Have you ever bought a piece of kit that really changed the way you thought about your photography?

[Jon Eckman]

<p>I would have to mirror the darkroom comments above. For me, the whole process from bulk loading B&W film through final printing, rather than taking the store bought and processing route, really drew me into photography. This experience changed me from a snap shooter into a serious amatuer. Although I shoot mostly digital these days, my daughter has recently developed an interest in film so I have the added joy of sharing this passion with someone close (yes, that's our cat on her shoulder).</p><div></div>

[pge]

<p>Two things for me<br>

<br /> <br /> My own enlarger after renting darkroom space for years.</p>

<p>A d200 in the spring of 2006</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

<p>If you can call education "an item of equipment" as the OP and other people have decided to do, I'd have to say that my most important piece of kit ever was a one week workshop with Jay Maisel, who now leads workshops out of his studio: http://www.jaymaisel.com</p>

[mt4x4]

<p>Tripod. Ballhead.</p>

[sasvata__shash__chatterjee]

<p>Wow....we might think we are all individuals, but isn't it awesome to find out how much we share with each other in our common photographic experiences. Awesome thread!</p>

<p>Like others....</p>

<p>- Nikon F - I will never forget the reflections on the lens coatings, and the view through the finder!</p>

<p>- Photoshop and digital in general - During the film days I developed film, but never had the luxury of a darkroom and pretty much hated what the labs provided to amateurs. Now that I can afford the funds, I still can't afford the time for darkroom processing. With PS I can finally produce what I saw and imagined.</p>

<p>- I thought I had a brilliant flash of an idea about Nikon CLS, but looks like Lex has stolen my thoughts.</p>

[jose_angel]

<p>Actually not a piece of equipment but way more strong, Adams` work at the Sierra Club was the spark plug (mountaneering and photography, large format, etc.), but my approach to photography changed decisively after visiting a gallery exhibition about Duane Michals (what photography really means to me, gear goes to a second stage since then). Perhaps also Richard Avedon`s work have switched something inside my brain, I think.</p>

[markd2]

<p>For me, it was software. Getting the trial version of Aperture 1 back in the day made shooting with my little coolpix so enjoyable - from image to library to tweaking quickly and modelessly. I couldn't wait to get back and see what I shot, up there on a big display. The limitations of the coolpix led to a D200 and a bad case of NAS.</p>

[michael s.]

<p>Kit -- no. </p>

<p>For me it was the $85 Intro to Photography class I took -- 3 Friday nights and 2 Saturday a.m. "field trips" -- at a community college 10 minutes from where we live. </p>

<p>There was a related gear purchase, though. For that class, I bought a used FM2 even though we owned a more full-featured slr at the time. I did it because that left absolutely no way for me to 'cheat' by allowing the camera to determine exposure and focus. And we used only 35mm slides for the class, so again whatever we shot we got.</p>

[g-man1]

<p>Upstrap</p>

[alastair_anderson]

<p>Laptop computer. I can now lie on my back and read photo.net</p>

<p>No, seriously I'd say it was my Pentax spotmeter which enabled me to get properly exposed pictures with a range of cameras.</p>

[kohanmike]

<p>For 30 years I had two F2 Photomic bodies, a Nikon 35mm f2, 105mm f/2.5 and Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm f/3.5 Macro, all manual indexing. I minored in photography in college, and for 10 years I also had my own darkroom. </p>

<p>Two and half years ago I traded it all in for two D70s bodies, Nikon 24-85mm f/2.8-4 Macro, 70-300mm VR and Tokina 12-24mm f/4 after a 10 year hiatus from photography. The change to digital and all the automation, especially motor drives, changed everything. I'm shooting more now than ever I did in my hayday in the mid 70s.</p>

 

[sjmurray]

<p>First time was the Nikon FTn with its 50mm f 1.4 lens, and Tri-X film. I could shoot in any situation without flash. Later, scanning my negs and inkjet printing was a real leap in "process," giving me the control of the color image for the first time. More recently, the DSLRs and PS. </p>

[Brad_]

<p>Off-camera hand-held flash.</p>

[paul_soohoo2]

<p>Peter Monahon,<br /><br />"Now, a screen with a perpetual <strong>slide show</strong> fading from tone- to-chrome (grayscale to color) for each image is totally changing, saturating, and enhancing my own photographic view."<br>

Can you give some more detail i.e. how do you create your image from "tone-to-chorme". Sounds like an intriguing way to view photos. How do you have your perpetual slide shows running ... a digital photo frame or on your comptuer screen??</p>

[photo_dark]

<p>Pocket wizards and some manual flashes. My entire concept of photography has changed. Now it's not only about the composition, but also all about the light.</p>

[peterblaise]

<p>.</p>

<p>Hi Paul,</p>

<p>Originally, we just used the free <a href="http://Picasa.google.com/">http://Picasa.google.com/</a> screensaver to make a slide show. Now we hightlight all photos and add them to the screensaver, then we highlight all photos and convert them to black and white and add them to the screensaver. We make sure the photo's filenames are blah-blah-BW and blah-blah-C so they sort in alphabetical order, then the screen saver shows the BW version first, then washes the C color version on screen next. Free software like <a href="http://www.irfanview.com/">http://www.irfanview.com/</a> has batch capability to convert image contents (green or red filter) and names to make us happy, and <a href="http://www.1-4a.com/rename/">http://www.1-4a.com/rename/</a> makes renaming entire directory contents into patterns very easy.</p>

<p>Even on the Internet, free <a href="http://www.flickr.com/">http://www.flickr.com/</a> allows their slideshow to do the same. For example, see a series of images I did on an interior study fading from (1) green filter grayscale, to (2) red filter grayscale, and finally (3) color for the same scene. I was amazed at the presence of the chair, for instance, in the living room that shows such a difference as a light tone or dark tone chair -- all done with filders over the same chair! See:<br>

<img src="http://i39.tinypic.com/34t1qjd.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="529" /><br>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterblaise/sets/72157612754931509/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterblaise/sets/72157612754931509/</a></p>

<p>... and the slideshow:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterblaise/sets/72157612754931509/show/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterblaise/sets/72157612754931509/show/</a></p>

<p>.</p>

<p> </p>

[evilsivan]

<p>like Shun, John Shaw's books were great for me. His photos and his explanations were great for learning how to meter, compose, and just get familiar with the camera. I recommend his books to anyone who asks about photography books. I never got to meet him though.</p>

[g_c4]

<p>Browsing flickr and viewing other photographer's work has been a great source of learning and inspiration for me. Best of all, it's free.</p>

 

[dan_south]

<p>D700</p>

 

[ellis_vener_photography]

<p>one last game changer from me:</p>

<p>The internet.</p>

[mike grossman]

<p>Good answer - the Internet.<br>

Also a good answer - Elsa Dorfman. It's about the subjects, not the equipment. Capture the humanity...</p>

[graham_miles1]

<p>A sony digital picture frame. Finally, I can have my favorite images on permanent slide show, instead of buried on a hard drive somewhere. A more elegant solution would be perhaps a 21" OLED mounted on the wall and I'm sure that will come in the next few years. Eventually I'm sure the OLEDS will be window sized allowing us to wake in the morning to whatever landscape we choose.</p>

[david_barts2]

<p>A quality tripod, which enables most macro shots, and unlike a crap tripod is not frustrating to use.</p>

<p>Macro lenses, not necessary but they do enable more macro shots per outing simply by reducing the amount of time spent fiddling with extension rings.</p>

<p>An old all-manual Pentax SLR, which is both smaller and lighter than modern DSLRs (and thus I'm more likely to carry it on hikes) and which lets me use inexpensive (so I can more easily aquire them) used manual-focus prime lenses which are smaller and lighter than modern autofocus lenses (again, so I'm more likely to carry them).</p>

<p>A good camera bag so I can carry the tripod, lenses, and body on long hikes without suffering unduly.</p>

<p>Very recently, a fun old medium-format folder, which serves as a source of interest to others and conversation starter as well as a camera, and thus has helped me (desipte my normally awful mingling and people skills) to actually take _good_ pictures of people.</p>

[trevor_newman1]

<p>My Nikon FM-10 w/35-70mm lens. I had used a Canon Rebel K2 for years and even took a landscape photogrpahy class with it but never understood anything other than how to get a perfect exposure. That camera was stolen and a friend gave me her FM-10. I remember getting it and realizing I knew almost nothing about photogrpahy. Trying to understand how to use that camera to paint with light is what led me to photo.net and both have served as my inspiration and instructors. It was quite ironic that when I picked up my first digital kit (D90 w/18-105) I had my FM10 loaded with film and slung firmly around my shoulder.</p>

[peterblaise]

<p>.</p>

<p>Earlier: "... <em>A sony digital picture frame. Finally, I can have my favorite images on permanent slide show, instead of buried on a hard drive somewhere</em> ..."</p>

<p>Yeah, exactly what we wanted, but our picture frame IS a computer -- a laptop computer (available used for cheap) that we can move around and put in view anywhere in the house. And the slideshow software is free <a href="http://picasa.google.com/">http://picasa.google.com/</a> and the screen size file copies are inside that computer, or on a cheap USB drive, or via newtork (wireless, too). We update the images frorm our master editing on other computers around the house daily. </p>

<p>Or slideshows over the web by uploading 200 images to <a href="http://www.Flickr.com/">http://www.Flickr.com/</a> free for a slideshow anywhere ($25 per year for more than 200). </p>

<p>We plan to dedicate a wall-size display or projector to a perpetual slideshow now that we are adicted to actually SEEING as many of our photos as possible. </p>

<p>It just keeps running 24 hours a day, and we walk by and say, "Oh my, we've been to some wonderful palces and seen some fantastic things." </p>

<p>Then we argue who's pictures are best! ;-)</p>

<p>These are the pieces of kit that really changed the way we think about our photography most -- 24 hours a day!</p>

<p>.</p>