My first machine was the late the 17-inch G5 powered iMac. A year of blood, sweat, and effort was put into obtaining this machine. Countless lawns were mowed each week as I put money toward the large (for a 13 year old child) purchase. This G5 introduced me to the Macintosh culture, while helping me begin a writing career and giving me an outlet to showcase my creative work online from an early age. I kept the machine for 24 months before progressing forward and beginning my journey through the product line.

The Second iMac

Next came the iMac Core Duo 17″. I sold the G5 and progressed to my first Intel based machine. I don’t remember much about this machine, however whilst owing this iMac my photography hobby continued to expand, and I moved to Aperture for image processing and cataloguing which the machine amply handled.

The First Portable

My introduction to portability came with the MacBook Core Duo 13.3″. This laptop was purchased to run alongside the iMac Core Duo.

Once I started using this laptop I began using the desktop less and less. I found writing to be a much more enjoyable experience in comfort. Blogging volume and quality went from strength to strength as I was able to blog while away from home, on the couch, and in the backyard. I’d been positively introduced to the portable world.

The Pro Workstation

After my introduction to the portable world, my next purchase was set to be a 15″ MacBook Pro and a 23″ Apple Cinema Display, however the fanboy in me took over and purchased the holy grail of Apple products, the Mac Pro 2 x 2.66Ghz and a 30″ Apple Cinema Display.

As a self proclaimed Apple fanboy, the thought of owning a Mac Pro was a distant dream I thought about from time to time but nothing I ever thought would come to life. With a large wad of cash in hand, I pulled the trigger on the baseline Woodcrest Mac Pro.

Packed with a quad-core processor, 10GB of RAM, two large hard-drives, and attached to a 30″ Apple Cinema Display the Mac Pro flew through any task I threw at it. For the first time Aperture felt snappy, not lagging on export or when making adjustments on RAW files. Yes – it was more power than I required or could put to use 90% of the time, but the sheer experience of power blew me away.

The Pro Portable

Whilst still owning the Mac Pro, I received a MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 15″ which I planned to run alongside as a writing and browsing machine I could use while out of the office. After a few weeks with both pro machines in my armory, I began using the MacBook Pro more than I had planned, the majority of my work moved from the office to the couch.

I made the decision to see rid of the Mac Pro to free up my cash flow. I was sad to see it go, but I was more than happy with how the MacBook Pro was coping with the light Aperture work, and day-to-day tasks. I still had the option of hooking it up to the Cinema Display when I needed to get some serious work done. However, after a month collecting dust I also sold the Cinema Display and made use of Spaces for virtual screen real estate rather than the cumbersome, quickly aging Cinema Display.

The Current Machine & Plans

12 months on I received an offer I couldn’t refuse for the 15″, I picked up the Unibody MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 13.3″.

For the past 18 months I’ve been settled using a MacBook Pro as my primary work machine. The 15″ was running on 4GB of RAM whilst the 13″ has been running stock since it arrived.

I’m playing more of a focus on photography in my free time once again I’m beginning to feel the constraints of both the power and limitations of the 13.3″ display. I’ve thoroughly thought out the logistics of adding a 27″ iMac to my office, however I’ve loved having all my data accessible in one location. The ability to simply pick up the laptop and move my work anywhere is invaluable, making a move to a desktop machine unattractice.

Instead of adding a second machine, I ordered 8GB of RAM for the MacBook Pro. In regard to display constraints I’m waiting for a larger Apple Cinema LED Display. The 24″ looks very attractive, however the extra resolution a 27-inch panel offers would be invaluable whilst editing in Aperture and viewing documents side by side. I wait in patience.

Notable issues included reports of far less than the advertised battery life/expectancy, and extremely noisy system fans which could have been easily mistaken for the sound of a small desktop fan. Not what you’d expect from a computer, let alone one manufactured by Apple.

All issues aside, the second revision of the MacBook Air corrected both of these issues, and further more in the third revision introduced at WWDC 2009, bumped the speed of the machine considerably. In the 18 months since the machine was first introduced, the base CPU has been bumped from a lowly 1.6Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Merom chip to a more than acceptable 1.86Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn.

Memory limitation is still 2GB, soldered to the logicboard. However the latest inception of the laptop is powered by 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM, rather than slower 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM. The stock 64GB SSD which was available in the first generation can now be had in a 128GB SSD variation. Specifications wise, the MacBook Air has come a long way in its first 18 months on the market.

Most complaints regarding the heat issues, poor battery life, and less than adequate storage limitations have ceased.

The current lineup of portable Apple machines runs in three lines. The MacBook, the MacBook Air, and the MacBook Pro.

Not so long ago the MacBook was updated to feature the same unibody design as its older sibling, the MacBook Pro. Less than two months later with the Pro line was expanded to include a 13″ option, the unibody MacBook was discontinued in favor for a single cheaper plastic bodied laptop.

The current line leaves us with a choice of either a 13″ MacBook, two variations of the 13″ MacBook Air, and three sizes of the MacBook Pro.

The direction we’re heading in makes it quite clear that the merging of the MacBook and the Air lines would make sense, and is certainly possible. The Air becoming the MacBook whilst the Pro line remains as is in three excellent size choices.

This merge would make things much more simple for those out to buy an OSX-based laptop. A 0.16-inch super thin, design conscious yet powerful for everyday tasks MacBook. Or the MacBook Pro for those who want a little more expandability or screen real estate in their system, in 13-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch variations.

The only way I see it making sense to have the plastic MacBook in the lineup is when bought in bulk for education faculty and students due to their cheaper build cost. In that case, why not just offer it in the educational store only?

This is where things begin to get interesting. Media consumers generally like focused content. The ‘average’ internet user will rarely browse weblogs, more than often just using Google to find answers and information about things their interested in.

You’ve got something that you care a lot about, and you’re obsessed about — it’s almost like an intellectual fetish. Then you’ve got something that’s your angle on that. – Merlin Mann

It’s your responsibility as a writer to ensure you’re giving readers the best possible information, knowledge and detail you can on what you’re writing about. Don’t be writing about something you’re not passionate about, it shines through. The way writing comes across has a lot to do with the dedication and passion published in-between the lines from personal experience. If you don’t have a passion for it, don’t publish it. Expecting stellar feedback and emails from your reader-base when you’re not 100% dedicated to your piece? You won’t get the reception you’re after.

Get crazy specific about the thing… Don’t just, don’t have a blog about Star Wars; have a blog about Jawas. Or, like, this one Jawa that’s just in the scene for a minute.

Like, it’s gonna be so much easier for you to dominate, first of all; you’re gonna become the go-to guy for that one Jawa, right? And what does that mean? – Merlin Mann

Passionate about the National Basketball Association? Don’t just narrow your topic down to a single conference or team, further narrow it to a specific player. If music happens to be your obsession, write about a specific band or instrument, not music as a whole.

Weblogs with focus attract readers who are passionate and extremely motivated about the topic. These readers pay attention to everything the writer has to say. The ones who are interested in the exact same things you’re interested in; reads the exact same websites you read, and reads your site from the top to the bottom. Every single word.

It has been reported that QuickTime Player X now supports playback out of the box for .flv videos, and furthermore: it can save those videos to m4v. Think about this concept little further, once the QuickTime software is updated on the iPhone, we should be able to view .flv videos on the go, with no prior conversion needed.

QuickTime Player X takes some time to load the flv file first, before allowing its playback. This is very fast in short files, but noticeably longer when long files are played.

I do believe I can handle this short delay in return for the added function in Quicktime. Snow Leopard’s advancements look better and better as release creeps forward.

Goodbye Perian.

The latter of the matters is the most safe of all listed, as I purchased a hands free kit which sits above the dash. The others however, are hazardous to some extent in most, if not all driving situations.

Due to the nature of the touch screen input on the iPhone, data entry requires 100% attention focus, unlike other devices where you can input data/write messages by ‘feel.’ Once data has been input into the phone, for example Google Maps, it’s easy to follow without having to apply 100% of your attention span on the phone.

This is where the Voice Control feature on the iPhone 3G S has my attention. No longer would using the iPhone while driving be ‘as irresponsible.’ Simply feel for the home button, hold it down and tell the phone orally what I want it to do rather than take my eyes off the road and flip through applications and input areas.

Instead of scrolling through contacts to find the person I want to call, simply speak their name. Same with changing songs, speak out the name and artist or playlist and it will begin playing.

While focus has been more directed toward the increased speed aspect and the video camera capabilities of the iPhone 3G S, Voice Control is the only feature which has potential to prevent serious injury, if not death.

Don’t text and drive, purchase an iPhone 3G S instead.

Atebits software released Tweetie for Mac last week, immediately storming Twitter, holding onto a ‘trend’ spot for over 24 hours. A Macworld interview was held soon after, a few insightful comments were located in the transcript.

I really don’t know. One of the fantastic things about Twitter clients is how easy it is for users to jump from one to another. Just type in a username and password and off you go.

One of the strongest quotes from the interview, John Gruber commented on the point adding there is so little friction to switch between apps, there’s nothing to import or export, and zero commitment. This is what makes a developers job difficult when building a Twitter application. It’s difficult, if not near impossible to tie down a user to your application which the exception of them having purchased it.

Lack of feature additions in the future? With zero commitment users you’ve got a problem on your hands. However, for the public this converts into excellent applications which are regularly improved.

They serve some of the most beautiful ads around. Many people mentioned that they registered Tweetie but then opted to keep the ads on anyway (there’s a checkbox in the Preferences).

This goes to show the user-base using Tweetie and the attitude consumers have toward elegant advertisements. It’s simply no longer fair to connect ads and a negative view on the appearance and how it detracts from a publication/website. The Deck, and now Fusion have taken that view to the cleaners, quite literally.

The sidebar design in Tweetie for Mac solves these problems in an extremely elegant and scalable way. It’s new and different, which is hard for some people to swallow, but somebody needs to push the envelope and try new things or we’re all going to rot in UI hell.

It would have been simple to use an existing UI trend for many parts of the application, in particular the sidebar. The large sidebar is a UI trend found in an array of applications, especially those from Apple. Take for example iTunes, Mail, iCal, and iPhoto. The Tweetie user interface is out of the box down to the finest details, the sidebar been one of the larger and riskier attributes.

What’s sleep? But seriously, I’m throwing my weight behind Tweetie for Mac and iPhone. I have a fantastic new foundation with which to build a true next generation Twitter client. People have just seen the tip of the iceberg.

Perfect example of a committed and enthusiastic developer. Always looking to improve upon its product not only for the user-base, but for personal satisfaction.

It supports multiple operating systems and file systems (including NTFS, HFS Plus, FAT32, and EXT3), and has FireWire800 and USB 2.0 ports as well as a gigabit ethernet port for an iSCSI connection.

While the regular 4-bay Drobo suits consumers with needs like mine perfectly, there are some users who found themselves stacking multiple Drobo units up around their office as one wasn’t sufficient enough to hold all of their media.

The new DroboPro is aimed at creative professionals and IT managers and starts at $1,299. Current Drobo owners will receive a $200 instant incentive to assist with upgrading to DroboPro through a loyalty program at drobostore.com.

Since I was first enlightened with news of the Drobo it appeared to me as the optimal storage solution for anyone working with digital media. It’s remained on my shopping list for some time – eventually I’l’ pick one up and turn it into my sole storage location for my images, music, and movies.

The DroboPro is going to change the outlook on the cost, scalability, and hassle or mass storage for individuals with large storage requirements and smaller studios alike. According to the Data Robotics press release they’ve sold 60,000 original Drobo units. I expect this product to gain as much traction as the original product did. Though the companies best asset in my eyes is its attention to listen to what its customers want and deliver, period.

After lunch I did a little window shopping, I wanted to check out some new watches. I really was only dreaming, and window shopping for price references. I ended up in Michael Hill, one of the largest and most vast jewelers in New Zealand checking out their mens dress watches.

There was one which struck my eye which I promptly tried on..a wrong move. It had a price tag of $600 NZD, which was quickly bargained down to a lowly $395 on the jewelers terms. He then proceeded to tell me he’d drop the price another $50 if I came back in before the end of the day. I took his business card, and walked away with one thing on my mind. Where can I find this money before the store closed.

Back in the car I loaded up my banks website on my phone and transfered the amount over from an account I’ve promised myself not to touch. I was set on it, I had to have that watch. I decided to walk back to the store to give myself a little time to think, at this stage I had two choices. Walk in and hand over my card, walking out with the watch and a head full of guilt. Or walk away from the store, and hold my head up high I had beaten my ‘want’ and made a smart decision.

I sat outside for five minutes, catching eye of the man who was awaiting my arrival back at the store more than once. Then I made a decision I feel is defining in the way I need to look at and treat money – I walked away from the store, jumped in my car, and drove home.

I believe this is the first step I needed to take in turning around my finances and really setting myself up for the future. It wasn’t easy, but the first step never is. I’m now confident I can always say no to impulse purchases. I’m well on my way!

During the first year MacHeist developers agreed to be paid a flat fee for the duration of the event which once revealed to the media, in particular the strident writer John Gruber, hell broke loose as opinions flew all over the web regarding the fairness to the developer.

Second time around, MacHeist staff realized their mistake and adjusted accordingly, this time offering developers a percentage cut from the total number of sales. This method has carried over to the third year.

Sounds like a fair deal doesn’t it? Yet there are still a number of people out there crying out that MacHeist are ripping developers off. To those critiquing, look at it this way. No developer was forced into participating, those who have spoken out regarding their involvement seem over the moon with the results to date, and with still 13 days left in the bundle sale things aren’t going to get any slower.

The percentage cut deal has been around for the last two seasons of MacHeist, are these bloggers digging at an old matter for the heck of it or do they really believe the developers involved had a gun to their head when signing the papers?

Update: While we’re on the topic of poorly thought out criticism, have you seen this? Read into it as you will and make your own judgement.

The two new phone features over the original – 3G and GPS really didn’t interest me much on paper, however now having had the phone in hand for a few months I’ve really woken up to the true power of 3G and GPS capabilities.

I’ll be the first to admit when in larger cities, and on occasion even my own I’m a little directionally challenged, which becomes extremely frustrating when my mates pick up on the fact, and chirp in my ear sarcastically at every wrong turn.

Google Maps on the iPhone has helped me a number of times working out directions for myself, friends, and family including figuring out traveling times and distances to and from different cities/areas, including bus times and walking routes when available.

How has having GPS on your phone helped you in the past few months?

Sure, when I’m cruising around in the car with my mates I love a bit of punch in my system, but outside of the car I’ve realized there’s so much more to good sound system than one which represents the lower frequencies well. I’m now after a system which will really please my ears and accommodate to sound frequencies all over the board – exactly why I’ve started looking into studio monitor speakers.

Paul Stamatiou recently wrote a very informative article on his purchase of the Rokit RP5G2s, on the lower end of the scale of studio monitors (yet still very high performing). The post looks super helpful for reference down the line when hooking the monitors up to a MacBook Pro.

I’m looking at purchasing a pair of the M-Audio Studiophile BX5a Deluxe, which are 70-watt Bi-amplified Studio Reference Monitors. Basically, I’m after a little advice if anyone out there is knowledgeable in this area on the in’s and out’s of this, or a similar system.

- Initial product release.
- Processor updates and faster bus speeds.
- Slight increase in hard-drive capacity.
- Rinse and repeat every 8-12 months.

Apple has generally kept the same design on their products for an extended period of time. The first Intel Macintosh, the MacBook Pro kept the same design (following the above transition list) for close to 34 months, nearing three years. Over the past 6 months, consumers have started speculating the need for a refresh of the line – here we have it, 34 months after the initial design was revealed at Macworld Expo 2006.

Inclusion Of Innovation

- Two NVIDIA graphics chipsets: 9400M and 9600M GT

By far the most innovative feature on the new MacBook Pro is the inclusion of two NVIDIA graphics chipsets. When you’re unplugged and on the go the lesser power card is utilized for superior battery life, however when plugged in to your MagSafe adaptor the powerful card kicks in for some serious performance.

- User accessible hard drive

The single reason I haven’t changed the internal hard-drive in the Santa Rosa MacBook Pro is the long and strenuous process of actually doing it. I could pick up a 320GB drive for pocket change at todays rates, but the idea of ripping the machine apart doesn’t sound very attractive. The hard-drive is now as easy to change on this new generation of the MacBook Pro as it is to change the battery.

- Glass Multi-Touch trackpad with new Multi-Touch gestures

No – I doubt there’s much of a change seeing touch screens on Apple’s portable lineup anytime soon, however Apple’s made up for it with the inclusion of a new glass multi-touch trackpad in each of their new notebooks. Tap, flick, twist, turn – it all works to control various gestures within your favorite Apple applications.

Compatible with MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro systems with Mini DisplayPort, yet we’re still unsure on how, and if we’ll be able to connect the new display to older machines – including the Mac Pro.

One of the fancier features is that the LED Cinema Display includes a MagSafe connector that powers and charges your laptop. The connector sits on your desk, ready and waiting which means there’s no need to unravel the MagSafe which came with your MacBook/Pro. This should excite those working in office environments who take their machine home with them each night. No more lugging around an extra power brick all day long.

The display features three self-powered USB 2.0 ports on the rear, but consumers lose out on Firewire devices as there’s no Firewire ports like the previous generation. It also features an iSight camera, microphone, and stereo speaker system all in-built to the bezel. No more having to leave your laptops lid open for video conferences.

The new 24″ LED Cinema Display is 90% of everything people have been wanting in Apple branded displays for some time now. Personally, I’m hoping we won’t have to wait long for a 30″ variation and simple solutions to use it on an older Macintosh.

Three days before its arrival in New Zealand, Vodafone NZ released a statement saying the iPhone would retail for just $199. Two days before release, my initial plan of picking up an iPhone on the morning of release was darkened with the phone plans revealed by Vodafone. Sure, you could get the phone for $199, but only on the high end $250 per month contract – on the cheapest plan, the 16GB phone was $699.

Five weeks later & I decided it wasn’t just lust that made me first want the iPhone, I was still wanting the phone even though I had decided to stay well away from the phone/Vodafone after they way they treated their potential iPhone customers when revealing pricing and plans. I placed an order for the phone against my initial plan.

Yesterday, my 16GB white iPhone 3G arrived on my doorstep. The base plan of 120 minutes, 600 text messages, and 250MB of data transfer for $80 is ridiculously overpriced in comparison to AT&T in America, but completely worth it now I have the phone in hand and friends are all fighting for their chance to play with it.

Sharp wide open at f/2, super fast autofocus, a beautiful smooth depth of field at low aperture settings, and a perfect focal length for long range landscape/short range sports are a few of the areas where this lens really shines.

One of the things I’ve been most pleased with other than the sharpness wide open is the superb autofocus performance. When the lens is switched to focus at 1.6 meters to infinity, focus locks in at a rapid pace, perfect for fast moving subjects in the distance. When set to 0.9 meters to infinity, the 135L becomes a versatile lens allowing excellent macro and close up images to be taken.

The 135L has made me fall in love with prime lenses all again, the same way the Canon 50 f/1.4 did. While the Canon 24-70L is an excellent zoom lens, it never took this kind of effect on me or my images. The 135L will be attached to my camera for some time to come.

It has been my goal for some time now to attend a wedding as the main photographer, a goal I completed over the weekend down in Christchurch, New Zealand – a two hour flight from home.

Overall I found the whole process rather relaxed. My flight arrived in Christchurch the afternoon before the wedding, and I popped into the chapel before heading to my accommodation for the night to check out the lighting, and scout locations for the formal shots.

The morning of the wedding was super relaxed, however I found myself running between two houses shooting the preparation shots from both the groom and the brides sides. I must have swapped lenses dozens of times in the two hour period of shooting preparation shots, though I found myself primarily shooting with the Canon EF 135 f/2L and the Canon EF 50 f/1.4 under the harsh lighting conditions. The primes kept me thinking about composition and created a very ’smooth’ depth of field when shot at low apertures.

The chapel where the ceremony was held was very small, I used the Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L for shots of the wedding party arriving, along with the bride walking down the aisle. In saying this, the Canon EF 135 f/2L was a perfect focal length for most of the ceremony, and was attached the the camera for 90% of the time. I feel this could be a different story under different conditions (size of chapel/church), so a little extra focal length might come in handy in the future. One of the upsides of the 135L is its immense sharpness, so cropping is possible if more detail is needed to be pulled from images.

The most invaluable lens of the day was hands down the Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L. The versatility when it came to shooting portraits was invaluable. I enjoyed the ability to go from full-body shots to head-shots within a twist of the zoom. The only other way to provide similar versatility would be to have two camera bodies, one with a wide angle lens and another with a medium length telephoto.

If I was shooting another wedding down the line in the future, there are a few extra tools I’d like to pick up.

Canon Speedlite Flash

I didn’t think I’d be needing to use flash anywhere near as much as I did. I thought with my two super-fast primes, I could make use of available light. Although true, I found I used the flash for over 75% of the portraits as fill light to eliminate shadows on faces.

A Canon 430EX purchase looms in the very near future.

Wider Prime Lens

I shot the Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L at two focal lengths the entire day, 24 & 70. When shooting outdoor formals the lens was glued to the wide end – I found myself often wanting to shoot wider.

The Canon EF 14 f/2.8L looks very attractive for this use, bar the hefty price tag it carries. Of course the Canon EF 16-35 f/2.8L must be considered, but I could see myself using the lens glued to the 16mm end – hence the want for the prime.

Extra Camera Body

While a different camera body mightn’t have created better images, it’d have made it a whole lot easier to capture the ones I did. Shooting with an aging Canon 350D wasn’t the easiest thing to do, especially when trying to capture focus for candid portraits when the action was moving very quickly.

Ideally, I’d like something which has a more accurate AF system, better performance above ISO 400, and something with two card slots for redundancy. The last thing any wedding photographer wants is lost images.

Overall, I was extremely happy with the images I managed to capture with the gear I had with me – I’m very excited with the results from the day, and I’m looking forward to the next wedding, whenever & wherever that may be.

The Final Figures

1419 frames fired using one camera body, two Sandisk 4GB compact flash cards, three Canon lenses, and 11.19GB of hard-drive space.

1066 Images – Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L
250 Images – Canon EF 135 f/2L
103 Images – Canon EF 50 f/1.4

While a switch to a MacBook Air may or may not be on the cards for various reasons, the decision turners for making the change (or not) will fall into its own post later in the week.

The increased use of Safari is also down to moving away from three desktop based applications (Mail, NetNewsWire, TextEdit), moving to three similar browser based Google applications – Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Docs.

After keeping a close eye on which applications I used over a seven day period, I came up with the above chart. Overall, it doesn’t really surprise me considering I spend most of my time on the computer writing, while listening to music, keeping an eye on email and RSS, while occasionally popping open iMovie to export video to YouTube and editing images in Aperture.

The only thing holding me back from the MacBook Air at this current point in time? The 15% area on the chart dedicated to Aperture & iMovie.

Late Addition: I’m going to stick with the MacBook Pro – install a new internal HDD, and see what Apple has in store with the next revision of the MacBook Air. I’ll keep riding this laptop until I see a need to change, adding a 2nd rev MacBook Air at a later stage looks likely – however.

My three points of consideration? Interface, simplicity and usability. Of course, an application needs to fulfill a suitable function, but these three pointers are what pulls me in to software and get me hooked.

I’m sure most of you have heard about AppZapper at some point or another. If not, AppZapper allows you to confidently uninstall virtually any application as easily as it was installed – just drag and drop. Drag one or more unwanted apps onto the main AppZapper window and watch as it finds all the extra associated files and lets you delete them with a single click.

The first thing which attracted me to AppZapper was not only the elegant ability to uninstall applications which has been carried out so well, but the complete usability and overall simplicity of the application, it immediately leaped into my dock and hasn’t left since, same goes with many other applications such as Delicious Library, Coda, MarsEdit, and Transmit. They are all so elegantly developed, with attention paid to both form and function.

Two standout examples of companies paying severe attention to detail are Panic Software with their lead applications Coda, Transmit and CandyBar. Along with Delicious Monster’s application “Delicious Library.”

Potential For Greatness In Form

Other applications, including DVD-ripping software HandBrake, have the potential to be amazing with some work on the usability and form. HandBrake is a wonderful application but it doesn’t come across as elegant and as easy to use as an application like AppZapper. Of course, it fills a much larger function than AppZapper and requires a large scale of features – which I believe could be carried out in a different manner.

Why is that? Because consumers want applications that are extremely easy to use. Austin Sarner, the developer of AppZapper, hit the sweet spot when designing it: he knew exactly what the people wanted and how to give it to them. AppZapper is so simple to use that it’s ingenious.

Companies like Panic and Delicious Monster have got all aspects right on design and user interface which in my opinion is a contributing fact to why they have enjoyed so much success. Form & function my friends. Pay attention to the vital details.

The Tasman Sea At Dusk, On Board Pacific Star

I discovered an interest in many new areas of photography while away. Including candid, landscape, and architecture. While at home and seeing the same scenes each day I became accustomed to my surroundings, and my photography developed a very basic pattern to it. Visiting new locations really helped me open my eyes to other potential shots. I feel the getaway has been a huge help in terms of refreshing my photographic eye while opening up a different aspect I can put in-to action back in my home town.

Port Douglas Coastline, Queensland Australia

Get out with your camera, venture somewhere new. Book a flight to a remote location, head out for a week long road trip. Simply head away from your usual surroundings and discover what’s out there – when you arrive back home, your eyes will have opened to many new photographic opportunities which didn’t appear before your trip.

Now – where’s that 135mm prime lens. I’m off for a walk.

As a Canon user there are two different relatively affordable variations of the standard 50mm prime lens. An f/1.8 and f/1.4 version. The f/1.8 variation is the lightest and the cheapest ($79 USD) of all three, it’s the perfect piece of glass to introduce an individual to primes lenses. I’ve owned this lens in the past and thoroughly enjoyed my first experience of inability to zoom. Owning the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 forced me to use my eye to its full creative ability.

Second in the line is the slightly heavier, and relatively more expensive ($329 USD) f/1.4 version of the 50mm lens. Advantages of this lens include a far more superior build quality, faster focusing, full time manual focus ability, and a larger aperture opening. I now own this Canon 50mm lens due to its advantages over its cheaper counterpart.

Also available is the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM. This is the only 50mm prime lens in Canon’s line which features the “L” tag, as a luxury series lens. It features the most superior build quality of all Canon 50mm primes, and is one of two lenses in the Canon EF mount lineup which will open to f/1.2 (the other being the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 USM) – allowing in a significant amount of light.

Why Should I Invest In A 50mm Prime

I initially purchased the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 after hearing praise of the lens optical quality for its small price on photography forum Fred Miranda. Once in my hands, I discovered why.

The focal length of a 50mm prime is somewhat special, as it’s very accurate in terms of field of view to a human eye. Essentially, on a full frame body, what you see through your eye is what you get through the cameras viewfinder.

When limited to a single focal length, there’s only one possible field of view. This view rapidly sticks in your mind, until you know exactly what you’ll see through the viewfinder of your camera without having to life it to your eye. It’ll make you think about framing of images much more closely, and help you improve your eye for creating exceptional shots.

You’re made to think much more about the finder technical aspects of the image, such as aperture, ISO, shutter speed, and exposure. Changing the framing of your image will need to be done via your feet (foot zooming), giving you much more creative control over your image, rather than standing in one spot and either zooming in, or out.

While I believe that all photographers should have a general walk around zoom in their bag for general use, prime lenses will help you create better images, and help you develop your personal photographic style.