Hi

[Harv]

Hi I’m Harvey (http://harv.shutterchance.com). I live in the UK (near the south coast in England) where I work for an IT firm (now part of a large global aerospace company). I’m nearly 38 years old and married with two small boys. I’ve enjoyed photography for about 30 years but like most things in life, I’m not a natural and it has taken quite a lot of time to get where I am now. I’m sure those of you with young families appreciate just how difficult it is to find time for photography and it never ceases to amaze me how gifted or skilled some people are when I know they’re having to juggle a family, a job, a dog and other things! ;)

My first camera was a tiny 110, a Christmas present when I was about 8. A couple of years later I moved straight to an SLR – the venerable Practika M or B5 (I can’t remember). At 18 I graduated to a Minolta Dynax 7xi, which was nicked when I was at university but the insurance company bought me a 700si as replacement. I then stuck with Konica Minolta (as it became) and made the transition to digital with the 7D back in 2004. It was a reasonable camera at the time and became a real ‘friend’ – not least because I could assign a custom program for my wife and a separate one for me (no matter how stupid I’d been with the buttons and dials, she could always turn the command dial to the ‘number 1’ and get the camera just as she liked it). After spending lots of time thinking and doing comparisons of this and that camera, I’ve just upgraded to a Nikon D700. I’ve had to invest in a few new lenses as well – the 14-24mm F2.8 ED, 24-120mm ED VR, and a 50mm F1.4 from Sigma. I’m still learning how to use it, but it’s great. :D

I’m most interested in landscape photography but most of the photos I take are of my boys. To be honest I’d like to get better at all sorts of genres. I have a friend who is a professional wedding and portrait photographer (http://www.shootinghip.com) – he’s a great guy and a source of some inspiration. I also discovered Steve Paxton’s site last year (via http://xclusia.shutterchance.com) and have been ‘wowed’. His tutorials are excellent btw. It seems that wherever I look on the web these days, there’s a hidden photographic talent – lots of great photographers out there. I have a couple of great books on photography (‘First, Light’ by Joe Cornish, and ‘The Photographer’s Eye’ by Michael Freeman).

I use Photoshop (self-taught – the journey continues) and Photomatix Pro. Awaiting Nikon’s Capture NX, so we’ll see how it manages the Nikon’s RAW files. I like HDR.

Over the next few years I’m just going to try to improve all aspects of my photography (including the amount of time I spend doing it vs. reading about doing it). I’ve learnt the important lesson of location, location, location – it’s difficult to just turn up at a place and expect to take great photos the first time – just have to put that into practice a bit more.

Thanks to Steve for putting this forum together. Can’t promise to post a lot, but will try to check-in every once in a while. I’m very happy to talk technical or subjective.

[JohnB]

Welcome to the forum, Harvey! It's great to see you found it.

I tried checking out your site, but it's not loading... I'll try again later. I love landscape photography as well... Most of the photos on my blog and Flickr stream are landscapes, but I've also been learning lighting so have been taking lots of pictures of my kids.

Looks like a nice set up you have there.... Is there any reason you didn't go with the Sony SLRs? I think they use the Minolta lens mount... I could be wrong, though.

[Harv]

Hi John

Thanks for the welcome. I looked long and hard at the Sony range, which uses the Minolta AF lens mount (I've actually got a Sony 16-105 lens) but eventually decided to change systems - I didn't need the 24.6 Megapixels of the A900 (and its high ISO performance is not as good as the Nikons/Canons) and the A700 wasn't much of an improvement on the KM Dynax 7D.

Harv'

[Harv]

It turns out that the Shutterchance site is currently down (not the first time it's happened)

[Steve Paxton]

Hey Harv! Thank you for the kind words! I look foward to taking a look at your website (it seems to still be down).

I am totally on the same page with you with regards to juggling a family, job and everything else with photography. It's a real challenge!