In the beginning
I have used a variety cameras for the creation of the images you see on these pages. They start with older 35 mm cameras like the Minolta SRT 100 and continue up to the Minolta XGM and X370 models. The lenses used range from 17mm through to 500mm. My favourite 2 lenses are 28-80mm Minolta MD zoom and a 100mm Minolta MC fixed length telephoto. In addition I have a 6x7 cm roll film camera called a Rapid Omega 100 with 58mm wide angle lens, 90mm normal & a 180mm telephoto lens. All of the Illustrative/Advertising photographs were created with cambo SC2 View Cameras and 90mm Super Angulon lens, 150mm Schneider and 210mm Steinhill/Quinon and 210mm Rodenstock lenses. Most of the images were lit with one softbox and supplemented with reflectors and small "hotlights" for a litle extra sparkle or warmth. As well I use a Calumet 8x10 view camera with a 12 Kodak Professional Ektar lens and a 14 inch RED Dot Goertz Atar. All of the 8x10 equipment is older than me and somedays that sure feels old.
The here and now!
Currently I am creating most of my images with a Canon Digital Rebel and of course refining them in Photoshop. The RAW format is great to work with once you get the feel for it. It allows a photographer so much more leeway than the straight JPG would. There is still a lot to learn and to experiment with. I particularly like the ability to create what was in my mind when I took the image rather than what was actually there in front of me.
Behind the scenes
For my web space I have learned HTML. Originally with a book called SAMS Teach yourself HTML in 24 Hours. I can really recommend this book as it has all a person needs to learn the basics of HTML. While some of the pages I originally I created in Notepad are still there I am slowly replacing them with newer pages that I have created with Coffee Cup HTML Editor. I have found this software to be easy to use and the user forums that are available to registered users are worth the price of the software alone. I use several of the CoffeCup programs including CoffeeCup Stylesheet Maker, CoffeeCup Google Site mapper, CoffeeCup Flash Photo Gallery (all of the NNEC Play images and the Wedding page), CoffeeCup Website Search. I have recently created a set of forms using Flash Form Builder from Coffee Cup on my South Shore of Nova Scotia pages as an expirement.I am also working with CoffeeCup Image Mapper and I use CoffeeCup FTP to upload my pages to my site.
If you are interested in this software you can check out the link below. I doubt you will regret it.
