Daily photo walks, or the lack there of and more...

Successful Liftoff 

So a few days ago I posted that I was considering daily photo walks, and up to this point, I have not started and it looks like I wont. As much as I like the idea of going for a daily photo walk, I just do not seem to be motivated enough to do so. I did go for a photo walk yesterday, but it was at a set location, rather than just walking out my front door and going from there. I'm also going to talk about some the new Samsung NX10 camera and other developments.

Recent thoughts about my photography
In some ways I realize that I am more of an outing/event style photographer. I'm not really sure if I can define what I mean by that, but I think I'll give it a try, for myself as much as anything else. Most of the time when I take photos it is a planned outing or at some kind of event, with family or otherwise, vs. impromptu shooting of random things on the street. Although I enjoy street photos that other people have taken, I do not like taking pictures of strangers without consent. You can call me old fashion, but that is the way that I am. I think another way of looking at my photography is destination based. I often go to a specific location to photography a subject and do not tend to veer far from that.

I enjoy the subjects that I have focused on so far, which generally includes wildlife and landscapes, but is there more than that for me? I have been thinking about that a fair amount over the last few months as I look at the kind of photographer I want to be. All these thoughts started coming to me after I thought about taking some photography classes. Most of the classes that I have looked into are geared towards photographing people, portraits and fashion related, which to me just does cut it to be honest. I'm not very interested in the latest fashion, which would mean I would find it hard to photograph for a fashion magazine or something of that nature. Not that I do not enjoy portrait photography, but my portraits are generally of family at gatherings.

So what does all that mean for me? A lot, if I think about it, because the implication is that I will not be taking a mainstream approach to a photography career. With that being the case, it breaks down to what I love to photograph, vs. what I would find work, and in all honesty, boring. Not that the photography I enjoy takes no effort, but the work involved does not feel like a burden, rather it is a natural effort that flows out of a desire to photograph something that inspires, or tells a story. I mention telling a story, because stories are the most powerful means of communication. The story behind the photos I take, mean a great deal to me, and that is why I am wanting to be a photographer.

Adventure and discovery, those are the things that motivate me to go out and photograph the subjects that I see. Adventure for me often comes in the travel to the photographic destination. In the last year and a half, out of my drive to photograph things that I have not seen before, I went to new places, some of which were that not even far from home. Other locations I visited took long drives, between 3-6 hours, and were the result of planned camping trips. I'll continue to post more thoughts on this as the week goes on.

Samsung NX10: Comments
For now though I want to switch gears and talk about Samsung's new mirrorless digital camera. That Samsung NX10 looks like an DSLR, but it is not, and the thickness of the camera makes that evident right away. Size wise, the NX10 looks to be about the same size as the Olympus E-620, but it has a DX (1.5x) crop sized APS-C sized sensor. As a result the camera is bigger than the Panasonic G1/GH1, but only slightly, and due to the larger (14MP) sensor, one can also hope that it will have an edge in image quality. I'll also add that, I am not very fond of the 4/3 image shape, and enjoy the 3:2 ratio of a standard DSLR far more, so I would consider a camera like the NX10 over say the Olympus EP-2. I also find that once a camera gets too small and light, that I am not able to hold it steady enough in low light. There seems to be a need for a balance between light enough to carry easily, and being so light that it is unusable in some conditions without requiring a tripod anyway. The system is supposed to have 3 lenses at launch, 18-55mm F3.5-5.6, 55-200mm F4-5.6 and a 30mm F2 pancake. The NX10 with the 30mm F2 pancake looks smaller than the Olympus E-420 with the 25mm pancake lens, although the NX10, might be a little taller. I hope Nikon or Canon puts out a camera like this in the near future, but with an adapter to use with their standard DSLR lenses.