Not that most of you care, and why should you? But since the management hereabout has kindly lent me this handy soapbox, I shall put it to use.

Since September I’ve been a member of the Toronto Camera Club. To date I’ve entered images in two club competitions, one for what they call “ projected images” (historically this would have been a category largely for people who shot on slide film, but nowadays it seems to refer mostly to images submitted digitally), and one they call “creative images”, i.e. manipulated in some way. Of the three that I submitted for consideration in the “ projected images” competition, one did slightly below average, one was ever-so-slightly above, and was judged to be solidly above average, although not exceptional. For the second competition I submitted just two. One image gathered an average mark, while the other hit nearer the exceptional level, and garnered an Honourable Mention. </self back patting.>

In other news, I am now the proud owner of a Polaroid back and my very first honest-to-god light stand and umbrella (no more using cheap, shitty tripods in lieu of light stands for this boy). I’ve already gotten some good use out of them by shooting a couple of mugs in the office for one of our clients, a suburban coffee franchise. And tonight I’m going to do a group shoot for a neighbour’s life coaching business. Using studio lighting is way harder than just photographing with available light, lemme tell ya. I found a blog called Strobist that has some great tips and tutorials, but I get the feeling that a lot of this is really going to be trial and error.

Gotta say, I'm loving the 80mm macro lens in combination with the teleconverter. Sure, it only goes to f/3.5, but at 160mm (equivalent to maybe 100mm on a 35mm camera) you can still get a nice, shallow depth of field if you really need to.

I also came across this handy-dandy online depth of field calculator that tells you how far into a scene you should focus at a given aperture if you want to have absolutely everything in focus. It’s called the “hyperfocal distance”. Brilliant.

I’ve been eyeballing different digital backs for that far off day when I might actually be able to afford one. I’m actually starting to lean towards a Leaf back instead of the Mamiya ZD. It’s only a bit more expensive, and from what I’ve heard, much faster. Phase One might still be in the running, but their prices have to come down a bit more for me to really get interested.

Fingers crossed, I might get the chance to work for a jewelry/watch photographer here in Toronto come February. I’ll be part of the retouching team, but you can bet I’ll be paying attention to everything he does.

CAMERA FUND:

$306 (goal: $3900, 7.8% complete) Estimated time remaining: 2 years, 9 months, 2 weeks

Anyone know where I can get a good used digital back for a Mamiya 645 for under $4000 (Cdn)?

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GEAR:

Bodies: Mamiya 645 AFD with an extra film back and a Polaroid back; Mamiya 645-1000S with prism finder and waist-level finder.

Lenses: Two 80mm f/2.8 (one manual focus, the other auto) lenses, 80mm f/3.5 macro, 210mm f/4, 35mm f/3.5 and 45mm f/2.8, 2x teleconverter, #2 extension tube.

Lighting kit: Sekonic Light meter, Nikon SB-800 and Pentax AF360FGZ flashes, Elinchrom Skyport radio remote with 2 receivers, Manfrotto 190BX tripod with 804RC2 head, studio strobe with soft box, light stand and umbrella, Gary Fong diffuser.

Other gear: Wacom Intuos4 tablet, Power Mac G5, Epson Stylus Photo R300 printer, Epson Perfection 4490 Photo scanner.

*Estimated time remaining