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This photo taken at 10:12am in Milan, Italy on April 23, 2013 represents the precise point in time when I vowed never to buy another pair of Keen shoes. That’s my 3rd pair of Keen Boston shoes in the trash can in my hotel room. The first pair of Bostons I bought in 2005 and wore all over the World. I loved the quirky asymmetrical raised center seam and the go anywhere, do anything styling that could easily dress down with jeans and dress up with khakis. Their all day, any weather comfort made them my go-to shoes for tradeshows and other travel as well as regular wear at the office. After seven years of hard use the soles were worn slick and the leather was so rumpled and creased that they had begun garnering disapproving glances from my office mates.

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May 17th, 2013 | Tags: 10th Anniversary, apart, Arroyo, Blogging, Boston, China, claim, color, construction, customer, delaminate, delamination, detach, difference, dispose, Europe, fall, fall apart, Finlay, footwear, glue, homage, Keen, leather, Newport, online, poor, premature, present, Problem, purchace, quality, replacement, rubber, sandal, separation, service, shoes, sole, store, support, Targhee, trash, Travel, upper, warranty, wear, website, worn | Category: Life Lessons, Travel, gear, reviews | Comments (1)

I’m not technically a professional photographer. Yet, I take pictures daily as part of my job and occasionally sell my personal images on SmugMug and Getty Images. Over the past 10 years I have progressed from point-n-shoots to professional-level DSLRs- all in a never-ending quest for better image quality and greater creative freedom. Back in January, after a rather exhaustive decision making process detailed here, I decided to throw all caution to the wind, and give the hottest new Micro Four Thirds camera a try to see if it could replace my full-sized Canon pro gear. Following is my detailed user review of the Olympus E-M5 OM-D camera system.

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February 24th, 2013 | Tags: 12-50mm, 12mm, 14mm, 20mm, 25mm, 30D, 35mm, 45mm, 5-axis, 50mm, 5D, 60mm, 6D, AEL, AF, aperture, APS-C, auto, auto focus, battery, bokeh, button, camera, Canon, chimping, compact, custom, depth of field, digital, dpreview.com, DSLR, E-10, E-M5, E-P1, easy, enthusiast, ergonomics, EVF, example, experience, experienced, eye, f/1.4, f/1.7, f/1.8, f/2, f/2.5, face, fast fifty, FF, field of view, five axis, Flickr, Fn1, Fn2, focus, FoV, full frame, full sized, grip, hand, hand held, high, HLD-6, ideal, image quality, IQ, IS, ISO, k10d, kit, LCD, lens, light, Lightroom, long exposure, low light, Lowepro, Lumix, manual, manual focus, MF, MFT, Micro Four Thirds, MKII, MKIII, motion, Olympus, OM-D, Panasonic, pancake, Pentax, photographer, prime, priority, professional, program, quality, RAW, Rebel XT, resolution, review, Robert S. Donovan, sample, sharpness, slr, small, speed, stability, studio, system, test, Travel, user, viewfinder, weather sealed, WYSIWYG, zoom | Category: Photography, Stuff, gear, reviews | Leave a comment

Back in July of 2010 I unloaded my entire Pentax K10D kit and purchased a then state-of-the-art Olympus E-P1 PEN camera with a 14-42mm kit lens and a Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens. I was looking for an improved photographic experience. What I found was a bit of a mixed bag. The PEN opened up new creative avenues for me but was often very frustrating to use. The poor ergonomics got in the way, the fixed LCD limited the usefulness of shooting with an LCD, and the poor high ISO performance greatly limited when and where I could shoot. I did capture some wonderful images with the PEN, some of which can be seen here. More »

January 20th, 2013 | Tags: 14mm, 16MP, 17-40mm f/4.0 L USM, 20mm, 30D, 5D, 6D, adobe, APS-C, articulating, Canon, compact, CSC, decision, DSLR, E-M5, E-P1, EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, EVF, f/1.7, f/1.8, f/2.5, Fuji, full frame, ILC, in-body, IS, k10d, LCD, light, Lightroom, MFT, Micro Four Thirds, MK II, NEX, Olympus, OM-D, Panasonic, pancake, Pentax, purchase, Robert S. Donovan, Sony, Travel, user, X-E1, X-Pro1 | Category: Photography, Stuff, gear | Comments (6)

Continuing my quest for fewer but finer things, I received this Hamilton Khaki Field Automatic watch for my birthday this week. It’s a wonderful modern interpretation of a classic watch design that should be a perfect fit with my casual-outdoorsy-look. More »

November 3rd, 2012 | Tags: 10 Bar, 25 jewel, 2824-2, 42mm, Amazon, Automatic, band, birthday, black, brown, Caliber, casual, crystal, date, ETA, face, field, gift, H705450, Hamilton, Khaki, leather, movement, outdoors, review, Robert S. Donovan, sapphire, stainless steel, stitched, Swatch, Swiss, watch, waterproof | Category: My life, Stuff, gear, reviews | Comments (4)