Today, David posted on pixelatedimage.com another post on vision, and how hard it can be to take pictures. I get it this time. The last time he really went off about this: A Long Way to Go: A Rant, I kind of went off on him. (I even managed to pull Matt Brandon in on my rant-back) I was off the mark then. Way off.

At that time my picture taking was improving quite a bit. By improving, I mean that I was getting more shots in focus, with the DoF I wanted, with reasonable composition. I understood my camera, and could usually get it to technically do what I wanted. I was frustrated by a few things about my D40, and wanting a D90 pretty badly.

I went off on David that taking photographs really wasn’t that hard, especially if you had all the gear like he and Matt did. After all, I had only had my camera for a year, and my pictures were getting technically better quite quickly.

What I completely missed, was that David was talking about how hard it was to take a picture that represented the vision you had for the picture. I was just talking about getting the thing in focus. I wasn’t trying to get a representation of my vision out of my photography. I just walked around and took pictures of things that caught my eye.

Recently though, I have been trying to capture something more particular from my pictures. A particular mood or feeling that I saw or felt when I took the picture that I wanted to share. That is much harder. That, I am finding frustrating. Whether it is at point of click, or later in photo shop, I am finding that I just don’t have the chops yet to get what I want, when I want it. Sometimes it comes out, but it seems more like luck.

Now I get it. I have a bit more gear now than I had then. That, combined with practice is producing technically better shots more often. But now I move into the more difficult phase. How do I get an expressive photo, not just a sharp one?

PS. Thanks to David and Matt for giving me time to come around.

This is pretty cool. Ever wanted to find out what your site looks like under Google Chrome, or Opera, or IE6/7/8, or Safari? Well, now you can without installing the applications directly.

The xenocode browser sandbox will allow you to use different browsers. It appears to download a .exe file named for the browser you are running. By the documentation, it appears to be a repackaged binary of the browser that runs in it’s own sandbox. It’s an interresting trick. No real install, but the application still runs localy.

I checked, and all the browsers seem to run the javascript on christopherwardphotography.com just fine.

I think I have finally had enough of National Camera. I keep wanting to support a local store, but enough is enough. The Edina store was the place that really pissed me off. I was looking at the D40, and the guy there keep pushing the D80 telling me that the D40 wasn’t a real DSLR. I was pretty pissed at him by the time I left.

I was back a couple of times after that looking for accessories, and a tripod, but no one really wanted to talk to me.

The Golden Valley store was better. I bought the D40 there at their tent sale. Then when the D90 came out, I bought it there too. Last weekend I went and picked up a Manfrotto 55xPRO tripod. They only had the head, not the legs. They sent me to the downtown store. The guy on the phone said I could park next door at the Orpheum. I did, but this big dude with the Orpheum started yelling at me. I told him I was told to park here and he called me a liar. This is why I don’t go downtown where there is no parking. I parked a couple of blocks away.

I got the legs, and bought this leveling tool that fits in the hotshoe. Much more expensive than it needs to be. Anyway, when I got it home, I noticed that the level is busted. Not going back downtown, so I head to the Edina store.

At the Edina store I exchange the level, and look at a few things. The guy looks bored. I tell him I have a D90 and need a wired shutter release. He gets me a MC-DC1, and I head for home.

I head outside at night in the falling snow to take pictures with the tripod and the new cable release. It is the wrong one. I find out I needed the MC-DC2. The “1” is for the D70/D80. Now I have to go back again.

It is soooo much easier online. And cheaper. And I don’t have to park. The guys on the phone never seem bored. National Camera Exchange won’t get more of my business. I have had enough.