(no subject)

[dakegra]

Slightly nervous about tomorrow. Part of me wishes I'd had another week off, but another part wants to get on and doing again.

It'll be weird turning up at a new place and being the new boy again. I wish I knew exactly what it is they want me to be working on, but heck, I'm sure I'll find out soon enough!

NTS: need to buy a new suit. And some new smart shoes.



In other news, I've been pondering what to spend my redundancy money on, given that I'm now back in full-time employment. Tempted by a proper wide-angle lens for my D50 to take up to Scotland at the end of October, but also tempted by the (cheaper) Sigma 18-200mm lens, which would give me the range of my 18-55mm kit lens, with a zoom on top - I could see that being my default carry-around lens, and I don't currently have a zoom lens for my camera.

Hmm. Tricky. Thoughts from my photographer chums, pls?

Comments

[da-pol.livejournal.com]

What about a non-photography spend?

Get yourself a nice suit.

I can recommend http://www.kingandallen.co.uk

[pteppic.livejournal.com]

All super-zooms are crap.
Repeat.

Sigma 10-20mm, best bang for buck on a wide-angle for crop sensor.
If you want a better-than-kit regular lens, Tamron SP f2.8 28-75. Again, best in class bang/buck.

[primitivepeople.livejournal.com]

All super-zooms are crap.

Agreed, especially because the maximum aperture is usually around f4, or f5.6 if you're really unlucky, at the telephoto end. Hopeless for the sort of photography I've got into of late, which calls for very shallow DoF.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

I think the sigma is the way to go. Though I'll have to save up for a while to get it.

[primitivepeople.livejournal.com]

I've gone right off zooms lately, so if I had cash to splurge, I'd go for some nice primes. The quality is just so much better. I've got my eye on the lovely Pentax 40mm pancake lens, which is incredibly thin indeed. I'd settle for anything with a very wide aperture, though.

[boliviafang.livejournal.com]

Being all grown-uppy feeling right now I'll say these things:

It sucks to be the new person, going from being king of your own kingdom, no matter how demented, to not knowing where your stapler is.. or if you have one. Just some reassurance from someone who went through it not too long ago (it doesn't seem long ago). Be prepared for that first week or three of not knowing anything. My boss told me he didn't expect me to know anything for a year when I started. I'm pretty sure I got on board before that, but my point, which admittedly may be clouded by imagined delirium, is that it WILL be weird to be the new boy, but don't let it get you down.

As for the redundancy money (redundancy? Is there twice as much as there should be?)... you will feel better knowing it's in a savings account for two or three months. Just in case you decide that you don't just love the new job. I mean, you'd hate to blow through your "emergency fund" and then feel obligated to stay at a job that wasn't what you expected it to be.

So put the money aside, get your bearings at your new job, and the security of that little monetary cushion will allow you to really explore what you think of of the job, and then, when you love it, and I'm sure you will, you can treat yourself to a Christmas gift of a new lens, which I most assuredly think you should get. I don't know the technical terminology, but I think those lenses that let you get insanely close images of, say, butterfly eyeballs, are .. well, the bees knees. (Of course that's only funny if you're familiar with the phrase, which may be an American-only phenomenon.)

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

they keep using the phrase 'hit the ground running' and 'first deployment in less than two weeks!', which leads me to believe that they're expecting me to, erm, DO IT NOW RIGHT NOW WHY ARE YOU STOPPING TO DRINK COFFEE????

your point about saving the money is a good one.

And yes, our bees have knees. :-)

[chippa.livejournal.com]

Exciting stuff!!!

[stimpy-lfs.livejournal.com]

I got a Tamron 75-300 and it behaves nicely and produces great pics to my human eye. If I had a super-senser bionic eye and printed each photo I took with it on A1 paper, I might be able to spot something wrong with the result, but to a happy amateur like me its absolutely fine, so much so that I'm with the "go-ahead-Dave-treat-yourself-after-all-you've-been-through" vote :)

If you buy it and it turns out to be crap - just flog it.