Thursday Thoughts 2.0

Recently I made a post on the blog sharing my seven favorite blogger resources from 2007.  I titled the post “The Best 7 of ’07”, and published on Monday (or thereabouts.)  After making the post, I’ve seen quite a few trackbacks to it from the sites I referred to.  I’d like to first say thanks to all those that took the time to both notice, and reply in kind.  In following the trackbacks, I’ve also found a few new resources and fellow blogger and photography-related websites that have some appeal.  I also noticed amidst all this fun surfing a few surfacing eddies that have prompted my mind to wander.  It’s these wandering musings that I am sharing today.

Chief among my musings is the association with Canon.  In order to quell any intial thoughts to the contrary – the idea behind the web address (and blog) was to share my thoughts and ideas as a photographer – who happens to use Canon gear.  I do enjoy the Canon brand.  However, I am not blind to the fact that there are other gear options out there that provide alternative choices for photographers of all ilks.  In fact, while my body and direct acoutrements are Canon-branded, outside of a shutter release, the body, and 2 or three lenses, nothing else in my gear bag has the Canon stamp on it (or even the bag for that matter.)  It also bears mentioning that I am not getting paid to endorse any one particular brand or another on this blog – I simply share my thoughts on photography, tips, tricks, tutorials, and other tangential subject matter.  I have no affiliation with Canon and they have none with me.  As the blog continues to develop and mature, the look and feel may change a little bit, my gear choices may change, but I suspect the Canon line will continue to be my choice, simply because it’s what I’ve learned on and am most comfortable with.  Additionally, as we all know, when making an initial camera purchase, you are not just buying the camera, you are also buying into a camera-system.  To this end, I suspect that I will always maintain some times to Canon gear (simply because much of my admittedly limited equipment now centers around that system).  While I can obviously never be completely neutral since I am somewhat biased toward Canon gear, the gear selections of others is a matter of personal choice, and I hold no negative associations with anyone for using Nikon, Sony, Olympus or any other brand.

In order to demonstrate my complete lack of allegiance to any brand beyond the basic ones (for example, I couldn’t easily use a Nikon flash on a Canon camera), I thought it might be useful to share my entire gear lineup with the blogging community, and my thoughts on each component.  So, I will be putting together a web page “My Gear”, and linking that to the Tutorials/Resources area.  Once up, people are welcome to peruse my array of gear and equipment, as well as read my thoughts on each component.  For the time being though, here is a short list of what I own:

  • Canon EOS 350D (Rebel XT)
  • Canon 18-55mm f3.5 – 5.6 (kit lens)
  • Canon 70-200 f4.0 – 5.6 (zoom)
  • Sigma 70mm f2.8 Macro
  • Canon 550EX II Flash
  • Canon Wireless Remote Shutter Release
  • Bogen 3021BPro Tripod
  • Bogen 488 RC Ball Head
  • Desktop:  Dell Dimension 2400 2.4 Ghz Celeron Processor 2.0 GB RAM
  • Laptop:  Macbook Pro 15″ 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo Processor, 2.0 GB RAM

I am in the market for a wide angle lens, but as of yet have not settled on a lens that will complement both my current gear list and my photography goals.  If others have a gear list they’d like to share or suggestions/ideas on wide angle lenses for this gear setup that would be good for landscape photography, by all means, add it to the comments section.

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