k-5 debut :D

took my k-5 for its maiden voyage today. in all honesty, not super excited about the shots themselves, cause went to deer lake for em and parks are just....boring, for me now. like, honestly, unless i've never been there before and it's legitimately fresh and new and different, parks are just too boring.

that said, the process of taking photos was absolutely  great. the k-5 simply felt great in hand, felt great to shoot. the combined incredibly sexy sounding shutter and 7 fps meant i shot wayyyy  more than was justified - ended up deleting about 75, if not 85% of my shots. and, the autofocus, my god the autofocus. so much more accurate and quick! too awesome. and being able to see my AF points was a huge boon too, finally (though i did miss a few shots cause the idea of changing AF points was so foreign to me. operator error ^__^)

i can't wait to do some street (or landscape, somewhere new) with my k-5 :D though that's not to say i didn't end up with shots i liked today....

i think probably my favorite of the day. once i converted this to B&W the contrast really came alive for me.

classic FA limited 3d "pop"

while these're just ordinary stems in colour, i thought they looked so epicly alien in B&W :D

did i mention autofocus speed/accuracy/7fps?

before, my d-fa 100 wr rarely made it out of the bag. sure it was a nice lens, but the act of having to menu dive to fix the autofocus (which wasn't even always consistent,  on my k-x) just simply killed the fun for me. that's what the k-5's done for me - by getting all these little things like autofocus out of the way, it just lets me enjoy it all. and now my d-fa 100, which before had such a bad connotation in my mind, is now making a comeback :D

so all in all, one tiny step for a portfolio, one giant leap for my photography.

i can't wait till i can get out with this thing again.

till then, adorable duckling!

random sidenote unrelated to anything. i like music. i've been...diversifying a lot. it's been a while since i downloaded a metal album or anything like that; i've pretty much stopped exploring metal bands all together...  been absolutely loving the newest rise against album though. and, some indie-ish stuff, a la The Airborne Toxic  Event. killer band, love their lyrics/somewhat sarcastic/ah fuck it type of sound. and some more mainstream music, like pink or rihanna or katy perry. iunno. i think i've been really embracing what someone said at some point, music is music. if you like it, listen to it. if not, don't. who cares who it's by or what genre it is. sounds like common sense but i'm just figuring this shit out now ^__^ 

entitlement.

it's amazing the sense of entitlement some people have. my last hour of a 9 hour shift at futureshop, some douchebag comes in, and seems pretty cool at first. then starts asking what i can do for prices - it's an open box canon 60D, so i say probably $50 off or so if i ask the manager. he scoffs in my face and claims it was at under 1100 a few months ago but not during christmas time and there was nothing wrong/missing with it. considering how close that is to our actual cost of i smelled bullshit but whatever.

then he asks me about my coworker's schedule, who i assume he'd talked to a while ago. anyways, guy asks me for her schedule. i say i'm sorry, i don't know. i can find out if you want though?. "well okay what days does she  usually work?" i dunno, we just get a diff schedule every 2 weeks. "you just really don't want to answer my question, do you?"  /snarky tone..........
..........
.......
buddy, i fucking said i don't know, and offered to find out for you. ffffucks sakes. going into a retail job i realize i'll meet people like this, but this fucker's attitude and sense of entitlement, just arghhhhhhaoidojwaoidwaj.


but it's okay. i got off work.

i held my k-5. shot some shots and hear the sound of that sexy, smooth shutter.

and all is good now.

wuhbam.

wuhbam. took this shot while peoples were over for french project: shoot a crime, or whatever, and etc, and stuff, and i can't explain well atm, but shit i'm excited to film for this. mainly cause it'll involve much takumar stroking, but omg it'll be epic :D a nice spontaneous shot this was, quite like how it turned out...

similarly, this:

after that single-in-march challenge, i tired a bit of my takumar 50/1.4. this is one of the first times i've use dit since and...omg. beautiful. wide open, and yet sharp as hell (it sometimes is razor sharp at f1.4, and sometimes is pretty soft. it's probably just really fickle with focus, i guess.). bokeh to die for, even the flaring is nice and smooth. if glass has personality, this one is full of it. sometimes i hate it, but the occasional shots like these, transformed into epicness, are what'll keep this lens with me forever.

finally, a random macro. the d-fa 100 wr doesn't get nearly as much use as it deserves, being a godly lens...this shot is proof of that. hot chocolate residue turned out pretty cool in this, imo :)

and now, finally, moment i've all been waiting for........

i got a k-5 this morning.

it is the sexiest thing ever.

i might take some shots of it later with the k-x or comparison photos but honestly, i'd rather just go out and take photos with it. that's what the k-5 does for me: it makes me want to go out, every day, every second, and take photos. kills me that i have to work tmrw, but oh well. 

anyways, here're some of my first shots out of this thing:

the best thing about this shot?

the original was this:

dynamic range in action right there. even in the deepest shadows noise is minimal...landscapes with the k-5 are going to be holyshittery.

also, let's play a game: guess the ISO. ISO 100? you funny child.

this is ISO 6400. yeah.

anyways, enough measurebating. ;D

so far, noticeable holyshits as compared to my k-x....

omg the shutter sound. so smooth and quiet. makes my k-x sound like a jackhammer.

high iso...without testing it outright and just from the "feel" of the files, it seems like i get around a 1.5-2 stop boost in ISO quality. amazing. iso 3200 is smooth and perfectly good, whereas it would be pushing it on the k-x (to my tolerances)
autofocus speed/accuracy...after dialing in the adjustments for each lens, holy shit. pinpoint accuracy, loveeee itttt

an autofocus assist light!

a level!

composition adjust!

a top LCD (which i'm not used to having but getting used to!)

TWO DIALS!

weather sealing!

battery grip!

af.s/af.c/mf switch!

disable-able long-exposure NR!

locking mode dial!

user modes!

visible af points!

(at this point i'm just throwing shit out there that the k-x doesn't even have at all. just in case you haven't  figure that out yet. and the "!" means im excited. just so you know.)

mag alloy body + great grip rubberyness thing!

makes pizza!

serves cold drinks!

types blog posts!

stuff!

amidst hail and pouring rain

the shitty thing about procrastinating blogging is that once something awesome's passed, i don't really feel excited enough to write about it anymore.

prom and stuff happened. it was pretty awesome : D


also, recently i've become addicted to B&W...to illustrate that, here're 3 colour and 1 monochrome photos that i took today, amidst hail and pouring rain.

my jacket was getting soaked and i was bent double, the ziploc bag covering my camera scratching my face and condensing under my breath, fogging up the viewfinder, craning my neck to try and frame just how i wanted....

photography like that feels goddamn amazing to do.

.