Be a Green photographer with your Pentax DSLR

**ebooks4pentax** · 09-11-2007, 04:59 PM

In my quest of becoming a green photographer, I have been surfing the Internet for ideas, suggestions, actual items already on the market, etc. I do think that we should all do whatever we can to become more energy efficient and at the same time, reduce the amount of waste or pollutant we, individually, add to the problem. The politicians will debate the planet's future, without doing anything concrete to fix the problems, until it is too late. Sometimes, I think it is already too late.
Go ahead, we are all awaiting your comments and suggestions.

I would be honored if you could stop by my Pentax blog and say Hi.
Pentax dslrs
--
Yvon Bourque

Arpe · 09-11-2007, 05:23 PM

Use rechargeable batteries.

Ole · 09-11-2007, 05:27 PM

I hadn't thought about this before, but shooting digital rather than film involves no chemicals for film processing. Countering that, of course, is our use of computers, big monitors and their power consumption. So who knows what's greener!

Wethphotography · 09-11-2007, 05:35 PM

Originally posted by k10dbook

In my quest of becoming a green photographer, I have been surfing the Internet for ideas, suggestions, actual items already on the market, etc. I do think that we should all do whatever we can to become more energy efficient and at the same time, reduce the amount of waste or pollutant we, individually, add to the problem. The politicians will debate the planet's future, without doing anything concrete to fix the problems, until it is too late. Sometimes, I think it is already too late.
Go ahead, we are all awaiting your comments and suggestions.

--
Yvon Bourque

Yvon, a great topic. OK1000.blogspot.com wrote on this topic this spring. Among his ideas as i recall, were rechargable batteries as already mentioned, buying prints and equipment locally to save on shipping fuels, smart electricity managment of computer equipment; he had many intriguing ideas should folks want to check it out.

Arpe · 09-11-2007, 05:49 PM

Not jumping in your petrol guzzling heavy four wheel drive to take some photos.

equinox · 09-11-2007, 06:11 PM

Just buy as much of your food grown locally if possible. (I am already trying this)

Instead of your car, take your bike out and pedal to a favorite picture taking site. (Love my mountain bike, except when I have the Bigma attached)

So many little things we can all do that will add up in helping our planet.

Stratman · 09-11-2007, 07:40 PM

What i would like to see done, and this really has nothing to do with photography, is to OUTLAW junk mail. If you didn't ask for it, you shouldn't have to deal with it. I bet we'd all be astounded to know how many tons of paper is wasted on this crap...Plus all the ads in the Saturday papers, i would say 75% of the Saturday paper here in St Louis is Ads...

carpents · 09-11-2007, 07:56 PM

Originally posted by Stratman

What i would like to see done, and this really has nothing to do with photography, is to OUTLAW junk mail. If you didn't ask for it, you shouldn't have to deal with it. I bet we'd all be astounded to know how many tons of paper is wasted on this crap...Plus all the ads in the Saturday papers, i would say 75% of the Saturday paper here in St Louis is Ads...

That's because the ads work. Just like junk e-mail, the only way to stop it is to ignore it. It's the people who respond to the ads that are wrecking it for the rest of us. So stop cutting coupons.

borno · 09-11-2007, 08:20 PM

While I think we should all be good stewards of the world we have been entrusted with (of course we aren't) it's demise is out of our hands - sorry, I am not a humanist, just a human. My 2cents worth

Rico · 09-11-2007, 08:22 PM

Use manual focus lenses.

Stratman · 09-11-2007, 08:23 PM

Carpents, I do NOT respond to it, nor do I cut coupons !! At the very least they should be required to make all of the ads and junk mail out of recyclable paper.

< i recycle everything i can >

raz-0 · 09-11-2007, 09:51 PM

Originally posted by Stratman

What i would like to see done, and this really has nothing to do with photography, is to OUTLAW junk mail. If you didn't ask for it, you shouldn't have to deal with it. I bet we'd all be astounded to know how many tons of paper is wasted on this crap...Plus all the ads in the Saturday papers, i would say 75% of the Saturday paper here in St Louis is Ads...

IIRC, you can go to your local post office and stop delivery of junk mail. No idea if it just gets tossed, or if they stop sending it at the bulk mailing level because you are on the list.

Beyond that, I wish that a lot of the feel good environmentalism was scrutinized more as a lot of it is neither efficient nor good for the environment.

For exmaple, most of our paper comes from farmed trees, which are sustainable, suck carbon out of the atmosphere, and require less energy, labor, and chemicals to process into usable paper compared to recycled. Recycled uses less trees, but consumes more energy, and leaves you with more pollutants to manage at the end of production. So unless we are running out of trees, why bother? Then upon further thought, I REALLY have to ask myself why we don't just burn the paper. Nobody will pay more than it costs to recycle for manufacturing, so why not sell it to burn for power. It might not be much, but it would be a carbon neutral renewable power source. WOn't power a city, but might be usable in a co-gen plant or something, and someone might actually pay to haul it away rather than just burning local tax dollars to pay someone to take it. Oh yeah ,ad after paying them to take it, if they can't find anyone to buy it, it just goes in the landfill anyway.

Glass is damn near worthless to recycle. Aluminum is a pretty good deal though, especailly cans (because they don't need to be sorted and have the alloy determined), which is why most beverages come served up in plastic now.

Another false economy is avoiding mail order. It's not like eating local seasonal food where I replace an apple from argentina with a zuchini from 25 miles away. I live within about an hours drive of B&H. I could plop my butt in the car, probably by myself, sit in traffic, drive an hour there, and an hour back. Or my item can car pool with a thousand other packages and one driver in a vehicle specially engineered to maximize UPS's profit by being fuel efficient, easy to repair, etc. Explain to me how mail order ISN'T more efficient for something that isn't around the corner. On top of that, my mail order product comes from a super efficient no-frills warehouse rather than some big box store with lots of lighting that is empty most of the day, every day, but still lighted and heated at great cost.

Compact flourescents in the home rock. As do 7-day programable smart thermostats. Both of which will pay for themselves in short order. Switching to LCDs from CRTs saved a fair ammount of electricity as well.

Then, of course, there is the best "green" producst of all: used durable goods. Because re-use beats recycling any day of the week as far as efficiency goes.

The best environmentalism pays for itself, and if you don't take advantage of it, you are just throwing money away. If the "green" product costs a lot more than the normal product, it's probably not really efficient, and thus not really all that environmentally friendly taken as a whole, but likely makes one area more efficient while making another less so. Usually with a net greater negative impact.

**Lowell Goudge** · 09-12-2007, 02:38 AM

Originally posted by raz-0

Compact flourescents in the home rock.

Don't be so sure about this, Every compact flourescent contains mercury, There is also lead and other heavy metals in the electronic ballast, plastics in the mount... the list goes on and on.

When you consider how many of these will wind up in land fills leaching back into ground water, we are simply shifting our pollution problem to something different.

While they (CF) along with LEDs are more efficient, we need to get the recycling process sorted out.

davemdsn · 09-12-2007, 10:13 AM

Some of the computer companies are thinking greener. One is making more of it's computers out of aluminum instead of plastic for better recycling and using LED instead of LCD monitors to get rid of mercury vapors in some models. There does seem to be a few people paying attention.

arbutusq · 09-12-2007, 10:16 AM

Dont' buy a new camera whenever a flashier model is released. Use your equipment till it falls apart and then recycle/salvage what you can. Buy used whenever you can. Walk to your photo shoots. Only print he best....I could go on.

[Rant ALERT] In many ways being Green is antithetical to our disposable consumer society. You can buy green as much as possible but ultimately we'll al have to reduce and stop buying so much (myself included...I guess I should practice what I preach!!) [ OK rant over.....]

09-11-2007, 04:59 PM	#1
ebooks4pentax Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: California, USA Photos: Albums Posts: 464	Be a Green photographer with your Pentax DSLR In my quest of becoming a green photographer, I have been surfing the Internet for ideas, suggestions, actual items already on the market, etc. I do think that we should all do whatever we can to become more energy efficient and at the same time, reduce the amount of waste or pollutant we, individually, add to the problem. The politicians will debate the planet's future, without doing anything concrete to fix the problems, until it is too late. Sometimes, I think it is already too late. Go ahead, we are all awaiting your comments and suggestions. I would be honored if you could stop by my Pentax blog and say Hi. Pentax dslrs -- Yvon Bourque

09-11-2007, 09:51 PM	#12
raz-0 Veteran Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Central NJ Posts: 470	Originally posted by Stratman What i would like to see done, and this really has nothing to do with photography, is to OUTLAW junk mail. If you didn't ask for it, you shouldn't have to deal with it. I bet we'd all be astounded to know how many tons of paper is wasted on this crap...Plus all the ads in the Saturday papers, i would say 75% of the Saturday paper here in St Louis is Ads... IIRC, you can go to your local post office and stop delivery of junk mail. No idea if it just gets tossed, or if they stop sending it at the bulk mailing level because you are on the list. Beyond that, I wish that a lot of the feel good environmentalism was scrutinized more as a lot of it is neither efficient nor good for the environment. For exmaple, most of our paper comes from farmed trees, which are sustainable, suck carbon out of the atmosphere, and require less energy, labor, and chemicals to process into usable paper compared to recycled. Recycled uses less trees, but consumes more energy, and leaves you with more pollutants to manage at the end of production. So unless we are running out of trees, why bother? Then upon further thought, I REALLY have to ask myself why we don't just burn the paper. Nobody will pay more than it costs to recycle for manufacturing, so why not sell it to burn for power. It might not be much, but it would be a carbon neutral renewable power source. WOn't power a city, but might be usable in a co-gen plant or something, and someone might actually pay to haul it away rather than just burning local tax dollars to pay someone to take it. Oh yeah ,ad after paying them to take it, if they can't find anyone to buy it, it just goes in the landfill anyway. Glass is damn near worthless to recycle. Aluminum is a pretty good deal though, especailly cans (because they don't need to be sorted and have the alloy determined), which is why most beverages come served up in plastic now. Another false economy is avoiding mail order. It's not like eating local seasonal food where I replace an apple from argentina with a zuchini from 25 miles away. I live within about an hours drive of B&H. I could plop my butt in the car, probably by myself, sit in traffic, drive an hour there, and an hour back. Or my item can car pool with a thousand other packages and one driver in a vehicle specially engineered to maximize UPS's profit by being fuel efficient, easy to repair, etc. Explain to me how mail order ISN'T more efficient for something that isn't around the corner. On top of that, my mail order product comes from a super efficient no-frills warehouse rather than some big box store with lots of lighting that is empty most of the day, every day, but still lighted and heated at great cost. Compact flourescents in the home rock. As do 7-day programable smart thermostats. Both of which will pay for themselves in short order. Switching to LCDs from CRTs saved a fair ammount of electricity as well. Then, of course, there is the best "green" producst of all: used durable goods. Because re-use beats recycling any day of the week as far as efficiency goes. The best environmentalism pays for itself, and if you don't take advantage of it, you are just throwing money away. If the "green" product costs a lot more than the normal product, it's probably not really efficient, and thus not really all that environmentally friendly taken as a whole, but likely makes one area more efficient while making another less so. Usually with a net greater negative impact. Last edited by raz-0; 09-11-2007 at 10:31 PM.

09-12-2007, 10:13 AM	#14
davemdsn Inactive Account Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Boise, Idaho Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,413	Some of the computer companies are thinking greener. One is making more of it's computers out of aluminum instead of plastic for better recycling and using LED instead of LCD monitors to get rid of mercury vapors in some models. There does seem to be a few people paying attention. Last edited by davemdsn; 09-12-2007 at 10:25 AM.

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09-11-2007, 05:23 PM	#2
Arpe Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New Zealand Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 4,452	Use rechargeable batteries.

09-11-2007, 05:27 PM	#3
Ole Administrator Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 4,408	I hadn't thought about this before, but shooting digital rather than film involves no chemicals for film processing. Countering that, of course, is our use of computers, big monitors and their power consumption. So who knows what's greener!

09-11-2007, 05:35 PM	#4
Wethphotography Inactive Account Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Washington, D.C., USA Photos: Gallery Posts: 417	Originally posted by k10dbook In my quest of becoming a green photographer, I have been surfing the Internet for ideas, suggestions, actual items already on the market, etc. I do think that we should all do whatever we can to become more energy efficient and at the same time, reduce the amount of waste or pollutant we, individually, add to the problem. The politicians will debate the planet's future, without doing anything concrete to fix the problems, until it is too late. Sometimes, I think it is already too late. Go ahead, we are all awaiting your comments and suggestions. -- Yvon Bourque Yvon, a great topic. OK1000.blogspot.com wrote on this topic this spring. Among his ideas as i recall, were rechargable batteries as already mentioned, buying prints and equipment locally to save on shipping fuels, smart electricity managment of computer equipment; he had many intriguing ideas should folks want to check it out.

09-11-2007, 05:49 PM	#5
Arpe Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New Zealand Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 4,452	Not jumping in your petrol guzzling heavy four wheel drive to take some photos.

09-11-2007, 06:11 PM	#6
equinox Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 159	Just buy as much of your food grown locally if possible. (I am already trying this) Instead of your car, take your bike out and pedal to a favorite picture taking site. (Love my mountain bike, except when I have the Bigma attached) So many little things we can all do that will add up in helping our planet.

09-11-2007, 07:40 PM	#7
Stratman Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: St Louis, Missouri U S A Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,464	What i would like to see done, and this really has nothing to do with photography, is to OUTLAW junk mail. If you didn't ask for it, you shouldn't have to deal with it. I bet we'd all be astounded to know how many tons of paper is wasted on this crap...Plus all the ads in the Saturday papers, i would say 75% of the Saturday paper here in St Louis is Ads...

09-11-2007, 07:56 PM	#8
carpents Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: West Chester, PA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,420	Originally posted by Stratman What i would like to see done, and this really has nothing to do with photography, is to OUTLAW junk mail. If you didn't ask for it, you shouldn't have to deal with it. I bet we'd all be astounded to know how many tons of paper is wasted on this crap...Plus all the ads in the Saturday papers, i would say 75% of the Saturday paper here in St Louis is Ads... That's because the ads work. Just like junk e-mail, the only way to stop it is to ignore it. It's the people who respond to the ads that are wrecking it for the rest of us. So stop cutting coupons.

09-11-2007, 08:20 PM	#9
borno Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: md-usa Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,580	While I think we should all be good stewards of the world we have been entrusted with (of course we aren't) it's demise is out of our hands - sorry, I am not a humanist, just a human. My 2cents worth

09-11-2007, 08:22 PM	#10
Rico Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 1,204	Use manual focus lenses.

09-11-2007, 08:23 PM	#11
Stratman Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: St Louis, Missouri U S A Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,464	Carpents, I do NOT respond to it, nor do I cut coupons !! At the very least they should be required to make all of the ads and junk mail out of recyclable paper. < i recycle everything i can >

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09-12-2007, 02:38 AM	#13
Lowell Goudge Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Toronto Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 17,886	Originally posted by raz-0 Compact flourescents in the home rock. Don't be so sure about this, Every compact flourescent contains mercury, There is also lead and other heavy metals in the electronic ballast, plastics in the mount... the list goes on and on. When you consider how many of these will wind up in land fills leaching back into ground water, we are simply shifting our pollution problem to something different. While they (CF) along with LEDs are more efficient, we need to get the recycling process sorted out.

09-12-2007, 10:16 AM	#15
arbutusq Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Vancouver BC canada Photos: Gallery Posts: 380	Dont' buy a new camera whenever a flashier model is released. Use your equipment till it falls apart and then recycle/salvage what you can. Buy used whenever you can. Walk to your photo shoots. Only print he best....I could go on. [Rant ALERT] In many ways being Green is antithetical to our disposable consumer society. You can buy green as much as possible but ultimately we'll al have to reduce and stop buying so much (myself included...I guess I should practice what I preach!!) [ OK rant over.....]