Timothy Armes' blog

Photography as I experience it…

Archive for September, 2010

A comparison of the Canon and Nikon lens line-ups

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Updated 14/2/2011 – added new Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x

Prior to switching to Nikon from Canon I compared the lens line-ups of the two systems to make sure that I wasn’t shooting myself in the foot.

I couldn’t find a decent comparison, so I thought it might benefit some of you if I were to post one here. The comparison is based on the current lens line-ups of the two companies. In cases where both a new version of a lens and the old version are still listed I’ve only included the new version.

I’ve tried to match lenses in each system to their nearest equivalent. The prices are from B&H at the time of writing, and are really there as a point of comparison.

All add my personal observations on the line ups at the end.

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Posted in Gear | 23 Comments »

Switch to Nikon – why would I do that?

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

I’ve had a few people ask me why I’m switching to Nikon. A few years back there were floods of photographers moving to Canon due to their monopoly over the full frame sensor and the image quality that comes with it, but today both systems are so extremely good – and competitive – that there seems to be very little reason to justify a switch.

I don’t think that my reasons for switching will apply to many other photographers, but I’ll explain my choice for those that are interested.

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Posted in Gear | 15 Comments »

Organising a Lightroom catalog

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

There are probably as many ways to organise your image database as there are photographers. How your images are organised will depend on your needs, the number of people accessing the database, the type of clients you have, etc.

Here are some considerations to take into account when cataloguing with Lightroom.

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Posted in Business Practises | 9 Comments »

Anatomy of a shoot: the gymnast

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

This image of a gymnast, like that of the tennis player, is a composition. The technical issues, however, were totally different. A great subject for another anatomy….
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Posted in Anatomies, Lighting, Photo Technique, Photos | 5 Comments »

Matériel Canon à vendre. Canon gear for sale.

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

For various reasons I’ve decided to move to Nikon.  This isn’t a decision that I’ve taken likely – it’s taken many months – however I believe that it’s the right one for me. As a result I have a large amount of Canon gear that I’m selling.  Local(ish) buyers may be interested.

Update: I’ve removed most of this post since I’ve found a dealer who’ll give me a very good price on all my Canon gear.

Posted in Gear | 7 Comments »

Creating a promo card: branding, design and other considerations

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Photographer’s “promos” are often the first introduction to your work that a prospective new client will see, and as such they deserve your full love and attention.

There are some great resources on the web to help get a feel for how other photographers are thinking about their promos – some of the best include as Heather Morton’s blog and No Plastic Sleeves.  If you look though these sites you’ll find all matter of interesting portfolios, many of which are the results of some very creative thinking.

I thought I’d contribute my bit by discussing the creation of my new promo card.  My objective isn’t to help you emulate my design – your promo needs be be a reflection of you, not me – but rather to talk you through some of the thoughts and considerations that I had during the design stage. I hope that this may help you to get on the right track for your own creative process.

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Posted in Business Practises | 4 Comments »