The Artful Prairie

Photography

I caught the photo bug in the mid '60s while growing up in Iowa. Maturing as a naturalist, and trained as a scientist, my photography has always been about wonders of the physical world around me. Flora, fauna, and geology, ranging from the really big to the very small, are all fair game in my world travels.

I have been coaxed into photographing several weddings and other more practical and utilitarian works, but my first love has always been nature photography.

Like many others, I started out with my parent's old twin lens reflex 2.25 x 2.25" and black and white film. I progressed through several more modern, but not necessarily better, cameras through junior high and high school where I was introduced to B&W film developing. I purchased my first SLR, a Russian made Zenit B that used the Pentax screw mount , in early 1972. I t was handy because the camera allowing me to borrow my brother's Pentax lenses (thanks Paul!). I learned a lot with that camera, one item being I needed a better camera and more lenses. So, in 1973 I moved on to a Pentax MX with the bayonet style K mount. This camera literally went with me all over the world in the next 30 years.

During my cash poor days as an undergrad, Paul and I found ways to economize by building some of our own equipment and processing our own Ektachrome slides. Of my many thousands of slides, a fair percentage were from the batches of 16 35mm roles we processed together.

Sometime around 2003, Karen, my long suffering spouse, decided I needed to try my hand at digital photography and presented me with a 5 megapixel Kodak DX7590. I had been holding off for some years due to the lack of digital resolution compared to film. The computer side came very easily due to my many years on the bleeding edge of microcomputer and software technologies. The camera was a good learning tool, but the lack of good macro capabilities, slow auto focus, and maddening ability to find things to focus on other than the desired subject fueled a lust for a high resolution digital with all the abilities I had come to know and love with film SLRs.

In early 2007 I finally managed to "justify" the purchase of a new Pentax K10D. I could use my legacy lenses, it had environmental seals to keep a substantial amount of dust and humidity out of the body, and at 10 megapixel, it was "close enough" to film resolution. Although I was an early convert to the Tameron 18-250mm zoom lens for "walking around," my old Tamron 52BB 90mm f2.5 Adaptall 2 SP macro was still my favorite lens. Even though it is "old technology," has only a 2:1 native reproduction ratio, and manual focus (I don't tend to use auto-focus even when available), it is the second best lens I have ever used for sharp close-ups. Paired with my old Vivitar ring flash, it was a formidable combination for macro photography. But all technology tends to be superceded and in 2010, I retired that lens for a Tamron 90mm f2.8 SP AF macro with a 1:1 reproduction ratio. This has become my new favorite lens.

In 2008, we were planning a trip to Madagascar with a group of birders. This called for some serious focal length, so after much reearch and weighing (both figuratively and literally) the options, I settled on the Sigma 50 to 500 "bigma." This versitile lens has served well, however it got knocked around with all the scrambling and bushwhacking. It has had a minor focus problem at infinity, but still usable for closer work. One of these days, I will actually get around to having it fixed.

I expect to continue lusting after the newer technologies, The Pentax K7, with its higher resolution, more compact size, and expanded capabilities had my Pentaxian heart racing pretty well. 2010 I gave in and upgraded. But time marches on, and I continue to drool over the newest and most advanced equipment. Maybe a complete change over to a nice Canon kit ...? Time will tell what I can't live without next.

For information on competitions, see the Images - Noteworthy and Award Winning page.

andrew.hollander@artfulprairie.com