This must be Netherlands week, and no one told us! <g> You're the second new Dutch member in two days.
Welcome aboard, Paul. Hopefully, if you can put up with us, you'll actually learn something! cheers, frank Paul Delcour wrote: > Hi all, > > let me just properly introduce myself. Should have done that before imposing > my questions about the K2. > > My name is Paul Delcour from Hilversum, Netherlands. If you want to know a > lot: > > http://www.delcour.org > > I started photography at the age of 8 or 9 woth a very simple all plastic > camera. I still have those first pictures. Then my father gave me his 6x6 > rollfilm camera and I made some really lovely snaps with it. Sensation when > I was allowed a colour film. > Then in 1978 I did a holiday job and with that money bought the then > outgoing K2, a black one, for 780 Dutch guilders. Difficult to say what that > would have been in pounds or dollars, let alone euro's. Wonderful camera and > I was amazed at having such a fine piece of photographic equipment all at my > very own disposal. > > Did a lot of photography with it for a couple of years. Joined a photography > club linked to the university of Groningen. Learned a lot from the teaching > photographer there called Ton Broekhuis. He's still an active photographer > and I have to say I think he's very good. Bit of an odd one at that, but > that can go with being artistic I know from my own experience. > > Changed studies, found my wife and didn't do all that much photography for a > long time. > > Then in 1992 (I think) I decided I was a bit fed up with being a choir > conductor and thought I'd make a serious job of being a photographer. So I > started a course in photography at the Fotovakschool in Apeldoorn. Got me a > second K2 (silver) and a Metz 60 flash (wonderful) to be fully armed for > assignments. > Reason I quitted the course: there's a hell of lot of photographers about > and who am I to be another competitor. Besides, anybody can push a release > buttons. As one of the teachers explained: most people are happy if uncle > Bill's head AND feet are in the picture and he's in focus as well. I > couldn't see myself being pleased with a lot of that kind of assignments. > Apart form that, I simply couldn't master the proper film development and > printing techniques. Hated it and still do. I can drool over a wonderfully > well measured balk and white picture, but don't ask me to do it. I feel the > technique is in my way. Felt the same when playing the piano. As a conductor > I feel I have direct control over the singing. Not so over the keys. > > I can't say that I picked up photography again very seriously, but it's > always lurking in the back of my mind. I 'see' pictures everywhere I go. But > there's not much point in taking all of them if there's no purpose behind > them. So I'm looking for small assignments in my circles of family and > friends. To get going again and get some practise. > > I know this is beside the topic of this list, but I also picked up video. > Got a Canon XM1 for the purpose of making a documentary about my father in > law who is (since 21st of may was) an exceptional wood artist or sculpter. > So I need to skill myself in video and photography both. I already took some > pictures of his work: > > http://www.janvantol.nl > > They were shot in his workplace with light coming form above from three > large windows. I bought a Visatec flashset however, because we would like to > make an inventory of as much of his work as we can trace. That means going > to people's homes and taking pictures there. In order to get the same result > we felt a flashset was needed. Kep you posted on this as I have a lot of > trouble of measuring the flashlight properly. > > My best subjects are those I simply run in to. I did some weddings and > parties and those I love best. I am able to be very not present and thus am > able to quietly go about and observe and shoot unposed scenes. That's my > strongest point: abserve and be ready to click. > > I do like setting up a scene, especially since we got the flashset. It's > fascinating setting up a table top and trying to get the light right. So > far, after just 2 testfilms, I'm not that happy, but than I guess this takes > some time before I'll know how to get it right. > > Equipment. > I still have two K2's and somehow do not wish to part with not h of them. > The black has always been my camera to use and I cannot see a lot of > advances if I take up a much more recent model. Sometimes I feel the lack of > autofocus as I'm always manual focussing and thus sometimes am simply too > late to take the snap I 'saw'. Also 1/4000 would be nice as with 200 and 400 > being the standard I sometimes run out of time... I like a large aperture to > get depth. > > I have all Pentax SMC K lenses, except for one: > Tokina 17/3.5 (very nice, though clearly softer than my Pentax lenses, but > this was simply affordable - use it a lot indoors to get a room in one go) > Pentax 24/2.8 (love it) > Pentax 35/2 (hardly use it) > Pentax 50/1.7 (great for low light, but do not use it a lot) > Pentax 85/1.8 (love it) > Pentax 100/4 macro (great, though not much in use) > Pentax 200/4 (good, but seldom used) > Pentax converter 2x (great with the 200 to get 400, but seldom used. I had a > Panagor converter once which was terrible compared to the Pentax one) > > Wishes: fisheye. Nearly had one a couple of weeks ago, but tehy are hard to > come by. Also: a zoom from about 24-90 to use at parties where it will > simply save me a lot of time with the switching of lenses. I don't know how > some of you mange these, but uptill now I haven't had a great problem in > having only fixed lenses. Point is, zooms in the 80's were a lot less fast > than fixed. Nothing beates the 85/1.8 or the 50/1.7 or even the 24/2.8. > Still, for quickness a zoom would be nice. Browsed the web, but all comments > are still towards fixed is best, unless you pay a lot of money for a 2.8 > zoom. > > So, I'll try to add a photography page to my website and show you some of > the things I've seen and shot during my lifetime. > > Thanks for all the response on my K2 and now what posting. For now, I'm > still very happy with it so unless someone convinces me I should get this or > that model, K2's my way. > > :-) > > Paul Delcour -- "Jazz is about capturing the moment" -Herbie Hancock
