I know it’s been a while since I last posted here, so I thought I’d let you know what’s happened since my last post:

• I have purchased, and used, a Minolta Hi-Matic 7S. I’m pleased to say that the camera works like a charm, but that I made a rookie mistake by shooting at shutter speeds that were too slow for shooting handheld. Well, for without leaning against something anyway. I will upload the shots that didn’t come out blurry to my Flickr (one of which is pictured above), and write something about my experience with the camera.

• I have purchased a Pentacon Six TL medium format camera with an 80mm f2.8 Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar lens. I know that this camera didn’t feature anywhere in my list of medium format camera options in my previous, but decided that was the most cost efficient way of entering the medium format game. I managed to get the camera (with the lens and a case) shipped for approximately $306!

• I have purchased, and taken delivery of, two photography books: Martin Parr’s The Non-Conformists and David Burnett’s 44 Days. I think I may write something about them both here at a later date.

• I have set up a new Flickr account, and have begun uploading my photos (including my backlog).

• I have withdrawn from two units this semester. One being Professional Communication Practice due to me not submitting one of my assessments (and the realisation that I would not be able to pass without submitting it, and the other being Web Development because there was a lack of proper teaching technique that would be appropriate for a first year student with a non-IT background. The lecturer was rewriting the lecture slides as he was going, and only put them up sometimes mere hours before the scheduled lecture. Then, we were expected to complete tasks based on that week’s lecture in a lab class immediately after the lecture. While I managed to convince the lab teacher to extend this deadline to the following week, the fact that it was still a lab class meant that he was not allowed to “teach” us any of the material covered in the lecture. He was only there to check our work, and to answer any general questions we had. For a subject designed for students without a background in web development, it didn’t seem to be set up to actually teach, or reinforce, the basic knowledge of web programming that the subsequent web-centric units rely upon.

That’s it for today. I look forward to posting another update soon.