Scout Images

I pulled an all nighter last night, but the reward was great. I am now writing this on my new AMD Dragon Platform, to add to the reward, this was the first time I had built a computer from the ground up (all the way from picking out the bits to putting it all together). I couldnt help but snap a few pics of the computer coming together.

Taken using Nikon D300 + Micro Nikkor AF-D 60mm f/2.8, lit by SB-600 and SB-800 using CLS.

The final spec is:

• AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 125 TDP
• Noctua NH-U9B SE Cooler
• ASUS M4A89GTD PRO /USB3
• 8GB OCZ Gold Low Voltage PC12800 DDR3 RAM
• XFX ATi HD Radeon 5850 Black Edition
• Seagate Barracuda 500GB HDD
• Seagate Barracude 1.0TB HDD
• Samsung SH-S223 SATA TruDirect DVD Burner
• Corsair HX 850 Modular PSU
• ANTEC Nine Hundred Case

Despite not yet having found the time to go through the images that I took over the weekend (they are coming) I am going to introduce you all to my latest addition. So new to my arsenal that I have yet to have found the time to break out the light tent to shoot some product style images of this baby.

I am now the happy owner of a AF Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D. This lens is a welcome addition to the kit bag and will probably mean that my Sigma 180mm f/3.5 Macro will spend even less time out and about, but it will mean I now have another, lighter, macro solution.

Another piece of news to be shared is that I am in the process of upgrading my main computer. My venerable AMD Athlon X2 4200+ system is about to turn 5 and is starting to show its age, so it’s successor is in the process of being built. What will it be? For all those nerds out there:

• AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition 3.4GHz 125TDP
• Noctua NH-U9 CPU Cooler
• ASUS M4A89GTD Pro USB3
• 8GB OCZ Gold Low Voltage DDR3 1600 RAM
• XFX ATi Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition GPU
• Antec Nine Hundred case
• Corsair HX 850 PSU

This DRAGON system has proven to be hard to assemble with parts trickling in (still waiting on that Noctua) but I couldn’t help but to unbox the XFX. So here are some of the first shots from this lens (mounted on my D300, lighting provided by SB-800 and SB-600 using CLS).

Great news, I currently have an image on display as part of the DSLRusers.com exhibition that is on show at Zimprints in Newtown.

WHAT: DSLRusers Exhibition

WHERE: Zimprints, 510 King Street, Newtown

WHEN: 20 March 2010 – 11 April 2010

All images are available for sale at Zimprints, so if you have some time do drop by and see what is on offer. I only have one image there but it hangs in very good company.

To view images online visit here.

PS. all image links through dating back to (and including) Nov 2009 are now working again

Firstly I am happy to announce that my migration from 3ix to BlueHost is now complete. There are still a few issues with the integration of WordPress and Gallery2 using WPG2 (similar to those dating back from my last incident) with a lot of my photo thumbnail links not working properly. So far I have fixed everything dating back from Jan 1st 2010 and will continue to fix these links as time passes. I ask for patience, and apologise for any inconvenience cause.

On a more positive note I have joined the Phottix Affiliate program, so if your after some Phottix gear please click through on the links that will appear on this site.

I have finally decided to bid 3ix farewell and will be migrating this website to BlueHost over the next few weeks (hopefully less than that) so there maybe some downtime whilst I am moving the website contents and the domain name. Thank you for your patience.

Update: 17/03/2010 11:30 AEST

WordPress install seems to be working, I will work on reactivating the gallery in the coming days when I have more time. I just hope that I wont have the same problems with Gallery and WPG2 as last time (refer here)

Finally, after another whole day of working on this website, full functionality has been restored. However all the image links posted prior to this evening are now broken. I dont have the energy to fix all of these (they have to be done manually) but I may slowly go back and fix them in the long run.

You will also notice that I no longer run Contact Form 7, this plugin appears to conflict with WPG2 so I have opted to leave it out.

I have just rolled back my my WordPress database with the hope of clearing things up, but it has failed to do so.  Until I can get this issue fixed I ask you all to be patient.

Please use THIS LINK TO VISIT THE GALLERY.

Hopefully I will be able to get WPG2 working soon.

In the meantime there are a lot of images in earlier posts that are not showing, I will get onto fixing these eventually.

Cheers

Cameron

I just wanted to apologise to anyone who has been trying to access this website during the last two days as it has been inaccessible.

I was exploring some SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) options that were available for me when two things happened. Firstly, my web host’s servers developed a problem (I think it may have been a malicious attack) which disabled all access to my website including the back end via cPanel. After a brief live chat with the technician’s this problem was reported and fixed.

However, unknown to myself, some of my wordpress files had been corrupted causing this site to have all sorts of server problems and being completely unable to load, with the standalone gallery still being accessible. This required a reinstall of wordpress (which I have just completed).

Once again, apologies for the interruption in service, and hopefully this will not happen again.

I received an offer to be part of Phottix Journal‘s Photog Friday section a little while back. I was pretty happy to participate and completed the questionnaire and submitted a few images.

This morning I got a very nice surprise when I received an email from Phottix letting me know that I have been picked to be this weeks featured Photographer, and consequently the first photographer featured for 2010.

Have a look here.

Apologies for the late post, but my excuse is that I have already wished you all a happy new year. Anyhow, I just wanted to start off the new year with a few reminders, and a few resolutions. Firstly, I made the effort to change the copyright tags on all my camera to reflect the new year, and am about to do the same with all the tags used for my photos.

I have to remind myself that I have to get out there and take more photos, and pick my gear wisely, especially last nights somewhat poor choice, more on that later (possibly when I get those pictures up).

I resolve to accomplish a few things in the coming year:

• finish my personal project “Boxes That Capture Light”
• continue to hone my people photography
• get this business back on track
• return to using slow lenses (I get the feeling that using purely fast glass has made me lazy over the last year to 18 months)
• get the gear purchasing under control (NO MORE GEAR….maybe only a basic zoom or prime lens to match the D60)
• give that waterproof casing a workout

Does anyone have anything else that they think I should add to this list?