Equipment

Come on - you didn't expect an equipment list, did you?  😆

CAMERAS

I’ve always thought of myself as an amateur photographer - which might be why I still love it, even 50 years after picking up my first Yashica rangefinder. Photography has never been about clients or income for me. My day jobs paid the bills; the camera fed my soul.

When I take pictures, I see the world through what I call My Desert Lens - a perspective shaped by 40 years of wandering the desert. Most of the photos I share here simply document those experiences. A few turn out quite pretty. And every now and then, one makes me proud. I make no claim to be a world-class photographer - not even close - but that’s never really been the point.  I’m sharing my desert experiences - mostly the memorable ones, often humorous, and occasionally, surprisingly profound.

As a teenager, I learned an important truth: if you can’t take a good photo with a cheap Instamatic (ask your grandfather), no fancy camera will save you. It’s all about understanding the basics and knowing how to work within your gear’s limits. If I ever told my wife that our new frying pan made a great dinner, she’d rightfully hit me over the head with it. The same logic applies to cameras - it’s not the tool, it’s the hand behind it.

Film made us all more intentional. Every click mattered when you only had 24 or 36 shots per roll - plus the cost of development. You had to think before pressing the shutter. Today, people shoot hundreds of digital photos hoping to find one keeper. That’s not skill; it’s spray and pray.

Over the years, I’ve owned many cameras and loved them all - because I took the time to understand their limitations and make the most of them. I still use several I’ve picked up in the last decade. But it all started in the last century (yes, I’m officially old) with my dad’s Yashica rangefinder. Later, I saved up for a Canon FTb SLR and gradually built a lens kit - Canon, Sigma, Tamron, and a few off-brand gems from the local camera store. Having a variety of focal lengths felt like freedom. I tried Nikon for a while, but it never quite clicked for me.

Then came digital. I couldn’t afford one of the first DSLRs, but the early point-and-shoots had potential - especially the ones that let me control shutter speed and aperture. I had a good run with Canon Powershots and Nikon Coolpix models. The Coolpix P310 still gets some use: sharp lens, great range, built-in intervalometer - just plain fun.

For a while, I fell for the convenience of smartphone photography. Always in your pocket, decent resolution, lots of cute (yes, that’s a dig) gimmicks. But come on—tiny sensors crammed with megapixels? No thanks. The day I got my first DSLR, my phone went back to being a phone. DSLRs had real viewfinders, massive sensors, quality glass, fast autofocus, control over depth of field, beautiful bokeh - the whole artistic package. I was hooked.

I started with the original Canon Rebel series: 350D, T2i, T3i, and so on. Over time, I built a solid collection of lenses for the APS-C format. Not wanting the bulk of a full-frame setup, I eventually went looking for the best APS-C camera Canon had to offer - and a couple of months ago I found the Canon EOS R7 mirrorless.

It blew me away.

The R7 came with a razor-sharp 18-150mm lens, and with my existing gear, I now have coverage from 10mm to 250mm. The pro-level features are almost overwhelming: up to 15 fps mechanical shutter (30 fps electronic) - 651 automatic AF zones - in-body image stabilization up to 8 stops, great for handheld shooting even with non-IS lenses - weather-sealed magnesium alloy body - three custom shooting modes - subject and eye detection (for people and animals) - built-in intervalometer - real 4K at 60 fps (none of that smartphone fakery.)  I’ve even started watching YouTube tutorials just to get up to speed with it all. The new RF lenses are phenomenal, and all my EF-S lenses work perfectly with the EF-EOS R adapter. It’s like my entire collection just leveled up.

Still, I like to think I could go out tomorrow and take a pretty good photo with a 1960s Instamatic.

Hopefully this newfangled thing won’t let me down.

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PROCESSING

Something that really brought my love of photography back to life is shooting in RAW format. Back in the film days, I had a darkroom in the basement and loved adjusting every little detail of a photo. RAW gives me that same kind of creative control - but with way more flexibility. And when it comes to editing, nothing beats Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. I’ve tried other programs, but honestly, they just don’t measure up. Yeah, Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography Plan is a subscription, but $14.99 a month? That’s less than a fast food stop - and way better for your body and soul.