR, a Pentax, and so I felt the time had come to think about taking the plunge.

I hadn’t seriously begun my quest, which for a major purchase usually involves several weeks of very thorough research, but when the time came I was “naturally” going to check out what Canon had to offer. After all, I reasoned, the Elan IIE had been an excellent camera – it was the first “real” camera that I had cut my teeth on – so why even consider something different?

So with this at the back of my mind, I remember being at my Pentax friend’s house one day. I recalled the other occasions in my mind since we had met when I had seen him shooting with his Pentax, but I have to admit it was with a kind of skeptical, perhaps arrogant attitude like, ‘I wonder why he’s using a Pentax?’ But there I was and, again thinking about getting a DSLR decided, like a bolt from the blue, to quizzically ask him exactly why he was using a Pentax. I for the life of me had no idea why he was using one – or why anyone else was – but I have always had an interest in “different” things and why people like them, so it was asked out of curiosity instead of seeking direction about a camera purchase.

Tommy Evans

Pentax Videographer

By PF Staff in Pentaxian Profiles on Apr 17, 2011

Our third Pentaxian profile is about a Pentax videographer, Tommy Evans.

In college, I saw my first SLR camera. It was a Canon Tlb that belonged to an art major friend of mine. Up until that point, the nicest camera I’d ever held was my dad’s old Argus C3…a decent camera, but nothing like this Canon. There was something magical about looking at the world through that camera and the pictures it turned out were extraordinary! I had to have one! I began reading everything I could find about photography. As a result, I knew about film, filters, and lenses long before I even owned a camera of my own. I didn’t have enough money to buy a Canon like my friend’s, so I had to settle for a used Yashica SLR that I bought from a pawnshop. I always tried to get the best lenses I could afford for my camera, and since my Yashica took thread-mount lenses, that meant putting Pentax Takumar lenses on it. I’ve been a Pentax guy ever since.

Pentaxian Profile: Ashraf Saleh

"Reason to Grow"

By PF Staff in Pentaxian Profiles on May 7, 2011

Welcome to our 4th bi-weekly Pentaxian profile of Ashraf Saleh!
Want to share your story as well?  Visit this thread.

Photography was not an inherited love for me, but it was an inherent love that blossomed swiftly. It crept up unawares in the dawn of a new era in my life when both finances were available and the family unit was to expand. I also had no idea I would want to pursue it so fervently as to learn the business of professional photography, but it would become a part-time pleasure to practice.

It was not a difficult decision for me back in 2006, but being an dSLR newbie at the time I realised the virtues of backward lens compatibility with some research and appreciated the solid build in the K100D, prompting me to pick up a twin lens kit to start off with. Prior to going SLR, I’d only ever been shooting with compact film cameras but enjoyed being able to frame and compose images from a viewfinder. I even went back to a film SLR camera (the Pentax ME) and manual fast fifty for an overseas trip that I wanted to sharpen my basic skills with. Digital SLR photography opened my horizons on being able to creatively control all facets of my photographs and inspired me to learn more about the enjoyable vocation. It also complemented the primary work I undertake quite well as it is both analytical and subjectively artistic as medical practice is.