wackybadger's photostream  

By (week)day I'm a neuroscientist, at most other times I'm learning my latest love, photography. I've gone from a Kodak Advantix camera to a Canon Powershot S50 in late 2003 to my first DSLR, a Nikon D60, in mid '09. I mainly photograph nature in Wisconsin, state, county, and city parks. But my focus since I found out about it, is the State Natural Areas program for WI. Generally, these are more out of the way, less accessible sites (but not always). In any case, they are typically not as well known about and thus are hidden gems in a state that already has plenty of beautiful nature to behold.

Generally speaking, I avoid photoshopping and even cropping of all my photos despite having the wonders of CS4. Generally, it is what it is.

Cameras

Nikon D60, Fuji FinePix J20, Canon PowerShot S50

The D60 is the workhorse, of course. The Fuji was a cheap camera to take on the MS Bike Ride each year. The Powershot is my previous camera and it's still kickin'.

Lenses

Current Workhorses

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 ED IF VR
Loving it so far. Of course, you always want more.

Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX HSM
Much, much cheaper than the Nikon equivalent. No VR (or OS as Sigma calls it), but so far so good.

Nikon AF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6G DX VR
My most used lens. I always keep a circular polarizer on this lens and it really adds a lot. Takes good close-ups of flowers and was primarily what I used before I got the 90mm macro.

Tamron 90mm f/2.8 SP AF Di MACRO Model 272E
Still learning how to use this lens. I think it will really make my flower close-ups that much better. Difficult to hand hold on occasion with the very shallow DOF.

On Occasion

Nikon AF-S 35mm f/1.8G-22 DX
Relatively inexpensive but haven't used it all that much of yet.

Essentially Retired

Nikon AF-S 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED DX
This originally came in a package with the D60 body and the 18-55. Wanted a bit more zoom and VR, so went with the 70-300 above.

Lens Wish List

Pro-Optic 8mm f/3.5 Manual Focus, Fish Eye Lens with Nikon Mount
& More Zoom, of course!

Process

Shooting
I've worked my way up from using auto mode to using aperture priority and the occasional manual mode. Continuous shutter and a 16 Gb SD card are great tools as well. For the most part, everything is hand-held.

Workflow
Generally speaking, I transfer all images to my computer into folders by date (and subfolders by location if multiple sites on that day). Then I fire up Picasa to tag them all and star the decent ones, and it's these starred photos that make it to Flickr via the "Flickr Uploader for Picasa". For the most part all are unaltered, though once in a while I might click the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button in Picasa.