I get a Nikon Coolpix L100 for the trip. 10 megapixels, 15X optical zoom, about a bazzilian choice for the type of picture you want, basically a really good point-and-shoot. It's a lot of fun, I like the setup and the features, but there's nothing like actually turning the lens.
I've also handled a D40 in school (briefly). Mind you, the K1000 was the first SLR I ever handled, so that weight was pretty standard. The D40, and this L100 feel like chintsy plastic now, but I'm sure they're fine, just an observation. I'll put a couple of pictures I took just today with this Nikon.

Yeah, those are both at my house, gonna try to take the big one (Deuce and a half) to the semi-formal with some friends.


click the rest, this post will be hugeeee if i don't link them
http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q12/d...http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q12/drk229/?action=view¤t=DS
http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q12/d...http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q12/drk229/?action=view¤t=DS





I also got a new dog recently, pictures from my phone. She's a purebred Siberian Husky, 6 months old.

Jonny will soon grow up to be just like his ol man.
Just to remind you, here are our two dogs. Tonka is a husky mix and Black Bear is a retriever mix.



You kids stay off my property!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?...http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=8314751897993027930&id=pcat17071&type=page&st=Pentax+*IST+DL&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categor

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?...http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9348743&type=product&id=121

These are great cameras at super prices if any one is interested in a digital single lens reflex camera. Pentax makes very good cameras but puts less money in advertising and marketing. Both examples above are sold without lenses but inexpensive, used, good lenses can be found in many places and any K mount lens made for Pentax since the 1960's can be used on many Pentax slr cameras; even digital. Not true for the other guys.

Oh. And then there is this little toy:
http://www.pentaxwebstore.com/detail/PTX+17811

That's right folks. And they taste like chicken. But I may have to wait two years until the price comes down closer to $700. Unless I have been a extra special, good boy and 1,300 PFO members want to go in together on a Christmas present for your ol' uncle Jackass.

Is Tonka named as such because of his (her?) color?

Some Other Jackass Wrote:I thought Jonny might like to see these next time he comes around.







I am selling some gear and wanted to share some of the images.
See kids what you can do with a cardboard box, some tracing paper and a few sheets of poster board! Makes film cameras a little sexy. Don't it?
Remember, don't try highlights like this at home. Someone could get hurt.
Now all you young adults, go to your mothers' purses, get $45 and mail it to your good old uncle Some Other Jackass.

Tell me how you did that.
NOW.

Jonny,
It's simply a homemade soft lightbox. Best to find a 12X12 cardboard box, cut off one side completely then cut out the large portion of three sides. Glue or tape some white paper to the three holes you have made in the sides you have cut out. This way you can place the box so you can see and photograph through the open front end while positioning your light in on the top, the left or right side. In the examples of my camera photographs, I used an flash off camera with sync cord on the left side of the outside of the box which acts as a soft diffuser and a piece of white posterboard and a piece of shiny, black finish poster board on the inside of the box, curved from top to the flat bottom like a small "infinity backdrop".
You can probably do a search for do it yourself lightbox and get some good ideas but once you get a good size box, cut the top off, you pretty much have an idea of where you are going next.
It may be easier if you cut off a top and side altogether so that you can set the box down over and object instead of reaching in to set the object down and move it but you also loose some structural integrity for thin paperboard boxes. That is your call.

Tonka has been sometimes translated to mean "river" in some Native American languages. And then there are those toys we loved growing up in the '70's. But we got him as a young puppy and decided to keep the name they had given him. Black Bear was originally given another name but we changed it due to witness relocation. You understand.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/363243691/ I'm gonna try to go by this, I like the pictures the guy took. If you stumble upon anything that's better/similar. Let me know! And if you want to take pictures of what you did, please let me know. Thanks


EDIT: and this http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how...http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-s

Yes either of those look satisfying and the one on the strobist site is closer to what I made. Looking back, it may have been better if I had extended the sides of mine much the way the flickr post looks and the way the strobist did not remove the flaps on his. Perhaps not too great of an issue but I can see where contrast could be affected slightly if light from the flash were allowed to stray into the lens if some extensions and lens hood were not used.
Jonny are you still shooting with your K1000 only since school is out and the Nikon was school property?
Just remember, the tools can help only to a certain extent and it remains the tool user to produce the work. In the end, it does not matter what you use or how much you spend to take photographs as long as you love what you are doing and take interesting photographs. It is the carpenter that builds the house; the hammer is merely a tool. It is the sculptor that produces the art, not the chisel. It is the photographer that sets the scene; not the camera.


But Pentax is just kule!

Yeah, shooting with the K1000 still. It's kind of a pain because I have to wait to get them developed. I wish I had something digital that wasn't TOTAL shit (I know, it's the shooter, not the camera...but still) and was digital. But the economic times say no-no to buying anything.

Here's one for you:
http://community.livejournal.com/hundredpics/

The object is to take 100 pics in 100 days. I think you can post daily or weekly.

Mine is the diver and B-29...