fact on the field

after i had my nikon D40 i`m really excited to go take some photo outside and try my camera. just the same like a lil kid that just got his new toy :D
my first shoot its arround end of february 2009. before going to go outside and take the shoot, i`m already read some tutorial and also some video explanation on youtube. so i know the basic how to use this dslr. i just said that i know how to use dslr, actually not really lol. if i really know how to use dslr my picture not going to turns out like this (see picture on this post) but because i`m so excited and tought that with dslr the picture are going to be much better. i´m not thinking that i`m going to captured a bad photo with this dslr camera.

i got back to my room and tranfser my photo to my laptop and show it to my girlfriend. i hope that its going to quite excited for her to see my first captured with dslr and see what my campus area look like. but its not the case here. she doesnt seems really excited. the fact is she said that i captured bad images. she said that her friends can captured a lot better than me. i said this is my first captured i`m still need a lot of think to learn, but she said this image are too far away from dslr image quality. at that time i`m not really know a lot about photography and how to maximize the end result of the image. and i also tought for the first image it´s cannot be so wrong with this image. but the critique from my girlfriend really touch my feeling quite bad. i`m bit disappointed with her strong sentence to me. but after that talk i take some time to think and review my photo. yes it is i tought. it`s not a good image. i dont need dslr camera if i just want captured photo like this. maybe even my mobile phone camera can captured almost the same photo like this. but that not going to be my barrier to learn about photography. i talk to myself that if i`m really want to learn and explore photography this critique cannot made me down. i have to step up and learn from this failure. so after this moment i start read a lot of article about basic camera use and basic photography so i can know how to improved my knowledge in photography world.
i think the lesson from my experience here is if someone give a critique to you, you have to use it and learn from it. analyze your failure and learn how to fix that. never let that make you down and stop your step to be better. make that critique to make you a better person with more knowledge. i think its better to hear a lot of critique rather than just a good comment. good comment make you happy but you cannot really grow from that. its just make you happy for a moment and thats it.

why nikon?

i think the answer is already being explained by the picture in this post lol. no no no just kidding folks. you know that i`m using nikon and i`m dedicated myself as a nikon fanboy, so sometimes i make a joke about another camera brand, but please dont take it too seriously. it`s just a joke and i dont wanna declare a brand war here on my blog :D

if you are using canon you think that canon is better for you and its the best. the same with me as a nikon owner and another camera owner with different brand.
enough for the joke and back to the topic. so why i choose nikon? so i decided bought a dslr rather then pocket or super zoom camera, but going with the cheap entry level one to save my budget. for my money the choices are nikon D60, canon 1000D, sony A200 and olympus E420. from all camera above, sony is the cheapest, but from the review that i read sony is just started make a dslr and the lenses from sony are very limited. almost the same like olympus. maybe olympus is not the new name on camera market, but for choice of lenses olympus doesnt have lenses as much as nikon and canon. so we down to the final 2 choices and its the classic one, nikon vs canon lol :D from the price its almost identical, from the spec its also almost identical. but i start looking for another alternativ and i found the older cheaper version from the nikon side, its the D40 and its still avalaible brand new (so dont have to buy the second hand to got this type of camera (base on february 2009)). the basic its just the same with the D60. only the sensor that really different. 6mpx vs 10mpx. i dont really care about resolution. for me whats important is the good low price dslr that i can use for learn and explore about photography. besides i`m not going to make a huge print. it´s on another phase not at the learn phase :) for starting and learning i tought this D40 is enough. it`s cheaper from both D60 and canon 1000D. from the canon side there are no more choice from the entry level model. 1000D is the most basic and the cheapest from canon line up. yes you can find a second hand dslr, but i think because i just start learning about camera and photography it take to much risk to buy a second hand produkt. so i decided to bought a nikon. and thats the D40.

ps. i like to see review from www.cameralabs.com the review is complete with camera spec, depth & detail review and also side by side comparison. so you can really see how those camera perform againts his main rival. what the plus and minus side. all in detail and also available with explanation video.
for the cool photo i`ve used in this post, that photo is from joseph nicholas spina. he is also a nikon owner. he also have a youtube channel named nikon help hotline. his youtube account name is lilkiwyguy87.

why photography?

it´s all beginn from my small talk with my girlfriend back in the november 2008. we use to chat with live messenger everyday. we talk about a lot of thing, from the important one to the thing that actually not really important to discuss lol :D but we always have a great time together almost everyday :)

ok back to photography folks. in that chat time we talk about interesting places all arround the world. we start to browse and discuss about a lot of places & images. from there i`ve seen a lot of amazing places with interesting images and after that i`m going to start thinking, i`m study so far away from my country and i`m in europe now, why i´m not start take some photos so i can show it to my girlfriend the interesting place arround me so she can know better about my city and another city arround germany and europe. so i`m going to be like her eyes here in europe, she also can see what i`ve seen here :)
after that i`m start searching about camera. i`m start looking into the pocket camera. i do some research and i found another type camera that i found more interesting, that´s a super zoom camera. as an amateur i see the super zoom camera look more professional and almost looks the same like the dslr camera. but i`m not stop there, i also do some research about dslr camera. after i collect all the information about all that type camera from the review in artikel and youtube, i`m start thinking that if i want take a great photo dslr camera is more capable then the pocket or super zoom camera. (amateur way of thinking :D actually it depends on how you`re using your camera correctly and what kind of object you captured, camera just a tool to captured those images. the one who can make that photo good or bad is yourself as man behind the camera :)) and from the price there are not much different from a good pocket and super zoom camera with the entry level dslr. the fact is the dslr camera that i bought, the nikon D40, is cheaper then a higher megapixel pocket camera and super zoom camera :D yes it only use kit lens, so it cannot zoom all the way like the super zoom and the D40 just have 6mpx resolution, really kind of low resolution compare with brand new pocket camera nowadays. but with dslr i can change my lens later on with a lot of different lenses and can get more creative with that. another important factor with dslr is that you can really learn about photography. if you want really get the maximal potential from your dslr you have to understand about shutter speed, aperture, iso and use it in manual mode. if you just use your dslr in auto mode the end result it´s not going to be much different from the pocket or super zoom camera.
so thats it. after that small talk on chat to research about the camera and finally decided to bought a 6mpx entry level dslr camera, i`m start take some photo and learn about photography from the very basic, because before i`ve this D40 i`m just using my camera on my mobile phone to captured photo lol.

ps. i took the D40 photo in this post from www.dcviews.com

before photography (2)

so football is my second hobby.

i`m start playing football since i was in elementary school.
in that time we just using a plastic ball to play with (sounds wierd lol)
since elementary school and since first time i like football and pay attention to them, manchester united & david beckham are my idol.
i dont know why i like them both, i just know it and i like them lol.
a lot of kids on my age take ronaldo (from brazil) as his idol but for me beckham is more cool and his free kick & crossing are deadly (he still the best player who can cross and passing the ball accurately till now i think :))
in junior and senior high school i take footbal as my extracurricular activity.
but almost everyday after school me and my friends always play football on my school football field.
actually i always want to take my hobby seriously, but sadly tho my father not always think the same way like me :(
he doesnt really support me playing football, so i found myself lil bit hard to explore and getting more serious with this hobby.
back to my first hobby (car) if i want get it seriously, maybe built a race car or something i need a lot of money and if after race something going wrong with my car i need another a lot of money to fix it :(
the conclusion is my first and second hobby not going really well if i want take it more seriously.
so is that also almost the same case with photography, hmmm.. so far not really :D
i got it quite in a good way, support (from my parents, girlfriend, and friends) and some achievment so far. i really hope its not just going to be hobby like my first & second hobby.
just try my best on this one :)

before photography (1)

actually photography is not my first hobby.

as a kid (maybe arround 5years old) i`m already have an interest into car. i can know almost all car manufactured complete the name of each car. maybe lil bit wierd for kid on my age :D
so if i`m going somewhere i cannot stop saying about every name of the car on the street lol.
car is like always in my head. almost all my toys are cars.
arround 14 years old is my first time drive a real car. its an automatic transmission jeep cj 7 and at 16 years old i learn how to drive a car with manual transmission. i`m using my mom toyota kijang diesel. because diesel engine had enough torque its easy to put into first gear and go. in the petrol engine normally the engine not have torque as much as diesel engine so for a beginner it will stuck or cannot go smoothly from the first gear.
in indonesia people are legal to have his/her driving license in the age of 17.
i take my license a day after my 17th birthday. normally people can just pay without taking a serious test on my country (you know almost everything you can buy with money in my country lol), but i trust myself and i know i can pass the test, so i just take the normal test and legally got my license :D
after i got my license my dad bought me a car. it´s a toyota vios. i really proud with this car. i made some modification on my car and i used it for about 2 years. sadly tho after i finished my high school i´m not continue my study in indonesia so my father sold my car because if i`m keep it no body in my house would like to use it because it`s loud and the suspension is pretty stiff.
if i`m going to explain all about car and my car maybe its going to be very long, but so far i hope that people got the idea about my first hobby and my first interest since i was a kid.
photography is not the first, so its the second, nope the second is football actually :)

start my blog

so first of all my name is dipta.
i`m just ordinary student who has photography as my hobby
i come from indonesia and study elektrotechnik in germany (wismar)
why i`m study so far away from my country, its bit complicated.
but if you already made a choice in your life never regards & never look back.
i try write this blog in english so almost everybody can understand it, but if i wrote something wrong (word/sentence) dont take it too seriously.
i just hope that everybody can understand what i`m talking about here and perhaps take some good lesson from my experience.
my girlfriend (rahajengherbimanti.blogspot.com) already wrote his blog much earlier then me, i just follow her step.
another people who encourage me to write a blog is stephan cremer (www.stephancremer.de)
he is a local photographer here in wismar.
in the next post i`m going to talk about photography (photo/gear), lil bit about my life and also my dream :D
in the beginning its not going like an update to my recent activity and my recent photo, but i`m going to start from the very beginning of my learn phase on photography. so everybody can know how can i got improved my photo, what problem i got, what solution i`m looking for and what lesson that you can got & learn from my experiences here.
after i finish wrap all that story maybe i`m going to talk about my current photo, what i`m going to shoot in next month or what object that i`m going to shoot till the end of this year and also some review of my gear.
but i`m not so sure if i`m going to write on this blog everyday.
just read it & fingers cross folks :D

ps. my photo in this post is photographed by stephan cremer & edited by myself :D