The gratuitous and voluminous use of profanity has always struck me as a replacement for a deficient vocabulary. Especially when written and there is no editorial time constraint. For me, the writer's lack of a cohesive thought process and inability to articulate what little linear train of thought he does manage to get into his article, along with the profanity, renders what few strong points he does make as illegitimate.
If you compare his writing to Syl Arena or Chuck Gardner for instance, it is clearly appropriate to call it a name dropping, web link farming, profanity laced rant. Nothing more.
dwerther... come on... "gratuitious, voluminous, deficient, cohesive, linear"... seriously? Better than half of today's natively English speaking world would need to open up another window for dictionary.com just to get through your first sentence!
Gra tu it tous. Vo lum in ous. Be brief! Why use four syllable words when simple four letter words will do... without sounding os ten ta tious, pre ten tious, su per cil ious, and vain glo ri us?
At least it was easy to understand what Weeks said!
If his writing "style" is any indication of his thought process, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to conclude that his issues with the Canon flash system may stem from an inability (or unwillingness) to RTFM... or maybe he just wanted to switch so that his gear would match his coffee mug.
Focus Locus wrote:
dwerther... come on... "gratuitious, voluminous, deficient, cohesive, linear"... seriously? Better than half of today's natively English speaking world would need to open up another window for dictionary.com just to get through your first sentence!
Gra tu it tous. Vo lum in ous. Be brief! Why use four syllable words when simple four letter words will do... without sounding os ten ta tious, pre ten tious, su per cil ious, and vain glo ri us?
At least it was easy to understand what Weeks said!
Speak for yourself and I'm really sad for the level of education in the past decades if what you say is in any way true.
And it appears to be a personal blog, not an official review article, so perhaps that was all it was really intended to be.
His About page claims many publishing credits in major magazines like Vogue, etc. After this blog entry, what do you suppose his chances are now of becoming a sponsored Canon Explorer of Light?
I'm new to the photography game but it seems like this guy is aging quite quickly. I can understand his problems with all of the automatic features on modern 35mm systems. I'm not that young anymore either but as a techie, I have very little faith in automated features working correctly like AF, AWB, AE, ETTL, and any mode on the camera that isn't M. In a lot of ways, it's made me grow as a Canon photographer because my MF, MWB, ME, and M-Flash skills have gotten much better. On the other hand, automated features should just work and both Nikon and Canon have issues with these technologies. My only choice is to go full manual and look for the best lenses and sensors. Canon seems to be working for me right now with the glass that they've released and while the D800 has higher MP, the ending image from a 5D mk III looks very similar but painted differently. If either camera company had their automated features work like Apple computers, I think the pro-body landscape would look very different. You'll see a lot more amateurs getting into the game. I'm probably a prime example of enthusiast turned career from these new bodies.
It's not the the camera gears that make good pictures.
It's the Photographer behind the camera that make good pictures.
It's evey camera gears have there limitation.
It's important to know your cameras gear of capable of.
I have had own Canon / Nikon / Leica and Hasselblad
and none of this gear is a perfect camera gear.
You guys are concentrating too much on the "how" and not the "what" of his writing.
I seriously doubt that nikon is the panacea he makes it out to be (I've used my buddy's d700's), but I do agree that ettl is flawed. If you learn its weaknesses it works pretty well; of course his point about spending $600 on a flash and > $3k on a camera and then not being able to trust it is valid.
I have also noticed a lot of fellow wedding shooters going nikon in the last year or two, but the sample size is small so I don't consider it to be statistically significant.
AGeoJO wrote:
Tom, what is your intention of posting his blog here? So, you wanted us to know that that Chris guy switched just as a general knowledge? Did you admire his work then? I know his writing is.... well, I am not going there. I have never heard of this guy before but that doesn't mean much, if anything.
Chris Weeks is a major player in the photography industry. I assumed you have heard of him or at least seen his work. You probably have seen his images in magazines and never knew it. I figured if one of the titans of the industry blogs about switching from one major brand to another some folks would find it interesting. It's news. Kind of like when Scott Bourne gave the D800 a bad review when he blogged about that camera.
I assume the reaction to this would be the polar opposite had I posted the link to the article in the Nikon forum.
The Jerry Springer show syndrome.
A "guest" is brought in who said something very dumb, or did something perverse or immoral, and then the audience does self-cleansing by flogging the poor bastard.
Tom K. wrote:
I assume the reaction to this would be the polar opposite had I posted the link to the article in the Nikon forum.
You should have done so and no doubt the reaction would be different although it would still be interesting to see how folks there would react to his...... uh, writing style .
I think the "strongest" point I noticed in the entire blog rant was the statement that he knows a lot of pro photogs switching from Canon to Nikon and none going the other way. Of course, I don't see much evidence that his personal experience can be extrapolated to the entire world of professional DSLR-using photographers. It's hardly news that we have reason to be disappointed about ways that Canon hasn't always responded to professional needs (eg. taking as long as they did to put their best AF in a compact, high res FF body), but aside from bits of amusement, I'm not really learning much of value from the various diatribes that seem to be aimed at convincing the readers that we all should be switching to Nikon as soon as possible. Meh.
timbop wrote:
I have also noticed a lot of fellow wedding shooters going nikon in the last year or two, but the sample size is small so I don't consider it to be statistically significant.
I agree, but here, as in the sports / PJ world a few years ago, Canon has owned such a high percentage of the market (for a time) that nearly all of the brand switching would necessarily be one-way.
I have used both brands pretty extensively, and there are pros and cons of each.
My feeling is that you tend to be drawn back to what you started with / feel comfortable with. I suspect that a lot of the Nikon switching that is going on is by former Nikon users who had switched to Canon at some point but are happy to move back to what they know and love.
Nikon has addressed nearly all the shortcomings that caused its users to switch to Canon in the first place (fast prime lens selection, full frame, noise issues, wireless flash system, resolution, etc.) and so it's natural that some of the Nikon folks are moving back over. I would do the same.
May 20, 2012 at 12:01 PM
Lars Johnsson Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Tom K. wrote:
Chris Weeks is a major player in the photography industry. I assumed you have heard of him or at least seen his work. You probably have seen his images in magazines and never knew it. I figured if one of the titans of the industry blogs about switching from one major brand to another some folks would find it interesting. It's news. Kind of like when Scott Bourne gave the D800 a bad review when he blogged about that camera.
I assume the reaction to this would be the polar opposite had I posted the link to the article in the Nikon forum. ...Show more →
I belive you really exaggerate when talking about this photographer. You say he is a major player in the photography industry a titan of the industry blogs and have one of the most downloaded articles in web history about street photography
Nobody have heard about him. And how can you know what articles that are the most downloaded? There are millions of articles all around the world
He is a major player in the photography industry!! And he don't like the 1D X because one of his friends told him it (flash and wireless) was not good
Lars Johnsson wrote:
I belive you really exaggerate when talking about this photographer. You say he is a major player in the photography industry a titan of the industry blogs and have one of the most downloaded articles in web history about street photography
Nobody have heard about him. And how can you know what articles that are the most downloaded? There are millions of articles all around the world
He is a major player in the photography industry!! And he don't like the 1D X because one of his friends told him it (flash and wireless) was not good
Well....in the street photography world Chris Weeks shook things up in a big way with the following article: Click here to read it .
Weeks also produced a superb short film on street photography.
You can view the series by hitting the links below. It's in three parts.
I didn't even bother to click on the link. Every day you will see people migrating from Canon to Nikon, and vice versa ... and especially so when either Canon or Nikon brings out some cutting-edge technology bodies ... which Nikon did, with the Exmor sensor. So what? If you are one to adopt the latest technology and has the financial means to do so, more power to you. But for most of us, we would just sit tight and wait for the tide to turn ... and it will, as sure as my real name is not my user name.
May 20, 2012 at 12:30 PM
Lars Johnsson Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
@ Tom,
Thanks for the links. I still don't think he is a major player in the photography industry. The movie I viewed was more like an advertising for Leica.
molson wrote:
If his writing "style" is any indication of his thought process, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to conclude that his issues with the Canon flash system may stem from an inability (or unwillingness) to RTFM... or maybe he just wanted to switch so that his gear would match his coffee mug.
One thing to be fair is that many people have been knocking the Canon flash system exposure for years and I have seen many people over the years praise flash exposure as the one thing Nikon does right, etc. Read ltos of talk about 1.5 over and the next second 1.5 under, etc.
Better than half of today's natively English speaking world would need to open up another window for dictionary.com just to get through your first sentence! 
