Ok Mirrorless, Here I Come! I’m Officially A Samsung Imagelogger!

So I’ve been curious about them for at least a year, and have been hearing more and more about them especially in the last several months, and now I finally get to experiment with the new mirrorless camera systems myself…in a very unexpected way. Samsung reached out to me to see if I was interested in joining their Samsung Imagelogger program. Basically I’d get to be one of 50 lucky buggers who are getting cameras and gear from Samsung over the next half year or so to experiment and play with and report back on and post images from. Uhhh…YEAH!!

Needless to say, I’m pretty hyped on the opportunity to get intimate with the latest mirrorless systems and see what these things can do.

So as of Wednesday afternoon, I’ve got the first camera they’ve sent out to us in my hands, the NX300, and we just had our training session, so I preemptively apologize if my posts hit a slight overdrive. Since this is the first new camera system I’ll be using in about 2 years, as well as my first foray away from Nikon DSLRs, and, of course, my first adventure into the mirrorless space, it should be interesting to see where and what brain circuits this experience might fry or invigorate.

Anyhow, the header image above is one of the first images taken with this mini-beast, and the camera itself? Well, I must say, the brown leather color scheme is pretty shnazzy! It took me a few minutes to get acquainted with this thing (the biggest adjustment being not using a viewfinder), but once I got the hang of it, I had a blast. Anyway, only got to use it for a few hours between gigs today, but there will be much more to come soon.

If you want to follow along to all the images taken by myself and the other Imageloggers (trust me, you’ll want to follow along…The Candid Frames' Ibarionex Perello, The Giving Lens' Colby Brown, renown pro photographer Valerie Jardin, and the most unique father blogger you might ever run across, 8BitDad's Zach Rosenberg, are amongst the shutterbugs that’ll be contributing), check out www.DitchTheDSLR.com, where they’ve set up a crazy interactive map of the country as a home for the photos taken by the Imageloggers. It’s fresh now, but it’s gonna start filling up with eye-candy in a hurry!

Below are a selection from the first batch of images that came out of the NX300 in my hands.

Ok…let’s do this thing!

The Giving Lens’ Colby Brown Goes To The Philippines - Shows Why He’s The Real Deal

Figured in light of Colby Brown's impromptu brave decision to head down to the Philippines to help with the aftermath of this month's insanely devastating typhoon, this was a good time to re-share this. It’s an article I wrote about his philanthropic photographic organization, The Giving Lens. It originally appeared on Kotori Magazine, but his dedication to using his craft and his heart to lead his humanitarian-heavy path is freshly demonstrated with his recent move, so it seemed a good time to rehash it for those that may have missed it. 

Follow his exploits on his Facebook page, his Google+ page, his Twitter feed, and definitely check into his organization, The Giving Lens, at www.TheGivingLens.com

And click here for the article from earlier this year, The Giving Lens Gets Focused. Trust me, you're going to want to know about these guys if you don't already. These are the sorts of stories that restore hope in humanity's future.

The Giving Lens Gets Focused - Philanthropy and Photography Do Mix!

So I haven't written a proper article in quite some time, but The Giving Lens, an organization started by serial altruist photographer Colby Brown that mixes philanthropic pursuits with photography, inspired me intensely. For those of you who have known me for a long time, through starting Kotori Magazine back when print magazine were still a 'thing,' and whatever other crazy pursuits I've delved into over the years, this sort of work is the kind of thing that I hold dear to me and the very reason I wake up every day with a semblance of hope in me, so it was quite a treat to be introduced to The Giving Lens, Colby Brown, Kate Havercroft, and everything that they are doing. Truly inspirational.

Anyhow, thanks to Kotori for running the piece, click here to read it. Trust me, this is worth knowing about:

The Giving Lens Gets Focused