Since recently I have been trying out Adobe Lightroom. I always used Photoshop for touch ups. So Lightroom was very different, it's basically just a digital darkroom. Instead of Actions like in Photoshop it has Presets. You can load downloaded ones, or create your own. Once the preset is loaded you just mouse over on it and get a small thumbnail preview of how the photo will look. Once you apply a preset you can change settings and adjust the photo to your taste.

But you can easily go to far with Lightroom, so a good photo composition is still key factor to a good photo. But taking photos with the Ricoh really lets one see how good DSLRs are. With my Nikon D70 in automatic mode I can shoot away perfect photos. But the Ricoh GR is not so great in automatic. I never shoot automatic, since I got the D70 I've been using manual 100% of the time. Once you can use manual easily automatic is like a handicap.

Everyone who owns a DSLR with a kit lens can take a good photo quality wise, so to stand out nowadays composition is everything. 10 people can photograph the same item, but only a few will take a unique view of the item.

The trick is to take a mundane object and make an interesting photo out of it. And also to know how the photo will look best, e.g. in B&W or colors? I decided to give it a try and create a composition in my room and use my desk lamp as only light source.

My shoes

See full size versions on my flickr macro set

The whole process took very little time to get done. The longest part was taking the photos. Then load them on the computer, open Lightroom, select the best shots, apply presets and done. But for me the thrill of photography is always getting a good composition. When I started taking photos with a Fuji S5000 I would sit/stand for hours observing animals in the nature to get that one great shot.

If you want to challenge yourself, get a fixed lens like a 28mm or 50mm and shoot in manual only. Think good about the composition and remember that digital editing is just the finishing touch, not what makes the picture.

After three years of using only the Nikon D70 and always having to plan if I take it out with me, considering big enough bag, which lenses, etc. I decided it would be a good idea to have a compact camera that I could easily carry around everywhere. Last year I looked at a few cameras but they where to big and I somehow wanted the ability to shoot RAW.

Then through Twitter and Flickr someone mentioned Ricoh GR2 and posted some photo taken with it. That's when my interest for a compact arose again and I started doing some research on DP review. The camera looks great, good specs and reviews. But way to expensive for a second camera alongside my Nikon D70. Then I saw Ricoh GR Digital which was released in 2005. Now that version 2 is out the first one is cheaper. But most of them are sold out.

Panasonic has a camera comparable to the Ricoh GR, namely the Lumix LX 2 which has a Leica lens. This one is less expensive then a GR2 but more expensive then a GR. Both these camera are for the more advanced users, having a fixed 28mm lens with some digital zoom only, extensive manual settings, a good ISO range and RAW ability.

Considering how expensive these cameras are I decided to check one second handed. I never bought any gadget second handed, only cheap old film cameras. I used a dutch merchant website owned by e-bay. This site doesn't work with profiles so it's really at your own risk.

A search for Ricoh GR yielded one result only and for Lumix LX2 one result only. So I bid for both see which one I could get. Typically the Ricoh was posted online for days and nobody had bid but as soon as I bid people started overbidding me. There isn't a time limit here, the seller decides which bid it will take. Really wanting the Ricoh I did a heavy bid and won it right away. Meanwhile the Lumix was being heavily bid one so I let it pass.

This Ricoh was advertised as new in box, never used being sold because the owner doesn't use it. I got it for 10% less then the cost of the remaining GR being sold in stores.

I didn't want to take the risk of being ripped off and because the seller lives 20 minutes by train from The Hague I setup a meeting for the exchange.

It turned out to be a nice man, the camera was a gift for his girlfriend but she didn't have any use for the camera so they decided to sell it. The camera came brand new in the box with plastic still on the LCD. Complete with everything and the store recipe. So that was a really lucky purchase, the camera was bought just a month ago. I couldn't be happier, worth every penny and I get a one year warranty.

The Ricoh GR doesn't come with SD card, so the next day I got a SD Extreme 2GB which is more then enough. Still needed: a cool wrist strap like the blue one for Nintendo Wii remote and a camera pouch, a funky one.

Today I took the camera around city for a few try outs. It took and will take some getting used to it, after three years with an DSLR. There is no view finder so I have to use the LCD display. A very handy factor is that you can see the settings "live" on the display: if it is too dark or too bright, etc. But I hope after some use I'll know the camera good enough to get great pictures.

You can see some of the photos taken with the Ricoh GR. I went with mostly B&W using ISO 400 to try get the grainy effect of a Kodak Black and White ISO400 film.

I'm looking forward to take more photos of different subjects and maybe a video just for fun to put on Flickr.

When I'm feeling homesick, and I mean for my home back on Aruba. I browse on Flickr for photos of Aruba. Being a tourist island there is always lots of new photos uploaded almost daily. Some are real your regular vacation snaps and there are also some real good photos there.

You'd think after almost eight years living in the Netherlands that the missing would become less but I don't think the missing will ever go away. As soon as one year since my last time on Aruba pass by I start to feel homesick, especially if it's a cold winter day like today and all I can think about is the warm sun that is shining there and the beach within a 15 minutes drive from home.

So I was browsing Flickr on a search term for the tourist spot right by my home, see if I could get a shot. And I found one, just a vacation snap but you get the gist.

I mean the photo only explains why I would be feeling homesick in the middle of winter in my apartment in the city. The view those two people on the photo are enjoying is the view I grew up with, that is the nature surroundings I spent my childhood walking around, exploring and playing.

If I'm not mistaken that whole area has or will officially become part of the Arikok National Park, so there is no more house building allowed there. Our houses where built there 27 years ago and was the last ones to be build in that specific area.

I can tell you a lot of stories about this place, the countless of ghost stories as this place is called "The Frenchmen's Pass" where supposedly a lot of Frenchmen's and Indians died during the first colonization. Or all that water you see there comes from the lagoon that is right off the picture on the right. And when we get tropical rains that water rises so high that roads are flooded leaving us stuck at home. And we'll spend the whole day watching cars trying to get trough the water and all failing because people never realize that it's sea water.

And when growing up people would always comment "how can you live so far from town". In Arubian terms far is a 15 minutes drive. Well I'd live there anytime over a 2 minutes drive from town. I never liked living in a town and never will. In my opinion we got the best spot to live on the island. Although there really are more.

I think I'll make an effort and if circumstances allow I'll be going for a vacation this year. But it's home, my family is there so in thoughts I'm there.

I decided to sell 3 of my 4 lenses of my Nikon D70. The Nikon D70 gets dust on the sensor very easily. So I decided that one all around lens will be much better unless I learn to clean the inside of the camera, which I won't. Also I want a new lens to use and get motivated to start photographing again.

I put an add on a Dutch online marketplace but it's not generating any interest. But I'm not willing to cut the prices as the lenses are in very good condition as I never used them much and I always store them away from cold, heat, dust, etc. I'm thinking of checking out a camera store that sells secondhand camera equipment and see if they want to buy them from me.

The lenses I'm selling are:

• AF Nikkor 28mm 1:2.8 D
• AF-S Nikkor 18-70mm 1:3.5-4.5 G ED (with B&W UV filter)
• Sigma 55-200mm 1:4-5.6mm DC

I'm keeping the Nikkor 50mm 1.8 because that's just a perfect lens and the one I use 90% of the time. And I can't miss the 1.8 aperture it's great for taking photos in low light situations without flash.

If I manage to sell them I may buy the "Nikon DX VR 18-200 mm F3.5-5.6G Zoom" but if they don't sell I won't be too disappointed as they are all lenses I will use eventually. I have a few ideas for photo shoots, just need to get in gear and just do them. By now my Flickr pro account has expired, I'm to lazy to upgrade it again.

Photography really has been on the back burner....Note to self: need to start taking photos.

I haven't written anything about my health lately just because I don't know where to start. So tonight I just took my camera to show you my life now.

A set of 4 photos

It took a year for me to want to share this with everyone. If you have questions feel free to ask.

Not being in the mood for anything tonight I started browsing my photos. I came across a B&W film photo I took with an Olympus Trip more then a year ago. As soon as I saw those few photos I told myself I should start taking that camera with me everywhere loaded with a B&W film.

Take this photo for an instance, I took it at Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam, a photo of Anne Frank.

But being taken with an old camera on a B&W film makes it seems like an old original photo. It's much better trying out with film and an old camera then messing around with photoshop. The Olympus Trip 35 was a wise second hand choice. The other ones I have a are a Smena 8 and a Holga, I don't like the Smena so I only used it a few time and have yet to fill a roll. Somehow the plastic camera doesn't really motivate to take photos. The Holga is nicer but difficult to turn the film correct and take it out without messing it up.

I guess also I'm not the type that like plastic/toy cameras after all. The photos do have a nice effect but you must be pretty experienced with film cameras to get good results with a plastic camera. I started getting into photography with a digital point and shoot. I have yet to shoot more then 10 film rolls. So I still have a lot of practicing with film instead of digital.

I few years ago I saw an exposition of Garry Winogrand and I loved it. The casual B&W street photography. Now a days lots of people are shy for cameras which makes it difficult to get a good shot. Also I become very self conscious when walking around with a camera so I have to work on that. That's why big cities like Amsterdam are the best for street photography, so much tourist you'll just pass for one.

I have to overcome my self consciousness and go out more with a camera in hand, because there isn't nothing cooler then "recording" moments and images of the most simplest things. Lots of time you'll think the photo didn't come out great but take a look at it again after a year or so and you'll like that photo. I guess that's why Winogrand never developed his films right away.

A couple of my photos taken with film.

Originally uploaded by Darice

Yesterday I bought a new screen, a HP19wb. It was an impulse buy as I had a one year old 17 inch iiYama screen. But I haven't been to the computer store in more then half a year so when I went I was surprised at the low prices compared to my last screen.

I decided I wanted to upgrade to a 19 inch, wide screen with glossy display. I had a choice between this HP or an Acer display. But I decided for the HP as according to some reviews HP is better quality then Acer plus this HP fits nicely with the Mac Mini.

Now lets see when the Lacie mac mini drives gets cheaper.

Last week I finally went ahead and ordered some Flickr Mini Cards from MOO. This service has been available for some time now but I didn't want to risk ordering 100 cards. But lately I'm giving out my email address a lot and instead of having to spell it out each time I decided these cards would be a nice solution.

I choose ten images which gives me 10 of each images. On the back I have my name, email, website and Flickr logo. These will serve as my personal cards from now on and I have my business card for business contacts.

The cards are of a remarkable quality for the price. They come in a small recyclable plastic box. The cards are firm and the print is matte. For best result I would go with photos with light and bright colors. Images that are dark on screen will look even darker on print. Now I just need to find a slim box to store a few cards to carry around.

It's always great to see your own photos in print. Since the digital age most of us barely print photos. Till today I still don't have a photo printer and let alone money for ink and paper for the amount of photos I have. I'll be taking those same photos soon to get them printed and check out price for printing a poster. I can't wait till there's a print option through Flickr available for the Netherlands.