Going Digital - 6 months later.
Happy New Year!
With the dawn of another fiscal year I'm looking back at 2004 and some of the important changes that have happened. Here are some thoughts on some of the things that stand out from 2004.
Going 100% digital
It has been 6 months now since the sell of the 35mm camera equipment to begin investment in the newer EOS lenses and a digital SLR body. Having spent years shooting film I have always kept an eye on the advancements and price reductions involved in ditigal SLR bodies. This year it was finally time to take the plunge.
Over the last two years I had shot only transparency (slide) film in my Canon cameras. After a lot of testing I found the I liked the Kodak high-saturation films meshed with my tasts as well as enhancing the impact of my motorsports photography. One of my largest concerns was potential loss of dynamic range in digital sensors.
I also had to weight the possible extra time spent processing images against the simplicity the purely digital download compared to the time consuming process of loading and scanning slides (even with dedicated transparency scanning hardware from Minolta). In the end.. the plunge was taken when the full set of older CF/DF lenses were sold off on eBay along with my trusty 35mm bodies.
Going digital for me was more than just purchasing a new body, I also had to purchase a completly new set of lenses for the EOS system. Since I was not 100% sure I would like the auto-focus (I was accusomted to Canon's older fully manual lenses) I purchased a couple of the consumer lenses (18-55 & 75-300) to play around with. I think they together they cost me about $300.
It was not long into ownership that I became very impressed with the ease of use and found that it was time to purchase more performance oriented lenses. Previously I had a very nice 300mm primary lense with S.C.C. coatings that produced some very nice photographs as well as being reasonably fast (F:4) for it's size. When taking motorsports photography speed is of importance for sharpness so fast lenses was going to be a must.
To start off I purchased two L series zoom lenses to compliment my consumer glass.
100-400mm F:4.5 L IS
70-200mm F:2.8 L
In the next couple of days I'll be posting my comments on these two lenses.
Launching new photography website
As a professional website developer for the past 10 years, launching a new photography website should have been easy. How surprised I was. This has become a major effort! The website is up and running ( http://www.fotoveloce.com ) but it's far from complete.
One of the challenges, I feel, is that there is no collaborative synergy involved in the project. It's all from my brain, through my fingers, and out onto the web (right now the shopping cart is nearing completion but is not yet ready for prime time). There are a some other navigational issues with the site that I am painfully aware of. They are on the list of tasks to complete however the mount of time I have to dedicate to development of the photography website is limited due to other project commitments and an increasing number of photo assignments and subsequent administrative tasks in support of those assignment (image editing, cataloging, etc. etc.).
Despite all these challenges I'm feeling very good about the overall design and I think the navigation concept is excellent even though not fully implemented within the public areas of the site. As with all good websites, it's in a state of transition, thus I have not peppered the site with those annoying "Under Construction" icons and notices. I really think it goes without saying. :)
Shifting buinses priorities
The last 10 years (5 in business as a pure corp-to-corp outsourcer) have been primarily focused on Business-to-Business (BtoB) sales and marketing of web, database and custome software development and it has kept me pretty busy as well as allowing me to invest in the growth of our new photography business (FotoVeloce). While maintaining commitment to current and future software contracts, it has left a reduced amount of time available to growth of the new business segment. What keeps things rolling around are passion for the art of photography and the wonderful feedback from friends and clients alike. It is truely becoming a possitive force in my life as well a source of great satisfaction for our family.
Marketing challenges
I really had planned to making some comments about the radical change in our marketing plan today, however it's going to have to wait for another article. This entry is already larger than I think most people will want to read in one sitting.
As allways, comments on anything and everything are solicited.
With the dawn of another fiscal year I'm looking back at 2004 and some of the important changes that have happened. Here are some thoughts on some of the things that stand out from 2004.
Going 100% digital
It has been 6 months now since the sell of the 35mm camera equipment to begin investment in the newer EOS lenses and a digital SLR body. Having spent years shooting film I have always kept an eye on the advancements and price reductions involved in ditigal SLR bodies. This year it was finally time to take the plunge.
Over the last two years I had shot only transparency (slide) film in my Canon cameras. After a lot of testing I found the I liked the Kodak high-saturation films meshed with my tasts as well as enhancing the impact of my motorsports photography. One of my largest concerns was potential loss of dynamic range in digital sensors.
I also had to weight the possible extra time spent processing images against the simplicity the purely digital download compared to the time consuming process of loading and scanning slides (even with dedicated transparency scanning hardware from Minolta). In the end.. the plunge was taken when the full set of older CF/DF lenses were sold off on eBay along with my trusty 35mm bodies.
Going digital for me was more than just purchasing a new body, I also had to purchase a completly new set of lenses for the EOS system. Since I was not 100% sure I would like the auto-focus (I was accusomted to Canon's older fully manual lenses) I purchased a couple of the consumer lenses (18-55 & 75-300) to play around with. I think they together they cost me about $300.
It was not long into ownership that I became very impressed with the ease of use and found that it was time to purchase more performance oriented lenses. Previously I had a very nice 300mm primary lense with S.C.C. coatings that produced some very nice photographs as well as being reasonably fast (F:4) for it's size. When taking motorsports photography speed is of importance for sharpness so fast lenses was going to be a must.
To start off I purchased two L series zoom lenses to compliment my consumer glass.
100-400mm F:4.5 L IS
70-200mm F:2.8 L
In the next couple of days I'll be posting my comments on these two lenses.
Launching new photography website
As a professional website developer for the past 10 years, launching a new photography website should have been easy. How surprised I was. This has become a major effort! The website is up and running ( http://www.fotoveloce.com ) but it's far from complete.
One of the challenges, I feel, is that there is no collaborative synergy involved in the project. It's all from my brain, through my fingers, and out onto the web (right now the shopping cart is nearing completion but is not yet ready for prime time). There are a some other navigational issues with the site that I am painfully aware of. They are on the list of tasks to complete however the mount of time I have to dedicate to development of the photography website is limited due to other project commitments and an increasing number of photo assignments and subsequent administrative tasks in support of those assignment (image editing, cataloging, etc. etc.).
Despite all these challenges I'm feeling very good about the overall design and I think the navigation concept is excellent even though not fully implemented within the public areas of the site. As with all good websites, it's in a state of transition, thus I have not peppered the site with those annoying "Under Construction" icons and notices. I really think it goes without saying. :)
Shifting buinses priorities
The last 10 years (5 in business as a pure corp-to-corp outsourcer) have been primarily focused on Business-to-Business (BtoB) sales and marketing of web, database and custome software development and it has kept me pretty busy as well as allowing me to invest in the growth of our new photography business (FotoVeloce). While maintaining commitment to current and future software contracts, it has left a reduced amount of time available to growth of the new business segment. What keeps things rolling around are passion for the art of photography and the wonderful feedback from friends and clients alike. It is truely becoming a possitive force in my life as well a source of great satisfaction for our family.
Marketing challenges
I really had planned to making some comments about the radical change in our marketing plan today, however it's going to have to wait for another article. This entry is already larger than I think most people will want to read in one sitting.
As allways, comments on anything and everything are solicited.
posted by Foto Veloce at Sunday, January 02, 2005
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