. . . photography.
My dad gave me my first Canon 35mm camera for my 12th birthday. In my seventh grade ubiquitous adolescent-tasked paper, that my mom still has in archives, “What do I want to be when I grow up I fancied myself a photographer. Since those free and innocent days of my youth I’ve owned a trunk-load of Canon camera. I’ve been loyal to the brand because the brand has kept its promise in delivering quality products at fair prices. Riding my motorcycle through the desert in northern Peru I dropped my Canon Powershot S70 going 40 miles per hour. Upon retrieving the scratched, dented and beat up camera I was sure I’d be in the market for a new camera. Not a chance. The Canon still clicked away with finesse, though the rubber band I used to keep the case from moving certainly didn’t add to its aesthetics. Taken moments afterward the S70 still delivered great shots (this one at 60-mph or more):
Even my EOS20D took abuse as I rode thousands of miles of dirt, rock and washboard roads. A leaky top case contributed to compromising humidity — usually a death toll for electronics. But no, the camera held its own. So I’m sticking with Canon and hope to grow my EOS system over the years.
That’s why I was especially pleased to learn a couple things from Philip this morning. He has gone through the painstaking process of compiling and categorizing the complete Canon EOS system. This project was inspired perhaps by his good article on Building a Digital SLR Camera System which looks at the top 3 Digital SLR cameras in the mid to low-end price range for such gear. But as Philip explains this project was quite an undertaking.
[…] For each item, I needed the full name, the price, and the serial number on Amazon.com (so that people could click through and see reader reviews, buy the item, etc.). I estimated that it would take me 10 hours to assemble these data by clicking around at Amazon. It is a bit more involved than you’d think because for many of these items, Amazon requires you to {€œadd item to cart to see price}€ […]
With I’m sure a heavy workload and great spring weather finally settling into the Boston area, Phil decided to enlist some help. And while I’ve never heard of this “outsourcing service“, I think I just might have to give it a try.
[…] Anyway, I put the project up on www.rentacoder.com and a guy from Pakistan did the job in two days for $10. He made only a couple of mistakes […]
While I’ve long dreamed of riding my bike along the Karakorum Highway (KKH) in northeastern Pakistan, I never dreamed that Phil (or anyone) would find a Pakistani offer to drill down the details of the Canon EOS system at such a great value. True, these propose and bid sites for independent contractors have long existed, I just hadn’t thought of employing the service for such tasks. I have quite a few ideas and features I want to explore in my WorldRider blog, so I just might tap into rentacoder.com — maybe I’ll meet a Pakistani who I just might meet when I finally ride the KKH.
As for my career as a photographer I once dreamed of years ago? I’m still not grown up I guess. So I’ll just keep shooting. Want to check some out? My WorldRider photoblog is still not complete. But here are some shots from the North American segment of my journey.
