Ken Rockwell Helpful Site

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Permalink Reply by Gary Vernon on November 5, 2010 at 2:35am

Lol - i suppose either by accident or design everyone eventually ends up at Ken's site, he's a bit like Marmite, you either love him or hate him :-)
Also check out other sites such as:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1010&/canon-t...
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/

just a few to have a look at,
regards..

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Permalink Reply by Matt Needham on November 5, 2010 at 5:50am

"...either by accident or design..."

Oh it's design. There's no such thing as bad publicity. :) KR knows every time he posts something controversial his Google rank goes up. I think it's fine for folks to have different opinions on how to do things or how things work, but sometimes I think it's become more important to KR to drive that Google rank than provide useful photography info.

A classic Rockwell-ism is his contention that tripods are no longer needed. Another one is how six years ago he was proclaiming that digital had surely killed film, but now he calls film "Real-raw" and insists that digital can't compete. For a gear masturbator at least he does say that the gear isn't what's really important. Of course he always follows that with an article on why Leicas rule!

Sort out the facts from the BS (or at least opinion), and there's plenty of good info left. KR is no more a goof ball than many of the other popular photography websites. Everyone has their own hair-brained ideas. He's just followed the cable news formula of success, meaning he mixes plenty of BS in to keep folks interested. Sometimes I read a KR article and think "That was a good article." Other times I'm thinking "This guy is the Rush Limbaugh of internet photography!" :)

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Permalink Reply by Ken Jackson on November 6, 2010 at 12:06pm

I started reading Ken when I bought my first Nikon DSLR (a D-70 btw). I have found his site to be overall very informative and the various camera articles have saved me a whole lot of time in the simplicity of his presentations. I find for the most part the Nikon manuals ambiguous and uninformative, and for a noob.. They just don't cut it, period!

Ken does have a tendency to go down the primrose path into the sunset every now and then, but I laugh it off and still return to him for clarification on things I am trying to learn... I for one, would love to have him come to French Polynesia and do a leeward island shoot... I am sure knowing the way he writes, he would be an excellent partner/teacher on any photoshoot he is on...

I know quite a few pro's from the USA, France, Japan, and down here in Tahiti. Been on photo shoots with several also and found them to be satisfying, but reading Ken's stuff, when I am down and grumpy, kick starts me back to normal..

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Joe Payne on November 6, 2010 at 6:14pm

I do not like to feel I am defending something in a case where I was only providing information. I will briefly though. I have been shooting with a 35 mm camera since I was eighteen. That first camera was a Leica M3 which I purchased with my own money as I was a eighteen year old sailor in the United States Navy and I happened to be in Hong Kong. I got most of my information from magazines then and I shot mostly black and white. I made many mistakes, including shooting an entire role of film with the lens cover on. Someone said, "You can't do that because you can see through the lens." Au contraire, the M3 was a range finder and the lens cap could be in place during a shot. Ken Rockwell's site answered a few of my questions and I found it interesting so I wanted to share it. Some of the questions I have seen on here are so very basic that I sense some people would welcome a site like Ken's, and a few of you have said that. I buy books right and left and I've been in film schools and many other things in my learning process. I know how hard some things are to learn for some of us. I would hope that people would just say "Thank you" for any information we give as we try to expand knowledge and share information. I think the site will be useful for some of us. I intended it for those who seek knowledge, not for those who are already expert and have no need of further knowledge. I did not expect much from them but I thought they might let those who need it learn from it.

Stephen

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Permalink Reply by Matt Needham on November 7, 2010 at 6:32am

"I do not like to feel I am defending something in a case where I was only providing information."

Sorry. I was just sharing what I think about the information he provides. Some of it is good. Some of it is not so good, IMO. If you google his name it's easy enough to see that in the internet photography community he is a controversial figure.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Joe Payne on November 7, 2010 at 7:04pm

I think I like quirky people. I like "Airplane," "Fargo," and "Burn After Reading." I have a sense he is a human variant of those. I grew up reading "Mad Magazine" and it may have affected my viewpoint of the world.

Red Boots

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