Suddenly, I have a new camera. One thing led to another in conversations with my dad, and I’m now the proud owner of his old Canon EOS 50D, plus a few bits and pieces he added (most notably, a lens) to give me a fully armed and operational battle station… I mean, camera. Thanks, Dad!
I played with SLR cameras a little bit in my high school graphic arts classes, so I know the difference between an aperture and shutter speed, as well as the relationship between them. Back then, we were still using film, since digital cameras as we know them today didn’t exist yet. It’s so much nicer to not be limited to 24 or maybe 36 photos on a roll of film. I’m limited only by my memory card, so I can snap all the pictures I want and come up with a few really good ones worth sharing. That’s how the professionals do it, so why can’t I?
So far, all my photos, both for this website and professionally, have been from my various iPhones. They have great cameras for point-and-shoot, but there’s nothing like the flexibility of a real camera and its manual settings if you know how to use them. The Nikon that Chris gave me back in New Hampshire certainly would’ve been a step up if the company I bought my lenses from hadn’t randomly canceled my order without telling me right before I left the area. But its manual settings don’t work, which is why he replaced it in the first place. There’s nothing wrong with this one, and my dad keeps things in perfect condition, which is why I jumped at his offer to pass it along to me.
Of course, most of the time I go interesting scenic places to take pictures, It’s on my motorcycle. The camera fits in my tank bag, but that has no padding, and no way to lock it securely. I took a ride up to Harbor Freight and picked up the Apache 2800 case, which is one size smaller than I use for the trunk on my motorcycle. I carefully picked away just enough foam to hold the camera inside. (The strap goes on top when I close the case.) After taking these pictures, I made a couple of slots to hold the spare batteries, so I should be able to shoot all day. There’s space leftover on the right side of the case, which I’m going to save for an additional lens someday if I decide to pick one up. While the case itself has no built-in locks, I can use a padlock or two to secure it.
I’d originally wanted to clip this case to the top of my motorcycle gas tank, using the custom Givi mount salvaged from my dead tank bag. I even thought about plugging power into it to charge my phone, batteries, and such. However, it turns out the case is too big to fit between the handlebars, so that idea won’t work. But just now I carried the case home inside one of my saddlebags, so I can just carry it around that way from now on. I wouldn’t want to carry the camera alone in soft luggage in case I drop the bike on it, but inside the case, it’s well protected, so I’m not worried at all. The same type of case has held up to four years attached to two motorcycles, which is why I chose the same time to protect the camera.
I’m not going to go into a great deal of detail here about the nitty gritty of my adventures in photography. For that, feel free to follow me on Instagram, which is set up specifically for that sort of thing. You’ll certainly see some results of my work here, but I’m not going to go into great detail about what shutter speed and f-stop I’m using. I’m pretty new at this, so you wouldn’t learn much from it anyway, since I’m still learning myself.
That’s one last trip to Eugene accomplished. I’m almost caught up on work to where I expect to be at this point in the month. I did all my laundry today, so I’ll be hitting the road with clean clothes. I’ve started packing up my camp, and I’m at a point where I can load the bike, hook up the trailer, and roll out as soon as I’m ready. I have a lot of cleaning to do in the van first, and I want to give everything a mechanical once-over, but that’ll be a project for tomorrow.
Smokey Da Van 