Review of My Recent Purchases

I have made several purchases that relate to my photography, and after using it for a while, it's only appropriate for me to share my initial thoughts on these things, so here you go.

Sigma 10-20mm HSM Wide Angle Lens - since I mainly shoot nature until I get a new Nikon D300 I pre-ordered and can shoot people, it only made sense to increase my possibilities and add a quality lens. Sigma is getting better at trying to compete with bigger lens makers, and this lens have proved it to me. I love the ability to include more into the shots I am taking, and I also love the distortion that comes at such focal lengths. It can help a lot to create more drama in the image, as it helped on my recent shot of the Manti Temple. The lens is a great improvement on my plastic kit lens, as its built for quality and I can tell from my images that are much clearer than they were before. Most of my recent images of nature were shot with that lens, and I highly recommend it. I can't wait to try it on D300 that will have double megapixels than what D40 has and then make a large print and see all the details.

Nikon SB-600 AF Speedlight Flash - after breaking another Sunpak 383 flash by stupidly leaving it in my checked lugguage on an airplane, I decided to step up and get a flash that will have a wireless capability with my D300. It works fine with my Strobist Starving Student Kit, and was really easy to learn how to use without even reading the manual. I also like the swivel options available on it that were not available on SB-400, and again, I can't wait to try it in Nikon CLS setup. Great value for your money.

The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers, by Scott Kelby - I already owned CS2 book, but decided to learn the new functions of CS 3 through this book. I love the style of Scott's teaching - I learn fast this way. He mentioned that about 70% of the book is a new material, and though I did not count, I agree with that. New tips are great - from how to create a Hollywood look to your picture, to how to create panoramic images and to how to create large prints with small resolution cameras. The book also comes with a grey card, which is helpful for white balance purpose and have lost the one I had from CS2 book. I also loved the workflow chapter at the end - always good to hear what he does from the beginning until the end of the photo process. What also helps is that I still own CS2 book, so I can always go back to the tips that didn't make into the CS3 book, so both books were worth the money I paid for them. I highly recommend it to anyone trying to learn to use Photoshop. I only found one downside to the book - about 1/3 of it teaches you how to use Adobe Bridge. With the advent of Lightroom, Bridge is a program that is now useless, and in fact, Scott mentioned it on his blog that he longer uses Bridge, so I skipped those pages. I use Lightroom before I get to Photoshop, so those chapters are a waste of time.

That's it for now. I have since purchased few more books, but I'll review them later as I finish them.