I’m a lazy blogger, I took these shots over Thanksgiving break while my brother was in town. I’ve been trying to do more portrait photography and to learn more about lighting. I’m trying to follow the Strobist coursework, but I definitely procrastinate more than Id like to admit. Ultimately I’m going to start taking more self portraits, but for now I needed to wait until I had another person to shoot.

This is a simple setup, basically one strobe with a shoot through umbrella that is placed on camera left with the umbrella pointing down at the subject at about 45 degrees. I placed the subject against the fireplace to add some texture to the background (and because it’s the coolest spot in our house). I was striving for a lot of shadows and contrast for this shoot, mimicking some of the pics I took during the A Camp concert.

The camera I used was my Nikon D90 with my 50mm f/1.4D lens. I also had two light stands (ended up mostly using one) with SB-26 flashes. Originally my hope was to use the Cactus radio trigger I had bought, but alas the tigger broke when I dropped it. I ended up putting the camera in Commander mode, with the hope of using the in-built optical slave of the SB-26 to set off the flash. Luckily for me this worked, even though I guess this should really not have worked at all. Also, because I was using the commander mode I effectively actually added some additional light, directly facing the subject.

I’m pretty happy with the results. I also tried processing black and white and split-tone to get a sort of Kodachrome green.

One quick note which applies to every product here… everything I bought was practically brand new, there wasn’t so much as a finger print on any of these devices and I felt like I was committing highway robbery when I bought them

1) Macbook Pro

I’ve been drooling over one of these for the past year or so, I work in advertising and it seems like everyone except for me is on a mac. I was on the fence about getting one for a while, considering the price difference between a capable windows machine and a Macbook Pro. Still I decided to make the jump after I found out about this deal.

Long story short, definitely look for refurbished mac’s, they are basically brand new and come with everything you would normally get except for the original box (who cares). I bought my refurbished Macbook directly from Apple, yes they sell refurbished items too but they kind of hide it on their site.

Here’s the link directly to their refurbished store: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

As you can see they sell all kinds of Macs from just about every line that they carry. Cheaper deals are usually found on older models.

Personally I went with the late 2008 15″ Macbook Pro w/ 512MB 9600M GT – this is the one with the unibody aluminum shell that had the removable battery (not the built in 7 hour battery that this year’s models have – though it looks identical from the outside). What did I pay? $1,599 – which is pricey but not too bad compared to the $2,300 price tag the same model had when it came out less than a year ago.

Apple constantly updates this page, basically when a refurbished unit is available it gets posted until someone purchases it, so you might check the site out a couple of times only to find what you wanted is gone Still they seem to have a constant flow of refurbished products so you won’t have to wait long till your next chance at buying one. Buying refurbished from Apple is great, I’m not sure if I would have made the same refurbished purchase through a third party site.

2) Nikon D90

Ok, so you know I’m into photography. I have been using a Nikon D40 for about a year know and slowly growing my lens collection. While I love the D40 I did feel that the lack of a autofocus motor in the body was a huge letdown. Basically the newest (and in many cases the most expensive) lenses from Nikon have internal motors that will work with the D40, but older Nikons or 3rd party lenses don’t have this. Also the 3 point autofocus system was kind of a letdown when you need to compose a shot quickly and the camera just keeps hunting.

D90’s these days are getting more affordable to most consumers. You can buy a new D90 (body only) for $809.99 from BHPhoto – this is probably the best deal I have found for a brand new copy. However, BHphoto also has a used/refurbished section of their site where they sell everything for a significant discount. This applies to any photographer out there, not just fellow Nikon SLR enthusiasts.

Here’s the link: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/SLR-Digital-Cameras/ci/15488/N/4294182649

I got my D90 for $679! A couple of notes, BHPhoto does not keep these in stock so you have to be lucky and check this site after they have finished refurbishing a camera and listed it on sale. The D90 is very popular and so it rarely pops up on the site, but when it does it is usually listed for $679-$699. BHPhoto is a trusted reseller, so have confidence with any purchase you make through them.

3) Garmin nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch GPS Navigator

I have this joke about myself: I’m like a bird with a magnet stuck to it’s head, I can’t tell which way is North.

Having a GPS unit is like a sea change for me, I was the person who either had to do a complete recon with Google maps and driving directions before heading out, or risk being lost at sea until the winds of fate happened to get me in the right direction. In either case I was wasting a lot of time either before the trip or during it. My life since GPS has been quite different, the only thing I check for is the address I need to go to and then I wing it from there.

If you have a car you NEED a GPS, even if you are good with directions you will be surprised at the quicker ways to get to your destination that you never knew about.

I ended up going with this unit because it was the entry model which had text-to-speech directions (it will speak to you the street names you need to make turns at). Originally I was going to buy this brand new for about $165, until I came across a link to a refurbished version of the same model. I got my GPS for about $120, Amazon seems to fluctuate the price on these from week to week.

Here’s the link: http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-4-3-Inch-Widescreen-Navigator-Refurbished/dp/B001PLOTWS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258140071&sr=8-1

I pretty much buy everything from Amazon without much hesitation, and I am sure you do as well. The great thing about this product is that you will get a visual indicator showing you the next turn you will have to do and it will also estimate your time of arrival (very convenient if you are letting people know when to expect you). When I got this I tested it out by driving 4hrs to Burlington, VT – this is something that would have normally required a lot of map scanning and looking at directions. Also, if you go to the Garmin website within 60 days of registering this product then you can download the most updated map (usually costs $50) for free.

*** End Update***

Here is a video that I just shot using my Canon S90. I recently went to NYC to see A Camp play at Le Poisson Rouge… If you don’t know who A Camp is you may recognize their lead singer, the uber-cute Nina Persson from The Cardigans. Eagle-eyed readers will also see James Iha (the Japanese guy from The Smashing Pumpkins) at the end of the video:

Because this is the most visited section of my blog, and you are probably reading this because you want to see samples of what the Canon S90 can do, here are some of my latest pictures from my trip to New York. If you want to read more about the trip (and see more pictures) click on this link.

Note: all of these images had some processing done with Adobe Lightroom 2.0. I’m assuming that you will process all of your images as well, so think of these as examples of what the final version of your pics could be (the ones you frame or send to friends).

I’m pretty satisfied with the results, but I still need to play around with the camera some more and get comfortable with all the controls. Feel free to post a comment and let me know what you think. Also, if you have not seen the reviews for the camera, then here are the Youtube video’s that I put together.

Part 1 (build quality and first impressions):

Part 2 (more about controls and user interface):

Part 3 (all about video):

Part 4 (Controls/User Interface):

The z850 was an update to the popular z750 and was a compact camera that featured full manual control. This was a bit of a revelation as Casio really was not that well known as a camera maker; mention that name and most people picture cheap watches. Still the z850 was pretty impressive, it sported an excellent startup rate, amazing battery life, up to 60 second shutter lag and fairly decent quality pictures.

Before I decided to invest in a SLR I used the z850 for everything, I ended up knowing the camera inside and out. As I experimented with the different features I was surprised to see what both the camera and I were capable of doing. I still remember the first time I tried a long exposure at night in Times Sq and checked out the LCD to see trails of light from the moving cars. The camera was the only one I brought with me to Brazil and Barcelona.

I think the most surprising thing was that you can create interesting and fun pictures without an SLR. Actually in some cases not having to worry about different lenses and depth of field, etc. liberated you just to try things and have fun.

So in memory of the Casio z850 I’ve put together a collection of some of my favorite pictures that I took with the camera.