Goodbye my Nikon D70

"Thank you"

My Nikon D70 really took me to a different level moving up from my Nikon D50 with a lot more features that are missing. For that kind of money, it's an absolutely perfect camera for anybody to move up from point & shoot to really get a taste of DSLR photography. I had a talk with my die-hard Canon friend comparing features of the few cameras we've had our hands on, and I'm sure he'll agree if I say that Nikon really packed a lot more features and value into this camera than anything comparable with the same price tag with the name Canon on it. Just by holding the camera in your hand and you'll feel the difference, much like feeling BMW plastic comparing to Honda Civic plastic.

Why am I getting rid of it? It's sad but 6.1 megapixel is simply not enough if I start printing or selling my images. It's really unfortunate that it boils down to this, but it's the sad truth that the D70 is made for the consumers, not prosumers, nor the pros. If I were ever to dip my foot into that area, it simply isn't good enough.

Why not sell the D50? The D50 is a newer camera, and I find it generally much easier to capture good images with it than the D70. Don't get me wrong. Both cameras are neck to neck in terms of image quality, and the D70 gives you a lot more bells and whistles and extend your capabilities to create that "better" you'll struggle with the D50. However, the D50 is my choice to serve as a second camera, or as a backup camera. On top of all that, my wife bought the D50 to me as a gift... :-)

If you want to seize this opportunity and pick up my D70, it's on ebay for 7 days starting today 7/25/07. Here's the link to the auction.

Goodbye D70! You served me well, and It's really sad to see you go. I hope your new owner takes great care of you!

My first real Photo Shoot - Audi TT

Moro Blue Audi TT Coupe, originally uploaded by hermanau.

The pressure was on, and I was seriously getting quite nervous. I found a few guys over the Internet willing to show up with their rides for a photo shoot last week at my "private studio". I had Bernard with me that night who really relieved me from quite a bit of stress and pressure helping out and shooting as well.

I planned things out pretty well and tried to get as much all thought out as I could, but still there were things that went unexpected. Instead of the 2 cars we scheduled, we had 4 showing up. No big deal really, but it wasn't easy when time was limited while we did not want the shoot to go endlessly. And then I struggled a bit with the 2 cameras with me and managing the tripod, while still trying to coordinate the cars and communicate with the owners all at the same time when the primary thing I wanted to do was to shoot. I also made mistakes here and there when I had so many things on my mind, while there were distractions around particularly when there were others driving around the lot being silly... some guy with a modified car was revving his engine being stupid; some other guys drove up to the empty lot with unknown intentions; and later 2 cops also showed up but was being nice and didn't interrupt at all and actually waved at us. I actually felt better that knowing there were law enforcements around... :)

But here are the results... this is particularly the one shot I liked the most. After many, many experimental shots shooting everything, endlessly looking for inspirations from magazines and the Internet, and portraying different angles and scenarios all in my head randomly, I think I'm finally getting to a point where I feel comfortable to proudly call this my work.



Big thanks to all 4 owners who were very cooperative throughout the 3 hour process, putting up with my endless request of moving the cars, turning the wheels, etc. I'm also very glad that everything went under control and everybody was very friendly.

On a side note, I developed some of my pictures at Target and I find the whole service very impressive and easy to use. From my home computer to flickr to picking up at a local Target = 1 hr? AND the quality was better than what we got from Samy's? That's an easy call for me... :) Be sure to try it out flickr users!

on a side note, some of my work of this Audi Shoot is published here on German Car Blog