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Blogging Dear Carla
Can you even really call me a blogger? I have kept a blog of some sort for almost 22 years. Sure I haven’t been too consistent but I have put stuff out there.
Currently I’m a mid-lifer being bombarded from all sides. Working my best to get my creative side flowing by writing and photographing. I live the life of a typically Midwestern. Meaning I know things about farms against my will and I have to drive everywhere. Healthcare, manufacturing, and higher-ed are the life blood for my home and the seasons are still distinct.
I have to read or my brain gets bored, so I have to read; it all started with cereal boxes, I blame my mother.
I need nature and I need to be out in nature at least once a week. Lately that’s been digging up a new garden bed. Apparently I still have hope in the future, I guess.
I love photography. I love taking photos. I think I’m pretty good at it too. I love the technical side, I love the creative side, I love the art side, I love the learning side. Love.
I don’t know if it was just the past generations but my parents came from families that had tons of photos. My grandmothers were always taking photos. So that meant my parents always had a camera. My mother had various cameras, mostly poor quality point and shoots but she got the shots she wanted of documenting her family. The first fully manual camera I used was in high school photography class and we could use Yashica SLRs. Even then I had no idea of how to meter.
I wasn’t until 2014 where I started seriously learning about photography, starting with a couple of community college classes. Add in a bunch of books and forums and workshops and videos and conferences. You get the point.
I’m just here trying to blog my life in photography, maybe I’m going an okay job of it.
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Minnesota’s North Shore In October
Earlier this October I was able to get up to Minnesota’s North Shore. It was nice to get away for a few days with Husband and get some hiking and photography done. I hadn’t been up north of Duluth for a few years so it was a needed escape after a busy fall start at work.
Gooseberry Cabin’s Shore Line We were able to snag three nights at the wonderful Gooseberry Cabins, just south of Gooseberry State Park. Their property is right along Lake Superior and for the most of the time the lake was still and the skies clear. Follow their social media for cancellations for last minute planning. Their cabins were a perfect location for playing around with long exposures. Just an hour north of Duluth and two hours south of Grand Portage it makes a great spot for a relaxing base for your explorations.
Gooseberry Cabin’s Shore Line at Twilight We had a lovely time exploring Grand Marais as we had never stopped in town before. Downtown was a great place to explore and see the North Folk School’s ship Hjordis sail the lake. Grand Marais’ downtown is lovely and walk-able with stores restaurants and stores to stop in and explore. I was able to find some gluten free food for lunch and had a huge plate of nachos. We beat the lunch crowd by stopping into a restaurant right at opening, so plan accordingly it is a popular stop along highway 61.
Motorcycle Parked in Grand Marais Hjordis Most of the hiking we did was focused on waterfalls in the state parks along the North Shore. On our honeymoon 24 years ago we hiked and camped the state parks and we were tried to recreate that just a little. We made it up to Grand Portage for the first time to see High Falls, Devil’s Kettle in Judge CR Magney, Illgen Falls in Tettegouche.
The trail to High Falls was mostly paved with some decking and stairs and not very long at all.
High Falls in Grand Portage The trail to Devil’s Kettle was way more than I remembered. Changes in elevation and lots of stairs there and back. Forty year olds get out of breath, but it’s a fun hike!
Devil’s Kettle in Judge CR Magney Illgen falls was a new stop for us. With just a small hike from highway 1 it’s a easy hike.
Illgen Falls in Tettegouche – this group later jumped in the river. The hike to Shovel Point in Tettegouche was lovely with very pretty, just ahead of peak, fall colors. There were more stair there and back so be prepared for that. The lookout at the end of Shovel Point is windy so hold onto your belongings.
Shovel Point Hike Shovel Point Hike with Palisade Head in the distance. It was a great trip, I got to do some long exposure photography, play with my new CPL filter for darker skies and contrast in the foliage. The hikes did highlight my need to take care of my IT band issues. But it was fun! Spending time with Husband alone for a few days was great and we can’t wait to get back.
Shovel Point Hike The last day we headed out to Gooseberry falls early before the crowd and got to play around the falls with very little people around. The salmon were running so it was a touch smelly but only below the falls. The fish splashing around was new to us and great to watch.
Middle Falls At Gooseberry State Park My Favorite Photo of Gooseberry Falls Thanks for taking a look!
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10 Things I Do When I Get A New Camera
I’ve had the new Nikon Zf (zf? ZF?) for about a month now and I hopefully have all my settings and customization dialed in. I thought I’d share 10 things I like to do when I buy a new camera just to make the transition a bit easier.
Re-research the Camera I Just Bought to Make Sure I Really Wanted It
The fifty million videos I watched about specs and user reviews were obviously not enough. I need to make sure I re-watch my favorite ones. Bonus- if there have been new ones made that agree with your purchase. Re-convincing myself that I didn’t do something stupid with my money is an important first step. Husband loves re-watching the videos I’ve forced him to watch on the living room TV.
Buy Lens Mount Adapters
A plus of mirrorless cameras is adapting other lens mounts to your camera. I have old Pentax, Olympus, Minolta and Nikon F mount lenses around the house. Most of them are manual focus so I don’t need to get auto-focus enabled adapters. But being able to use the random Ai-S 200mm on my Nikon Zf is handy. I have adapters for my X-S10 so my collection for the Zf needs to grow beyond the FTZ-II I picked up. I love the look I get from my Zuiko 50mm 1.8 on my OM-1 so I think that will be the first one I grab in the near future.
Learn My Menus
I grew up (hahahhaha) with our Nikon D90 and D7200 so Nikon’s menus are where my heart lives. Randomly using our Sony A6000 for travel hurt my photographer heart. And even though I love my little Fujifilm X-S10 the menus confuse my middle aged brain. Digging back into Nikon’s menus to set up the Zf was easy and smooth. All I had to do was catch up with the new additions to the menu because of the mirrorless and auto-focus upgrades between the D7200 and the Zf.
Buy A New Camera Bag
What better accessory for a new camera than a new camera bag. Forget that I have four others, the obvious thing to do is buy a new one. There is something currently wrong with each bag I own and a new bag will solve all my problems. I have learned from my camera bag buying is that I do not like backpacks, that I need something bigger than 3 liters and I do not like square boxy bags. Until I find the perfect new camera bag I will be forced to use the worst bags ever with my new camera.
Buy More Peak Design Anchors
I have firmly lodged my camera strap into the Peak Design ecosystem. I love these little anchors. I have two of the Peak Design straps and love being able to quickly switch between cameras. I have them on everything from my Yashica 124G to my Nikon F4 and the new Zf.
Get An Extra Battery and A New Memory Cards
Cameras today barely come with a charging cable. The Zf had a cable for USB-C charging and that was it. I picked up a charging brick along with a spare battery to get through an outing. All that’s left for me to add to the power consumption and charging, is an outside the camera battery charger. But I’ll wait until the current setup bugs me enough. I do also like to pickup fresh cards for my new cameras. The Nikon Zf uses a dual slot setup of a SD card and a micro SD card so I picked up two of each of those for redundancy. Watch the write-to speeds and make sure they are the same, because, reasons.
Stalk Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for Lenses
I like to buy vintage lenses. I like being able to use my lenses on my old Nikons and the new Zf. I spend some time looking around Craigslist and Facebook marketplace for older cameras and lenses. Then I abandon my search and head up to West Camera or National Camera Exchange to buy new or used gear. I also torture myself on eBay looking at lenses but that takes too much patience. Currently I’m making myself wait to buy a Z 24-120mm or a Z 28-75mm. I wonder how long I can wait till I buy a native macro lens.
Research a Completely Different Camera to Buy
Now that I’m set with the perfect camera it’s now time for a manufacturer to come out with one slightly better and newer. Now my brain will go into goddamit mode and buyers regret will appear. To fix that problem I go out and shoot as much as I possible can and remind myself why I fell in love with the setup I currently have and how much money I will save by staying with what I have. But that won’t stop me from bingeing on YouTube videos of new cameras and researching the hell out of them, hello OM-System.
Use DP Review* to Compare My New Camera to My Old Camera
*What’s left of that site, anyway?
DP Review camera compare is (?) was (?) a great place to compare specs. It helped me choose the Fujifilm X-S10 when it first came out and I’ve been happy with that choice. Being able to side by side compare two choices really helps when you want to avoid the what-ifs in buying a camera. That being said once I have a new camera it’s fun to look back and compare your old cameras to the the new one, especially if you traded-in your old camera.Scour KEH For a Film Camera to Buy
Or eBay, or Craigslist, or Facebook marketplace, or or or or. GAS is never ending and film photography GAS is even harder to resist sometimes. Did someone in a video or an article somewhere mention an underrated film camera. Off to look for one for yourself. Forget about the multiple thousands of dollars you’ve spent on a new fancy digital camera, my monkey brain wants what that person has and film cameras are cool! I usually combat this urge by placing things in shopping carts soon to be abandoned. My wallet thanks me and I can once again feed my family.
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Camera Journey – How Did I Get Here
I suppose the middle of February is as good of a time to write this as any. I’ve seen a few posts with photographers talking about their camera journey. Mentioning how a certain camera of theirs started them on a path to taking photography seriously. I’ve never really mentioned mine anywhere so here’s my go.
In The Beginning
Growing up my mom and my grandmas always seemed to have a camera. It was as if cameras were the small luxuries they allowed themselves to have. No-one in my immediate family circle was an actual photographer, and I don’t remember really seeing a classic SLR in my younger childhood.
The camera types I do remember as a kid under 10 was a Kodak disc camera, and several 110 cameras with the flash bulb cube on top. I remember seeing the cartridges on the table getting ready to go into a developing envelope and trips back from the store with fresh prints, several envelops full. My mom was the most consistent picture taker and being the oldest child I have LOTS of prints of myself.
Older Kid to Adult-ish
Over the years mom would get nicer 35mm cameras, usually for her birthday. She never did get an SLR but she had higher quality point and shoots with focus. I was allowed to take her nicest camera on a trip to Florida when I was 18 it was so fun. I think it even was the one I was allowed to take on all my trips seeing Chicago, Mexico and Colorado.
Youth group trips were where I was the unofficial photographer. I was given slide film for the first time on a trip to Chicago. My mom would buy black and white film for us to use. She would let us kids to use the camera as long as were weren’t being dumb about wasting film. We would also have cheap give-away 110 cameras, that barely had a body, you could make from cereal box freebies. Film was always flowing in our house.
I only really remember seeing a family use a stereotypical silver and black SLR at a friends house. It was mostly point and shoots and never any “modern” SLRs until I got married. I only really had a chance to use an SLR in a high-school photography class. I loved it. I had no idea how to meter, and with me denying that I needed glasses, focusing was hit or miss. But it was so much fun. We were allowed to use all the extra rolls we wanted and develop them in the class. I knew I was falling in love with photography then.
Digital Firsts
My first experience with a digital camera came in 1999. My boyfriend at the time got his hands on a digital camera somewhere. I played around with a bit but I was still able to use my mom’s camera if I needed to so I wasn’t all that impressed. I did use it to post to wedding planning forums here and there though.
My boyfriend and I were longtime friends and even before he proposed I gave him the info for the engagement ring I wanted and found at a local jeweler. I knew his mom gave him a ring from his grandmother to use the stone for a ring for me. One day I was hanging out in his room and looked through the photos on the camera. I found a photo of the ring I picked out and his grandmother’s stone in it. I spoiled myself on my own engagement ring thanks to digital cameras.
Owning digital
After getting married we purchased a Fuji Fine-pix camera and used it on a vacation to Arizona. We had a lovely fight about printing all the digital photos. I wanted them all and he said to pick our favorites and have the local Ritz Photo place print them. We had a few Sony and Canon point and shoot digital cameras while the kids were little.
Our first DSLR was a Nikon D70s that I never really picked up until I took a college photography class and learned how to shoot in manual mode. We also had a D90 that I claimed as mine and he had a D7000 to use taking photos of RC airplanes. For my birthday he bought me a refurbished D7200 with an amazingly low shutter count. I loved that camera to death. It’s the camera I became proficient at and built a teeny tiny business with.
Analog Again
Around 2017 I was getting the itch to try film photography as an adult. I picked up a Canon AE-1P and a Holga toy camera. Tried my hand and home developing black and white film and eventually color as well. I also scavenged up some enlargers and photographic paper and turned the laundry room into a darkroom. I fired up the Graflex Crown Graphic from my father in-law and purchased a few other SLRs from friends and the internet. Keeping the analog GAS away is a bit hard though.
Mirrorless Begins
At the end of 2020 I bought myself a Fujifilm X-S10. I wanted in on the mirrorless train and at the time my choice was between the Nikon Z5 and the X-S10. In the end the IBIS of the X-S10 won out and I’ve had so much fun with the little, light and mighty X-S10. I love adapting lenses to it and how fun Fuji makes shooting. Until…
Nikon introduced the ZF at the end of 2023. I knew I had to have it. IBIS check, full-frame check, FTZ adapting old Nikon lenses check, top of the line focusing check, retro styling check. This is the camera I would have bought if Nikon had released it when I was first looking into mirrorless. So far I’m having fun. The files are great to work with and the low light capabilities are perfect for me. I’m having a blast adapting my old Nikkor lenses and looking forward to pickup up a nice mid range zoom.
So, that’s my camera journey. Photography has always been in the house.
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But I want to do it myself
I can be pretty stubborn, I like to do things by myself even if I’m doing it wrong. I want to figure it out on my own and try and fix my own mistakes. So here we are. I have another website. This time I did my own hosting, got my own domain registrar junk figured out and I’m not worried about having the perfect business site. I don’t care what people will think and blah blah blah.
