PhotographyBanzai.com

I recently went to ACEN 2012. This is my 6th ACEN I’ve attended (first in 2003, skipped 2008-09). If you are unfamiliar with these events, they are Japanese Anime/culture events. They also include other topics like sci-fi media, comics, video games, Internet spawned forms of media, and costuming. I took quite a few photos, but it will take me a while to go through them (potentially a few weeks as I’ve been doing some contract work lately). Check back here for updates. Thanks!  Here are a few photos from Friday: One of my photoshoots. She was cosplaying Revy from Black Lagoon. A nice Japanese girl from the Angelic Pretty company. It was fun trying to throw a few poorly thought out phrases in Japanese to her. She tried to get me to go to their fashion show. I went and it turned out they didn’t allow photography. There was a second fashion show after the Angelic Pretty one which I assumed also meant no photography, so I didn’t go. It turns out I was wrong when a fellow photog...

In my previous post I showed a few photos I had taken downtown after a photographer meetup. They were a few quick snapshots. A few days after that I went back downtown with a friend in the late night for a walk around the most interesting areas.  A few highlight images:  I was using the Pentax K-5 and DA 14mm f2.8 lens handheld. Setting wise I was in program or aperture priority most of the time around maximum aperture of f2.8 with a negative exposure compensation of around 0.3 to -1.7. 

I went to a photographer gathering today. The main goal was to talk about potential photo workshops, and also to just meet each other. On my way back to my car, I took a few downtown city shots. 

I noticed on PentaxForums about a unilateral price scheme in the USA. This pricing scheme just increased the price of many Pentax lenses, most especially the DA* line. No lenses went down in price. Pentax is certainly unique. My opinion would be… What on Earth could Pentax USA/Ricoh be thinking? I wouldn’t normally post about the frequent fluctuating cost of camera equipment, but when a lens like the DA* 60-250mm goes up around $800 in day, there is a big issue. Even if they plan to eventually set the prices to something more reasonable, why damage your customer relationship by allowing retailers to set their price at full retail that is significantly more than the cost the day earlier? Most Pentax lenses are designed for the smaller APS-C imaging sensors, yet with these increases, they are not even competitive with full-frame lenses from someone like Canon. A good example of that would be the DA* 16-50mm, now at $1499. The Full-frame Canon 24-70mm is even $1400, so why would som...

I’ve been spending a lot of time on my Youtube channel. It’s a great way to put photography information out there that appeals to people who prefer video over reading articles like I have on this site. I really enjoy video, so it’s a great match for various reasons.  Photo set reviews on YouTube. My most recent videos are about photo excursions I’ve been going on: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL73E46A6CCCA62A9C   Here is the most recently of that playlist (night time Lightsaber trails and Peace Plaza HDR): I also have a bunch of other playlists: Camera setting and control Photography Learning Series Videos The rest can be seen here . Please let me know if you have any suggestions or things you would like me to cover in future videos.