Slow Process

I guess I'm going to get this plan off the ground in baby steps. I actually took all of my photos of the gear I want to sell, and uploaded it to PhotoBucket

Now this makes my photos available for the eBay listings I need to do. All I have to do now is find the time, and convince my wife to help me get the listings up. She's really good at doing templates for auctions. These make the listings stand out from your average run of the mill listings.

Baby steps.

Musings on the future

I've been thinking a lot about my future and what I can do to get out of the rut I'm in. I used to think that I would NEVER want to do people photography, such as portraits or weddings. Lately though I've been reconsidering what I would be willing to do. With my listening to the Pro-Photo Show pod-casts and looking at various photos on the web, and then when I saw a wedding announcement magnet that I received with an absolutely awful photo on it, I thought "I can do better than that!" I like the idea of outdoor portraits. But I would be willing to do studio portraits. I still don't think I want to ever do weddings. But I suppose that eventually I might be persuaded to consider that as well. I want to just jump into this. Create a web site for my business, business cards, etc. I think I want to call it Elliott Leigh Strom Photography, or possibly Elliott Leigh Photography. Or I might go for ELS Photography, but not too sure about that one. I think the way to start would be to just start. I still need to get my own camera. So I need to sell the old stuff on eBay. For my business I would also want to offer commercial photography, product photography, possibly architecture, nature and aerial, etc. I think to get my feet wet would be to photograph people I know. Friends, family, folks from church. So anyway, those are the thoughts I have been having.

Maui Mist

Here's one of my favorite shots from my time in Maui several years ago. Original was in color. I like how the B&W looks.

Auctions Going Up

I hope to get my auctions up this weekend to try an sell the 35mm equipment I have. My eBay name is leighscameras, so check it out.

The Plan in Waiting

The grand scheme is still in the works. Just taking longer than I want to actually get the eBay listings up. I've got the main photos taken. Just need to save them as web versions and then create the actual listings. I'm going to list the Nikon FE with the short zoom along with the Nikon camera case. Then I will list the Minolta with four lenses, a flash, a right angle bracket, some lens caps and the manuals for the camera and flash. I hope I can get them up either tomorrow night or on Saturday some time. And then just see what happens....

A New Plan

I have hatched a new plan. (first of all, I noticed that I have begun several posts with the word "well." I will try to refrain from doing that anymore!)

My new plan is this. Sell all the 35mm gear for cash to get a digital XTi. When we bought my wife's camera, it came with the standard kit lens, but we also bought a little more advanced lens for her purposes. So we have this kit lens just sitting around doing nothing. I have not been too pleased with the results from the Minolta so far. It may be the type of film I used, or the lens on the camera, or just me being a lousy photographer! But the costs in film, developing, scanning and then seeing how they look on-line, it doesn't make me want to keep using film. So I have the Minolta with several lens and even a flash, now I have the Nikon FE and a short zoom lens I just purchased. And I have not one, but two brand new camera bags! What have I been thinking! So what I'm going to try is sell the Minolta gear as a set. I've been successful in the past with camera kits. I think I can get at least $200 for that kit. Hopefully more! Then I can sell the Nikon with a lens. Maybe another $100 - $150, or more. And we have an old point and shoot Canon that doesn't work anymore. I bet someone would buy that too. And since we already have a lens, all I need to do is buy a digital Canon body, and I've got what I really want. I think I want to get the XTi since my wife has had so much good success with it. Plus, my camera could serve as a backup if something ever happened to hers! It's BRILLIANT!
First thing to do is list the gear on eBay and see what we catch. Then it will be time to place the order for the XTi.

Update

Well, the FE came and looks to be in really great shape. I'm watching a couple of lens right now on eBay and hope to snag one for very little cash. One thing on the FE. The "back door" seems a little ify. It moves a little, even though closed. I don't know if that means that there is a possibility of light leaking in. I certainly hope not! I guess I better get a lens and test the sucker.

Recent Activity

Well, several photography related items. I finished the roll of film in the Minolta and have mailed it off to SnapFish for processing. I find they do the best job for the money. I've been very pleased with their service. So I am anxiously awaiting my results to see just how the Minolta performed in the different situations I put it through. I'm hopeful for some nice shots.

I was recently watching some Nikon cameras on eBay. I really wanted to find and F4, but at the time the place I was shopping didn't have any. I was interested in an FM of FM2 as my second choice. Watched several of those, but they ended up going for a lot more money than I was willing to spend, or even could afford! I also was watching some FE's and bid on one. I fully expected to get out bid. But for some strange reason I wasn't. So I have a used FE coming that I got for just $41.00! Now I'm going to have to try to find a lens to go with it! I also bid on two camera bags, again expecting to be out bid. But I wasn't and I won them both! Oops! Guess I will be setting up my own auction for a camera bag soon! The day after paying for my FE and bags, lo and behold, an F4 shows up in the store inventory. Its already over $100, so its out of my range. But it is NICE looking! I wish I could get it.

Guess I need to focus (pun intended) on finding an inexpensive lens for the Nikon FE.

Some Thoughts

Not a lot to convey. Have been carrying my Minolta with me back and forth to work. I've stopped once to take shots of some big storm clouds. It seemed like a perfect setting. Will have to decide if it was once I get the prints back. I enjoy having the camera with me. I like knowing that if I see something, that more than likely I will be able to capture it. Even today there might be opportunity for some more photos of storms in the distance.

I have been watching several cameras on eBay. Both digital and film. I don't know if I'll actually jump on one, or if I'll even be able to afford any of them. But I think that I am realizing what I really need is a really good film and slide scanner. I have so many slides and negatives stuffed in so many places. Who knows what treasures I might have stashed away! So before I go headlong into the digital world, I think I need to seriously do something with the photos I have accumulated over my 30 years or so of taking photographs.

It would be fun to have an old Nikon FM, or make the jump to an F4. But I don't know if I'll be able to swing any lenses at this time. Not sure either what a good scanner is going for. Need to research that more too.

Beautiful Morning

Don't have a photo to show, but the sunrise was really beautiful this morning. I was extremely bleary eyed and was thinking of just going for a walk. But when I came out to the living room I could see the Eastern sky through one of the windows. It was beautiful! So I grabbed my old Minolta, which I had loaded a roll of film onto over the weekend, and went out to take some shots. It was strange, this was only like the second or third time I had used the Minolta, but even in my semi-conscious state, I was able to set the exposure and even manage some over and under exposure for different effects. I decided, once I heard the sound of the shutter and the slap of the mirror, that I loved 35mm photography, and that I loved totally manual controls. I feel that I can be the most creative when I have complete control over every aspect. Maybe because I just haven't used them a lot, but when I get my hands on a digital SLR, with all the fancy controls, I feel like I don't have any control of what I'm doing. I just must be very old school.

I'll have to post something once I get this roll developed and a shot or two scanned into digital format.

Which prompts me to ask the question: what film do you like to use? Where do you get it processed and how do you get it into digital versions?

Until next time...

The start of something new

Welcome! This is a work in progress, and will develop over time. But for now, this is a a beginning of what I hope will be a place for photographers to meet and share their work, and just exchange ideas. My primary audience is for those that have yet to make the complete jump to digital photography. I myself have dabbled with digital, but personally don't own a digital camera. As a family we started out with a point and shoot digital, which served us well, especially for recording events as the kids were growing. When that camera died, I purchased a digital SLR for my wife. Primarily for her to use for her children's clothing designing business. So its really her camera, and I have only used it once for just fun and experimentation.

I have had several different cameras over the years, and will probably delineate those at some later date. My pride and joy was the Nikon FM that I purchased when I was a high schooler. I later added a Nikon FE. I had several lenses and loved what I could do with the equipment I had. For some reason when marriage and kids came along, this equipment just sat up on the shelf. I went through a serious drought of inspiration. So eventually sold every last scrap of photo equipment I had. For some reason I don't really regret it. I don't miss those particular cameras. I feel like I can use just about anything right now to make photographs. Currently I have a Yashica range finder camera and a really, really old Minolta SLR. I haven't done a lot with the Minolta yet, and have even contemplated selling it and the lenses I have for it to possibly make that jump to digital SLR. But haven't yet. So I am in a sort of limbo photographically. I don't ever seem to have the time I want to devote to taking pictures. I always seem to see what I'd like to photograph while I'm zooming down the road at 60 mph on my way to a job that gives me absolutely NO fulfillment.


So, with out any further ramblings for this time around. I thought I'd share a photo. I have had a batch of old slides scanned so that I could have a means of being digital without having a digital camera. This is a shot of a canyon wall along the Texas - Mexico border. The name escapes me, but the water you see is the Rio Grande river. This may be Santa Elena canyon or perhaps Boquillious Canyon (my apologies for the spelling). This picture was probably taken back in either the mid 1980's or possibly the last trip I took to Big Ben National Park some time in the late '90's. The original was in color. I used PhotoShop to make it B&W. This would have been take with one of my Nikon's.