Nikon d90 vs. Pentax Kx...on the Job comparisons

Let me start by saying these are both awesome cameras. I use the Nikon at my place of employment and I use my Kx for my own freelance work. I've only used both for a short time since they are both new. I upgraded my system about the same time my job upgraded theirs.
My experiences today using the d90 and comparing it to my kx.
Well I shot in a dim atmosphere with a slow shutter. I don't have an SR lens for the Nikon so all the pictures came out blurry except the ones i took with the flash. My kx i could have used the built in SR.
Iso kx goes up to 12800 with very usable images I believe the Nikon only 6400.
The white balance on both cameras is pretty spot on but also a little warm on both. When I manually set the white balance on the D90 i have take a picture each time and then check it to see if its what I like. There is not a whole lot of tweaking I can for each factory preset wB. but it does have some and also has custome white balance and kelvin scale.
On The kx all i have to do is take a picture hit the WB button and it will pull up the last photo i took. I can then adjust the WB of that photo and even take out any colors by moving the dial to take out any color casts then every photo after that will be WB according to the sampled photo. This and this alone makes the KX a bigger winner compared toe the d90 for me.
To check the time i have to go into a menu system and look for it on the Nikon for the kx all i do is hit the info button. It may not be a big deal but I check the time regularly for breaks, clocking in and out etc.
Okay menus about the same. One goes vertical (Nikon) the other goes Horizontal (Pentax).
Size well the grip is better on the Kx and a bit longer too. with the Nikon I have about an inch of palm that hangs over the bottom of the body. A problem i never had with the Nikon d70.
I've been shooting with both Pentax and Nikon for a long time. Its funny how the Nikons are starting to look so much like the Pentax's from the back with an OK button and arrow dial that looks so much like the one on my ist DS . Even the new sb900 is having more and manual controls like the 540fgz flash.
They both have A-af, S-af, and C-af. They both have info on the back screen but the Nikon has top LCD panel which I really don't miss with the Kx cause its just more convenient to look at the back screen for the Info.
They both have live view and movie mode but the kx has the built in SR which helps a lot
They both have the AF/EL button. My favorite button on both cameras. Buttons feels the same on both cameras. Both have info buttons too.
The second wheel is not a factor either since I can't turn then both at the same time and with the Pentax all i have to do is touch the EV button to change the other. Pentax for me it is easier to control this way.
Build wise they feel about the same even use the same SD card door and plastic body. Both pale in comparison to the hard bodies of the Pentax ist DS and the Nikon d70. Those cameras look and feel as if they could take a fall and a beating. Both the d90 and the kx do not.
flash sync is about a draw Pentax syncs at 180 Nikon at 200. But Pentax has HSS sync which isn't available on the Nikon,,,at least I couldn't find it and it may require the new sb900 flash if it has it, as we are still sing the sb 800. This is a big Winner for the kx side as well for my own needs and uses. UPDATE>>>The Nikon also has hi speed sync.
Auto focus is pretty close with the Nikon winning this one. Very fast and very accurate. My kx is fast as well but its still using screw drive lenses.
There is no shooting delay on either camera with the Nikon jumping the gun a bit and i sometimes wind up firing two shots in stead of one. I definitely give this to the Nikon. Very good AF system...
Skin tones are good with both cameras and saturation as well. I would say both cameras are winner but for me there are things I miss on the d90 that are on my kx. I can definately give up a little speed for all the features the kx has. Including stuff like the filters and also the ease of changing jpeg size. d90 works on a L M S basic medium and fine scale the kx tells you 12, 10, 6, 4 meg and then you select the (*) (**) (***) for quality.
other things Nikon allows tethering Kx does not.
Nikon uses Lithium kx uses AA lithium or Nickle batts either way its a toss up here since amperage is about the same. Both last about the same as well. There are some new batteries in town called Zinc rechargeable that are suppose to be perfect for the kx. The voltage is a little higher than Nickel batteries but they are more comparable to Lithium batteries.
both have world time now, Pentax had it a long time ago.
Both have zoom review using the wheel again something that Pentax had long before the Nikon as my ist DS had it and my Nikon d70 did not.
Both have the on of switch around the trigger button but Pentax has the little blue light which I find really cool and distinguishable Nikon has a white painted line in the identical place and looks identical to the lit up one.
Forgot about the AF points. I miss them then I don't. Sometimes they interfere with what you see but I do like them but I don't miss them. But i'll give it to Nikon since I can tell where I'm focusing. But the 5 area Auto focus is more helpful than Nikon's full 11 point auto select. they both have 11 points.
The vga screen on the nikon can be misleading just like the screen on the canon Elf makes everything look better. Unlike my cheap samsung d53 p&s which the back screen looks like crap but when downloaded the images look incredibly pleasing. My sister has an Elf and all her pictures look amazing but when you download then they don't look so amazing.
It really isn't what you see is what you get. the screen makes everything look better and more dynamic almost a bit cartoony, but in the end its hard to know the real end product until you download and see it on a workable monitor and print them out. didn't find this issue on the kx. Even though a smaller screen not by much i found the images better represented and authentic. And the kx monitor can be color calibrated.
I've never liked Nikon's rendering in grass situations because it always exposes very cold.. Pentax always maintained a warmer feel in these situations.
As for auto iso both cameras have it. both have a sensitivity mode as well. Kx goes up to 12800 and Nikon upto 6400. Kx so far has the best noise control for high iso. It is very comparable to a full frame camera...infact in some tests the full frame only had a one to two stop advantage.

Pentax i*st D...Camera Credo...To See the World

Here it is for sale. Gotta say good bye to the first born. I saved it from a liquidation wharehouse called Bargain-land on E bay. I had originally bid on Several Nikon d70's but kept losing the bids. So it was life trying to tell me it wasn't meant to be. I bid on this little camera and won. It came with a lens.

I took this photo using a small desk lamp with my new DIY macro studio which will be perfect for some food photography. The studio was a cinch to make. One box at Office Max 3.00, I sheet of poster board 69 cents, three sheets of paper, and some black spray paint I had lying around.

I went to school with this camera, did my first Freelance shoots with it. Did some stellar nature and flower photography as well as portraits and model shoots. Now its time to pass it on to a good home.

As I see there is a camera Credo. All cameras are promised at birth to see the world. Its what they were designed for. To see your family grow. To go where with you on vacation. They don't ask for much, just to go along and do what you do. Some create history, art, magic, some record history and some amazing moments in life. They can be there when you are born and when you breath your last breath. To keep a camera in storage is to kill it. This camera has many more years ahead of it. I'm sure I will find it a good home.

CREATIVE IRES of ARIES...I NEED SOMETHING NEW

Those born under this sign have a particular affinity with the energy that is needed to get things off the ground. Aries tend to excel in the activity of starting something, but are not renowned for their ability to finish. Aries need to learn discipline, and to conserve their energies so that are able to continue and so, follow through. Aries are often found pioneering some new territory, and carving their own pathway through life.

Moon in Aries have a fiery heart and tempestuous, courageous and a great lover of personal freedom. They can sense the truth of a matter right away, and grow restless for others to "get it." If they seem pent up, it's only that they're ready for the next big challenge. They'll be most alive if at the edge of trying new things and meeting new people.

The stars dare Aries to be a pioneer, a champion and a doer. Aries is here to start something new, to go where no one else has gone and to do what no one else has done. If you can give an Aries action, excitement and a fresh start you will make them happy. Its like adding air to fire, it just burns so much hotter. Aries needs to be first and best. Somehow, some way, Aries need to find a competitive outlet.

My competitive spirit kills my fun. Sometimes my Aries side of me really destroys any sense of enjoyment of doing something for fun's sake. It seems much of what I do has to do with being the best at something and the first to do it. For the glory of it but really, deep inside I just don't care. its one of the reason i abhor tattoos. They seem fine for a few people. Maybe the occasional hard rock star, your bikers, your convicts, your occasional bad boy. But James Dean the coolest bad boy of them all didn't have a tattoo. Elvis the next big bad boy didn't have any either. But now adays everyone has a tattoo. Big half sleeve tattoos which scream "I'M A BIG FOLLOWER AND NEED TO DO WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING."

I hate FADS and I hate being a follower even more.

Sometimes I really hate myself for it too. This constant drive to be original. Fuck me, damn it.

I can see it in my writing, where doing the same thing every other writer just bores me, makes me sick even. I fell in love with Elmore Leonard. I love the way he writes but then I want to steal his way, write like him and well I just can't. I'm not him. So then I don't write. I always have to do something differently. Its my Aquarius sun sandwiched in between my Aries Rising and my Aries Moon. Ouch.

Even when i think of doing photo shoots or taking pictures of something I've already photographed i begin to gag. It sucks. Where's my fun. I need something new. I can't help it. . I need something new, some thing fresh something off the beaten path. I need a flash of light, an eureka moment, a lighting strike. This is a hard trait in my to live with. I don't really want to be competitive, to be the best, to be the first, i just want to have fun.

The competitive spirit really sucks it kills the joy of doing things. But it also tells me why i shy away from certain opportunities like going to photo shoot I've already done.

I need something new. I new to go where no one else is gone and do what no one else has done. This must be right because when I think about it i feel alive, i feel awakened i feel a sense of excitement that i haven't felt in a very long time. Like the night before Xmas with all the presents under the tree. I just can't wait to open them. Just like that. Perhaps a reason to get up int he morning. Or just that thing...you know we all need that one thing.

Those born under this sign have a particular affinity with the energy that is needed to get things off the ground. Aries tend to excel in the activity of starting something, but are not renowned for their ability to finish.

I'm great at getting things off the ground. But I suck at following through to the end. The Long run, the race that has to last a life time. I think I'm beginning to see my patterns here. Lucky for me this month is about reflection in the twelfth house so now I'm learning my secrets, the keys to get me out of my prison.

A SIMPLE LEAF

There's something really interesting about leaves. They're as unique as snowflakes and they fall from the sky too. I found this one downtown during a walk about shoot. Everyday now, as fall and winter have set in i see more and more leaves on the ground and wonder and realize how something so simple can yet be complicated and beautiful.

I like simplicity, I'm practical kind of guy. I still drive the truck i bought when i moved out of my parents' house. I'm due for new one sometime soon (waiting of the Obama bailout to lend a hand). I don't like complications, conversation that lead me away from what they are intended. My cameras are really basic and i like my photography the same. It's an instinct that its me.

Today many thought came to me. Some really cool ideas but I wasn't too quick to jump on any one of them. I'm going to start an idea book and just write them down. There is a time for everything and i can't say any of my new ideas have a place in my current state. But in the future who knows.

I shoot photography everyday for a living. 8 hours sometimes running about 3000 photos working with about 350 families. Posing them, shooting, selling photos, its a lot of work. When i come and on my weekends i suppose people are the last things i want to photograph. I found a really cool photo blog called Pentax Ways. The photos on their are just pieces of life. Little shots taken kind of like the leaf. Simple.

I'm not going to do things for the sake of some illusion of glory, fame, fortune, I have a job. I go to work I make a living, and sometimes i even have fun with it. On my days off I think i'll do other stuff. Cooking maybe. There's something so wonderful about food. its simple yet complicated and best of all its delicious.

Piscean Dreamer...drowning underwater...losing the dream

Pisces often presents himself as the new Poet, the new Writer, the new Filmmaker, the new Prophet. One day….when the world understands him… But the world is so annoying sometimes. It expects him, HIM…to hustle like ordinary folk, and work ordinary jobs, pay ordinary rent bills and electricity bills and national health stamps and car insurance, when it should all be made easy, after all, if they only knew what talent he had, what he could do for the world… A familiar story, and a sad one. And the saddest part of all is that, often, the Pisces won't be able to find the happy middle, the balance point between valuing his dreams and taking the time to craft them into shape. He simply becomes embittered, disillusioned, and gives up in disgust. So the visionary becomes the most prosaic and most cynical of men, and never writes a line again, or scorns the paintbox that lays in the attic gathering dust. And he can say to his grandchildren, 'Yes, once I dreamt of being a painter…. But…but….something went wrong.' What? The confrontation with reality, the meeting of the melusine with the mortal. Either extreme is failure: drowning underwater, or losing the dream because it's exposed too soon, without faith. Pisces Shadow (From the book "Astrology for Lovers" by Liz Green)

I am so there. My laptop there gathering dust as my stories sit waiting for the day. My old and new cameras sitting there waiting for the next right time to shoot. Finding the balance of living in real life and living in the dream can be tricky. Could Stephen King be who is if he had to work a crummy job at MacDonald s. I think so because he had a goal, set priorities, he knew what he wanted to be and never stopped, never gave up, and kept at it. I lose faith in the dream. I lose faith in myself. Though I'm an Aquarius, i suffer from the Piscean dilemma...I have many ideas and goals and dreams, I manage to bring them to the starting gates like but i lack in the long run. The race that might take a life time. It becomes too complicated and suffocating and i begin to drown. Need air, need space, need to run away from it all. Maybe this new year will allow me to do what i need to do. I will put in the work because it needs to be done. Finding the balance of mortal and the Melusine.

The rest of the story from Pisces Shadow (From the book "Astrology for Lovers" by Liz Green)

Pisces is sometimes called the sign of self-undoing. And it is important to remember that it's truly self-undoing with Pisces, never the undoing of others. Pisces often has such a wealth of talent and vision that he is one of the most blessed of men. Yet so often his life is a failure. And this is because of his shadow: his visions of self-aggrandizement are so often too large, much too immense to ever be fulfilled, so he's doomed to self-disappointment and self-disgust. And his bitterness at life can erode him, because he feels betrayed by it. If he can begin to understand that he is it, that there isn't any 'world' that is inimical to him, that he must simply understand both the divine and the mortal sides of himself and care for them both, then he's truly unlimited. And what strange children marriage with a melusine can produce? StarWars, Matrix, Theory of RElativity, Going to the Moon, AirPlanes, cruise liners, submarines, the impossible can be possible

This is my answer to "Confusion...WHich road to take." It's there already, i just have to do it.

This is a pictures of SCarlet one of the dolphins at Discovery Cove. I shot this about six or seven years ago using a Nikon D1. One of the first Dslr's. It was a cloudy day and by chance the trainer had asked for a jump. I stood there with catch focus set and bam got the shot.

Self Portrait - The Illusionist

Its been a long while since I've put myself in front of the camera. Sometimes being the observer, fly on the wall you feel like you aren't a participant in life only an observer. I think I need to photograph myself more often. Is it vanity, is it arrogance, or conceitedness, no. Its just a need for self awareness. You only live once. You only look the way you do once. Ten years from now I might be bald, fat, wrinkled, not as cool as i look in the picture so why not celebrate yourself while you can. It don't last for ever and as Pee Wee Herman use to say, "Why don't you take a pictures it'll last longer."

There are very few pictures that I actually enjoy of myself and this is probably one of the best ones of me. Perhaps I'm hyper critical of myself but that goes with the territory of being me. A critical eye is needed. People pay big bucks for the critical eye. I watch a lot of Gordon Ramsey shows, hells kitchen, kitchen nightmares and you can see he has such a critical eye that he's made millions off of it. People need others to tell them what's good. When all of America's tastes and pallets have been groomed on MacDonald and Burger King we really don't know what the hell is good.

I'm a fast food junkie. I spent two hundred dollars last month on eating out. Two hundred bucks, piss on me. I could have bought a nice lens for that amount or put a down on the Pentax k10d which I'm looking to buy. So I'm on fast food restriction. Now that I'm eating good food, real food, food i have cook myself and don't even crave fast food anymore. Funny i think fast food in America is nothing more than an addiction. Everything about it simply triggers all frontal lobe pleasures sensors. The burger, high fat, topped with cheese and salt. All of which tell your brain damn that food is good. The fries are fried in oil topped with more salt and have an addictive taste to them. Try to just eat one i bet you can't. Then the soda. A big tub so big the three men in the tub could fit in it, is nothing more than corn syrup which your brain loves. There is nothing more pleasing to your brain than sugar. Loves it. It has an addiction to it as it were heroin. Your brain would do anything to get its fix. You've heard it before, " the devil made me do it." That devil was nothing more than fructose, glucose, and sucrose.

So our tastes for everything from what we eat, to what clothes we buy to how we dress taught to us by the media. Music, movies, television, magazines, pictures...The idea of love, the idea of beauty, the idea of happiness all brought on by illusions. Pictures in our minds are illusions. I don't trust mine anymore. It seems that i have been a victim to illusions all my life and now I'm starting to see truth.

One thing about truth is once you see it you may wish you hadn't. See, truth is never easy. For we're constantly filtering things by our likes, dislikes, our past experience things we see, things we learned things our parents, siblings and friends do, like, say, etc. The list goes on. Plus there is never just one side to truth for in life there's duality. Two sides. Man and woman is truth; which one is right, they are both right. The sun and the moon is truth, light and darkness is truth. No matter how you look at it, truth has two sides. Its just hard to see them both at the same time and when you look at one then the other is a lie. Weird isn't it.

So my taste of what i like, what i want, is slowly changing. Its a new year, i feel anew in a way, not my old self anymore. The truth is setting me free

So now i must relearn what it is that i like. What I really like. What really makes me happy. Its like being a baby all over again. I'm not going to like something just because everyone else likes it, I'm not going to go along and hate something just because someone else tells me its bad. Gosh I miss Pee Wee Herman, bring him back...It takes courage to see truth to appreciate it to really know oneself is truth. My picture here is an illusion...and as the photographer, i created the lie...i am...
... the illusionist.

On the Job...reminiscing a past shoot.

Here are some candid shots someone took of me during one of my shoots. Its kind of nice to see myself in action. I had a really fun time during the shoot but I also felt it was very rushed. I had to shoot about 10 girls that night in about two hours time at a saki bar with very limited space.

A did the whole shoot with my Pentax ist DS.

Confusion...which direction to take

I added this photo because it really exemplifies how i feel about everything. Confusion, cluttered, a big ball of so much stuff that I just don't know which direction to take with it all. My writing, photography, music...etc. Its like, where do I go now? What do I do now? What's next?

For me I like it all and my mind sees no limitations. I see something and I want to emulate it for the experience but eventually all i do is disappoint myself because I can never do what someone else does perfectly like them. Its something that has plagued my creative life for a long time. My high standards, my perfectionist standards, my wanting to do everything right and perfect when perhaps in creativity there is no such thing.

When I was heavily in writing i wanted to emulate the greats; Dumas, Dickens, King, Rowling, Bronte's, Lawrence, Faulkner, and the list goes on and on. I'm sure inspiration hits everyone but I have always fallen victim i suppose to not having confidence in my creativity and always wanting to be like someone else. Being myself would require some courage i suppose.

I'm always looking into the future. Preparing for the last assignment took much of my time but now that its over I have an emptiness to fill and there is just so much CSI and House Md episodes one can watch before he's not living in reality anymore. I'm done getting lost like that.

I lke all aspect of photography to a point. I'm more attracted to the strange the bizarre but also the beautiful. I enjoy the creativity as in the pictures above, working with photo shop. Photography has such a broad spectrum, you can do anything and everything with it and there lies my problem. I like it all. I guess its creativity that i like more than photography. I also need self expression.

One other plague I have with my creativity is the bastardizing of it for the sake of money. This creates fear because no one wants to fuck up. I mean you get hired by a client to do what ever write a book, do a photo-shoot, bake them a pie, no one wants to fuck up. So it create fear. I was watching the Christopher Lowell show one day (he's very creative) and he said there can be no creativity when there is fear. Fear can come from all aspect. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of being laughed at and not understood. Fear of wasting your life and your time.

Last year at this time I was working two days a week, slipping into financial despair and it was freezing fucking hell. I wrote my book Vegas Suhsi during this time. There is nothing like your life falling apart at the seems to give you a tremendous push and need of a creative outlet. I wrote my screenplay My Father the Duck, on the week after I quite my job. It just poured out of me. I've read that JK Rowling's life was crap as well when she wrote Harry Potter. Maybe as artists we need chaos to create, order out of chaos.

This year, i have a full time job and My novel is there needing revision, attention, like a baby. I've left aside to cool off and don't know if I'm ready to tackle it again. It overwhelms me. I"m not very good at long term commitments. But again mabye my expectation are too high. I also put too much pressure on myself to succeed. I should just really focus on the enjoyment of it. Having fun not trying to or thinking is going to get me somewhere.

So that's one thing I"m going to stop doing. Stop thinking all this is going to get me somewhere. I think I really need to learn to have that something. You know some people wake up in the morning and they have that wonderful something that they are going to do. They go to work and when they get off they go do that thing. That's what I'm looking for that thing. Lately I've gotten into cooking. Who knows maybe I'll go try to be on Iron Chef. But for now I'll wait for inspiration to hit me.

Leu Gardens the place for flowers

Pentax ist DS, smc 50-200 DA

One of my favorite flower pictures I took at Leu Gardens. My friend had just gotten her Nikon d40 and wanted to try it out. Leu Gardens is an amazing place and the first Monday of each month its free from 9-12. There are flowers and plants of all types. I shot this raw then first ran it through Adobe Lightroom but was not happy with the results. I later ran it through Silky Pix and found the colors, sharpness, and details to be more to my liking. Silky Pix is an excellent RAW converter.

Hills Pet Food....Kx...on the job.

The Pentax Kx's first paid assignment and it was the right job to break it in. As the client wanted candid photos in a convention room which was dimly lit.

The Pentax Kx is probably the king of the mountain right now for low light high ISO shooting for cropped sensors and the camera is only about $540 compared to either Nikon's or Canon's full frame cameras.

I managed to shoot some shots at ISO 6400 with very little noise. I was also breaking in my new lens. Not brand new. I picked up a used 28-80 FA 4-5.6 for pennies. The lens was very sharp and the range was perfect for the candid photos the client wanted me to take.

food for thought: COMPARISONS ARE UGLY

There's a lady I work with and she's just a beautiful person to talk to. We fire off ideas back and forth as if we were throwing around lightning and when the sparks hit us we can see the light bulbs go off over our heads and we feel so inspired with what ever insight we shared with each other.

The other day she told me something that her mother use to tell her. "Comparisons are Ugly." It kind of flew by me pretty quick but as i worked on through the day, i have a lot of time to think about things, it dawned on me how more and more incredible her statement was.

How many beautiful and wonderful things do we miss out on. How many sunrises and sunsets and new people and new friends and new opportunities do we miss out on the joy of experiencing them because we are always comparing things to something else. Like getting a new car but comparing it to your old one or the one your friend has.

This has been on my mind so much lately, it seems like a habitual pattern, everybody does it, its so easy and it just really kills life. Each moment is special you will never regain that second, that minute that day, that week.

You've might have seen hundreds of sunsets in your life but you have never seen this one. Maybe you've seen a thousand full moons but you've never seen the one your looking at now. Instead of going through life comparing see things a new. In Taoism its called Pu which means the un-carved block. Everything is new, everything is spectacular because we've never seen, tasted, touched, felt, ate, smelled, etc,..it before. Its all new.

Pentax Kx...Ready for Battle

Pentax Kx - Ready for Battle.
My new camera with full metal jacket or should I say, a modded grip, the metz 48 flash, and a new long camera strap. Much of what comes into our lives we may not know what exactly it is for. I had moments of insight to create this grip for the camera which really helps in handling it but at the same time i can take it off and keep a small camera that i can take anywhere and everywhere.

So sometimes it may seem that things happen to us or we do things and we don't really know what will come of it or why we did it in the first place. This could be anything from buying something you've never wanted, quitting our jobs, breaking up a relationship and only when we wind up meeting ourselves in the future do we realize what are past actions were fore.

William Faulkner, the king of the short story, was a master at starting a short story but he also knew how to finish them for he said, "all things work out in the end."
In all life i believe this happens; all things work out as they are suppose to one way or another.
Its when we meet our future self by looking back in the past do we realize what life had in store for us.
I recall in the movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure where Bill and Ted had to do these little things like steal Bill's dad's car keys, throw a garbage can out the windows, but it wasn't until they met their future selves did they realize what those past actions helped them accomplish.

So we never know what our current action and what paths we walk on now will lead us to till we meet our selves in the end. Then we can look back and say oh this happened so that that could happened. I met this person so that they could introduce me to that person and it goes on.
Like this i got a call to do a conventions job over at the Gaylord Palms. Some company called me out of no where. But then when I look back I remember doing a photo shoot for a hair stylist here in town. One of the girls worked at the Gaylord and asked me for a card. She added me to a list of photographers that she would recommend to clients. So if i had never done that shoot i would have never met the girl and i would not have the job lined up for me. It's all relative.

Small Packages...

 

Its amazing the differences between eastern and western cultures. In America we like everything big. Big cars, big houses, big money, big bling, big food like the big mac and the whopper not the mention BK's Big Fish which use to be called the whaler.

I was watching a cook off on the food network between Emeril Lagasse and Martin Yan. Emeril got a huge side of salmon and Martin got about a hand size portion. Martin Yan exclaimed how a fish the size of Emeril's would feed and entire village for a week but only one person here in America. Things that make you go hmmm...

And the list goes on with big bands, big gulps, big hair and super sized portions of Big Love. But yet there are many things that are good that come in small packages. Like Ramen. Who's doesn't like Ramen. You might find it hard to find a person who at least won't settle down to nice bowl of a 25 cent package of noodles and powdered salt flavoring at least once in their life. Many a college student owe their existence to this stuff.

In eastern cultures it seems to be the opposite of western cultures. Everything there is small. The smaller the better. Small cars, small apartments, small radios, small TV's that you can wear around your wrist. Even smaller are cellphones that can do it all and digital cameras that can almost do it all. In the east, small is cute, as the cute little girls walk around strutting their miniature hello kitty stuff.

I took this photo in a moment of spontaneous craziness. It had been a long hard week at work, lot going on with family coming in for the holidays and bordering on overload and burn out. So on this cranky morning when my sister cat kept bugging me to feed before i had even fed myself i told it to eat some Ramen and i threw the package in its bowl which just happened to be a perfect fit. The cat looked at the package with a crazy eye then shot me look that said, "what the hell is this...??" I fell over laughing because the cat's expression was priceless, so real because it was real. All caught on my cell phone cam. No need to bring out the big guns for this one.

Just goes to show you that good things come in small packages. At times I feel many photographers get so wrapped up on what equipment they have and what big lens they have, when sometimes all you need is a cellphone with a camera.

I'm glad i caught this moment because it reminded of what photography is really about. Capturing that moment in life and its not about what you have and how big it is, its just about living a bit, catching a breath, having a smile, and taking a pictures to remember the moment.

Head Shots...Pentax Kx...on the job

First assignment with Pentax kx. Head shots. It was a cold day down in the 30's. The camera came through with flying colors. Focus was fast, metering was spot on and colors were vivid.

Like anything new we are always comparing it with the old. Its hard to let go and be open when we cling to the past. I still cling to my first camera because i know it in and out, its simple. I know how sharp it is how the colors will be. The new on is a mystery to me. Its like a whole new relationship. The new one has tons of more features and in the end will probably wind up taking some amazing pictures in its lifetime.

Like a new pair of shoes eh. Where will their journey take them. The old shoes sit in the closet only remembering what they did and where they went. Still we take them out from time to time on the weekends when we want to relax cause the old and familiar feels just right.

It just takes a little time to break it in and get to know it. I'm very happy with the little camera as are many others who have it. A new camera for a new year.

Tania Martins Hair Salon

In White copy, originally uploaded by frankdpix.

More street shots...Pentax *ist DS

A collage made by Picasa, such an awesome program and its free. They say nothing in life is free, somethings are and when you find them take advantage because good things don't last. No sooner it seems that anything good has to be made new and improved which really never improves anything and sometimes makes things worse. Enjoy what you have when you have it so you'll appreciate it when its gone with any regrets.

Breaking the Rules...Pentax Ist DS

Pentax *ist DS, FA28-80 3.5-5.6 Macro, shot at: 3200 iso

Tonight I went out with my old trusted friend the Pentax Ist DS. A camera that I originally bought for my sister but it eventually wound up with me, has done nothing more than deliver some amazing and outstanding results for portrait, fashion, nature, and all around photography for the last year or so. I really dig this camera. Its built solid and has amazing sharpness and color.

I went out to a popular hangout for the locals and tourists in town to do a little night photography. Tonight the weather was down to a brisk 50 and the temperate weather has had an effect on people as they are more wild and out of control. Here is a candid shot of guy who got stopped by security for horsing around. Just one of those moments that happens in life for there are those who make the rules and those who break them.

Sure rules are meant to be broken and most masters will agree that once you learn the rules, you will break them. But just how far can one break the rules before its considered going too far. For me following the rules makes me feel like a robot. My job is a pleasant one. I take pictures all day but it can get so repetitive, so impersonal, and so corporate-ized. It feels like a factory and i lose my heart and soul. I really don't feel much alive sometimes.

But on New Years Eve I managed to break the rules a little and i must admit I felt alive. More alive than i had in a very long time. So I guess breaking the rules isn't all bad, sometimes its very necessary. It keeps that keen instinct of being human and not being a tin man like on the wizard of OZ. But just remember if you break the rules...there is always hell to pay...so be prepared.

Where you least expect it...Pentax Kx

Pentax Kx, 18-55 DAL

Happy New Year Everyone. I was iffy about how and where and when to start a blog. But -a just happened, came to me sort of deal - brought me to this place. Actually is was Picasa.

My family had come to visit and I drove them down to Ft Lauderdale for their wonderful 7 day cruise. I wish i could have gone but maybe i would not have seen this splendid and beautiful thing. It was on the way back and I had my camera in my bag. An Xmas gift to myself. Something new in a world where everything is so old.

The Pentax Kx is truly an amazing little machine.

I was driving about 90, probably breaking a law or two as i grabbed the camera sitting at my side, holding the steering wheel firmly with my knees. I flipped the switched and shot about five or six rounds to get this one. It had been a long day of driving, three hours there and three hours back but i would have never seen this if i had not done it.

Just goes to show you, you never know where and when you will see a thing of beauty or where life will lead you. Sometimes you have just go with the flow and it will usually lead you where you need to be. With my new Pentax Kx I think I'm ready to see and capture the world in a whole new way.

Dirty Day...Pentax Kx

U2 has a song, Daddy's Gonna Pay for your Crashed Car, on their Zooropa album. One of my favorite songs with such a pounding drum beat. When I'd gotten back to town from my Ft. Lauderdale voyage i was caught by surprise by a tiny Yorkie running in the middle of a busy highway. As i slammed my breaks to avoid hitting it, as did every other car on the high way, my attention was quickly taken by the sight of a car crash. Across the road two SUV's had smashed into each other.

My first instinct was to watch and stare. Putting everything that happens in life to an image is new to me even with all my years in photography, capturing life as it happens, real life anyway, will take some getting use to.

As the traffic started to move again, a lady had rescued the Yorkie by the way, I grabbed the camera with very little time to tamper with the setting and shot from the hip. This is what i got as the cars streaked by and the camera's slow shutter. It would have been interesting to see the exact image as it happened but this really adds to the effect of a car crash.