Now that my current lens needs have been fulfilled and I have gotten most of my lens envy under control, my focus is now on upgrading the supporting equipment for the times where hand-holding is not feasible or doable (say, for those super long exposures, or for shots that should be focused manually).

For quick and simple support, I have an Induro carbon fiber monopod with deployable metal legs. The monopod works quite well with my Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II (and that's the shortened version of its official name) or when I don't want to lug around my tripod and ballhead. As far as my current tripod and ballhead, I have a Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod and a Manfrotto 488RC4 ballhead.

This page chronicles the progress of the lens collection for my Nikon D300 camera. The lenses are listed by focal length and any lens that I have sold crossed out.

• Tokina AT-X 11-16mm f/2.8 Pro DX
• Nikon AF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR
• Nikon AI 24mm f/2s
• Nikon AF-S 35mm f/1.8G DX
• Lensbaby Composer with 50mm Double Glass Optic
  • Lensbaby Wide Angle (0.6x)/Telephoto (1.6x) Kit
  • Lensbaby Macro Kit
  • Lensbaby Single Glass Optic
  • Lensbaby Plastic Optic
  • Lensbaby Pinhole/Zone Optic
• Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.4G DX
• Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II
• Nikon AF-S 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR
• Nikon AF 85mm f/1.8D
• Nikon AF-S Micro 105mm f/2.8G VR
• Nikon AI 135mm f/3.5

For a while now, I have published some of my photos up on Picasa and have been relatively happy with how it presents albums and photos. The workflow that I went through to upload photos to Picasa included exporting pictures through ViewNX to a separate folder, Picasa would index the photos, then I would create and upload albums. I didn't new any other features of Picasa and decided to look for other publishing options.

Recently, Digital Photography Review announced a new section to their site: user galleries. After looking at the user interface and the features available, I decided to switch their gallery service for all new photos and albums. In doing this, it helps simplify the upload, sorting and tagging process. For the time being, there is no way to add comments to photos or albums. I hope that this feature is added in the future, either for free or paid accounts.

The new photos and albums can be viewed by going to: Photo Albums (dpreview).

As mentioned in my last blog post, I have taken a step into the world of manual focus lenses (not only for cost, but also for the capability of both lenses). I have taken it a step further and picked up a Lensbaby Composer for my D300.

I have always been fascinated with macro and architectural photography, even more so by pictures with unique exposures and compositions that focused on only the subject. Of those photos, some were taken with various Lensbaby lenses and optics... so when the opportunity arose, I decided to order the Composer and the Lensbaby Accessory Kit. The Accessory Kit includes a macro kit, a telephoto/wide-angle kit.

I am currently learning how to use the lens and will hopefully have some fruitful pictures that I'll post online. I will hopefully be able to get the Soft Focus Optic and the Lensbaby Optic Kit, once I am comfortable with the Composer.

When I entered the world of digital photography, I started with a Nikon AF-S 18-200mm DX VR lens and a D300 body. Over the course of a year, I've expanded my lens collection to include several more Nikon lenses (AF-S 50mm f/1.4G, AF-S 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro, AF-S 70-300mm VR, AF-S 35mm f/1.8 DX and an AF 85mm f/1.8) and a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. I also ended up selling the 18-200mm lens, as I decided that I liked the quality, size and simplicity of prime lenses.

My adventure into the world of digital SLR photography officially kicked off around four weeks ago when I placed an order for a Nikon D300 digital SLR camera with a Nikkor 18-200mm DX VR lens; of which came from a couple of months of pondering and researching cameras, such as: a Canon 450D, 40D and 50D cameras and Nikon D90 and D300.

Ever since getting the camera, I have been learning as much as I can about photography in general and taking many, many pictures. Many didn't turn out too well, many were blurred due to not keeping the camera still enough (I don't have a tripod or monopod for it yet, that will be my next investment), and there were the random gems.

Then... there are those photos that were born out of pure curiosity and experimentation. I have posted some of those photos on Picasa. More successful (and several failed) experiments will be uploaded over time. I will also be posting additional albums as they seem fit.

Speaking of Picasa, while I use Picasa 3.0 to caption and sync photos with my web albums, I use the included Nikon ViewNX to tweak and export the photos as JPEG or TIFF files. It is nice that Picasa 3.0 supports the Nikon NEF format (which is the only format that I currently shoot, uncompressed at 12-bit), but it just does not provide the same level as photo tweaking compared to ViewNX.

As with any hobby in photography, a camera body and one lens is not enough. Over time, I plan on adding new lenses to my collection. I have posted the lenses that I am considering on one of my Amazon wish lists.