Looking Back

Recently I have been itching to buy a new camera, one of the lower priced DSLRs. I was thinking maybe I should do it this weekend, before going on our bike trip next week around Shikoku. It's a big investment, and I am not really sure why I wanted it, other than to have access to manual controls so I can do what those pro folk do.

I was looking through my old photos today trying to find some examples of night-photography that turned out nicely, trying to see what I did so I could leave a semi-coherent comment on Dave Pollard's request for some night-time photography advice.

It's been a while since I looked through my archives. I really should do it more often. They gave me a million ideas, memories, and changed my thoughts on some things I am contemplating today.

• My photography

  Although I felt like I was getting better, looking back at some of my older pictures I am a little disappointed. I feel that I have lost something. My photos now seem much more restrained, and "normal". Maybe it's because I am running out of "new" subjects, after all, I do take a lot fewer photos than I used to, and many more of them tend to be personal photos of the birds and Tomoe. Maybe it is because I am more conscious of other people looking at them and I am becoming too careful about putting what I perceive to be the bad ones up here.

• Do I really need a new camera?

  I really like some of my older photos (some of my newer ones too). The camera I am using is great and obviously does what it is supposed to and more. How much extra will I get out of a new $2000 camera? Maybe if I didn't already have this one I would start right off with the DSLR because the improvement over nothing would be worth the cost, but is any improvement I can get over what I have worth that much?

  Also, I like my photos for their color and "artistic" view, not for any technical correctness. I like taking the photos because I see some colors or some lines I like, or a bird in a tree. I never think about technical aspects I read about in photography books. I wonder if I would like thinking about such things. If I buy the DLSR, will I simply use it on automatic all the time? Will thinking about aperture ruin my photography experience? I'm sure I can still have fun with the DLSR, but if I am using it in the same way as my point and shoot it's surely not worth the money.

• Time to pull my camera phone out of mothballs

  I was looking at my moblog photos from our bike-trip to Nagano last September (scroll down mid-way through the page). It makes me anxious to start again next week for our trip. I just hope Mfop still works... I haven't even checked it in a while, but I haven't been flooded with complaints, so I assume it's still running. (BTW, I have an account set up at Sourceforge for Mfop3 (splash page design by Rudolf Ammann from Tawawa), which will basically just be a cleaned-up open source version of the same thing... that way maybe people wont have to rely on my spotty support. No promises on when I will get started, but if anyone is interested in helping out, just let me know.)