My hobby: photography

Photography

A long time ago, when I was studying at the Pius X institute in Wilrijk, Antwerp, I had the pleasure of doing a 'minor' in photography. The 'major' vs 'minor' system doesn't really exist in Belgium, but the Pius X institute is an exception in that it does allow people to have 'secondary' options -- things like dactylo, an extra language, or, as in my case, photography.

A one-hour-per-week course, I did this for one year, and had loads of fun doing so. We were taught a number of interesting basic things about photography; not just things like depth of field, diafragm, shutter speed, but also more artistic things like the golden ratio, things one can do with perspective, and other things. The next year, the option vanished, plus I changed schools a bit later, so it really didn't matter much anymore. However, I did like taking pictures, and promised myself to buy a camera when I would have the money.

Which I eventually did, several years later. At the end of 2005, near christmas, I got myself a Nikon D50 camera, with the 18-55mm kit lens, in the Antwerp Media Market, since they appeared to have a surplus stock (the D40 had just been announced then) and it came at a discount.

If I'd been smart, I would've stopped right there and not spent any more money. But of course, I wasn't—it's just way too much fun to buy these things—so I did buy me a lot more stuff later on.

After a few months, I bought me the 18-70mm DX lens. This lens outperforms the 18-55 in every aspect except weight and minimum focal distance, so it didn't take long until I went to a local second-hand photo equipment shop where I sold the 18-55 and bought a Sigma 28-300 f/3.5-6.3 on F-mount.

That 28-300 is a wonderful lens. At 300mm, its hyperfocal point is rather far away, giving me some bokeh for subjects at most distances. Even more bokeh would of course be nice (it always is), but this lens is already pretty good for outdoor sports photography—such as the American Football matches that my brothers play.

Both the 18-70 and the 28-300 are pretty slow lenses, however; and since I have no external flash, they make it hard (at best) to take pictures indoors or in the evening. As such, recently I bought me a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D, which is a much faster lens than the other two. I'm just starting to explore its possibilities, but I really, really love the thing.

If you want to see my work, go to my gallery. I put my highlights up on my flickr photostream.