Tell them, my song.

Color Vision Deficiency

I have no ambition to be a full-time photographer or to even reach a semi-professional level. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t: Like many males, my eyes have a red-green weakness. If you want to hide a red ball and make it impossible for me to ever find it: Just drop it on your lawn. It will then completely disappear from my vision.

I love photography, though, especially monochromes. (Who would have guessed that a guy with red-green weakness prefers monochromes…?)

Brand loyality

My first real camera was a Pentax K1000 which I bought used in Grand Junction, Colorado, back in 1999. (I cannot recall, though, if I bought it from Bob’s Camera or from Monument Camera. Sorry.) There were no DSLRs back then. This was a pure analog camera that still used film. Also, there was absolutely no supporting electronics in that camera. The only thing the camera had was an analog light meter, so you would at least have a bit of an idea if your picture would become too bright or too dark. However, cameras like this one were recommended by American colleges for their arts/photography students – at that time, students were not allowed to have cameras with automatic features and helpers. They idea was to learn how to do photography. In that summer in Colorado, I spent a small fortune on buying films and having them developed at the local mall.

Also, since that summer in GJ, I’m loyal to the Pentax brand – this is how much I loved using the good old K1000.

My first real DSLR was, of course, another Pentax – the *istDS with 6 Megapixels. With that Pentax, I began learning something about RAW photography, in combination with the long discontinued Apple Aperture software and Adobe Photoshop CS3 on Mac OS X.

Apple Aperture was brutally buggy, but nonetheless awesome. Adobe Lightroom, even in the most current version, cannot hold a candle to Aperture and its workflow; Aperture matched my personal way of thinking perfectly. I miss this software – and there still is no replacement for it on the market that comes remotely near what Aperture did. Discontinuing Aperture was a deep blow from Apple, and it was one of the greatest reasons to leave the Apple ecosystem behind for good: You suck, Apple!

I recently bought a Pentax K-1 Mark II with a Pentax DA 55-300 lense to get started. At the same time, for lack of better alternatives, I also purchased an annual Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop subscription and I have bought paint.net in the Microsoft Store to support its developers. I’m using that software on a PC running Windows 11 Pro for Workstations – no mas Apple!

 

 

I still know nothing about this camera and have loads to learn. But I enjoyed the hell out of taking her on a first excursion, photographing wolves.