The Decisive Moment

I’ve been having to change lenses on my Canon 350D quite a lot recently and no matter how careful I am it seems impossible to stop the dust getting in. There are hundreds of products on the market for cleaning your camera’s sensor but the ones that seem to be the best all require making contact with it. To be honest I’m not thrilled about the prospect of doing that. I just don’t want to risk a slip-up and ruin my beloved camera. So, for the last few months I’ve been trying to give it a clean with my blower. I’m sure you have one of these too - a little rubber bulb with a brush on the end - useless by anyone’s standards. I have decided that enough is enough and today I purchased a Giottos Rocket-air Blower.

If you don’t have one of these then run out and buy one right now! I mean it looks like a rocket for crying out loud! Actually, joking aside, when you use the blower it becomes clear that its looks are a by-product of its engineering. The bulb is erganomic and as large as most people could comfortably hold. The fins at the bottom are there to stand the blower up, preventing the inlet valve from becoming blocked and the nozzle, well OK I think the nozzle is just to make it look more like a rocket but still, it really does seem to be the product of good engineering rather than aesthetics.

With each squeeze you really get the sense that this is a very well put together piece of kit. It’s made of thick, natural, environmentally friendly rubber and feels almost indestructible.

The pressure of the expelled air is substantial. Certainly strong enough to blow away dust that had become statically stuck to my camera’s sensor. I’ve also used it to clean my lenses with equally superb results.

The one I bought was the medium Rocket-air. With that in mind the power of the large one should be very impressive am I’m certain the small version will combine ample oomph with pocket sized portability. They cost around £5 - £10 depending on the model and are available at any good photography store. If you’re like me though and can’t be doing with the trip into town you can have one delivered straight to you door by good old Amazon:

Giottos Rocket-air Blower - small

Giottos Rocket-air Blower - medium

Giottos Rocket-air Blower - large

I’ve been a semi-professional photographer for some time now and without blowing my own trumpet too much, I think I could be described as a decent photographer who occasionally achieves exceptional results. Without being too self deprecating, I believe the occasionally exceptional results have come about more through luck than judgement. This is something I would like to change.
Generally speaking I would have to say that the development of my photographic skills has been pretty steady. I have seen improvement from one shoot to the next and every now and again I have had a Eureka moment where my skills seem to take a massive leap upwards. Recently however this development seems to have stopped. My photography skills seem to have reached a plateau. I’ve reached a certain level of attainment that I just can’t seem to improve upon. This isn’t to say I’ve mastered the art, far from it. It’s just that I’ve reached a level that I don’t think I can improve upon without some help.

I think this has come about because I’m self taught. I’ve learnt through experimentation, reading books and magazines, researching on the internet and seeking advice from other photographers. At no point have I had any structured tuition. It’s true that many photographers have learnt this way and they’re doing just fine but I think that somehow I’ve just managed to miss out some of the essentials. I feel I’m lacking a solid foundation in the basic principals of photography and it’s this that has caused a stunting of my development.

I’ve decided to do something about it. I’ve signed up to do an AS level in photography at the local college. With a bit of luck I hope this will fill in the gaps and get me back on track again.

I’m going to attempt to chronicle each of my lessons / lectures (I wonder what they call them nowadays?) here on The Decisive Moment. Hopefully they’ll be good reading.

Have any of you experienced reaching a plateau? If so how did you get yourself going again?

If you don’t already know, there is an excellent comic strip just for us photographers. It’s called “What the Duck” by Aaron Johnson and I read it every day. Occasionally some of the humour requires a little bit more knowledge of the USA than I have, but generally it raises a smile at the start of each working day.

Go visit the WTD site and subscribe to the RSS feed and brighten your day a little.