Back in February, when I went to Vienna for the 2009 IMED conference, my biggest complaint about the trip was that I didn’t have a nice camera to capture the experience. Thanks to some friends, I was able to borrow a small Canon point and shoot, but it just didn’t have the horsepower and options I really craved to get the job done. My friend Chris, on the other hand, did have a nice camera and was able to capture some pretty nice images. He had a Canon Rebel XSi at the time, and as soon as I got back, I began researching cameras. Not too long after I got back home, I wound up buying an XSi myself.
Now, I’ve never had an ounce of artistic talent in my body. I’ve always loved good photography, and since I’ve been in college, at least, I always wanted to get into photography myself. I never had the funds, though, until I got to grad school. Since getting into this hobby, I’ve discovered that I can express myself artistically after all! It’s really exciting, and I’ve grown to really love this side of myself.
Even though I’ve only been into photography for about 7 months, I’ve already built up a pretty nice arsenal:
I have really versatile equipment. The only thing currently missing is a general walk-around lens. After much deliberation, I’ve decided to buy the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 VC. This Tamron’s younger brother (the non-VC 17-50mm f/2.8) is an incredibly popular walk-around lens for crop bodies due to its speed and sharpness. The new VC-enabled 17-50mm is set to debut sometime this next month, and I can’t wait. It’s priced really well, too, at about half the price of Canon’s 17-55mm f/2.8 IS whose only real advantage is a USM motor providing quieter and speedier auto-focusing. For a grad student, choosing the Tamron over the Canon was a no-brainer.
Alright, the title of this post is “Pretty Things,” so I suppose I should get on with it. Here are some of my favorite pictures. Clicking each image will take you to my Flickr page where you can view the image at a larger resolution by clicking on the magnifying glass above the image that says “All Sizes.”
