[Daniel Darko]

Hi there,

I'm a new member to these forums, but of course I've followed a few of the posts here from time to time.

I made my foray into photography about 10 years ago when I purchased a 2.1MP Hewlett Packard compact camera. I chose it because it had manual and priority modes that most compact digicams at the time didn't have and I wanted to explore the creativity of non-auto. Also it was all I could afford. I took hundreds of photos and enjoyed the experience while it lasted, until I upgraded to an MZ50 (iirc) after my digital photos were lost in a freak windows re-install accident (special thanks to my friend for not asking me in advance whether a) I wanted windows reinstalled or b) whether I had any valuable information I would like to keep).

About 5 years ago digital photography at the entry level seemed to be reaching par with film, and the cost and flexibility of film shooting wasn't really doing it for me, so I decided to upgrade to and have been shooting on a K200D with kit lenses since. I'm now looking to upgrade both my gear and status from a hobbyist to someone that can hopefully earn a few dollars - I'll be making a post after I finish this introduction to hopefully pick the brains of those more knowledgeable than myself :)

I wouldn't say that I enjoy photographing one thing particularly more than another. In no order of preference, I like candid portraits and photo-journalistic styles, landscapes, still life, textural and also purely compositional . Recently I've been dabbling with night photography (in particular astroscapes) and panoramas. I would call my approach to photography somewhat experimental.

I live in Victoria, Australia.

So that's me in a nutshell. Oh, and I also tend to write in long sentences, but try to include a lot of commas, hyphens and parenthesis to break things up (and make my gibberish more legible).

Daniel

[beachgardener]

G'day mate and welcome to the forum

[TER-OR]

Welcome aboard!

[normhead]

Thats sounds like a pretty full nutshell, welcome to the forum.

[DarCam]

Hi there. I'd like to know more about that freak window reinstalling accident and the aftermath. There seems to be more details to that story and what lead to a dead digital camera in its wake.


As for the other stuff--in do time.

[southlander]

Hello from across the border in South Oz.

I also like a bit of everything perhaps except for portraits - no one in my family really likes being in front of a camera.

---------- Post added 06-10-14 at 11:57 PM ----------

Hi there. I'd like to know more about that freak window reinstalling accident and the aftermath. There seems to be more details to that story and what lead to a dead digital camera in its wake.


As for the other stuff--in do time.

Ah, I suspect that is Windows of Microsoft fame and not the glazing placed in a hole in a wall???

[Daniel Darko]

Hi and thanks to all for the warm welcome (We here inside the nutshell appreciate it)

Ahhh the great Windows reinstall debacle of two-thousand-whenever, that takes me back /dreamyflashbackFX/ Let me just say kids, that drugs and computers don't mix. Or more precisely, friends on drugs on your computer don't mix. My buddy thought he was doing me a favour by reinstalling windows as it was running a bit slow... upon reflection it may not have been the software Needless to say there was a rather sheepish looking face on the other end of my pointed-finger questioning that can be paraphrased as "did you back up my #%*@ing photos?!"

Hey, I was young---er-ish at the time!

The digital camera was unscathed, but I decided I enjoyed photography enough to upgrade rather than start again on the same.

I think there's also a lesson in there about backing up your photos... and maybe your friends

[TER-OR]

I think there's also a lesson in there about backing up your photos... and maybe your friends

And not keeping your photos on the C: drive!

[Daniel Darko]

And not keeping your photos on the C: drive!

Indeed! So many hard hard lessons learned the hard hard way :/

[DarCam]

Hi and thanks to all for the warm welcome (We here inside the nutshell appreciate it)

Ahhh the great Windows reinstall debacle of two-thousand-whenever, that takes me back /dreamyflashbackFX/ Let me just say kids, that drugs and computers don't mix. Or more precisely, friends on drugs on your computer don't mix. My buddy thought he was doing me a favour by reinstalling windows as it was running a bit slow... upon reflection it may not have been the software Needless to say there was a rather sheepish looking face on the other end of my pointed-finger questioning that can be paraphrased as "did you back up my #%*@ing photos?!"

Hey, I was young---er-ish at the time!

The digital camera was unscathed, but I decided I enjoyed photography enough to upgrade rather than start again on the same.

I think there's also a lesson in there about backing up your photos... and maybe your friends

I guess my mind ran wild with glass flying everywhere and slicing and dicing a digital camera. Still, you are right, drugs and computers don't mix.

[Daniel Darko]

I guess my mind ran wild with glass flying everywhere and slicing and dicing a digital camera.

Nothing more dramatic than finger pointing and looks of incredulity I'm afraid :)

Once againk, thanks for the welcome. I've started a thread for advice on upgrading my gear which I'll link below for anyone wanting to follow my journey or lend advice on upgrading my K200D with kit lenses.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/58-pentax-beginners-corner-q/265452-becau...ml#post2847217

[tim60]

Which part of Victoria - part of my family came from Nhill and St Arnaud.

[Des]

Welcome from another Victorian (speaking geographically not chronologically).

The obvious upgrade path for you is a K-50. If you can afford it, you could skip straight to the K3, but there is a big price gap at present.

Buy quality lenses if you can. They will carry over through body upgrades.

[Daniel Darko]

Which part of Victoria - part of my family came from Nhill and St Arnaud.

I just moved into a place in Mulgrave. Not the most exemplary suburb for reaching the rich photographic world that is the city of Melboune, but I like a challenge. On the plus side it's pretty close to the Dandenong ranges - which I'm particularly looking forward to exploring with my new gear when I get it. So much low light beauty in that place I could never hope to capture on what I have now.

I couldn't be happier I live in Melbourne now for it's variety of rich colours, photographic subjects and weather. Wait. What? ;) But seriously the 4 seasons in 1 day might prove to be chaotic for planning a formal photoshoot and what to wear for the day, but the variety of lighting is terrific.

I moved here from Perth 3 years ago - where all the almost everything looked washed out in the endless days of glorious sunny days :/

On a side note, I recently drove across the Nullarbor and god damn the skies were juicy. Amazing deep blues and cloud formations you could almost soak up water with. I also had the good fortune to see possibly the sexiest and longest sunset I have ever seen. Not so much good fortune that I was stuck in the back of a moving 4WD and had to witness it from behind a glass windscreen instead of a viewfinder. It was also a fantastic place to try my hand at some astro-scapeish photography. With 800-1600 ISO you get twice the stars on the K200D! ;) I'm still over in Perth on holidays so I'll look at upload some pics once I get back home to my PC and have a chance to trawl through them all and do some PP.

Welcome from another Victorian (speaking geographically not chronologically).
The obvious upgrade path for you is a K-50. If you can afford it, you could skip straight to the K-3, but there is a big price gap at present.
Buy quality lenses if you can. They will carry over through body upgrades

If you were THAT kind of Victorian I imagine even my pinhole camera would blow you away, so what would the new K-3 I'm going to get do? Take crystal clear shots so everyone would believe me, I hope <--- **take note Big Foot spoters yooooou Sunday photographers you**

Thanks, I've pretty much 95% decided I'm going for the K-3 and am most definitely buying quality glass, but I'll be going into why and what in my gear upgrade thread I linked earlier.

[Des]

I just moved into a place in Mulgrave. Not the most exemplary suburb for reaching the rich photographic world that is the city of Melboune, but I like a challenge. On the plus side it's pretty close to the Dandenong ranges - which I'm particularly looking forward to exploring with my new gear when I get it. So much low light beauty in that place I could never hope to capture on what I have now.
I couldn't be happier I live in Melbourne now for it's variety of rich colours, photographic subjects and weather. Wait. What? But seriously the 4 seasons in 1 day might prove to be chaotic for planning a formal photoshoot and what to wear for the day, but the variety of lighting is terrific.

Don't disparage the Mulgrave area. I've seen tourist buses going there. (They have "Neighbours" written on them, whatever that means.)

Melbourne offers the photographer everything from grunge to urban chic, and many fine buildings that look great in bokeh. Which is why it is popular for advertising shoots.

And great natual features within an easy drive from your home. Mornington Peninsula/Westernport is really photogenic - try Coolart, Flinders, Cape Schanck, Cranbourne botanical gardens (yes, really - it's great) and the boardwalk at Bittern.