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07-16-2010, 09:13 AM   #31
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Play the ego card! Take pictures of him in a race and tell him you need to be able to blow the shots up as big as you can get for framing!

QuoteOriginally posted by mel Quote
I'm jockeying for a large format printer and trying to figure out how I'm going to convince him it would a good purchase.
Heartily agreed; I can't imagine life without a camera.

QuoteOriginally posted by CWyatt Quote
For me, photography's not a hobby, it's a way of life.
Agree again; it's less a "hobby" and a means of recording life. Time and time again, I want to try any of the photo a day, 365 days a year projects but find myself not disciplined enough to do so. I'm hoping that with finally getting an iPhone with the upgraded 5MP camera that I'll be able to take reasonable quality, daily life shots consistently.

QuoteOriginally posted by keithlester Quote
Photography cannot be compared with most of my hobbies. It supplements them. I walk, climb, and travel widely. Photography is the means by which I keep a record of my exploits, so cannot be considered as a stand-alone hobby. Just my view of things, YMMV


07-16-2010, 12:03 PM   #32
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Photography is my latest hobby. I like crafts and sewing. Sewing is the one hobby I have always come back to over the years. I lose interest in things quickly and have learned over the years to stick with quick projects. That is why I like photography. Whenever I want, I can just pick up the camera and go.

Sewing and Photography were about the same in startup costs. Sewing has costs for each project, where as photography doesn't. Now I have to design a camera bag, I just need to figure out what I want in a bag.
07-16-2010, 09:17 PM   #33
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QuoteOriginally posted by RioRico Quote
Maybe every serious street photographer should just use some little plastic Canikonympus bridge cam, just look like another of ten zillion tourists -- blend in, don't be conspicuous. Pretend to be an amateur, be dismissed and invisible. "Oh, don't mind me, I'm just taking snapshots."
This has been said over & over again. Of course, the techno-savvy salesman at the camera shop tells me- an Olympus E-P1 is the best camera suited for street photography. My theory is that if you are being noticed to often, your technique is not good enough. I'm not sure about your side of the world, but more and more tourists are carrying DSLRs. We don't need to try and blend in as they are doing part of it for us. Regardless of camera platform, your blendy-inny technique gets thrown out the window when you are down on your knee, panning to get some derelict vagrant in focus. Tourists aren't well known for that style of photography. Their angles are much more sombre.
07-17-2010, 03:26 AM - 1 Like   #34
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QuoteOriginally posted by mel Quote
It always cracks me up "listening" to you guys complain and about the wives and gear issues. For me it's the opposite. The wife (my own self) is the gearhead. My husband's main hobby is running. I do make money off photography but not enough to be wildly extravagant with my purchasing. Right now I'm jockeying for a large format printer and trying to figure out how I'm going to convince him it would a good purchase.
Dear Mel,

I love you. Let's run away together.

07-17-2010, 02:19 PM   #35
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QuoteOriginally posted by Mike Cash Quote
Dear Mel,

I love you. Let's run away together.
LOL!! Um. Okay.

(disclaimer for the literal types: we're kidding!!!)
07-17-2010, 11:44 PM   #36
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QuoteOriginally posted by ChooseAName Quote
Luckily I haven't been bitten by the LBA bug too much - I don't make enough money for it Wife stays home and will continue to stay home with the child(ren), so we live pretty frugally and I am perfectly fine with that. I am surprisingly content with my two lenses. I can see myself one day adding a telephoto of some sort, if my kid(s) do sports or something like that. Maybe a wider angle one that I have now...maybe. We'll see where this all ends up 10 years from now.

If you don't need autofocus, you should really look into used MF lenses. That FA 50/1.4 could easily become an A 50/1.7 + $150, with probably little change in image output. There are a lot of good bargain Pentax lenses, both zooms and primes, for <$100 if you look hard enough.

The FA 35 I would probably keep, just because it is out of production and most of their 35mm lenses seem hard to come by.
07-18-2010, 05:30 AM   #37
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Thanks anthers. Currently my preference is to AF, since I don't have a good focusing screen. Plus I have not practiced my manual focusing much.

07-22-2010, 07:50 PM   #38
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Expensive to start with, cheap in the long haul

I am really lucky in that my wife has always (well almost always) encouraged me to get the camera equiptment that I want. In fact, she pushed me to buy my newest camera long before I actually spent the money on it.

As for the over all cost factor of photography compared to other hobbys in my opinion photography in the digital age ends up being one of the cheapest hobbys I know of when I consider the hours of enjoyment I get out of it compared to the money I spend over time.

Sure spending $800 in one whack for a new camera or $400 on a lens is expensive at the time. But that expendature averaged out over the 100's of hours of enjoyment I will get out of it with little or nother further cost is a real bargan.

Then there are the hours I get to enjoy the photo all over again as I play with them in post production in Photoshop.

Recently I went on a two week vacation to the Pacific Northwest, I was in heaven getting to shoot all the things I encountered on the trip. I came home with over 1600 photos from that trip and look forward to many more hours of enjoyment working on them on my computer.

So for me photography is a real inexpensive hobby and as a bonus I occasionally make a few dollars selling some of my shots to others.
07-23-2010, 06:31 AM   #39
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You'll never have a problem with your wife if you have the same "Deal" I have with mine.
When I first got into DSLR photography, I knew it might be expensive, and I was beginning to encounter resistance from Mrs Rupert when I bought my first expensive lens. The usual complaints....same ones you hear.......too much money, "you're obsessed", that's ridiculous, etc.
So I made this deal. Every time I buy a lens or body, I will give you an equal amount of cash for whatever you want to do with it. Haven't heard a word of complaint since.....but I do hear "when are you going to get some new photo equipment?" I have mentioned the D700 a few times and explained to her why I won't switch systems.......but she has encouraged me to have two systems. ( No, I won't)

Now it is expensive, and it makes you think hard before you buy......my last purchase in May was a Sigma 10-20 HSM 3.5 and a Sigma 17-70 HSM OS 2.8-4.0....ended up at around $2200.......but I bought them for vacation, and during the entire trip all I heard was how nice she thought it was that I had two new lenses for the trip! Imagine what I might have heard without the "Deal"!

I love my Pentax gear, and have no other Hobbies. I love Mrs Rupert too, but do have a couple of "Daytime Girlfriends"...... Life is good...and fun, enjoy it!
07-23-2010, 09:53 AM   #40
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We live in the mountains and lead an active mountain lifestyle which includes cycling (road and mountain), skiing (xc and telemark), and hiking/climbing. Photography compliments those activities and gives me lots of good chances for taking photos. The bike quiver is established, so we don't buy a lot of bikes regularly (maybe one every couple of years between us).

I'm a bit of a bargain hunter and my wife knows I'll get the best possible deal on my photo gear and generally trusts me to spend wisely.

I make a little money here and there with photography which helps offset the costs (a little) and I'm a software engineer by trade so we have good computers around for the PP part. Computers also creep into my hobby time as I like to tinker with hardware and sometimes have little side software projects. Sometimes those make some decent money for us too.

I'm pretty fortunate my wife is very supportive of my photography. Getting a decent shot of her now and then doesn't hurt either!

07-23-2010, 02:49 PM   #41
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Yep, I too have had some discussions with the Minister of War & Finance, otherwise known as the boss, but of late she's come to see that my purchases are of sound value and produce fruit, both in our own family portraits and in a small income (mainly from weddings).

Then again, I've come to a plateau in desiring new gear, having all that I need to get what I want shot (I think...)
07-23-2010, 02:54 PM   #42
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QuoteOriginally posted by fractal Quote
I'd love to have to the money to go racing. Or, even do ridiculous amounts of track days.

I don't very often commute on my motorbike, so it is more of a hobby. I don't think the word hobby really sums it up all that well though. Not in comparison to photography & board games anyway. Factoring in you can get fear, dread, physical fatigue, excitement, fun & bliss from a motorcycle, it is the thing that can take me to that plane of purity. Albeit occasionally illegal.

In saying that, I have to sell the bike to fund a more practical means of transport and quite possibly a lens or two

The gear will stay in the cupboard for an indefinite period as a reminder that when the budget allows, i'm to be back on two wheels.
When I was single (and the economy was on the bubble) I used to do a ridiculous amount of trackdays. Even bought a dedicated 125cc 2-stroke 160# track bike. Paid $10/gallon for 100 octane race fuel and $25/quart for 2-stroke oil. Didn't think twice about dropping several hundred dollars on a weekend, just to get the adrenalin rush of getting a knee down. Good times.

Photography is cheap by comparison. I do miss the rush though...
07-25-2010, 04:48 AM   #43
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i haven't spent a dime on photo gear only because i am obscenely spoiled by my dad, who got me a k7 kit this year, and gave me all his old manual lenses. (he shoots nikon) he also got me a k1000 when i was 14 or so. but i do have a small fortune in musical instruments, recording gear and carpentry tools, both of which regularly blur the line between hobby and profession, since over the years i've made my living doing both. oh yah, bicycles too, can get very very expensive, (why...?)though ive also worked as a bike mechanic as well. now if i can just get photography to blur that line....
07-25-2010, 08:55 AM   #44
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My wife's pretty good about this kind of thing, but I'm whispering this in case she hears me.
07-25-2010, 09:22 AM   #45
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Actually, photography is a lot cheaper than some of my other hobbies such as golf.
Green fees, club memberships, clubs, road trips, tournaments, the driving range, balls and the 19th hole make photography look like a bargain in comparison. This doesn't even take into account the 6 hours or so a round can take from the time you leave home, play and get back. I think my wife is happier that I'm shooting feathered birdies rather than playing golf as much as I used to.

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