Sorry for the recent bout of silence. I was off to Canada to visit friends and get in a bit of skiing.

Rumours of Yeti sightings in Banff and Lake Louise can probably be explained away by me covered in snow.

Pictures and such will follow, but for now…

 

Last week saw me in Austria for a ski holiday. After much deliberation (and some threatening from my wife) I decided to leave my DSLR at home. The risk of breaking it in a fall (I'm not a very good skier) or it causing problems on lifts etc (I'm really not a very good skier) was too high for me to take the chance.

I'm not sure it was the right decision. From an artistic point of view the mountains and the weather was fantastic for photo. We had days of snow, days of glorious sunshine and days which swapped between the two. But, given how much I fell over, it probably made sense...

I did take my E550 with me on a couple of days though. Some of the photographs came out quite well.

 

You can see a few more pictures here.

The reality is I probably forgot every lesson I'd learned about landscapes due to a combination of altitude, hangover, lack of fitness and general "wowiness" of the view. Still, if next Christmas your postcard looks suspiciously home made with a view of some mountains in the snow, you might be able to guess why...

These were some of my favourite shots with the Fuji E550 and I guess they formed the kernel that made me what to know more about taking decent photographs.

I tend to spend a lot of time in Donegal. If you've never been I have to recommend it - good food, good pubs and great scenery. Regardless of the time of year, it's always breathtaking (though as I found last weekend, not very photogenic with grey skies).

Anyway, I took a lot of photos one weekend while playing with my little E550 and these are some that I really liked. Typically everything was done by the camera and that's what was so frustrating. That's what started the drive towards spending money on a dSLR and this site and stuff.

I'm sure these could be better, I'm keen to hear your thoughts and comments on these and any other image I post here.

Cloughglass Beach



Cruit Island



 





Learning To Snap

When I first started shopping for a digital camera and ended up buying my E550, there were two sites I found invaluable.

DPReview gave fantastic information about all the cameras in the market, ranging from my little point and click through to the market leading pro DSLR's of the day. I used this site again when buying my 400D and was glad its only got better with age.

If you've ended up here and are thinking about buying a camera, then go there next.

I first came across Chromasia via an article in the Financial Times I think. the daily pictures are amazing. Of all the sites on the web, of all the pictures out there, David Nightingale is the person who drove me to do this. I've never spoken tot he man, never exchanged an email, never posted comments on his site, but I think his work is fantastic and if I ever get to be half as good I'll be happy. 

Learning To Snap