A BIG hello to everyone using this Forum.

I know this is a bit of a longer thread but you got everything of importance in here there is to know about my 50+ years.
Also born as a West German I am now located on the outskirts of Poole in Dorset (I got naturalised and decided that Great Britain was the country I like to live in as it fits more my personality and that may be because my Grand-dad was from England, Cornwall to be more precise, and was a PoW in WW1 and then married my Granny and both staid in Western Germany), have a lot of beautiful countryside just on my doorstep as well as some interesting (not only from the photographic side) places right here. The Jurassic Coastline, Corf Castle, Portland Bill and Lulworth Cove, to name just a few of the more well known places.
As of my photographic background, may father was a press photographer (NOT a paparazzi but he did proper journalistic work. He used to work for AP and when he was home also for a local newspaper) and I used to work as a Photo assistant in my younger years with that newspaper in Düsseldorf / West Germany.
I then had to join the army and as I signed on for a few years I first used to work as a photographer in the 1st corps in Münster but after a rather heated ‘discussion’ with my direct superior Officer (never a good idea, but you know how hot headed someone as a young person can be, in particular you are right and try to stand your ground. NEVER a good idea in the army! But, you only learn with age) about some of pictures, my work as an army photographer was rather cut short and I was transferred to an Anti Aircraft Battery in one of the most beautiful areas in Schleswig-Holstein in West Germany, right at the Baltic Coast.
I used to owe a Pentax ME Super (Black with winder) as well as a ‘normal ME (Black) with various lenses and a Metz 45 CT1 and never lost my interest since then in Nature, Scenic and Still Life Photography. Also Sports, Artistic, ‘Action’ and News Photography stuck in my blood but it was too hard to get a appendence ship or even a job as a photographer in a world where every second person it seemed worked in one way or the other as a photographer.
But where one door closes another opens and I landed a job with a large professional photo labour who where catering for mainly studio and advertising industry and learned whatever there was to learn.
I then moved over to Helgoland (a very small island in the North Sea) and worked there as a photo labour that concentrated mainly on the one hour tourist industry.
With the time I got bored of this and I started working all over the place until I worked as an auxiliary nurse in Germany and got training through to become a nurse (equivalent to an RGN). I then volunteered as a Nurse in the ‘Balkan conflict’ and after that needed some R&R in Spain where I worked as a life guard.
Unfortunately for me this was BEFORE the EU came together and I was send on my way for working without a working or residential permit (luck for me I got just send on by the local Guardia Civil as the guys knew me and gave me the chance to leave rather then take me in and send me home) and after a short spell in the Netherlands I came to England.
Well Forget working in photography here, in particular if you do not know where to turn and I was not becoming a ‘paparazzi’ so I joined a nursing agency and worked in various places in London. After about one year in London I started hating the city and found a job in a Nursing Home in Bournemouth. Working there I looked to better myself and found a job in a Local Hospital and got married at the same time I started working in the hospital.
I then injured myself so severely that I can not work again and be ever since registered disabled. I am restricted of what I can lift and walking still is difficult for me and is always combined with pain. As I am not allowed to drive a car medically (as my back can lock up at times without prior warning, which effects the use of my legs/feed but not of my hands) I have looked in to a scooter but due to the injury got some problems with my balance at times so I am looking in to a Quad Bike at the moment (Doctor says that this would be fine) but have to find the finances first (unless I win in the lottery. Fat chance on this one) but this is probably the most likely form of transport for me in the future as Public Transport where I life is just a joke, if it runs at all.
About half a year ago I started selling bits and pieces on feeBay and a couple of other places and saved up to purchase first a Sony PD150 but filming is for me not the same as photography. I then got myself a Panasonic Lumix FZ38 to get ‘that digital fever’ and was so taken in and started really enjoying photography again that I wanted a Digital SLR.
Finally last week I was able to get myself a Samsung GX 10 body with a battery grip in mint condition. This is supported by a Metz32 CT7 Flash (I use it on manual settings till I find a hot shoe for Pentax / Samsung to ad the TTL option for it (SCA 374) but in may haste then I purchased also a Pentax F 35-80mm f4 – f5.6 zoom lens and I wish I had not done so. I guess most of you know why as I read ‘after the buy’ that this is probably one of the worst lenses that Pentax ever made.
As I still have some saved money and some more stuff on feeBay I am now looking in to getting a couple of zooms that will not be as useless as the one that is an expensive paperweight (I got it for £30 incl. next day delivery, and will go on feeBay as soon as I got a decent lens of ANY kind) .
For the future I look to get another body (Probably the GX 20 but maybe Pentax equivalent to it. I have not yet compared them site by site) and maybe be able to do some Stock-Photography and Videos (I may sell the Sony PD150 as I have a Video capability within the GX 20) This way I may be able to finance GX 20 and maybe get some money towards a second hand Quad as they start selling for about £500.
I will keep the Lumix for the wife or as a light back-up).
The idea with Stock-Photography and Video is not so much for the money but to get me away from hours of TV and get out of my Den, which will do me only good.
So, there you got ME in a ‘nutshell’ and I believe it’s the most important points that anyone need to know about me.
I hope very much that I have find here a welcoming community where I may be able to get a helping hand in one way (as I am not too good yet on the digital side yet, in particular the post processing of the pictures taken in Corel Photo Paint X4 SP2, as I can not get on with ADOBE at all and at the end they are similar just the icons and Dockers are different from what I could see plus I am with Corel since Corel Draw 3 and at least know where is what and how some things work together) and maybe I be able to give a helping hand here and there myself.
Kind regards to everyone
SmutjeUK

wow - you have certainly had an 'interesting life '

Welcome and hurry up and put some of your pictures up for us to see - I bet there are some really good ones there.

Welcome to the forum. I still use an old version of Corel Photo Paint from time to time. I like the way I can just press "PrtSc" and then Corel has an option of "New from Clipboard" to let me edit straight away.

G'day and welcome.

Many thanks for your greetings. I have to say I made a BIG blunder in the above. As a second body I look for the K5 and NOT as stated the GX 20 because the GX 20 does not have a movie mode. I know that this sounds a bit on the expensive side (around £1100 for the body) but I would sell my Sony PD150 first and should have no problems of getting about £1500 for it with all the bits and pieces I got for it (incl PagLight system, PortaBrace Rain cover etc) so the K5 should not be out of reach with this one.
Sorry for the mistake.
As for pictures, remember I only just started the 'Digital DSLR way of photography' but I am looking at the first pictures taken over the last few days with the GX 10 and the 'paperweight' of a lens and I will soon upload some in to my Portfolio here, but they will change as soon as I got better 'sharper' lenses.
Kind regards
SmutjeUK

Hello SmutjeUK have fun

Hi SmutjeUK & welcome from another newcomer. Post your pics soon.

Many thanks all. Feel at home already. First picture is uploaded in to my Portfolio, but I can only upload one a day so the next one will follow tomorrow. Please feel free to leave your comments, critiques or anything else that comes to mind. Remember I rather take pictures that 'speak' to the viewer and I think, for one of the first 'real digital take' with this thought in my mind and a very minimal crop I think that I am in the right direction, but I leave that to the viewer as everyone judges pictures different and the emotions that everyone get when viewing a picture is different. I hope you like it and the next will be tomorrow.
Kind regards and thanks for all your warm welcome
SmutjeUK

Hello Bernhard and welcome to the forum. I have viewed your first picture post and though it is a little dark for my eyes, I do appreciate your vision. Best of luck and keep on posting pictures.

Regards,

Stephen

I got a 'brighter' one, but my thought behind choosing the darker one is purely atmospheric.
The picture does not comes up as big as the original and therefore tend to be a bit on the dark side whereas in the original size it is slightly lighter (Also the 'Guardian' is in a particular dark spot (as you may can see on tomorrows picture, which was taken just a couple of 100yards away at roughly 15min later).
But it is also this kind of 'reaction' or 'emotion' I try to get out of people that view my pictures!
I will keep that in mind for the next one that will be posted tomorrow. I usually take several pictures with different settings (I think the definition for this is 'bracketing') but I have not found out yet how to do so automatically in every picture on the GX-10 AND have the RAW and JPEG file at the same time (also THAT I figured out by now).
Like I say, these are my first careful steps in to the Digital world of SLR photography and at the moment its still all try and error.
Many thanks for your honest comment as every comment for me is important on the way where I eventually like to go.
Kind regards
SmutjeUK

Hello and welcome! If you haven't replaced your 35-80 lens yet and are on a limited budget you should be able to pick up a DAL 18-55 for around £20 here or on ebay. It is the 'budget' version (without hood and with plastic mount) but has the same optics as the normal DA version.

Added another one to my Portfolio that was taken soon after the 'Guardian Angel'. If you look to the left of the church you see a 'wall' of trees and under this lot is the 'Angel', so you can imagine that it is sitting in one of the darkest spots. It rarely gets good light as on one side the church is blocking the Sun and on the other it is the trees and wall of Ivy.
THOUGHTON: Thanks for the tip. I was leaning towards the Samsung 18-55mm and the Samsung 50-200mm. Both are available for a reasonable price and from the reviews I have dug up on the net they seem to be very decent lenses, pus, being German and having spend my youth there when I worked in photography, I know of the quality of the Schneider lens (what they use reading through the reviews) and I most certainly will keep the DAL 18-55mm in mind.

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

G

NEWSFLASH...... My thanks to techno-terminator as this now ended my 'quest' for an 50-200mm. I simply bought the one that was on offer from techno-terminator and ext on the list in a few weeks time is to get rid of the 'paperweight' and get an D-Xeneon 18-55mm and I am happy.
Anyway that's over, many thanks to Weldingbluges for your welcome. Only two days here and already feeling at home thanks to you all.
Greetings to everyone
SmuthjeUK