Jazz Poetry Jams

I went to Jazz Poetry Jams with a bit of a mission: get some pics I couldn't get with my old camera.

Not a 100% success, but probably a solid 70%. I never did switch to my 18-105mm zoom lens, though there were moments where I wanted more grab.

These were all taken with a 35mm prime lense. Seems like, depending on my shot, it was my best friend or worst enemy.

Just when I worried I was being obnoxious with my camera, another shutterbug asked me what I was shooting.

A Nikon very similar to the Canon he was shooting with. A model I debated about myself in addition to a Sony that probably has better video capabilities.

But the camera doesn't do the job for you. A pro I know told me there are two types of people who own SLRs: photographers and folks in the professions. Doctors, lawyers, etc., can afford to buy those flagship cameras (which cost more for the body than I paid for my kit).

I still have a lot to learn, but it's fun learning it.

On the way home I stopped and tried to take some long exposures of the tag art in Grinders' alley. Like I say, I have a lot left to learn about shooting with this thing.

And I can't blame the camera when I don't get it. I might not have the right lenses for a lot of things, but the main thing I don't have is the know-how.

I remember going to a photography seminar with a friend who had a Canon 1D, top of the line camera with an extensive kit of lenses. The class was taught by a Nikonian using a D3 or something like that (whatever Nikon's full frame flagship camera was at the time; it was long enough ago it could have been the D2).

The guy teaching the class was an amazing photographer, and my friend decided the problem with is photography was he needed to switch to Nikon. Sell $20,000 worth of camera gear (and take the hit on that depreciation) and then buy a similar amount of Nikon stuff, and then he'd be good to go.

But the guy teaching that class could take a good photograph with a freaking cell phone.

A Polaroid. A Kodak Brownie.

Anyway, the quality of photography here in Lobsterland should go up a tick or two. If it doesn't, it's all my fault.