Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

 Hi Photographer friends,

I haven't been blogging for most of this past summer. There's really no good reason why I didn't, except that I was very busy and that it has been my best summer ever (photography wise).

I spent the summer photographing for my lowest salary ever, and yet, I enjoyed my summer job more than any other job I ever had. Yes...you probably think I've gone crazy. Let me explain:

I spent the summer working for the YMCA, photographing kids at summer camps. Yep...the salary wasn't great, but the experience more than compensated for it. 

I'm retired now and around April or May, while reading the local paper, I saw an ad looking for a photographer for the summer. The assignment would be taking pictures of summer camp activities at two local YMCA summer camps. I didn't think I could get the job, as I was sure there were many younger candidates. To my surprise and satisfaction, I got the job. Sometimes, experience wins.

So I gathered my faithful Pentax K-3, my Pentax 50mm f/1.4, my 10mm x 17mm wide angle lens and a 300mm telephoto. This combination got me all the results I needed, without being too heavy to carry around.

The camps are located in the San Bernardino Mountains, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles. You can look at some of the landscape images below. It’s easy to appreciate the locations. At elevations ranging between 6,000 feet and 8,000 feet, the air is thinner but certainly less polluted than in Los Angeles.

I took hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures and videos ranging from landscape, actions, activities, and the summer camp kids.

One thing that every single one of these ordinary children had in common, despite their different ages, background, ethnicity, or religion, was bright, discernible spark in their eyes. The kind of spark that, in previous generations, has produced the most extraordinary of people – those with the intelligence or persistence or determination to change humanity. People like da Vinci and Einstein and Newton and Beethoven and Hawking and Tesla and many others that have achieved so much...they had the spark.

The spark isn’t reserved for those few and far between anymore. Kids today are smarter, more empathetic, more aware, and more progressive than any other generation before. They have access to more information at any given time than anyone else before them and they want to learn. These kids will use all the resources given to them by those extraordinary predecessors and make this world their world, making it extraordinary as well. Our newest generation is entirely extraordinary, and it shows.

They all have the spark.

 Now, for you Pentax owners, I do have e-books for most of the Pentax DSLRs. You can check this site ebooks4cameras.com and even download any e-book for checking the contents. 

The K-1 e-book is available NOW.

Click on the image above to visit our e-book store. You can also download sample e-books and get the free AF front and back focusing adjustment charts at this e-commerce.

http://www.ebooks4cameras.com/

Details about the new Pentax Flucard for the K-3. Operate the K-3 from your smart device. Share images through Wi-Fi

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

 Hi Photographer friends,

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/8850365696/pentax-o-fc1-flucard-the-wireless-details

The Pentax O-FC1 FluCard, giving it five stars! They offer an in-depth look at the FluCard's remote camera controls by 'putting the camera in the oven' for an interesting perspective.

Click on the image below for more details.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/8850365696/pentax-o-fc1-flucard-the-wireless-details

Our Pentax K-3 e-book will soon be upgraded to include all information about the Flucard and its functions.

Check this site for upgrades. As usual, the upgrades are free for people that already purchased the K-3 e-book.

http://www.ebooks4cameras.com/

Thanks for visiting,

Yvon Bourque

The future is becoming the present. Captured with the Pentax K-5 and K-3.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

 Hi Photographer friends,

It's not that long ago that we started contemplating alternative sources of energy. I remember the first windmill I saw, in Central California. I couldn't believe how big they were.

Now, years later, the are becoming common sites. My spouse think that they are ugly and that they pollute the scenery. I, on the opposite, believe that atop being a great source of energy, they are amazingly pleasing to look at. It's like a forest of smart trees. 

I can only imagine how a person would react seeing them after coming out of a 30 years coma. It would probably look like awaking on another planet.  However, to my knowledge, nobody has ever stayed in a coma for 30 years.

I think they are beautiful symbols of modern life, don't you?

The images below were all taken in the Palm Springs, California, area.

Thanks for reading,

Yvon Bourque

Let me remind you that e-books for the Pentax K-3 available here:  ebooks4cameras
We also carry e-books for all Pentax DSLRs.

**FREE** Pentax K-3 e-book sample. Take a peek before you buy.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

 Hi Photographer friends,

The Pentax K-3 "Everything you need to know...and then some" e-book can be downloaded for free. Check the table of contents and many pages of the e-book before you buy. It is the only e-book for the K-3 and it's my best and most complete e-book about a Pentax camera yet. (according to the many positive emails I received)

When you purchase my K-3 e-book, you are eligible for a free download every time  the e-book is updated. The e-book format is PFD and is compatible with all devices that read PDF files. Unlike hardback and paperback books, e-books can be updated at any time without having to reprint hundreds or thousands of copies, not to mention the hard copies that would have to be trashed.

Once you purchase any of my e-book, you get all future upgrades for free. I listen to my readers and  make revisions as needed. When Ricoh/Pentax update their firmware, I revise my e-book accordingly. The release date is posted on the front cover and on the e-commerce store.

New releases are always posted on this website. If you join this site as a follower, or a Google+ follower, or Facebook or Twitter, you will automatically receive notifications every time something is published on this site.

Click on the image below to get your free sample.

30 years of Pentax & Ricoh! - on DPReview from Phil Zucker

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com 

 Hi Photographer friends,

I was surfing the internet to see how far back Ricoh had been involved in photography before buying Pentax. In my search, I stumbled on this post on DPReview from Phil Zucker. I urged you to read the full post. It very interesting.

30 years of Pentax & Ricoh!

Right now it's almost exactly 30 years that I bought into a K mount system. Back in 1983 I didn't know that Ricoh and Pentax would be one and the same company sometime in the future. But I seemingly was very farsighted back then: My first SRL was a Ricoh XR-7 – with a SMC Pentax M50/1.7 on it! 

Thirty years later that combo still runs well, but isn't used any more. I still have it, as most stuff from the pre-digital age. Product cycles were slower back then – and we didn't have Ebay to hawk things either …

So here I present my personal 30 years of Pentax & Ricoh gear. What you see is what I (still) possess: five K mount bodies (two film, three digital), one compact (film), seven Pentax lenses (three digital, four full frame) and one Ricoh lens (full frame). To honor the occasion I had to multiply this a bit to make it more appealing:

Thirty years of Ricoh & Pentax gear in one single 360 degree view!

What you don't see on this pic is the K-01 and the DA10-17 – they were somehow needed to do it. Also you can't see a very fine Pentax lens I still own but haven't with me right now – the one of my enlarger I used doing b/w-stuff back in the film ages. 

Read the complete post and the numerous replies here: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/51538143

Best Regards,

Yvon Bourque

Get your 300+ page Pentax K-3 e-book here. Click on the image below.

The Pentax K-3 will also be available in French. Le Pentax K-3 sera également disponible en français.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com 

Hi Photographer friends,

There is such a demand for the Pentax K-3 e-book that I decided to translate it to French as well. I am French after all. It will not be completed before at least one Month. However, if someone purchased the English version and would prefer the French version, I will gladly send a free copy in French.

*****************

Salut mes amis photographes.

Il ya une telle demande pour le livre électronique du K-3 que j'ai décidé de le traduire en français aussi. Je parle français, après tout. Il ne sera pas terminé avant au moins un mois. Cependant, si quelqu'un achete la version anglaise et préférerait la version française, il me fera plaisir de vous envoyer un exemplaire gratuit en français.

By the way, this is where I currently live. The backyard is really big and changes constantly.

En passant, c'est là où je vis actuellement. La cour arrière est vraiment grande et change constamment. 

This is my office, where I wrote the e-book for the K-3. Life is good.

C'est mon bureau, où j'ai écrit le livre électronique pour le K-3. La vie est belle.

Best Regards,

Cordialement,

Yvon Bourque

The Ricoh GR e-book is put on the back burner while the e-book for the Pentax K-3 has become a priority.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com 

 Hi Photographer friends,

I received several emails about writing another e-book for the new Pentax K-3. I was planning to release the e-book for the Ricoh GR next. The GR is actually a powerful digital compact, with an APS-C sensor.

Because of many requests, I am shifting gears and will put all my efforts into completing the e-book for the Pentax K-3 first. I envision a release in early December, just in time for the Holidays.

Thank you for your encouragement,

Yvon Bourque