victormora

<p>Canon should start making lenses in different colors, black and white is quite boring. That way when the lady says "I need to buy new shoes that match this dress", or "I need a new pair of fucsia/salmon/papaya shoes to go out" you can get her the shoes and run to the store to pick up a aquablue 24-105 that matches with your lovely eyes!</p>

<p>I live in Costa Rica, Central America, and have a friend that organizes tourism packages (mostly for customers in the US) and has an idea of developing tours specificaly designed for photographers here in Costa Rica. He asked me to post the following questions to get some useful feedback from potential customers:<br>

1. What would be the ideal lenght for a trip? 5, 7, 10 days?<br>

2. How much would you pay for, let´s say, a 5 day trip that includes transport, food, and hotel?<br>

3. What kind of photo related facilities and equipment would you need to make your trip a memorable experience?<br>

I think this guy might be into something, since regular tours in my country don´t have the slightest orientation into photography, with no respect for the golden hours photographers crave.<br>

Let me know any advise you deem important.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>"Perhaps I should just sell my Leicas and move on!!"</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yes, Leicas are the devil´s instrument! I´ll buy them from you so you can pursue the Canon happiness of your dreams. What about a couple hundreds for your gear?</p>

<p>I live in Costa Rica and have done several rapids myself (Reventazon, Savegre and Pacuare) and I can tell you that rafting AND taking pictures at the same time can prove quite difficult. Even having waterproof gear is no warranty against the ocasional smash in the rocks, and i can assure you that a pelican case catches quite some speed when dropped into the Savegre river. My advise would be:<br>

- Take your gear with you, but not more than a couple of lenses since there will be space on the raft for only a small fanny pack or maybe a medium shoulderbag.<br>

- Dont even think on changing lenses in the middle of the river.<br>

- MOST IMPORTANT: There should be a guide in your raft, make sure to let him know that you plan to take pictures and ask him for help letting you know wich parts of the river are safe for you to take your gear out. All rafters are bilingual and very helpful in this matter, and besides they know the best spots for interesting flora and fauna.<br>

Other random tips for Costa Rica:<br>

If you are going to Savegre make sure to stop by Manuel Antonio National Park wich is relatively close by and you will se probably the most beautiful beach with the rainforest running almost into the sea.<br>

It is pretty safe here, but while in San Jose, specially downtown or late at night, avoid walking around with your camera around your neck.<br>

If you feel like asking for help please do it. We are quite friendly and helpful people.<br>

Just one last thing: When somebody tells you "Buenos días" (Good morning) or "Buenas noches" (Good night) in the middle of the street make sure to reply something nice back (simple "Hello" will do it). It is amazing how many tourists dont have the courtesy of answering back when a perfect stranger greets them. That spontaneous friendliness is very common here, specially in the countryside.<br>

Have a great trip and feel free to email me at vmora@btc.cr for some nice photo spots here in Costa Rica.</p>

 

<p>Geez! It is amazing this topic was so prolific (or is it prolaefic?). Instead of going all linguistic on this forum please go out and take some pictures! Thas what im surely going to do...<br>

By the way, I speak spanish and we pronounce it Nee-kon!</p>

What about the answer for this kind of post:

 

Q: "I am a soccer/hockey/baseball mom and I am planning of getting a nice inexpensive and easy to use camera for my sons games. What would you suggest"

 

A: "Get yourself a brand new Nikon D3X, with at least $12,000 worth in glass, and dont forget a nice Epson 44" Ultrachrome printer. And if the salesguy offers you a Canon push a rusty machete through his trachea"

 

Or the other side of the coin:

 

A: "Get yourself a tin can, put some film in it and push a hole through the lid. Your equipment is not important at all, just take the pictures with wathever you have in hand. Maybe you can get good images by using a racoon pelt and a charcoal piece".

So far I have seen plenty of heated discussions around here, but I have seen that there are at least THREE

questions that will simply call the four horsemen of Apocalypse, the biblical plagues, and break havoc, pain,

missery and mud slinging in these forums:

 

1 What is better? Film or Digital?

 

2 What is better? Canon or Nikon?

 

3 Ken Rockwell gives pretty good advise? Or doesn´t he?

 

For me the most interesting is reading the kind of posts this questions may provoque. Feel free to add your own

"californian wildfire igniter" questions or topics!

A dentist recently asked me for advise on getting a good camera that will work for dental photography (is that

how you call "portraits" of teeth?). Of course you would be needing a good macro lens as well as a ring flash,

but I want to know what camera+lens+ring flash you would recommend? Hi Rez is not really needed since most of the

pics are going to be used in a digital record.

 

Also, if you know of a good point and shoot that can do the job i would also appreciate your advise.

The only ones that know if a pro is needed are going to be the bride and groom (and maybe a nosy mother-in-law!). It all depends on what they want (as well as their budget).

 

If you rely on P&Shooters you can bet that you will get a bunch of boring, standard eye-level perspective, flash burnt pics. A guest with a Prosumer might get better results, but you cannot expect him to be there all the time, since he is a guest after all and might want to eat something, do some dancing or, in Uncle Bob´s case, he might be to wasted to continue taking pictures.

 

If paying 2 or 3K is out of your league you might ask a wedding photo begginer from whom you can check his references and might do a decent job for quite less pay.

 

And about the "cheesy cake shot": I am sure that most photographers take a fairly standarized pic, thus making it cheesy, of this moment since it is to crucial and the costumer might go ballistic if you take a more "artistic" approach, but i have seen AMAZING images just by taking a different or risky angle and point of view.

I have the option of getting either a brand new R1900 or a second hand R1800 (mint condition). The R1900 is

obviously a newer model, but i would also be getting 4 full sets of ink cartridges and a full pack of 13x19

Luster Paper if I choose the R1800. So what would you recomend?

Xsi would be my choice. Even if the G10 is the finest P&S you can get it is completely outclassed by the Xsi, or almost any DSLR for that matter. I say ALMOST because the G10 is able to get great pictures without much trouble or control tweaking. But I can assure you that you will outgrow the G10 in less than a year. One year from now you will be drooling for the G11(?), but if you stick to DSLR you can keep your XSi, get a new lens and youre ready to go!

 

I usually recomend to keep away from the stock lens, since they usually are just above average, but the price difference between Body Only vs. Body+Stock Lens is less than $80 wich is an amazing deal for a lens, even if youre going to stuff it in the back of your closet.

 

Good luck with your choice

Thanks for your advice and encouragement. I can do pretty good BW photos (as a matter of fact these are the ones i enjoy the most) and my "perspective on color" has been complimented by friends, teachers and photographers. The real hard time I have is getting skin colors right, thats the reason why I stay clear of color portraits.

 

I guess I can stick to BW and do color ocassionally. It can get a tiny bit frustrating trying to express yourself through photography when you see things quite differently from regular folk. But again that is what art is all about: showing people your view of the world.

I am a very enthusiast amateur photographer. I have been exploring photography for three years now and would like

to take a more serious aproach, maybe even try to go pro. Just one problem: I am color blind (daltonism). The

kind of daltonism I have is the least serious one, called anomalous trichromacy, wich means I have a really hard

time distinguishing shades of red and brown with green.

 

I love taking photographs, and will continue anyway, but i would like to know your opinion, experience or advice

about this genetic disorder and my passion for photography.

 

Thanks

I was reading a pretty good article for newbies (like myself) on

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/camera-adjustments.htm . He say to try and customize the exposure compensation

-2/3 and saturation +4 . I am trying to do it on my 40D, but when i get to the customization part with the

"Styles" button I can tinker with sharpness, contrast, saturation and tone, but nothing about exposure compensation!

 

I know I can change EC on the camera, but i would like to have automatic controlled underexposure by just

choosing one of my custom option on the dial (C1,C2,C3).

 

Thanks for your answers!