My Equipment

To make great pictures a lot of people think they need to go out and spend a lot of money on equipment. This is certainly not true. All the images you see on this site have been created with just these three cameras:

Nikon D3100

Nikon D3100 sporting a 70-300mm f4-5.6 'G' lens with a Nikon HB-26 hood attached. Also notice the homemade shoulder strap my wife made for me.

Nikon's entry level Digital SLR. I picked it up in December 2010 when the price dropped to $599. For that little price you get a 14MP CMOS sensor and a 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 AF-S kit lens with Vibration Reduction (VR.) It also has the capability of 1080P video. Drawback is the D3100 can only autofocus AF-S lenses so I have to manual focus the lens you see mounted on it. To me this is not a big deal, to others it is a dealbreaker. I will be adding photos to show you what this pictured combo is capable of!

A quick note on straps. I cannot stand neck straps, especially ones that come with the cameras. Having a huge company logo and a camera bouncing off your chest makes you stand out in a crowd. A shoulder strap blends in as I could be carrying any bag and the camera is hidden by my body. This is very helpful while street shooting or anywhere you need to be subtle.

Fujifilm F30

Fujifilm F30. This was my only camera for years.

The Fujifilm F30 is an incredibly powerful compact digital camera sporting a 6.3MP CCD sensor (which was a lot back in 2006 when I got it.) It takes 480P video and has apature and shutter priority modes which are incredibly useful. It also takes very good low light photos and has higher image quality than most compacts available today.

Nikon N65

Nikon N65 35mm SLR with a 28-80mm f3.3-5.6 'G' lens. Yes, I take 35mm photos!

While growing up I learned old school photography on my dad's Vivitar SL-220. Nowadays I take my N65 on a photo shoot and have loads of fun reliving the old days. The N65 is a lot different though with 5 AF points, 3D metering, auto advance, auto bracketing, autofocus, auto ISO sensing, and all the other features an electronic SLR with a cpu can do. The N65 has the ability to focus screw type AF lenses as well as AF-S lenses with internal motors which mean I can use about any lens with it! The basic operation is still the same as the old days: watch the exposure meter and adjust accordingly! For all you folks that think 35mm is dead, think again. Check out my 35mm page to see what you can do with an old film camera.

Camera Bag

Check out my surplus army shoulder strap!

Backpacks are great for school books and my laptop, but they are terrible for carrying your photo equipment. If you carry a backpack all of your lenses and equipment are out of arm's reach! I use this bag strapped across my shoulder. (I am not nerdy enough to be seen in public wearing a fanny pack around my waist!) This way my 2nd lens is always readily available without having to find somewhere to set a backpack down.