|
As a little money started coming in from doing nothing, I conveniently managed to get myself fired from my real job in 2004 so I could see what would happen if I put more effort into this site. It worked; more people read more stuff that I wrote, and the broadcasting business model worked great.
Today (2010), I support my family from what this website brings in. Strange, but true.
The largest source of my family's income comes from when you use my links to these stores when you get your stuff. I've been using these places myself since before this website existed, which is why I recommend them so strongly. The fact that they pay me is a nice side benefit that keeps my wife from sending me back out to get a real job, but the real reason I reccomend them is because they are what I use myself because they are the best.
I also get some donations, and for these I am genuinely grateful — and pay a lot of income taxes as well.
I don't get free stuff, or paid by, Nikon or Canon. I wish I did.
I don't get free cameras as everyone presumes. I wish! I certainly never get paid for endorsements or to review anything. If I'm lucky I'll get a free service or accessory now and then, like a strap, card, case or software.
Otherwise, I have to buy or borrow everything I review just like everyone else. Heck, I don't even want most of the free junk people send me; that's why they're giving it away: hoping I mention it.
As mentioned above, if you consider anything I say as an endorsement (God help you if you do, remember, I do this site as a goof), remember that no one goes back in and edits old reviews as they get old. If I say I use something, I did when I wrote it, but years later, probably don't.
I have no idea how to interpret the FTC Guidelines, but I think I've covered it here. I get paid from stores if you use my links to get your stuff, I accept donations and put up some ads, but I don't get paid to write anything and don't get free cameras. I don't even put up the ads; they're usually placed by third parties.
How this site started top
I started this site as a joke in 1999 after I took a community college class in webmaking as a place I could share each weekend's photos with my friends. Back then digital meant visiting a rich friend and scanning your slides on their Nikon LS-1000 scanner. There were no amateur DSLRs.
I then started putting up my personal notes about my own tests of my own equipment so that I could access them even if I was in the field. I've been doing these experiments since I was five years old, and used to journal them in books and then on my computer. I still have my written exposure logs going back to my first SLR at age 11 in 1973.
Search engines quickly found these techie pages, and it bugged me that more people were looking at photos of my lenses instead of the photos I made with these lenses.
I only update things as I discover errors. I offer no warrantees of any kind, except that there are many deliberate gaffes, practical jokes and downright foolish and made-up things lurking. While this site is mostly accurate, it is neither legally binding nor guaranteed. The only thing I do guarantee is that there is plenty of stuff I simply make up out of thin air, as does The Onion.
Most people up through the 1990s, and even today, are only accustomed to large corporations with larger advertising budgets having large voices. The size of the voice depended on the size of the budget. Today, with the wonder of the Internet, any idiot with something to share has a voice as large as those who want to listen. I admire Shepard Fairey's brilliant work which explores the same idea, but much better than I do. (He's not an idiot, he's a great artist. I'm the idiot.)
I love a good hoax. Read The Museum of Hoaxes, or see their site. A hoax, like this site, is done as a goof simply for the heck of it by overactive minds as a practical joke.
If you don't know me personally, then you can't possibly have any idea of what I mean when you read my text. Meaning is far more subtle than my kludgy writing, and no one is double-checking what I write before it goes up. I'm not a poet. I can't put what I'm thinking into words so clear that everyone will understand their intent.
I love to kid around, but no joke goes over well throughout every world culture served by the Internet. I get email from researchers at both north and south poles, as well as everywhere else from the frozen north of Norway, Igloolik, tiny tropical islands in the warm Pacific, every world continent and even ships on the ocean. I'm read in the chateaux of Switzerland and Beverly Hills to ox-powered PCs in the shantytowns of countries too poor to have telephones for computer support call centers. I'm read by everyone from the corporate rulers of the world to students who one day will build the world.
So read, enjoy, have fun, and take everything in the spirit in which it's shared.
Thanks!
Ken.
Baby Katie top
Baby Katie was born 28 May 2008. See Katie's Website.
Baby Ryan top
Baby Ryan was born 8:16:30PM, 15 December 2006. He has his own website at RyanRockwell.TV.
Wedding top
Married May
2005 full love story
Wedding day! We
were married on a tropical island in May, 2005. Kanaloa, the Akua Kai
(God of the sea), approved, providing a south swell with double-overhead
sets a day or so later. bigger.
Ken,
his new wife and Pastor
Kilborn. bigger.
Engagement top
February 2005. click
photos to enlarge. full love story
|
|
Tropical
Islands |
Christmas
with the family |
General
Silliness top
click photos to enlarge
Charity
Events
|
Playing
|
Volunteering (before marriage)
|
Media top
Ken
Rockwell interviewed on KCBS TV2, Los Angeles, 09 February 2005
(also watch the video)
Radio
Interview and Podcast 16 May 2006
Dogs top
Megan is the Princess
Buster, Molly
and Megan Rockwell! (Shitzu-poos)
About Me top
I've
been photographing since I was five years old. Even as a newborn I was
so curious I lifted my head up to look around the hospital nursery. That
attracted all the nurses' attention to my parent's surprise. The nurses
explained that it's very rare for a newborn to have strong enough neck
muscles to lift his head.
Curiosity is crucial in photography. My
mom will tell you that even as soon as she was 5 months pregnant that all I did was poke around trying to see what was going on!
I learned
photography by asking my dad, reading books and practicing.
I love
traveling California and the world and creating beautiful images. I love
feeling nature and beauty. I love all the arts and the outdoors. I run,
bike and play in the ocean almost every day. I've been doing 50 - 100
mile bike rides since I was in high school. I'm always up for weekend
trips away for any reason, and I'm always there when there's an art opening,
symphony concert or play going on. I do more things outdoors than will
fit here.
I'm
a big kidder and am always fooling around. I think I'm a seven year old
who's managed to sneak into a grown-up's body. I have enough enthusiasm
for an entire class of second graders.
I've
lived in La Jolla, California since 1988.
La Jolla is just north of of San Diego and is the most beautiful place
on earth with high-speed Internet access and direct international airline
service to interesting places. Our area also offers unlimited outdoor
recreational opportunities, since we have every kind of land and water
form imaginable. We have mountains, deserts, pine forests, cliffs, chaparral,
grassy plains, ancient oak groves, huge boulder fields for climbing, every
kind of road and trail for hiking, on- and off-road cycling and motorcycling
and of course we have all sorts of different beaches and rivers for surfing,
swimming, SCUBA, boogie boarding, kayaking and etc.
These
many different environments are why San Diego County is home to more bird
and animal species than any other county in the United States. Maybe it's
also why every sort of kook organization including at least two UFO cult religions, Unarius and Heaven's
Gate as well as the famous Black's
(nude) Beach call San Diego home. Poke all the fun you want, but we
also have a symphony
orchestra, a pretty decent formal opera company and numerous theatre and chamber music ensembles and performing
arts organizations. The La
Jolla Music Society brings in music and dance from around the world.
San Diego is also home to the World
Famous San Diego Zoo and the Wild
Animal Park which runs big game photo safaris right here in San Diego
county. I could go on, but rest assured there is never any shortage of
fun here. Most real San Diegans are members of the San
Diego Zoo.
I've
had my work exhibited in museums, published in newspapers, magazines
and hard cover books, even while in school. I do
photography for love, not money but have occasionally made my work available
to serious collectors and art lovers. My work also hangs in private
and public collections on both US coasts.
I donate
my time to many volunteer organizations. For instance, I volunteer as
webmaster for The
Monarch Program and am always photographing for organizations like Paws'itive
Teams who train service dogs for the handicapped.
I don't
believe in photo contests and competitions, although I do OK when friends
twist my arm. For instance, I just won a trip to Hawaii here and I also won 1st Place in the San Diego Union-Tribune's Nature Photo
Contest here (requires Flash player and a fast Internet connection.)
I received
a Ph. D. from the University of Basingstoke in December, 2001. It's a Phony Doctorate given to me for Christmas by my brothers
who have real Ph.Ds.
I speak
English, French, some Spanish and very, very little German and Italian.
As an artist I try not to admit that I have a BSEE engineering degree
and was just granted my first US
Patent 6,473,701 in October 2002. On March 6th, 2007, I was granted Statutory Invention Registration H2,184, much rarer than a patent.
Rockwell Automation's Retro Encabulator.
About
my Family top
My great-great
grandfather was the pioneering photographic artist James Brewster
at the dawn of photography in Ayr,
Scotland between 1861
and 1881. You may be familiar with the poetry of Robert
Burns, also from Ayr. Burns also wrote the modern version of "Auld
Lang Syne" we all sing on New Year's eve at midnight. Burns even has
a Heritage
Park devoted to him.
Wife top
|
My
wife is real sweetheart. She's not only the smartest and
nicest girl out there, she's also the best cook and homemaker you'll
ever meet. Not one to stay at home, she's a top performer at her huge
company and has always been at the top of anything she's ever done.
She has more friends than this site has readers. She loves not just cute baby Ryan, but also her wonderful husband and cute little doggies
and would do anything for them.
I'm serious; she'll stop and cook a meal from scratch for one of the doggies if they don't like dry food any night. |
Mom top
|
My
mom is a certified flight instructor (CFI) with commercial,
private, instrument, instrument instructor (CFI-I), basic ground
instructor, seaplane and taildragger ratings. She's been flying since
she was a kid and was chosen as "Miss Air Power" by the
US Military when she was a teenager. Mom's the sweetest lady you'll
ever meet. Mom and dad live on Long Island, New York, where we all
grew up. Her mom, my grandma, was Henry Steinway's personal
secretary at the Steinway piano factory in NY for many decades. My parents met in a choir.
My mom's dad, my grandpa, was a communications technician
in New York City in the early 1900s. My grandfather came from Aschaffenburg,
Bavaria, Germany. The B in BMW stands for Bavaria. Mach schnell! |
Viking Heritage top
Vad få känner till, är att jag är kvarts-svensk så jag välkomnar alla er vikingar!
What few people know is that I’m ¼ Swedish from my mom's side, so I welcome all of you Vikings!
My great-great
something or other Tom Larsson was a sea captain who left the seaport
of Oskarshamn,
Sweden in 1893. If you're in the north of Sweden in winter check out
the Ice
Hotel. My Viking forefathers, specifically Leiv
Eriksson, discovered
America a thousand years ago. We called it "Vinland" back
then from the grape vines we saw growing. By 1492 Columbus accidentally
wandered into America thinking he found a shortcut to India, and to
this day the inhabitants he found are called "Indians." "America"
is named for Italian map maker Amerigo
Vespucci. On 23 August 1499 Amerigo Vespucci was where Columbus
claimed was India. Amerigo observed a conjunction between Mars and
the moon. Based on this he calculated longitude and realized he wasn't
in India, but someplace new. Thus Amerigo discovered America as a new
world, not Columbus. Columbus thought to his dying day that he really
found a shortcut to India. History is funnier than comedy! Anyway,
you can learn more about Vikings and our religion at these links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Dad top
Dad in China. bigger.
My dad is the engineer who designed the LORAN-C navigation system used today by large commercial and military ships and
aircraft. My dad can build model cars, trains and ships more precisely
than anyone. His dad, my grandfather (or maybe that was great-grandfather),
was working in New York City during the depression and invented the concept
of selling apples on the streets as a way both to employ people and solve
the issue of a huge overstock of apples in upstate New York.
Brother Steve top
Dr. Rockwell, as snapped by the automatic rollercoaster camera on Kings Dominion's Scooby-Doo Ghoster Coaster as he is choked by a demon. A small child, ignorant of the horror taking place, enjoys the ride.
My brother, author, athlete, history and paranormal phenomenon researcher
and professor Dr. Steve Rockwell got his Ph.D. in 2001, professed at the University of Michigan for a few years, and now he's a tenured Associate Professor of Political Science at St. Joseph's College in New York.
As of July 2010, Dr. Rockwell has a new book: Indian Affairs and the Administrative State in the Nineteenth Century.
Dr. Rockwell has had several books
on American Government published, and has a lengthy article. He's a great
guy and plays softball. Here's a
book he helped write. Here's a place to get his latest book. Here's his other book. Look out: those sites are charging two to three times
what it is supposed to sell for.
Quite oddly, Stephen
Rockwell also played the part of a scientist researching a crash
with a space alien vessel in an episode of "Roswell." Very
strange.
Brother David top
Dr. David Rockwell.
The picture of Dr. Rockwell was taken at a police station in Chisholm, MN,
after Dr. Rockwell was pulled over for speeding. Apparently, MN, as a
progressive state, has avoided the prison-happy trend of other states and still uses embarrassment and banishment as
punishment, rather than incarceration.
Dr. Rockwell had his photo snapped and
put on the MN law enforcement-citizens intranet, and he is forbidden
from entering Chisholm again for a year. They were really nice about
it, though.
Dr. Rockwell and some of his home-brew. It must be our German heritage.
David is also an avid home-brewer, finding it far more convenient than conventional methods.
My
other brother, internationally renowned aviation author, researcher
and humanitarian Dr. David Rockwell has
had several aviation books published, like the classic "Jane's
How to Fly and Fight in the F-14 Tomcat" (a classic that's unintentionally been driven out of print by the demand from terrorist and paramilitary organizations) and "Jane's
Gem Combat Aircraft."
Some books by Dr. David Rockwell
That's right: I write about how to use your digital camera, and my brother writes about how to fly your own nuclear-capable fighter jet! He's also an expert on UGVs (unmanned ground vehicles, or "killer robots.")
He also has a lengthy article like this one. Not particularly interested in Alien interrogation techniques, he
anyway is also an analyst here.
He travels to places so crazy that even I have to pull out my atlas
to figure out where he is. He currently is deployed in Romania. He claims not to be involved with the US government's
most recent efforts to produce Plutonium 238 (238Pu) at the Idaho National
Laboratory (INL). Plutonium 238 is hundreds of times more powerful than the
Plutonium 239 now used in land- and air- based nuclear weapons. It
will be used in the the USA's new network of space-based nuclear-pumped offensive
lasers called
"Death Stars." There's an article on this here. When INL makes a mistake, it makes big ones. Here's a site about cleanup efforts from one of INL's past nuclear "oops!" We don't really know what
he does; it's probably something with the CIA's National Clandestine Services,
or some group that officially doesn't exist. That's why he can't tell us.
I may
be related to painter Norman
Rockwell. Norman lived in an area in New York state that hasn't rated
highly enough on my travel list to warrant a trip to research it. A Norman
Rockwell painting "Rosie the Riveter" just sold for $4.9 million here.
No,
I'm not related to the former San Diego comedian who had a few minutes
of television infamy back in February, 2000 who used the stage name "Rick
Rockwell."
I'm
not related to the painter Rockwell
Kent, even though it sounds like it!
Rockwell
College in Ireland (photos: John Power, Co Clare, Ireland.)
Recent
Trips top
(links show photos from those trips)
2010 top
June: California's Central Coast.
May and June: New York and Long Island.
May: Maui.
April: California's Gold Country.
February: Route 66 in Arizona and California.
January: New York, and then Death Valley and the Eastern Sierra.
2009 top
November: Indian Country, USA.
October: Yosemite and the Eastern Sierra
September: Point Reyes, California.
August: Yellowstone National Park; New York City and Point Reyes, California.
July: Walnut Creek, California.
June: Monterey, California.
April: Volcano Country.
February: Route 66.
January: Death Valley.
2008 top
November: Arizona and New Mexico as photographed on film and as snapped digitally.
October: Eastern Sierra and Yosemite.
April: Barrio Logan.
January: Route 66, Barstow.
2007 top
October: Yosemite and the Eastern Sierra, California
February: Death Valley, California
January: Route 66, California
2006 top
December: New baby in La Jolla, California
November: New York and Long Island, New York
October: Las Vegas, Nevada: Mercedes Starfest, Yosemite, California.
September: PhotoShop World, Las Vegas, Nevada (not my shots)
August: Orange County, California
July: Lake Arrowhead and Santa Barbara, California
June: Alamo, California
May: Kauai, Hawaii
April: Las
Vegas, Nevada; Palm Desert, California
March: San Francisco Bay Area and Palm
Desert, California (infra-red examples)
February: San Luis Obispo, Pismo
Beach, Santa Barbara, Barstow
and Route
66 Workshop (shots here and some more shots at the bottom here),
California; PMA, Orlando, Florida
January: Death
Valley, California (some shots at the bottom here)
2005 top
December: Maui, Hawaii
November: Montecito,
Santa Barbara and Palm Desert, California
October: Phoenix
and Sedona, Arizona
September: California's Palm Desert, Eastern Sierra and Mono Lake.
August: Long Island, The Hamptons and New
York, New York; Palm Desert, California.
July : No travel. Married.
June: No travel. Married.
May: Kauai. Got married.
April: Kauai.
March: Death Valley and Santa Barbara, California
February: Santa Barbara, California; PMA, Orlando, Florida
January: New York, New York; Las Vegas, Nevada
2004 top
December: Las Vegas, Nevada; New York, New York
November: Baja California, México looking at migrating monarch
butterflies
October: California's Sierra Nevada, Miramar Airshow (photos here)
September: Big Sur, San Luis Obispo, Cambria, San Simeon and Monterey,
California
August: On vacation for the first time this year. I didn't go anywhere,
thank goodness!
July: San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, California
June: Grand Cayman Island, British West Indies (photos);
San Francisco and the Muir Woods, California
May: Miami, Florida; Palm Desert, California, Las Vegas, Nevada
April: Las Vegas, Nevada; Santa Barbara, California
March: New York City and Long Island, New York
February: Cambria, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Palm Desert,
California; PMA, Las Vegas, Nevada; Rosarito
Beach and Ensenada, Baja California, México
January: Death Valley, Santa Barbara California, California; Long
Island, New York
2003 top
December: New York City, New York
November: Julian, California firestorms. (photos here)
and California's Eastern Sierra (photos here)
October: Torino, Italy; Paris, France (photos here)
and California's Eastern Sierra
September: New York, NY. Tom and Stacy's wedding (photos here)
August: Santa Barbara, Lompoc, CA; New York, NY
July: Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Big Sur, San Francisco, Bristlecone
Pines, CA
June: Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, CA; Portland, Oregon
May: Sedona, AZ; Santa Barbara, Mammoth Lakes, CA; Portland, Oregon
April: Santa Barbara, CA; National Association of Broadcasters (NAB)
show, Las Vegas, Nevada
March: PMA show, Las Vegas, Nevada
January: Death Valley, California; Dallas, TX and New York, NY
2002 top
December: New York City and Long Island
November: Hawaii
October: Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, New Mexico;
Arizona, Utah and Colorado (Photos here).
Also Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.
September: Morro Bay, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo California
August: Salk Institute party, La Jolla
July: Yosemite National Park, Mono Lake and Mammoth Mountain, California see the snapshots here
June: Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota
and Oregon
May: Lone Pine, Bishop and the Eastern Sierra, California. Parrot
Adoption and Education Center (photos here)
April: Las Vegas, Nevada
March: Vermillion Cliffs, Utah; Page, Arizona. Paul and Sandy's
wedding, Laguna Beach, California (photos here)
February: Grammy Awards (Los Angeles), Santa Barbara, San Simeon,
Cambria, Piedras Blancas California; Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico photos here
January: New York City
2001 top
December: Death Valley, California photos here;
New York City
November: New Mexico. Photos here
October: Zion National Park, Utah. Photos here
August: Mono Lake. photos here
| February: |
 |
1998,
August: New York and Long Island, New York for Mike and Jen's
wedding (photos here)
1997,
June and July: France (photos here)
1993,
May: Chuck and Joy's wedding on San Diego Bay (photos here)
Nice
places I'll visit at the drop of a hat:
Santa
Barbara, California (weekend trips anytime)
San Luis Obispo, California (weekend trips anytime)
Cambria, California (and the elephant seals and the whole PCH, Big Sur,
and Ventana area) (weekend trips anytime)
California's Eastern Sierra
Italy
Mesa, Arizona
Cook
Islands
Spokane, Washington
France et Tahiti (Oui, je parle Français)
Hawaii
California's wine country; Napa and Sonoma counties (any weekend)
San Francisco (weekends)
Durango, Colorado (a mountain biking and outdoor Mecca)
Santa Fe and all of New Mexico
Other
places I've visited:
Austria
(November 1992)
Canada (Summer 1978)
Czechoslovakia (November 1992)
England (June 1993)
France (June and July 1997, photos here)
Germany (November 1992)
Guatemala (1991, 1992, 1998, 1999)
Hawaii (Maui March 1999, Kauai February 2000, Oahu November 2002. Marriage
May 2005)
Mexico City (August 2000)
Peru (August 1999)
Russia (1995, 1996)
Scotland (June 1993)
About
the Ads top
Without
ads this website would still be just a collection of my personal
photos.
The ads
allowed me to quit my real job in 2004 and work on this site for you
full time, adding tons of the technical info you've requested. Contributions help,
but don't provide anywhere near enough on their own to allow
me to do what I've volunteered to do today.
Ads
are only on the techie pages on which I work about 10 - 14 hours every
day for you. There aren't any ads on the gallery pages
with my photos.
I placed the
ads for Ritz and Adorama and Amazon.com towards
the top of some pages. I've been buying my own equipment from them
for years, or decades in the case of Adorama. I recommend all three.
All the other
ads are all placed automatically by third party ad wholesalers. I can't vouch
for them since I don't see or approve them before the third party sends them straight to your browser. These same ads appear on other websites who use the same wholesalers like Google's AdWords. If
a deal on a new digital camera is better than everywhere else
then it's a scam. If they don't take credit cards, it's a scam. I never see these ads: they go straight
from the wholesaler's server to your browser. I simply rent out the
space to advertising wholesalers, NOT camera companies. I certainly
don't have the time to be out selling ads. Since I have no idea what
goes up there I certainly have no fear being honest with my opinions
on cameras, either, which of course supports the whole idea of my site:
no commercial bias.
If
you see any bothersome, bogus or bad ads please contact me
with the exact URL of the offending ad and from what part of the page
it came (top, side or bottom) and I'll do what I can to tell whichever
wholesaler to dump it.
See also my page
on How and Where
to Buy Photo Gear.
Colophon:
About the Photos and How This Site Was Made (click)
About
this Website top
This site
is also accredited news media. I publish this site to educate and inform. Most manufacturers send me their press releases and publicity photos for distribution. They don't give me any free cars or cameras. I'm not one of the spokesmodels to whom the big camera, car and watch companies give free gear.
I do this site to
express my personal opinions and to help others with what I have learned.
I do this for
love, not money. The ads and etc. now allow me the time to
work on this site full-time, since your generosity is supporting my family, instead of having a real job. I'm just a guy with a computer who likes to take pictures. I'm not any sort of organization. If anything, I'm a model of disorganization. If it weren't for this site's Google search box, even I couldn't find anything.
This
site is my contribution to the art world. I hope this site will allow
others to enjoy my artwork, and also to allow other artists to benefit
from my experiences earned the hard way. I love to kid around, so if you
believe everything you read on this site then that's your problem. Sorry.
I have a huge sense of humor. I fool around, make stuff up and create
hoaxes, too, when I feel like it. If you believe everything you read on
the internet and see on TV, have I got a bridge for you!
Although
provided for your free viewing, everything here is copyrighted, registered, and all
rights are reserved. NOTHING is allowed to be downloaded, saved, copied, reposted or used for anything other than immediate live viewing on a web browser, ever. If in doubt, ask.
My work
and my opinions are not for sale. This site and my photography are what drives me to get up every day.
Ask nicely and I often donate works to worthy causes and collectors. My
work hangs in several private collections on both US coasts.
Sure, I make good money doing this, but I also pay more taxes than I ever have in my life. I also made great money and had a fat expense account and a free new company car every other year and at my last real job when I was single and happily lived in a dumpy condo. If this site doesn't bring in at least the same good money, my new wife, who also still has to work and makes good money, sends me back out to get a real job to pay for the new house and the new kid, and then I'll no longer be able to keep adding to this site all day, every day. I waste about 12 - 14 hours every day in front of my screen. I used to live much better when I had a real job and actually got now and then.
The good news is that so long as enough comes in, it doesn't matter how much since only the wife gets to spend it. Funny but true, I have no incentive to steer people wrong just so I can bring in more cash for the wife to spend at the mall.
I don't charge anyone for anything so that everyone can read this entire site, free. I don't sell anything or sell guides and downloads as everyone else does, and I don't split my articles into many short pages to waste your time clicking through ads. I don't put up forums to let you write the pages on which I would sell ads, like all the other once-great photo websites of the 1990s. I spend my time creating new content and trying my best to make what I write the best I can.
Some guys donate to the local hospital to have their name put on it for posterity. When I croak, I've made sure that this website will be around for decades. I hope that when I'm gone people will be able to benefit for many years from my work. Wouldn't we all like to be Beethoven, Bach, Mozart or Brahms, whose genius still brightens people's daily lives hundreds of years later? I can't wait to introduce my son to their works, and I work all day hoping that maybe some years after I'm gone that people will still learn from what I'm sharing today.
About
that humongous lens on the home page top
I used
that photo of myself simply because it communicates this website's topic
more lucidly than having to use the word "photography." Personally
I hate carrying that beast around and emphasize that your camera has nothing to do with the quality of images produced. It's the artist, not the tools,
who creates art. The lens is a 400mm f/2.8.
About
the left-handed camera on the home page top
The
left handed Nikon F100 you see on my home
page was loaned to me for beta testing in 1998 when Nikon was considering
producing a left handed version of the F100. Yes, I also wear my watch
on my right arm and if you think I'm kidding just click the image on my Contact page for the original hi-rez film scan where you can see for yourself
that it's not just a flipped negative. Nikon decided against producing the
camera, but let me keep the beta on indefinite loan as thanks for all
my input. (This was long before I started this site.) It of course remains property of Nikon Japan. I may not sell
it, although it would fetch a pretty penny in the collector's market.
I have to return it to Nikon eventually, and of course when it breaks
it won't be repaired. I even had a veterinarian friend in Africa who specializes
in elephant care send me some phallus hide from the Loxodonta
Africana (known for its flexibility and grip when wet) which I then
had a local taxidermist apply to my camera in place of the original rubber.
It took a lot of paperwork with the U.S. Dept. of Fish and Game but at
least it doesn't peel off on my D1H as the
rubber does.
How Much Does Nikon Pay Me? top
I don't get anything from
Nikon. They don't even give me the time of day! No loaners (except
for the left handed F100 I got before this site went on-air), no special
help, no advance information, no hats or even pens. Nothing. Nada.
Squat. They don't even send me press releases on time. I always hear
about new things from you folks first!
So why am I so ecstatic about
their stuff? I've been buying and using Nikon for over 25 years (since
1980). I've been an active Nikon customer since before AI-s manual
focus lenses came out and Nikon told us we should all go buy them
to replace our perfectly good AI ones.
For decades I've been reading the news and looking forward to their
new gear every few months, just as you do today. I've seen it all come
and go.
I used Minolta from 1973 -
1980 back when through-the-lens meters were the next new thing and
used medium format and instamatic from 1965 - 1973 back when coupled
rangefinders and FP sync flashbulbs were innovations. I was born in
1962. Photography is as second nature to me as breathing. I was shooting
before I could walk. I was born with it. Maybe that's why it's all
so obvious to me and why I can see through the marketing crap so easily. Put
a camera in my hand and it quickly morphs into an extension of my consciousness.
A camera's
job is to get out of the way of my vision, not something to have to
stop and jerk around.
This perspective lets me
appreciate how much better Nikon's current gear is compared to
what I used to use even three years ago. My D200 today
has four times the resolution, five times the battery life, half the
weight and one-third the price of the D1H I
bought in 2002. Beside the obvious specs even the brilliant D50 is
smarter, more flexible and gets out of my way better than my D1H.
My 18 - 200 VR is sharper and more flexible
than the collection of 16mm, 18mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 55mm, 85mm, 105mm,
135mm and 180mm fixed AI-s lenses I
used to haul everywhere. Of
course I'm ecstatic!
Nikon is cranking
out revolutionary new cameras and lenses at a pace I have never seen
before. This
lets me crank out more great new images faster and easier than
ever before.
Nikon doesn't have to pay
me. They make good stuff. So does Canon, Schneider, Rodenstock, Horseman,
Hasselblad, Linhof, and others, too. Nobody pays me and I buy all my
stuff myself. I just like to talk about it a lot! Unlike the
good old days, Nikon rarely makes duds today (except for the new 105
VR which doesn't focus very well.)
I told you at the top: I do
this site for fun. It pays my living so I don't have to work a real job and can (and do) spend all day helping everyone. I love photography
and love to share my enthusiasm. Have fun!
Freebies top
Someone asked how many freebies I get doing this website. Sadly, none!
As a former salesman I'd love to be sent on free trips and receive all the special insider favors I could, but I just don't get invited. I guess I'm too edgy.
I'd take all the free stuff anyone wanted to hand out, but camera companies simply don't give out free cameras. Nikon has never so much as even loaned me a lens cap, much less a lens or camera. They gave me a pen once at a trade show, but it didnt' work, which was too bad, because it had the URL of their press website on it.
Most of the gear I review comes from friends and other readers like you. I couldn't possibly own all this stuff myself; no one could.
La
Jolla Mesa Estates Ken's former bachelor pad.
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