Meeting people from the interwebs

As some of you (most?) know, last week I bought a new camera- the Canon 5d Mark II. I was browsing a photography forum two days ago and some guy had just bought it also but they didn't have the lens kit so he bought a different lens with it. Well he sort of jumped the gun because when you put down cash for a new camera, you tend to want a lens for it, any lens. So he picked up a 24-70mm F/2.8L that I debated on getting with this camera. It was either get the kit with a lens (24-105mm F/4L) or buy the body only and get this lens.

I didn't really give it much thought because buying either lens separately costs ~$1100. The kit "saves" me ~$300-400 on the lens. It's cheaper if you buy it with the body. So now this guy realized he wanted the extra reach (from 70-105mm) and I realized that I needed the larger aperture (F 2.8) because a lot of times I'm shooting bars and restaurants (dim light situations) so I decided to trade with him. Hey, this is a great deal for me, I "paid" $800 to get a new $1100 lens.



So I told him to meet me at Joe's (where else?) today and we did. He was a middle-aged man with a balding headline and glasses. That is a very stereotyped kind of photographer in my mind. Sort of like all the people who work at Calumet remind me of my college professor, Roger- mid 50 year old guys with glasses and all sorts of mustaches and monotone vests on.

The guy I met was obviously rich and had a ton of money to throw. He was telling me how he settled back into photography as a hobby (he doesn't shoot professionally but bought a $2700 camera and L glass!). He told me he was collecting cars for a while and then moved onto watches and had always liked to photograph the things he was collecting so he got into photography through it. Plus he takes lots of trips with his wife. They are going somewhere exotic in a few weeks. I don't remember what he said.

So we talked about cameras and things for a while and traded lenses. Oh yeah, the photo above is the new cover of the L, which I shot. I shot a ton of photos for the issue. Check it out.