a
frankhunt.com operation
I
have been creating photographic images for many years. I
believe in "capturing the moment" whether that be a quick "snapshot" ,
a carefully crafted fine art studio image or an image created and shot
"in situ". In the gallery pages below I have gathered some of
what I consider my best efforts in photographic imagery. I
began my photographic journey somewhere around age 10 or 12 when my grandmother
let me use her Kodak "Brownie" camera. As I recall, it used
120 film. It was all black and white of course, since at that
time color film and processing was quite expensive. Over time
I moved from taking "snapshots" to making pictures. I studied
photography at Portland Community College and took many classes and
workshops over the years from local fine art photographers.
A bit about the evolution of my hardware: My first "real"
camera was a Bessler Topcon 35mm with a 50MM fixed lens. I
soon outgrew that camera and moved to a Nikkormat 35mm which
allowed me to accumulate several lenses and bodys.
I still have that camera which is about 35 years old now and
working fine. I have also owned some medium format cameras
including the Mamiya C220 and RB645. In the mid 90's , while in Tokyo
on business, I purchased my first digital camera for $195.00. It
was a Casio QV-11 (0.82 megapixels!). It provided me with a
good introduction to what was then very rudimentary amateur digital
photography. I still have the Casio and it is in fine working
order. The Casio was quite limited and I soon needed to upgrade.
I then moved to the Kodak DC260 (1.5 Megapixels) which
I used for many years and still have as well. Digital camera
capabilities and image resolutions were rapidly evolving and prices
were coming down but refresh
times were still slow and interchangeable lens 35mm style bodies were
very expensive. My next camera was the Nikon CoolPix 5700 - a
pretty good, albeit slow, 5 megapixel camera. There were a
couple of lens options available for that one but still not quite what
I was after. The best
feature of that camera was that it died on me while at Disney World a
few years ago and that "allowed" me to purchase a new Nikon D70s (6.1
megapixels at 3 frames per second) which at the time was pretty much
the state of the art in affordable digital cameras, at least for the
amateur market. I loved that camera, it was fast, had
interchangable lenses and worked flawlessly. I took advantage of
an opportunity to trade
up to a Nikon D80 (10.2 megapixels) after about six months.
A local student photographer was looking for a better camera and
we made a deal. The D80 has been rock solid for me after over
15,000 images and I continue to use it daily. Most recently I was
able to finagle a new D300 body and that
is where I sit today. The D300 is just plain awesome. I
currently have a 10.5mm fisheye, a
12-24mm wide angle zoom, a 60mm f/2.8 macro lens, an 18-70mm f/4.5 zoom
lens and a 70-300 f/4.5 VR zoom lens for this camera. My
flash unit is a Nikon Speedlight SB-600, with an SB-400 as backup, and
I have the usual assortment of filters, tri and mono pods and other
junk in my bag. I take lots of pictures - a typical shoot runs to
nearly a thousand images (after all, "film" is cheap). I believe
that to improve your photographic abilities, you need to push the
shutter button alot and to learn the equipment thoroughly. My web
site contains over 75,000 images at this
writing.
|