Originally posted by cloudswimmer
Ahh slow contemplative style, I love it!Do you also shoot large format?Sounds like we are in the same boat so to speak.One thing I'm looking forward to is using the new pentax on my nodal ninja pano head since the camera is so small and light.I did this one, 9 frames stitched together, on just a regular 3047 head with the 20D and 100 macro.

Yes, I used to shoot for high-end retail catalog and ad placement. So I shot product shots with Sinar LF, in 4x5 transparency whenever I could get away with it, but generally for ads in external magazine placement or shots they knew were going 3/4 or full page, the art directors usually insisted on 8x10 transparencies. (that was the resolution war back then, the companies I worked for wouldn't consider anything shot on 35mm or even 645 for ad work) Then with live action and model shots, I used Mamiya RB67 medium format and sometimes Pentax 645 (this small of a transparency was acceptable because of the greater importance of getting a good sequence of shots) again all with slide film. I do miss bellows focusing by the way. Then I carried my Pentax 35mm with me on my free time to do more fun and spontaneous shots.
Each of these cameras required a different workflow and a good amount of thought and effort to get a great shot. It was easy to get the shot I wanted, because I picked out the right camera for the job, and then that particular camera dictated exactly how I was to work with it. Not the same for digital. But I've been lazy and that's my lesson.
The main lesson I am trying to re-teach myself with digital, is to take the same tool (the DSLR) and treat it differently for different situations. So there are times it will be ok to slap a zoom on it and pop up the flash and fire away, and times I will want to put a manual focus lens on it, and set up a shot as carefully as I had to with an 8x10 with a narrow-latitude expensive sheet of film. It was trickier to get the entire scene exposed correctly on a 25, 50 or 100 ASA chrome than on my digital sensor.
That's where I think the K20D might serve as a more flexible tool than my canons, I just need to pick out the correct lenses for what I want to do.
That's a very nice shot, I'm going to have to give that a try (composing and stitching together multiple images) I'm sure it would be good getting-to-know-you practice with the new camera!