I don’t have a lot of expensive stuff, but I do like what I have. Here is a partial listing of my gear:
- Canon 40D Camera with Canon Battery Grip
- Canon 430 Ex Speed Light
- Canon 28-135 IS (kit lens)
- Canon 50mm 1.8 (aka, nifty fifty or fantastic plastic)
- Canon (Japan) 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6)
- Black Rapid RS-4 Camera Strap (you gotta try it)
- Hoodman 3″ HoodLoupe (for viewing the lcd while outdoors)
- 2 – Promaster 300w/s studio lights
- Calumet CK7316 tripod and head
Although I have Canon equipment, I am not a Canon snob. I know Nikon makes great stuff. I’ve never used it and to switch would cause me to purchase lots of replacement gear. I used to play Gibson guitars, but still liked Fender. I have always been a PC person and I don’t want to be a PC snob, but I am still having trouble coughing up money for Mac (anyone else think that iTunes is a huge, steamy pile?)
For processing my photos I use Picasa for snapshots and Lightroom 2.0 for serious pictures. With Picasa, I can process 200 pictures in an hour (white balance, lighting adjustments, straighten, and crop). I also use Picasa for its collage utility and for uploading to Picasa Web to share. My biggest gripe with Picasa is that it ignores ICC color profiles. So, your pictures on screen will rarely match your prints.
With Lightroom, I can do all of the fine tuning I need (and some that I don’t need). I love all of the tools available to me in this program. It is an amazing tool. Nuff said.
For prints, I turn to Mpix.com. They have the best processing that I have ever used, their customer service is amazing, their packaging is awesome, and they have the Miller name behind them. They have recently partnered with Zenfolio and that may be reason enough for me to switch my hosting over from Smugmug.
