It's not easy maintaining a blog. I sometimes wonder how writers do it. I mean, thinking of something to write everyday can be quite a challenge.
I've been thinking of writing a book for a long time but have no idea what topic to write about. I thought about writing for a newspaper or magazine, but I'm not even sure if my writing is good enough or whether I can handle having a deadline all the time.
I first started to seriously write by setting up a blog called Welcome Canuck. Working as an insurance and investment adviser, I come upon a lot of new immigrants and found out a lot of them have no idea of the basic things one has to do to make it easier to transition living into Canada. So I decide to try my hand at writing and research by outlining things and the steps they first have to do when they migrate to Canada. I was hoping this would make the transition easier for them if they have a guideline.
I think I have outlined pretty much everything that needs to be done so I have not really updated that blog for a long time. So I'm stuck with no topic to write.
I was thinking of starting another blog and writing pretty much anything before I started this blog. But I decided to narrow down my writing to something that I'm very interest at which is photography. Not just any photography, but photography using the simplest of tools.
I didn't want this blog to be a rumor site like Nikon Rumors or Photo Rumors. I also didn't want this to be a purely technical blog about cameras like Digital Photography Review. They all do a great job and I visit their sites a lot.
First of all, I have no access to rumors and have no idea where to get them. And I just don't have the time to scour the Internet for those.
Secondly, I am no authority on digital camera specs and have no way to get sample cameras to review or go through the whole testing method to see how they perform.
Frankly, I just want to learn to take great photos and I wanted to learn how to write.
Finally, I just decide to get off my behind and do something. So I decided to merge the two things I wanted to learn about. This is how this blog came about.
I set up two blogs, one is Photoblog Vancouver. This blog is a way to force me to bring my camera all the time. This is because the only way to really learn how to become a better photographer is to keep taking pictures and learn from experience. At first I was just putting all my photos at my Flickr account. But I wasn't very happy to just post anything.
I've been looking at Danny Choo's blog for a while and was amaze at how he shows the unique culture of Japan especially in the particular subculture of anime, toys and tech in Japan. I started wondering what in particular is special in Vancouver but could not think of anything like that which Danny Choo does.
Months of trying to think of what to do led Jessica's Rome Photoblog. She moved to Rome and fell in love with Italian history and created a blog to share her views of Rome. Similar to what I felt when I move to Canada. That's how Photoblog Vancouver was born. I created it to show how beautiful and unique Canada is and hopefully, by forcing myself to take photos wherever I go, I learn to become a better photographer.
This site, Casual Photographer was actually created first. This was because I want to learn to write and I love to teach. So I decide to teach photography by writing about it. I'm not an expert nor am I professional photographer. I'm just sharing what I learned along the way as well as what I read from books. I haven't taken any photography classes yet so everything I do is self taught.
The title Casual Photographer wasn't exactly my first choice. I originally wanted to call it Point and Shoot or Point and Shooter as I wanted to emphasize on using a point and shoot camera to take great photos but that title was taken.
I don't consider myself a professional so I was thinking of what to call myself. I decided upon Casual Photographer since I don't take photos for money. Hopefully in the future...maybe, but I haven't done that yet. I just wanted to share with everyone how fun it is to take photos casually for your own personal benefit. It would be even more enjoyable if you can take great photos of your friends, family, travels, landscape or whatever subjects you like to take.
The best part is, you can use whatever camera you like. You don't have to have an expensive DSLR to take great photos. Even a camera phone or the iPhone can take great photos.
These blogs and my photography is a blend of various influences I got from researching and reading about photography.
The first one would be Ken Rockwell, I know a lot of people slam him, but his advice "Your camera doesn't matter" is valid. On that article, he shows a guy using a Canon A620 camera. This is a really cheap point and shoot camera that uses double A batteries. But look at how beautiful his photos are.
That article opened my eyes and got me to stop thinking that I need a great DSLR camera to take a great photo and just use what I have. I mean, if a guy can take great photos using a Canon A620. I can take great photos using my Canon SD880IS which is supposed to be newer than the Canon A620. But in reality, it doesn't matter since you can take great photos with an iPhone as well. In short, just use what you have and stop whining. Go out and shoot and learn. A great photograph is now about the camera, it's about training the eye to learn to see a great photo in your mind.
The second influence was reading Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman. She blogs about her life in the farm and takes amazing photos as well. She also has a section on her blog teaching photography. That part of her blog made me think of writing one myself. I like her writing style which is funny and a bit quirky. I'm not funny at all. My writing is probably a bit stiff. I also probably use a lot of passive voice...possibly.
Anyway, Ree's blog is great and I encourage you to visit her to learn about Photoshop and some other photography techniques.
My third influence would be Chase Jarvis. Chase is a professional photographer based in Seattle and has on his portfolio of photos taken using only with his iPhone 3G. He was trying to show that creativity can be done anywhere with any equipment. Visit his site and see how good the iPhone camera is in the right hands. His philosophy is "The best camera is the one that's with you, every day".
So whether you carry a Canon 5D Mark II or an iPhone. Use what you have. It would be pointless to miss a great shot just because you left your big camera at home. Use your cellphone camera if you have to.
There's also a couple of photographers that influenced how I do my photography from reading their books. For basic photography, I read John Freeman's Photography book, it teaches basic composition to digital photography. A great resource for beginners.
I learned how to expose properly by reading Bryan Peterson's book Understanding Exposure. I would say this book has the biggest influence on how I started viewing a photograph. Before reading this book, I had a hard time trying to figure out if I have the right exposure or not. After reading it and trying the samples. I think I figured out how to adjust for proper exposure even with just using a very basic point and shoot camera.
If you want something more advanced, read any books by Michael Freeman. I find his books to be a bit more technical, but great nonetheless. His books ranges from the basics to lighting to composition to achieving your style.
I borrow these books from my local library but they are available at Amazon.com.
Well, that's my rant for now. Back to our regularly scheduled program.
I've been thinking of writing a book for a long time but have no idea what topic to write about. I thought about writing for a newspaper or magazine, but I'm not even sure if my writing is good enough or whether I can handle having a deadline all the time.
I first started to seriously write by setting up a blog called Welcome Canuck. Working as an insurance and investment adviser, I come upon a lot of new immigrants and found out a lot of them have no idea of the basic things one has to do to make it easier to transition living into Canada. So I decide to try my hand at writing and research by outlining things and the steps they first have to do when they migrate to Canada. I was hoping this would make the transition easier for them if they have a guideline.
I think I have outlined pretty much everything that needs to be done so I have not really updated that blog for a long time. So I'm stuck with no topic to write.
I was thinking of starting another blog and writing pretty much anything before I started this blog. But I decided to narrow down my writing to something that I'm very interest at which is photography. Not just any photography, but photography using the simplest of tools.
I didn't want this blog to be a rumor site like Nikon Rumors or Photo Rumors. I also didn't want this to be a purely technical blog about cameras like Digital Photography Review. They all do a great job and I visit their sites a lot.
First of all, I have no access to rumors and have no idea where to get them. And I just don't have the time to scour the Internet for those.
Secondly, I am no authority on digital camera specs and have no way to get sample cameras to review or go through the whole testing method to see how they perform.
Frankly, I just want to learn to take great photos and I wanted to learn how to write.
Finally, I just decide to get off my behind and do something. So I decided to merge the two things I wanted to learn about. This is how this blog came about.
I set up two blogs, one is Photoblog Vancouver. This blog is a way to force me to bring my camera all the time. This is because the only way to really learn how to become a better photographer is to keep taking pictures and learn from experience. At first I was just putting all my photos at my Flickr account. But I wasn't very happy to just post anything.
I've been looking at Danny Choo's blog for a while and was amaze at how he shows the unique culture of Japan especially in the particular subculture of anime, toys and tech in Japan. I started wondering what in particular is special in Vancouver but could not think of anything like that which Danny Choo does.
Months of trying to think of what to do led Jessica's Rome Photoblog. She moved to Rome and fell in love with Italian history and created a blog to share her views of Rome. Similar to what I felt when I move to Canada. That's how Photoblog Vancouver was born. I created it to show how beautiful and unique Canada is and hopefully, by forcing myself to take photos wherever I go, I learn to become a better photographer.
This site, Casual Photographer was actually created first. This was because I want to learn to write and I love to teach. So I decide to teach photography by writing about it. I'm not an expert nor am I professional photographer. I'm just sharing what I learned along the way as well as what I read from books. I haven't taken any photography classes yet so everything I do is self taught.
The title Casual Photographer wasn't exactly my first choice. I originally wanted to call it Point and Shoot or Point and Shooter as I wanted to emphasize on using a point and shoot camera to take great photos but that title was taken.
I don't consider myself a professional so I was thinking of what to call myself. I decided upon Casual Photographer since I don't take photos for money. Hopefully in the future...maybe, but I haven't done that yet. I just wanted to share with everyone how fun it is to take photos casually for your own personal benefit. It would be even more enjoyable if you can take great photos of your friends, family, travels, landscape or whatever subjects you like to take.
The best part is, you can use whatever camera you like. You don't have to have an expensive DSLR to take great photos. Even a camera phone or the iPhone can take great photos.
These blogs and my photography is a blend of various influences I got from researching and reading about photography.
The first one would be Ken Rockwell, I know a lot of people slam him, but his advice "Your camera doesn't matter" is valid. On that article, he shows a guy using a Canon A620 camera. This is a really cheap point and shoot camera that uses double A batteries. But look at how beautiful his photos are.
That article opened my eyes and got me to stop thinking that I need a great DSLR camera to take a great photo and just use what I have. I mean, if a guy can take great photos using a Canon A620. I can take great photos using my Canon SD880IS which is supposed to be newer than the Canon A620. But in reality, it doesn't matter since you can take great photos with an iPhone as well. In short, just use what you have and stop whining. Go out and shoot and learn. A great photograph is now about the camera, it's about training the eye to learn to see a great photo in your mind.
The second influence was reading Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman. She blogs about her life in the farm and takes amazing photos as well. She also has a section on her blog teaching photography. That part of her blog made me think of writing one myself. I like her writing style which is funny and a bit quirky. I'm not funny at all. My writing is probably a bit stiff. I also probably use a lot of passive voice...possibly.
Anyway, Ree's blog is great and I encourage you to visit her to learn about Photoshop and some other photography techniques.
My third influence would be Chase Jarvis. Chase is a professional photographer based in Seattle and has on his portfolio of photos taken using only with his iPhone 3G. He was trying to show that creativity can be done anywhere with any equipment. Visit his site and see how good the iPhone camera is in the right hands. His philosophy is "The best camera is the one that's with you, every day".
So whether you carry a Canon 5D Mark II or an iPhone. Use what you have. It would be pointless to miss a great shot just because you left your big camera at home. Use your cellphone camera if you have to.
There's also a couple of photographers that influenced how I do my photography from reading their books. For basic photography, I read John Freeman's Photography book, it teaches basic composition to digital photography. A great resource for beginners.
I learned how to expose properly by reading Bryan Peterson's book Understanding Exposure. I would say this book has the biggest influence on how I started viewing a photograph. Before reading this book, I had a hard time trying to figure out if I have the right exposure or not. After reading it and trying the samples. I think I figured out how to adjust for proper exposure even with just using a very basic point and shoot camera.
If you want something more advanced, read any books by Michael Freeman. I find his books to be a bit more technical, but great nonetheless. His books ranges from the basics to lighting to composition to achieving your style.
I borrow these books from my local library but they are available at Amazon.com.
Well, that's my rant for now. Back to our regularly scheduled program.
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