About John @BlueSLR.com

about-pageMy name is John Koga, 48-year old blogger living in Canada. I had a terrible weakness for cameras and my love for photography started with my first camera, a Kodak 35mm. My blogs and reviews concentrate more on recommendations on the DSLR cameras based on its’ features to the audience.

I feel that my experience over various types of cameras should be shared among the photo enthusiasts and beginners so that they select a better camera to suit their needs. I love traveling to beautiful places and photographing serene places.

My Interests

Being a photo enthusiast, I consider photography as an art. I enjoy working with people, nature and love trying many other new things when it comes to the art of photography. My love for this art started with owning my first camera, a Kodak 35mm.

I also like Photoshop and is of the feeling that learning the techniques of using Camera Raw, digital blending, HDR, Layers, Masks and Blending Modes, Special Effects and Removing Elements are very essential for all the photographers, from a beginner to a pro.

My advice to the aspiring photographers is not to over-edit their images with Photoshop as the realistic effect will be lost. My tip is to use Photoshop only when retouch is required for the photos. Retouching is important because many people spend long hours and put so much effort to shoot.

Using Photoshop to highlight certain aspects will make it look appealing. But a bad practice is to use Photoshop for all types of fixing. Say, for example, it is always better to use a tripod for getting sharp images instead of fixing the image with a Photoshop using an ‘Un sharpen’ mask. The bottom line is to use the real skill of photography and use Photoshop only when it is really necessary for highlighting.

My main interest lie on reviewing various types of cameras that are emerging today in the market on a day-to-day basis. I concentrate more on reviewing DSLR cameras.

My Photographic Techniques

My photographic skills has no fixed rules but it certainly has an impact. I do like concentrating more on composition guidelines that I apply while taking photographs. My tips on composition, especially important guidelines like the Rule of thirds adds balance to the photo.

Likewise, many tips like balancing elements, using the leading line to enhance the composition of the photo, using symmetry and patterns to the photographers’ advantage, choosing a viewpoint, choosing a background and cropping have proven useful to many enthusiasts while handling the camera.

composition

I would like to emphasize on the focus and depth of the field while shooting a scene. As photography is a 2-D medium, a photographer must choose the composition in such a way that the sense of depth is felt in the photo.

My photography projects create that depth and with techniques like overlapping, recognition of layers is made possible as the human eye naturally and mentally separates them out. This is one of the favourite subjects that I like to talk more about.

I also like experimenting with the composition techniques. As this is the age of digital cameras, there is more scope to experimentation and one need not worry about the costs it takes for photo processing.

With digital pro cameras, one can shoot tons of pictures and experiment with the composition techniques to heart’s content. But the use of digital cameras doesn’t restrict me to use my dark lab equipment in the basement. I still make use of the dark room as I feel that it gives me complete control over the medium.

Travel Interests

Canada is a beautiful place and that is where I live. I love photographing all the wonders in Canada, be it the natural wonders like Agawa Canyon and L’Anse Aux Meadows, or capturing the great cityscapes like the Montreal, Niagara Falls and Quebec City or Wild Spaces like the Georgian Bay and Labrador Coast.

My most favorite places in Canada are the Discovery Islands, which is a total paradise.

I have also traveled around various parts of the world to capture beautiful places and has shared his valuable inputs in photography and cameras with like-minded people.

My Reviews

My Reviews are mainly focused at the different types of Cameras and they are of much help to all kinds of audience, be it an amateur photographer, a photo Enthusiast or a professional photographer.

The reviews also have specific recommendations on the type of camera that suits a particular type of photographer. My reviews are crisp and neat and helps the reader to choose the right camera and at the same time, learn about various aspects of photography.

I always recommend choosing cameras based on certain important factors. I do feel that the right combination of price and performance should be looked into. The first thing I make the reader aware of, is the sensor size. This is because the more information it captures and records, and sends to the image processor, the greater is the tonal range of the image.

I do recommend the users to select cameras based on the size of the sensor to get a better picture quality.

I also try and make it clear in the reviews that certain myths about buying the same brand for lens interchangeability should be broken, as not all the models support all kinds of lens. Also, the buyers need not get fooled by the ‘Megapixel resolution’ as there is only minor difference between two consecutive models and the quality of the picture depends mainly on the exposure of the shot.

I do try and make the reviews useful for the whole photographic community. My expertise has earned several accolades in the photographic community worldwide.

Browse this site to read more great reviews on different ranges of DSLR cameras and learn the different aspects of judging a DSLR camera before buying one of them. Learn from the master!