JPH Photography

Capturing Cuba

2012-01-29T20:00:00.001-06:00

Trinidad de Cuba (To see the full Cuba set click here)

Another year begins and another escape from the frigid temperatures of the Canadian prairies. I must admit however our winter here in Saskatchewan has been alarmingly warm. Much to the chagrin of those I left behind my 1 week trip did allow me to dodge the brief cold snap of -40° weather.

From Jan 12th-19th I made my hotel room at the Barcelo Solymar resort in Varadero my base of operations. Traveling with one of my best friends, who is also my roommate, we planned a nice mix of excursions and relaxation (read: partying) during our 1 week vacation.

The day after our arrival we met with our Sunwing rep and booked our tours. We opted for a 1 day Havana excursion and then a 2 day overnight trip through 4 provinces up to the mountains (aka Trinidad + Rambo tour). Prices seemed fair at around $60 and $120 respectively.

We still had the remainder of the day to explore Varadero a little so we paid 5CUC for an all day bus pass on the double-decker bus that cruises up and down the strip. I was leery of taking my 5DMKII along to Cuba so I opted to bring my 2Ti instead which had served me very well in Halifax, Mexico, and Cypress Hills. I also brought along my trusty Canon SD780IS point & shoot and my tiny Golden Half, a diminutive half frame camera put out by Superheadz in Japan.

Like most of the tourists in Varadero we wound up at the various fleamarkets that dot the main drag. While the various tables held treasures for some it was the side streets and photo opportunities that lured me in.

Street scene in Varadero, Cuba

Shot from my Golden Half on the main drag in Varadero, Cuba

The next day after an unintentionally late night (hey the drinks are free) we boarded the tour bus for Havana. Just getting to see some of the countryside instead of the very touristy Varadero was nice.

Scene beside a rest stop on the way to Havana

Throughout Cuba there are people who make their living just posing for tourist photos, the gentleman in the shot below just hung out at this one rest stop where people on their way to Havana would stop.

A "tourist model" poses for a shot at a reststop on the way to Havana

Havana itself was an impressive sight, you could just imagine how crazy it must have been in the 30's with the mobsters flocking there and setting up casinos and nightclubs. Everywhere you turned there were amazing sights to be seen.

Amazing architecture is everywhere in Havana

Having never been to Havana before, or Cuba for that matter, we wound up sticking with the tour group the whole time. This limited the shots I was able to get but I still managed to get some good captures. Street photography is a genre I haven't dabbled in too much but I was very happy with some of the shots I was able to get. The photo one below was actually shot out of our bus and was one of my favourite from Havana.

A Habanero looks down the busy street from his window.

The Havana tour ended with a stop at their Capitol building which looks very similar to another landmark in another country.

Capitol Building in Havana, Cuba

Next we had a few days at our resort, initially we were a little worried because we seemed to only be running into Russian or French speaking people. I like meeting new people but if they don't speak any English its hard to break the ice. Eventually though we found there were lots of other English speaking Canadians and after a few Cuba Libres everyone was a friend. We also met lots of cool people from around the world, Sweden, Russia, Albania, Belgium and I even met a female Italian rally driver!

These group shots are always a big hit, especially with drunk people!

On yet another sleep deprived morning we boarded a bus for our 2 day excursion. Traveling south from Varadero we'd pass through the city of Cardenas, then on to the Che Guevara Museum in Santa Clara. Lunch would be in the city of Sancti Spiritus, followed by a stop in Trinidad de Cuba before heading up to our hotel in the mountains of Topes de Collantes.

A statue of Che at the Che Guevara memorial in Santa Clara

Our tour guide explains the ration system at a distribution center in Sancti Spiritus

My favourite city from the trip though was Trinidad de Cuba, this was less touristy than some of the other places we'd been. The town had more of a sleepy laid back vibe and the people were very friendly.

A street scene in Trinidad de Cuba

A pretty girl smiles for the camera from inside a building in Trinidad de Cuba

Two girls hang out in front of their shop in Trinidad de Cuba beckoning people to come in look at their merchandise

After the last rays of daylight had faded we boarded our bus and made our way up the mountain to our hotel. After a nice dinner I had what proved to be my only hot shower during my entire Cuba trip. Feeling human again I went to bed knowing we'd have a full day the next day. Eight hours later I fueled up on a light breakfast and a few cups of coffee before hopping aboard an old Russian army truck which was going to carry us further up the mountain. From there a new tour guide was to take us on a 3km hike down the mountain where we'd see various flora and fauna and see a nice waterfall.

Lush vegetation covers the mountains in Topes de Collantes

My buddy serves as a human tripod to let me take a slow shutter snap of this waterfall

A bit further down the trail we stop and those who wanted to were free to swim in this mountain pool.

At the end of the trail we broke for lunch, the restaurant was open air and had some very nice flowers and trees around it. The flower in the shot below reminded me of those cheap fiber-optic wand thingamajigs you used to be able to buy at the circus.

A neat flower from outside the mountain restaurant

After lunch we boarded the Russian army trucks again and headed back to our regular tour bus. From here we'd make our way down the mountain then west to our last stop of Cienfuegos, a port city on the Caribbean side of Cuba.

The Russian army trucks that transported us up and down the mountain

An anorexic cow grazes on the side of the road on our way to Cienfuegos

A windsurfer takes a ride off the shore of Cienfuegos

School must have just let out in Cienfuegos while we were there because the streets were full of students.

Just before boarding the bus to head back to Varadero one of the many street artists I'd encountered during my stay in Cuba had managed to pen my image. I think the hat and goatee are a magnet for caricature artists :) I actually really liked this one but had just spent my last $1.50 on a container of ice cream to help soothe my now burning throat (I had a nasty cold at this point). My buddy, seeing my predicament, quickly hopped off the bus to pay the gentleman and snag what I thought was one of the best caricatures of me I'd seen during the whole trip.

From here we left on the 4 hour bus ride back to Varadero for our last night in Cuba. Sick with a cold and thoroughly exhausted I felt as though I'd done my best to see a fair chunk of Cuba over my stay and capture the experience as best I could.

2011 Photo Retrospective

2012-01-10T22:45:00.003-06:00

2011 Highlights

All in all 2011 wound up being a pretty good year for me photography wise. At first I didn't feel I'd done as much photography as I would have liked to. However, after going over all of the shoots I'd done this year I realized I had amassed a decent amount of good photos these past 12 months.

The year started out with a much needed reprieve from the bleary prairie winter we'd been having, Cancun fit the bill quite nicely. The trip yielded quite a few good shots, the highlights being the ones I took of El Castillo at Chichen Itza. I wrote a whole post about the trip here.

El Castillo in Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico

Next up a few photographer buddies of mine and their better halves all got together with me and my then girlfriend for a couples shoot. We all had a blast chatting, sipping a few beverages, then shooting here and there. As the night went on people became a little less inhibited and some crazy props appeared like the feather boa below :)

My friend's wife strikes a pose and begins her illustrious modelling career.

In April I was preparing for my second go round of shooting for Midtown Stylists, I'd ordered some new gear and needed to try some of it out. I had just purchased some strip lights and my buddy Krystian had just picked up a beauty dish he offered to let me try out, we met up for some drinks and both he and his wife were nice enough to be guinea pigs while I dialed in my lighting.

My friend's wife Aleks poses as I test out my new strip lights and Krystian's beauty dish.

All of the preparation seemed to pay off once it finally came time to do the Midtown Stylists shoot. Having done it previously things ran a bit smoother. This time around I had more gear and knew exactly what the client wanted. Shooting 27 people in 2 days on location proved less stressful than the first year. A very cool aspect of this semi-annual gig is that they don't hire models, every one of the "models" were regular customers.

One of the Midtown Stylist's customer-turned-model

The final version of the 2012 Midtown Stylists Ad

From hair salons to ghost towns, my next shoot couldn't have been more opposite than my last. My good friend Krystian called me up one afternoon and asked if I wanted to go check out a ghost town, half an hour later we hit the road with our gear in the back of his SUV. The location proved to be amazing, there aren't many of these elevators left standing so getting a shot like this was a treat.

Taken in July 2011 in a ghost town a little ways out of Saskatoon

In early August my then girlfriend's nieces came to visit and we took them to the zoo for the day. I try to make it down at least once a year, see the new animals and put my zoom lens to use. This year the butterfly conservatory had quite a few inhabitants and I was able to snag a few good shots.

A butterfly perches on a flower at the Butterfly Conservatory at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm

By this time I couldn't wait for my summer holidays, we decided to stay in the province and head south to Cypress Hills. I wrote a lengthy post on it here but in short if you've never been down, especially if you live in Saskatchewan, you absolutely have to make the the trip at some point!

A golden sunset falls on the Frenchman River Valley in Pine Cree Regional Park

You can see for miles from atop Balde Butte in Cypress Hills Inter-provincial Park

After I got home from my summer vacation I decided to invest in some prime lenses which I discussed in my last post. With these lenses desperately needing to be tested I called upon a good friend who had just moved back to Saskatoon. She was 6 months into her journey towards motherhood so what better time for a photoshoot. We went out to a park near where I grew up to do the shoot. Even though there were quite a few people around the 85mm f1/8 simply dissolved them into non-existence with its velvety bokeh.

A glowing soon to be mom

Just as the leaves stated to fall another good friend called me up wanting some family portraits so once again I packed up my new primes and headed for the same park. With each portrait shoot I was doing I was falling more and more in love with my new lenses, especially the 85mm f/1.8.

Various poses from an autumn family portrait session with friends

My last outdoor shoot of the summer was again with friends as they were quickly running out of time for some maternity photos. I believe this shoot was about a week before the due date, luckily there were no unexpected early arrivals :)

Friends pose about a week before they welcome their first addition into the world

My final shoot of 2012 was probably the most gruelling but also the most rewarding. For a second year I lent my photography skills to a great charity event called Help Portrait. In cities around the world photographers, hair stylists, makeup artists, and countless other volunteers get together to take portraits of people and familes who otherwise might never have had a decent photo of themselves. This year our Saskatoon based group shot 112 sittings in a 6 hour period, provided a hot nutritious lunch for everyone, and also brought in people to provide information on various topics. We printed on site this time around which proved to be a big hit as people were able to walk out with prints in hand. Help portrait 2011 was a rousing success, not just in Saskatoon but worldwide. Help Portrait 2011 produced 67,927 portraits in 56 countries, 4,984 photographers got behind a lens for a good cause and 8,793 other volunteers helped them bring smiles to peoples faces. What better way to end off the year than by giving a little back.

2011 proved to be a nice mix of paid work, relaxed shoots with friends, and some of what I think is my best landscape work to date. 2012 is shaping up to be exciting too, I'll be leaving for Cuba in a few days and might even make it to Scotland this fall!

Power of Primes

2012-01-08T16:18:00.012-06:00

Late this summer I decided to take some of my photography earnings and invest in some new lenses. Since getting my 5D MK II I've become acutely aware of the need for good quality lenses, however, my pockets aren't deep enough to always seek out that illustrious "L" and the red ring that accompanies it. There is a way to cheat this a little though and that is through the power of primes. If you read the reviews on most prime lenses and see their output is often compared to L glass. Rather than being a jack of all trades but a master of none the prime lenses focus their efforts (accidental pun) on being great at just one focal length all while remaining decently affordable.

Knowing my main intent with these lenses would be portraiture I opted for the Canon EF 35mm f/2.0, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4, and finally the Canon EF 85mm f1.8. The 85mm was initially what got me cruising the B&H site, I'd heard good things about this lens and knew the wide aperture would be great for melting the backgrounds away. I already owned the practically disposable "nifty fifty" but I wanted to upgrade more for build quality than the extra 0.4 of a stop that the 1.4 offered. The 35mm was more of an afterthought, I had emailed a friend needing some help to justify my purchase and while giving me the push I needed also suggested the 35mm.

My first order of business with the new primes was to test them out by doing some maternity portraits of a friend of mine. I decided to revisit a location I'd relied on heavily when I first started out doing portraiture, Kinsmen Park in Saskatoon. I grew up in a nearby neighbourhood and this park has a lot of interesting angles. Already being familiar with it let me focus on shooting rather than scouting for places to setup etc.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 - Shot at 1/640 @ f1.4

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 - Shot at 1/200 @ f2.2

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 - Shot at 1/500 @ f1.8

I tried shots with all 3 lenses but quickly found that the 35mm was not my favourite choice. Whether it was just my shooting style or the fact that being outside allowed for use of wider lenses I wound up just putting it back in my bag. I'm thinking that where the 35mm will really shine is in my basement studio where space is limited and I'll be shooting in close quarters.

A few weeks later I found myself back at this park with another friend's family to further put the lenses through their paces. This time the 50mm got more use than the 85 just because I was shooting 3 people instead of just 1. By this time the golden hues of autumn had taken hold and with apertures down around 1.8 the backgrounds became a sea of orange and yellows.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 - Shot at 1/200 @ f1.4

Various exposures

By the time I got around to doing one of my last summer shoots, again of friends, I was pretty comfortable with these lenses and was feeling confident that they were indeed a great investment. For this shoot I was pointing the lens at another photographer so I knew I had to be at the top of my game :) His wife was a week away from her due date and at times I was worried we might have to stop the shoot and just head to the nearest hospital. Luckily I was shooting at the University of Saskatchewan which has a hospital right on the grounds, though fortunately we made it through the shoot without anyone's water breaking.

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 - Shot at 1/200 @ f1.8

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 - Shot at 1/250 @ f1.8

I did wind up using the 35mm for a few shots during this shoot, the shot below wouldn't have been possible with the 50 or 85mm unless I had a lift of some kind.

Canon EF 35mm f/2.0 - Shot at 1/160 @ f2.0

Now I should point out a few things to anyone reading this, especially those newer to digital SLR cameras that might be shooting with cropped sensors. [I explain crop sensors in another post here] All of the entry and mid level cameras have sensors that are not equivalent to a full 35mm frame, most are 1.5 or 1.6 times smaller or "cropped" as they call them. If you use an EF lens on a cropped frame sensor two things will happen: 1) The effective "zoom" of the lens will increase by the crop factor and 2) the dept of field will increase a little. This means that a 35mm lens will behave more like a 50mm and a 50mm will behave more like an 80mm. Shooting at 1.8 on a crop sensor will result in a slightly less blurry background (aka less Bokeh) than if shot on a full frame sensor. Don't let this deter you however, the loss of Bokeh is fairly minimal and if you plan ahead the amount of zoom you get won't matter at all. There is the added bonus that if you ever upgrade to a full frame camera you'll be able to use these lenses whereas your EFs lenses will be useless.

I also want to mention that I bought my lenses online through B&H Photo at a significant savings compared to my local camera stores. I'm not affiliated with B&H at all and I'd actually rather have put money into my local economy but in the end even with shipping I saved a few hundred dollars by ordering through B&H. One aspect I was quite happy with was the shipping, being in Canada online shopping can be a real pain because people forget about brokerage and duty fess which can be ridiculous. Most of the time these insane fees can even be avoided if the US merchant would take the time to fill out an extra form when shipping. B&H apparently does take the time and uses Purolator to get you your stuff within a few days. On a $1200+ order I worked out the duty I paid and it wound up being exactly equivalent to the GST which is what its supposed to be, and the best part is there was no brokerage! I just wanted to point this out because gear is expensive and you shouldn't get gouged on shipping if you don't have to. Also hopefully some of the local stores in Saskatoon will see this and realize how insane it is that I can order stuff from New York and have it shipped while still saving 20% on their inflated prices.

Cypress Hills & Area - Summer Vacation 2011

2012-01-07T16:28:00.000-06:00

A bluebell catches the last rays of daylight on Balde Butte in Cypress Hills Inter-provincial Park

To see all photos from this trip click here

[Editorial note: I meant to post this months ago and apparently forgot so here goes, better late than never]

This summer holidays took place right here in Saskatchewan, southern SK to be exact. Me, my girlfriend [at the time], and her dog, spent 5 days tenting in Cypress Hills Inter-provincial Park (Centre Block) and then a day and a night in a really great little campground called Pine Cree. Initially we had planned on staying only 3 days in Cypress and then 3 days in Pine Cree but we opted to stay at Cypress a little longer. There were some great photo ops along the way, interesting things to see and do, but mainly it was just nice to get the hell out of the city and away from my job for awhile ;)

Camping (Deer Hollow in Cypress Hills Centre Block)

The first thing I learned upon arriving at Cypress Hills is that the park is located on a geological formation called Conglomerate.

A conglomerate (/kəŋˈɡlɒmərɨt/) is a rock consisting of individual clasts within a finer-grained matrix that have become cemented together.

Now why the geology lesson you might ask? Well aside from my girlfriend [at the time] being a geologist and finding this sort of thing very interesting it became painfully clear that regular tent pegs were simply not up to the challenge. The saying "you've brought a knife to a gunfight" came to mind as blisters formed from futilely pounding the tent pegs into what is described as "natural cobblestone cement" using a picture hammer. I was making up new words on the spot and none of them were fit for a family campground, it was just lucky we didn't get kicked out ;) Since our tent needed at least 14 pegs and after an hour I'd only managed to get 4 into the ground I conceded defeat and sought help. To our extreme luck our nearest camping neighbours not only had a bigger hammer for me to borrow but lent us a bag of gravel stakes! These things are fantastic and I can't recommend them enough, I'll never go camping without some again. I quickly set about exacting my revenge on the conglomerate as my framing hammer rang out victoriously and split through the many tiny rocks to get purchase in the cobbled earth below. Ten or fifteen minutes was all it took for all of the stakes secured.

That hurdle being overcome the rest of the trip was relatively without incident. Our tent which we borrowed from Mary's sister was nice and leak proof (ordered the same one as soon as we got home). Guinness, our canine camping companion, was really good throughout the whole trip. On the first or second night we had a good thunderstorm with scared her a little and after running around inside the tent a little she calmed down and somehow curled up under my cot just below my head. I joked the next day that we bonded during the storm :)

With our basecamp setup we day tripped to Fort Walsh, the Conglomerate Cliffs, Cypress Hills Winery &Vineyard, and Eastend to see the T-Rex centre. We also checked out some of the attractions within the main campground like Lookout Point and Balde Butte.

Congomerate Cliffs (map link)

Located just a little ways off of highway 271, very easy to find with good signage showing you where to go. Whatever you do though don't take Gap Road* to get there ;)

Amazing view from the Conglomerate Cliffs in Cypress Hills Inter-Provincial Park

*While planning our trip out to the Conglomerate Cliffs and Fort Walsh we saw a road that connected the Centre block with the West Block, it was called Gap Road. Now that road had a little disclaimer saying that it was impassable when wet. Since it had been fairly dry while we were there we figured we'd take it. At the last minute before heading out I figured we should stop and ask one of the locals at the gas station as to whether or not we should take the road, the kid raised an eyebrow and said that he doesn't even use gap road lol. It was lucky for us we stopped, a few days later a friend who was fishing in the West Block was supposed to meet up with us for lunch and never showed. I simply thought the fishing was good and they decided to stay longer, since cell reception is spotty I wasn't surprised to find I couldn't reach him. A few days later I found out they had been on gap road in a 4x4 and slid down and embankment, no injuries luckily but they were stranded until a farmer finally saw them and pulled them out with his tractor.

Taken a few minutes away from the Conglomerate Cliffs

Fort Walsh (map link)

This turned out to be a very neat place, there was a lot of history there that I had no idea about. The Fort was built in response to the Cypress Hills Massacre, an event which also precipitated the formation of the North West Mounted Police. The fort was, for a time, the central base for the NWMP in Canada. Today at the site you can find a nice little visitor's centre and a partially restored fort complete with tour operators dressed in period costumes. Tours are offered of the various buildings left standing in the fort but you also have the option of a self guided tour. We opted for a self guided tour, we had the dog with us and wouldn't have been able to go into the buildings with her. Also by going self guided we could avoid the crowds so I could get some unobstructed photos. We did go into a few buildings with one of the guides who were between tours and he was quite knowledgeable and friendly. If you have the time I'd recommend following the guided tour just for the sake of good information, then lingering for any photos you may want to take.

Cypress Hills Vineyard & Winery (website)

When you think of Saskatchewan the last thing you'd probably think is wine country, beer country perhaps due to the vast fields of wheat and barley but not wine. It's still in its infancy and though its had some setbacks the Cypress Hills Vineyard & Winery is a quaint stop that you should definitely check out. Despite not being a wine aficionado I still found it neat and its a great place to stock up on gifts for friends and love ones who are ~~winos~~ afficionados. As a side note the people running this place turned us on to another SK winery that has been creating quite a buzz, the Living Sky Winery out of Perdue Saskatchewan.

Pine Cree Regional Park (unofficial website)

View from "Top of the World Trail" at Pine Cree Regional Park

As I said earlier our original plan was to stay 3 days in Cypress Hills park and then leave early Friday morning in hopes of getting a spot at this little gem of a campground. I'd heard from a friend who lives in Shaunavon that come the weekend all bets are off as to whether or not you'll be able to get a site. In the end it was until Sunday that we got to Pine Cree so we were only able to spend a night. It turned out this was lucky, had we came on Friday there wouldn't have been a spot anyway.

I'm a little apprehensive about even including Pine Cree in this post, its a great little spot and part of me doesn't want the secret to get out, the other part wants to shout "Hey look at this!!!!". Located just little ways NE of Eastend if it weren't for the sign you'd never even know anything worthwhile was down the road you turn off onto. After a few hundred feet you quickly descend into this amazing little valley filled with towering pines that immediately wedged a Saskatoon band's version of a Joan Baez song in my head I couldn't shake loose for two days.

Shot from my previous visit to Pine Cree in 2007

Pine Cree is fairly small with only 28 sites and most are very close to the stream. Within about half an hour of arriving the camp's caretaker showed up in her little quarter-ton and welcomed us. She immediately began apologizing for the state of the campsite (which already appeared pristine) and found 2 some hitherto unseen beer cans that had been left in the fire pit. To say she took pride in her campground would be an understatement :) I've never had to do my business in a cleaner porta-potty than the one at Pine Cree lol. I can't say enough good things about the place and others have described it better than I can. Check it out if you can but leave the trailer at home because they don't accommodate them, also if you're just wanting to get out an party don't bother coming here because you're not welcome.

In conclusion...
All in all I had a great time and was able to capture what I thought to be some good images. If you live in Saskatchewan and haven't been down south to Cypress Hills I highly encourage you to check it out!

T-Shirts, get your kitsch on!

2011-11-27T19:21:00.004-06:00

I've been working on these cool line art drawings of old cameras for a while now and finally got around to opening up a storefront on www.redbubble.com

Photographers are notoriously hard to buy for so here's your chance to win some major brownie points with that special photo-geek of yours. Or if you're the photo-geek don't risk being disappointed xmas morning and just gift one to yourself :)

As a side-note I'm planning on using redbubble as a storefront to sell prints of my photographer in the near future. Once this is up and running I'm planning to make a post about how the process went and whether I'm liking redbubble or not. So far I've heard nothing but good things so you may want to head there yourself and create an account today.

The Photographer Never Gets Photographed...

2011-05-23T16:25:00.017-06:00

Krystian is up to bat with me and Mary as the subjects

A few months ago while talking with some photography buddies this topic came up. As a photographer you're constantly taking photos of other people and never have any photos of yourself. In an effort to combat this and give ourselves an excuse to indulge in 3 vices at once (eating, drinking, and shooting) we decided to have a portrait party. My girlfriend and I invited a few friends and two other couples over for drinks and appetizers in with photo-shoots throughout.

In total we had 3 photographers there, Krystian, Conrad, and myself. Since me and my girlfriend were hosting it I provided the bulk of the equipment just so that everyone else didn't have to lug tons of gear over.

Doing free for all shoots is a great way to play with lighting and try new things without the pressure of having to deliver. Doing so with a bunch of friends along with food and booze is even better! On a funny side note we determined that when faced with a long wine aisle at the liquor store 2 out of 3 photographers will end up buying this brand just because of the label ;)

As the night progressed and more booze was consumed people relaxed a little more and some extravagant props like a bright pink feather boa made appearances ;)

We all had a blast and finally had some decent photos of ourselves for a change. So if you're in the same boat just throw portrait party of your own!

Women and their wine...

What's a feather boa between friends?

Some highlights from the portrait party

Majestic Maya - Destination Cancun

2011-04-03T19:02:00.029-06:00

El Castillo at Chichen Itza. See all photos here

I guess I'm ~~a little~~ quite tardy in writing this post but better late than never. A few months back my and my girlfriend decided to blow this sub-zero Popsicle stand and fly south for some warmer climates.

We considered a few different destinations, Jamaica? Too expensive right now, Dominican? Both had been there already. Cuba? Maybe. Mexico? Possibly but only if we go to the Mayan Riviera side so we can see some cool sights. In the end we chose Cancun, Mexico, based on prices and attractions. We booked our trip for Jan 30 to Feb 6th and after many hours on Tripadvisor decided to go with Sea Adventure Resort & Waterpark, an older hacienda style resort a little off the beaten path and away from all the tourists.

Our flight was good with no delays etc though our in flight entertainment system was down (Westjet I swear this happens 75% of the time, fix it already) but thanks to ipods, kindles, and good old fashioned paper books we were kept entertained.

Our resort in a nutshell was great, although upon arriving we were a little concerned. A couple from either US or Canada were in the middle of a fight with the hotel staff when we walked in the front doors. The bellboy was holding the door closed and they were shouting "you can't keep us prisoner here!!" and trying to open the door. It goes without saying that we were pretty wide eyed when we approached the front desk. It turned out the people had refused to pay $20 because one of their kids had spilled something on the bed and stained the sheets. Anyway, seeing how bewildered we were they immediately upgraded our room to an oceanview room with a jacuzzi on the balcony. Sweet.

View from our balcony

That was really the only bad experience we had at the resort. The staff were very friendly and eager to please, this was part of why we booked there, people on Tripadvisor couldn't say enough good things about the service.

The resort was located in Puerto Juarez in north Cancun, well away from the tourist zone. In fact it seemed we were pretty much on the outskirts of town. Pros were that we were close to the ferry to La Isla Mujeres and we had Mayan Ruins just up the road from us, cons were that cab rides into downtown were a little more money but not that bad.

Our first night we didn't do too much, just ate, drank, and got the lay of the land. The next day we paid for some tours and formulated a rough plan for our week.

Monday - Take the 2min shuttle up the road to El Meco Ruins ($3 fee at the gates)
Tuesday - Chichen Itza Tour ($72 each, 12 hour excursion)
Wednesday - Take it easy, maybe go downtown to the market
Thursday - Rio Secreto Cave Tour ($89 each, ~8hr excursion)
Friday - La Isla Mujeres
Saturday - Last full day, relax and enjoy it.

For the most part we were able to stick with our plan with the exception of La Isla Mujeres which got moved to Saturday.

El Meco

Pano taken at El Meco ruins just a 10 min walk from our resort

This was such a treat. We had heard about it on trip advisor when researching our resort. Reviews had mentioned that this ruin site was almost always free of other visitors and this turned out to be true, we were the only visitors there for half an hour and then one guy from our resort wandered in as well. If you're in Cancun I highly recommend heading out to these ruins, they may not be as grandiose as Chichen Itza but the peaceful stillness from the lack of people gives it a more surreal feeling. Both me and my girlfriend counted it as one of the highlights of our trip.

The lizards have taken over the ruins at El Meco

Chichen Itza

Being that our hotel was a little out of the way we were picked up by a shuttle (30 min late) and taken downtown to where the mini tour bus was departing. The drive was around 2.5hrs with a stop near Chichen Itza at a Cenote. There you could swim if you wanted then a stop for an included lunch. The lunch was actually pretty good and included a bit more authentic local fare.

After lunch we made our way to the historical site where we stayed for 2 and half hours. Our guide said we could follow him or break off from the group, however he very strongly suggested we stay with the group because it was easy to get lost and not find the proper exit. Don't believe they hype! We stayed with the group and regretted it afterwards, our guide took us through the Great Ballcourt and then stopped under the shade of some trees and talked for over an hour. Then we were given a little less than an hour to wander around the whole site on our own. In the end we missed some cool portions like the Priests Temple and the Observatory. My recommendation is watch "Cracking The Mayan Code" (its also on Netflix) before you go and read up about Chichen Itza on wikipedia before you go and skip the guide.

The site was pretty cool, the hoards of tourists kinda took away from the surreal landscape though. It wasn't until I had gotten home, processed and de-touristed the photos, that I could look back and appreciate what I had seen. It seems to be the same no matter where I go, I felt the same when I was on the Great Wall of China. I heard some people complaining that you they no longer let you climb up on the structures, I for one was glad since it kept people out of my shots ;)

Temple of The Warriors at Chichen Itza

One last note on Chichen Itza regarding souvenirs, there are some items we saw there and passed over because we thought we'd find them again later for a cheaper price. While this was true of some items there were others that we never saw again, for example there was a woven blanket with a very cool Mayan/Aztec looking pattern that I regret not picking up. I also bought an ash tray and a stone chess board while we were on our way out, I got both together for $20 and later on I saw the same chessboards for $80. I just said to the guy I've got a bus to catch, take it or leave it and he took the cash. When I told one of the vendors I bought the same chess board for around $15 he got a little angry and said that was not possible ;)

Rio Secreto Caves

Photo from cd purchased after the tour

Now this was something I was very excited about before the trip. I came across it while reading up on excursions in and around Cancun and was surprised when I had discovered it because I had seen portions of it featured in the BBC/Discover series Planet Earth. I had no idea that this was in Mexico so as soon as I found out I told my girlfriend this was something we had to do.

The Yucatan penninsula is primarly limestone, because of this there are no natural rivers, instead they are all underground. Normally these caves are filled with water and require scuba gear to explore them, underwater cave exploration is one of the most dangerous activities in the world. Rio Secreto on the other hand is one of the few underground rivers that you can actually walk/wade through without ever having to put your head under the water.

The tour cost us around $99 USD and included pickup/dropoff from our resort as well as lunch at the caves. Like the Chichen Itza excursion our shuttle to pick us up at our resort was late, this time though it was running really late. Eventually after talking to a rep from Best Day Travel we found out that our shuttle had gotten a flat tire, the rep then put us into a cab on their dime and sent us downtown to meet up with the bus. We ended up being the last people to get on the bus and I'm sure people were thinking it was our fault we were late and held them up. Oh well I'll never see them again anyway ;)

Despite getting off to a rough start the rest of the excursion was great. Just a heads up though the showers they make you use before getting into your wetsuit are insanely cold since they are using water from the underground river. Its funny when you get back and you see another group who are just about to go through the same experience ;)

Our tour guide was great and our group was fairly small, I believe they always try to keep the size below 10 people. Walking is a little tricky since the bottom of the cave isn't always flat, just go slow and you'll be fine. Throughout the tour there is a guy that shadows your group and snaps photos here and there. At preset locations they have flashes setup (with bags over them to keep them dry) and they'll get you to pose for a shot like the one below.

A posed shot while on the tour, note the flashlights in the pools providing extra light ;)

At the end of the tour while you're busy trying to get your wet-suit off they run ahead and dump their memory cards. You then get a shot of an anise and honey flavoured Mayan liqueur and they try to sell you the photos they took of you. Its a little steep at $60 USD for a disc but I'd rather pay for these shots then some lame one on a beach with a parrot on your shoulder. The disc you get also includes some nice stock shots from the caves as well, unfortunately the stock shots are lower res (2-3Mega Pixel). One thing to note is that your disc will contain two folders, "Fotos" and "Fotos para impresion", the first contains photos that are good for web use and emailing, the second contains larger files (10 Mega Pixels) which are for printing. At first I didn't see the folder with the full sized files and felt a little cheated.

La Isla Mujeres (The Island of Women)

The large ferries that take people back and forth to the island, $7 USD return

On our second last day we took a ferry across to the Island of Women. There is plenty of stuff to do on the island like diving and a whole host of water sports or you can rent a golf cart and cruise around the island. We however just played it low key and just walked up and down the strip on foot. At one point we wandered off the main strip a little too far and it was looking a little seedier, I don't think we were ever in any danger since the whole island makes its living on tourism.

Some graffiti we came across when we wandered off the beaten path on La Isla Mujeres

While we were off the beaten path we came across a neat little cemetery that had this creepy black cat apparently standing guard at the gates.

We made it back to the main strip and found a little ice cream/gelato shop which was a nice place to sit and cool off a little. All in all the island was decent, others we talked to that had done some of the excursions had quite a good time so I'd say its worth checking out.

We could see our resort from the ferry!

In the end it was quite a nice little winter get away, we had a nice mix of adventure and relaxation and didn't break the bank in the process. What more can you ask for right?

Here's a little video I put together from a collection of clips I had shot with my little ipod touch.

Mexico Randomness from James Hildebrandt on Vimeo.

While staying at the resort you get 2 vouchers per week to eat at their fancier a la carte restaurant "Oysters". We found the food there to be quite good and while we thought the buffet was decent this was definitely a nice change. Here's a clip of our waiter preparing our Mayan Coffee:

Mayan Coffee at Sea Adventure Resort Cancun from James Hildebrandt on Vimeo.

If you want to see all of the photos from the trip you can check them out at my flickr gallery here or if you really like the shots you can purchase a little book of them here.

Advice on finding a wedding photographer

2011-01-03T17:12:00.011-06:00

First let me start off by saying I'm not trying to pitch myself ;) In fact I haven't been shooting weddings for a few years now and won't be until I have my basement studio finished (if even then). However, I'm often approached by people asking if I'll shoot their wedding and always feel the need to write up a long email referring them to other photographers as well as give them tips on what to look for. I realized today that I've probably written over 50 emails like this so I finally decided to just make a blog post about it so in future I can just link them to it ;)

There are tons of photographers to choose from.
With the price of digital SLR cameras these days everyone seems to be getting into the biz, this is both good and bad for you. A fancy camera does not a photographer make ;) There are a lot of up and comers that are undercutting established photographers, a few are amazing and are a steal of a deal where others simply shouldn't be working. On the flip side some of the "established" photographers out there are really quite terrible. So what do you do?

First off ask your friends/family that have recently been married who shot their wedding and ask to see their wedding photos. Word of mouth and testimonials from people you know carry way more weight than a fancy website and/or ad campaign. Remember, a photographer's portfolio is their best work and not always typical of what you're going to get so trust what you see in your friends album over the portfolio.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as well as the prospective photographer:

How many years have they been shooting weddings/how many wedding have they shot? An experienced photographer that has shot a lot of weddings will probably cost more but it might be worth it because they'll know how to handle any situation that comes up. On the flip side a newer photographer, other than being cheaper, might be more in-tune with newer styles and may not take shots that seem as "old fashioned".

Engagement Photos. Often packages will include engagement photos and as I photographer I always preferred to do both the engagement photos and wedding photos. This gives the bride and groom a chance to work with the photographer and build a rapport with each other so that when the big day comes everyone is comfortable with each other. From purely a customer stand point my take is that the only reason for engagement photos is to have a nice photo for the wedding invitation, the rest of the photos are forgotten after the wedding. If the package includes it then great, if it costs more then its up to you to decide if you really want/need them.

What if it rains? Amazingly even some of the high end photographers don't do a proper job if it rains. Rain means shooting inside, preferably with the proper lighting equipment and skills to use it. This is where most photographers either lack studio experience, proper gear, or studio space to do it properly. Note that this is why I've decided not to take on any weddings for now, I simply lack the studio space to accommodate a wedding party. Ask the photographer what the backup plan is in the event of inclement weather. If they have a studio available to them with proper equipment ask them to see examples of the shots, if they've been shooting weddings for any length of time they will have certainly been rained out at least once.

Backup equipment. One thing that almost nobody asks the photographer is whether or not they have backup equipment. It's not unheard of for a camera to suddenly fail during a wedding shoot (a photographer's worst nightmare ;) but this again is where a seasoned pro will be covered and a newer photographer may not.

All day, just ceremony & formals, or by the hour? Most photographers will offer at least 2 of the 3 if not all of them. Which one you should choose is really up to you. You'll want to cover the ceremony and formals as a minimum and that is often much cheaper than all day coverage. Are the "getting ready" shots worth the extra price? Same goes with the dance, if you're cool with just "documenting" these extras then skip the all day coverage and collect pictures from your friend's digital cameras.

What is a second shooter and should I pick a package that has one? A second shooter is a second photographer that helps ensure the main photographer doesn't miss a moment, also by having one you'll get photos from multiple angles which can yield better coverage during say the ceremony. Generally only the higher end packages offer a second shooter and depending on the photographer/package they might only be there to help cover the ceremony.

Full resolution files on disc or ordering through the photographer? Nowadays with the digital revolution more and more photographers are just giving the files to the client on a disc and letting them make as many copies as they want. It's worth it to pay a little more for this feature as ordering through the photographer is generally expensive and some of the prices I've seen for enlargements are downright un-ethical. If you do get a disc though I highly recommend making a few extra copies as backups and keep one at a friend/relatives place as an off-site backup.

Photo editing, wedding album, hosted gallery etc. One thing you need to ask, especially with cheaper packages or inexperienced photographers, is whether or not the photos are edited and to what level are they edited. Is it just basic exposure & colour correction or does it include blemish removal etc. As for the other extras you might want to save the $$$ and do it yourself. I recommend www.blurb.com to all of my friends for photobooks, they are really economical and offer a very professional method for displaying your photos. Hosted galleries are almost pointless nowadays since you can do it yourself on facebook or flickr. One more thing about the photo editing, if possible see if they photographer will even be willing to throw in the original or "RAW" files, this way if the person doesn't do a good job editing the photos you'll still have the originals which could be edited properly at a later date.

Wedding Insurance, say what? Chances are you probably didn't even know this existed, don't worry because most photographers don't either. It's actually ingenious really and I'm surprised more people don't get it. Some photographers offer it but I believe the bride/groom can purchase it on their own as well. If you're planning a big/expensive wedding I recommend giving it some thought. Here is just an example of some of the things that can be covered: Personal Liability, postponement/cancellation, wedding photographs, wedding gifts, loss of deposits, wedding gown & attire, wedding jewelery.

Location location location.Where are you planning to get your photos taken? A few quick things to remember when choosing a location is that public places (parks etc) generally can't be booked for private gatherings and during peak wedding season may be inundated with other wedding parties. Here in Saskatoon a popular place is the Boffin's Club gardens, what most people don't realize is that you can't actually book this place. You can call them and they'll put your name down but they'll do the same for the next photographer that calls too, if you're lucky they'll let you know how many other weddings are marked down for that day. In short, try to have a backup plan and discuss this before hand with your photographer.

Agreement of service expected. To be honest I'm not actually sure if this is common or not but I think it should be if it isn't. Basically before you hand over any deposits write out in point form what the package includes AND what the photographer's liability is if for some unforeseen reason they are unable to deliver (gets into an accident on the way to the wedding etc). Essentially this is a contract for services, if they are asking for a deposit to ensure you don't bail on them its only fair that you have some assurances as well.

Well hopefully that covers just about everything, if I think of anything else I'll update this post.

Cheers,
James

Help Portrait 2010 Update

2010-12-06T20:52:00.006-06:00

Photo credit to Dustin

UPDATE: Just wanted to throw in a special thanks to Costco photo lab for coming through with a deal on prints to help us out!

Well Saskatoon's first year participating in the Help-Portrait event is over and it was a huge success. We had 7 photographers and 10 other volunteers on site that day including a makeup artist! In total we had 71 groups sign up ranging from individual people to large families, all total we had 105 people get their portraits taken. Not bad for a handful of photographers, especially considering that this was the first time some of the photographers had worked with studio lighting.

As I'm writing this we're still waiting on some people to finish the post processing work on their shots, from what I've seen of the finished files they all look great! On the 11th we're hoping to have all of the photos ready and are going to be down at the Salvation Army handing them out, I can't wait to see everyone's reactions.

Our shoot started at 10:30am Dec 4th and went until 4pm. We ran two setups, one using my Impact 5x7' collapsible background that could accommodate 1-2 people and another larger setup using a fabric backdrop for individuals or big groups. We split up my two studio strobes, one for each setup, then used speedlights on each for secondary lighting. For triggering we used my Yong Nuo PT-04 Transmitter/Receiver sets on one side and PW's provided by another volunteer for the other side (thanks Jay!). All in all we didn't have any real issues, maybe a few minor things here and there but nothing big.

Behind the scenes shots from the day's event can be seen here at the Saskatoon group's page on Flickr and BTS shots from worldwide participants here.

In an effort to document some ideas while they're still fresh here are some things to consider for next year.

Things that worked really well:

Each person/group coming in to have their portraits taken were given a number on a small piece of paper, for their first photo they held this up so we could match pictures to the appropriate people.

Props, only one of our volunteers was on the ball in this department and she brought a huge teddy bear along with other props. These really helped and were a great idea, thanks Kim!

Dropbox. This is a great way for groups of people to collaborate and share files. So far everything is going good, just hope we don't run out of space ;)

The flyers that were handed out at the Salvation Army during the two weeks before the event really seemed to help get the word out and to the right people. Announcing stuff on the radio/TV ahead of time is likely to result in the wrong people taking advantage of the event whereas these flyers hit our target market perfectly.

Things that could be improved upon:

Backdrops, since it was our first year and we didn't know what to expect we thought one setup for small groups and one for large groups would work. We ended up with a lot of larger groups so this made it uneven, next year we'll just setup two large backdrops. Also I think that 2 studio strobes per side would probably work better especially if we're having larger groups (sorry Krystian you were right lol).

ID number slips, while they did work out really well one thing I'd suggest for next year is having them underlined. We had one incident where the person held a 9 upside down so it appeared to be a 6. The issue was quickly sorted out since we had names to match the numbers up with, since one was male and one was female it was easy to figure out.

Bring a whiteboard to keep track of how many sittings each photographer has shot. All in all it worked out fairly evenly for us, I think everyone got to shoot enough. Still it would have been easier if we had a whiteboard so that nobody got left out. On the other hand everyone is different and some people might only want to shoot a certain amount, it depends on each person's comfort level.

Bring a hotshoe adapter for Sony/Minolta cameras or figure out before hand if one is going to be needed. One of the photographers at our event was shooting a Sony and was stuck bouncing her speedlight off the roof instead of being able to take advantage of the lighting setup.

Fund-raise and seek out sponsors earlier. This was our first year and the majority of members didn't join until there was a month or less left before the event so we did pretty good despite that. Now that we have a base of support next year we'll be on the ball earlier.

Krystian (our lead organizer) suggested shooting in pairs and having another photographer aid in reviewing the shots as they were taken. This would help avoid surprises later during post ie Oh crap I shot a group at f2 and only the people in front are in focus ;)

All in all it went very well and I can't wait to see everyone's reactions when we give them their photos this Saturday. Thanks to everyone that volunteered and a big thanks to Krystian and his wife Aleksandra for starting this Saskatoon group rolling.

Use your talent to give back - Help Portrait 2010

2010-11-15T21:49:00.005-06:00

I just thought I'd make a quick post about this really cool event called Help-Portrait. So what is Help-Portrait? Well it's a bunch of photographers getting together, in whatever town you're from, and going out into the community and doing portraits of people who might not ordinarily get portraits. These people could be the homeless, low-income seniors, single-parents and their kids etc. Afterwards you print out the photos and give them to the people you've shot. Check out their website, they've got some really inspiring videos about last year's wildly successful campaign.

It may not sound like much at first but it's amazing how much something as simple as a good photo can improve ones self esteem and the way they look at themselves.

The event for this year is supposed to take place Saturday December 4th so if you're interested in taking part head over to http://help-portrait.com and signup, then do a search to see if there is already a group for your city.

Saskatoon's got a group this year and we're busy trying to figure out all of the details, if you want to get involved signup at the website and join the Saskatoon group!

I'll post a follow-up after Dec 4th hopefully with some pics and behind the scenes stuff.

My camera takes crappy pictures, what should I buy?

2010-08-30T23:33:00.008-06:00

I've been asked this question numerous times, normally I refer people to this earlier post but I figured I'd rehash the issue and provide some more info.

Essentially it boils down to
a) what exactly are they unhappy with in their current camera
b) what is their budget and
c) is camera size a crucial aspect?

Most of the time when people say they aren't happy with their current camera it due to one of 4 things:
1) Poor lowlight capabilities
2) Poor zoom
3) Pictures aren't sharp enough
4) Too much lag when the shutter is pressed

I'll cover each of these issues and explain why they happen and which type of cameras are affected the most and least.

Common complaints:

Poor lowlight:
All cameras whether film or digital suffer in this environment, photography needs a lot of light because after all we're capturing photons here hence photography ;) In the digital realm it really all boils down to sensor size, the larger the sensor the bigger the "footprint" available for the light to hit. Its like running outside in the rain to collect water, the person with the biggest container is going to get the most water. Point and shoot cameras are immediately at a disadvantage because of their size, smaller body = smaller sensor. If you're dead set on owning a point and shoot you're only real option is to use that nasty on-camera flash to create more light. Digital SLR cameras, having larger sensors, tend to work better than their diminutive point and shoot cousins in this environment. They are still not perfect but they offer a very noticable improvement. At the time of writing this one of the best low-light dSLR's in the entry level range is the Canon Rebel T2i ($979 with 18-55mm kit lens at Don's photo) which yields very acceptable images up to ISO 800. There are more expensive dSLR's with larger sensors (full frame sensors) but these are really out of the price range of most people ($3000+ for just the camera without lenses).

Image sensor sizes, the smallest shown are point and shoot sensors

Poor Zoom:
Once again the point and shoot camera is being dealt a poor hand right of the flop, their small size physically limits the amount of zoom that can be available. Ignore any claims about digital zoom, this is not real zoom at all, it’s the same as blowing it up on your computer and you'll result in a blurry image. Optical zoom is the important number here, 3-5x optical zoom is fairly standtard within the realm of point and shoot cameras (P&S's from hereout) with a few touting 7x optical zoom. When you start going above this range, up to say 14x zoom, you leave the P&S realm and get into the mid-sized "bridge" or "prosumer" cameras. They call them bridge cameras because they bridge the gap between P&S camera and full fledged dSLR's. I tend to tell people to avoid these cameras, the reason is that about 4 out of 5 people that buy them are upgrading because of an interest in photography and end up buying a dSLR soon after anyway. I say skip that expensive step and just go for a dSLR, the size isn't that much bigger than a bridge camera and prices in some instances can be roughly the same. For those scared off by dSLR's because of all of the extra features don't worry, there is still "auto" mode and as you feel more confident you can explore the manual features to improve your photos even more. Lastly with a dSLR you can change lenses so if the kit lens that it comes with isn't enough you can buy a telephoto zoom that suits your needs.

Example of a "bridge" camera, for the most part I say skip these and look into dSLR's which will start at close to the same price.

Pictures aren't sharp:
Most often this complaint is less the camera's fault and more operator error when it comes to image quality. Even though digital cameras are common place now its surprising how many people don't realize you should always press the shutter halfway first, let the camera focus and determine exposure, then press fully. If this isn't done photos are often blurry because you're rushing the camera, often the autofocus doesn't have time to detect a face instead of the background (though this is improviing). Sometimes poor images are due to low light situations like we covered above. Point and shoots are mainly meant to yield nice 4x6 shots, that’s not to say if shot properly they couldn't provide bigger enlargements, but in the end they are made for capturing friends and family more than they are for fine art prints you'd blow up and frame in your livingroom. A station wagon is a station wagon and a sports car is a sports car, they are two different classes and are meant to do two different things, don't set your expectations too high. With the digital era people started viewing their photos on computers, immediately they began viewing them at 100% size and used this to judge image quality, while this is a valid method in some instances really what you should be doing is viewing it at the desired print size. For example a 12MP camera will snap a picture at roughly 4272 x 2848 pixels, this equates to a 14" x 9.5" print at 300dpi (just divide the pixels by 300), most point and shoot cameras when printed or viewed at 100% or maximum size won't yield the nicest quality. If you take the same image and view it at 1200 x 1800 pixels or 4x6 size they image will probably look much better. The truth is that most of the cameras out there are perfectly fine when it comes to image quality when judged by the print sized they'll most likely be used for. The problem is that manufacturers kept making them with higher and higher MP ratings when the sensor itself shouldn't really have that many and didn't need it if you look at what they're going to be used for. In truth anything above a 7MP camera for a point and shoot is really a waste, 7MP will let you make 8x10's at photo quality and can be pushed up to 11x14 in many instances, most people never even make enlargements at these sizes anyway.

Laggy shutter times:
Buy a dSLR. Period. Sad but true even with the most expensive P&S and bridge cameras you're always going to run into shutter lag. Even dSLR's when used in automatic mode will have some amount of lag as it autofocuses and adjusts the exposure however the time it takes to do it will most likely a lot less. Some cameras are worse than others and they way that you use your camera will affect this as well. As mentioned earlier pressing the shutter half way to "prep" the focus and exposure will significantly reduce any lag. Use of a flash can have a huge impact on this as well since it takes time for the flash to charge.

So what should I do?
It depends on a few things. After reading this do you still think you need a new camera? If the answer is yes then you'll need to see if what you want out of a camera is possible given your budget.

Buy another point and shoot?
The only time I'd recommend this is if you have a camera that wasn't made by a reputable name (ie Canon, Nikon, etc), if you're looking for new features like HD video, or if your camera was just really old (2MP for example). There are a few brands out there that have really crappy point and shoot cameras and you wouldn't expect it from the name, Polaroid for example makes terrible digital cameras, Olympus also has left a lot to be desired upon entering the digital arena. As far as MP's go I always tell people not to get to carried away with it but realistically if you're still shooting a 2-4MP camera an upgrade may be desireable. Another acceptable reason would be if your current point and shoot has very limited zoom or no optical zoom at all, in this case you may want to look at a better point and shoot or upgrade to a bridge or dSLR.

Should I look into these bridge/prosumer cameras?
Maybe. This is a really tricky area because they are really not that much cheaper than an entry level dSLR and only slightly smaller. If you think you may be considering a dSLR in the future you should definitely skip this range and hold out for a dSLR. If you're strictly looking for a bit more zoom and some added controls then perhaps a prosumer or bridge camera is precisely what you're looking for, my only advice is give it some serious thought before taking the plunge.

Should I just go all in and get a dSLR?
If you're wanting better photos, don't mind a bit larger camera, and can afford it then unequivocally YES. There are just so many advantages to a dSLR and due to their increasing popularity you can buy amazing cameras for very low prices. Ten years ago consumer level dSLR's didn't even exist, in late 2003 Canon came out with the first one for a resonable price ($1500) and it was 6.3MP. Today you can get an 18MP dSLR capable of full 1080P HD video for under $1000 and a resectible 10MP for $549 with a lens. Plus you can still keep your old P&S for snapshots ;)

Some example cameras from each class
Prices accurate as of Aug 30 2010

Point & Shoot
Canon Powershot SD1400IS ($249)
Pros: Very small and portable, Surprisingly crisp HD video (720p)
Cons: Only 4x optical zoom, can't use optical zoom when recording video

Canon Powershot SD780IS (Low prices if you can still find it in stock, its last years model but virtually identical to the SD1400IS)

Pros: Very small and portable, Surprisingly crisp HD video (720p)
Cons: Only 4x optical zoom, can't use optical zoom when recording video

Canon SX120IS ($229)
Pros: 10x optical zoom (very high for a P&S)
Cons: No HD Video (still has SD video though), Large for a point and shoot

Sony Cybershot DSC-H55 ($269)
Pros: 10x optical zoom (very high for a P&S), HD Video (720p)
Cons: Uses expensive proprietary Sony Memory sticks for the storage medium

Nikon Coolpix S8000 ($279)
Pros: One of the smallest cameras sporting 10x optical zoom, HD Video (720p)
Cons: No optical zoom while recording video

Bridge / Prosumer cameras
Canon Powershot G11 ($549)
Pros: All the controls of a dSLR, solid build, almost the industry standard camera for journalists
Cons: No HD video, only 5x optical zoom

Canon Powershot SX20IS ($449)
Pros: 20x optical zoom, HD Video (720p)
Cons: Lack of RAW support, slow lens at telephoto range (ie aperture is smaller letting in less light)

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100 ($549.99)
Pros: 24x optical zoom, Full 1080p HD video, Leica lens
Cons: Electronic viewfinder could stand to be higher resolution

Fuji Finepix HS10 ($499)
Pros: 30x optical zoom, Full 1080p HD video
Cons: Slow processing of RAW format images

Digital SLR cameras
*Unlike the rest of the cameras I've listed above I'll include the MP rating for the ones below since the larger sensors actually make it a legitimate spec. Keep in mind that even 7MP will yield a crisp 8x10 print so unless you're planning on making posters you should still avoid getting too caught up in this rating. One caveat is that higher MP will allow you to crop a photo more and still retain detail.

Canon Rebel XS 10MP ($549 with an 18-55mm kit lens)
Pros: Solid entry level camera for a low price
Cons: No video capabilities, 10MP (which is still not bad)

Canon Rebel T2i 18MP ($979 with an 18-55mm kit lens)
Pros: High value for money, Full 1080P HD video, High MP for the price
Cons: Price may be above an entry level budget

Nikon D3000 10MP ($499 with an 18-55mm kit lens)
Pros: Solid entry level camera for a low price
Cons: No video capabilities, 10MP (which is still not bad)

Nikon D90 12.3MP ($999 with an 18-55mm kit lens)
Pros: Wildly popular, first dSLR to allow HD video shooting
Cons: Video is only 720p, price may be above an entry level budget

Sony Alpha A230 10.2MP ($399 with an 18-55mm kit lens)
Pros: One of the most inexpensive dSLR's, allows shooting to SD card as well as memory stick
Cons: No video recording, hotshoe is non-standard and may require adaptors for use with non-sony/minolta flashes

Pentax k-x 12.4MP ($629)
Pros: Compatible with almost all Pentax lenses, burst rate of 4.7 frames per second
Cons: Video is only 720p, no HDMI port

But wait!
Before you go running out the door to drop your hard earned cash on a new camera I recommend doing the following. Leave your cash/cards at home and go window shopping first, if at all possible try the camera out in the store and see how it feels. Write down a list of cameras you're interested in, when you get home scour the internet for reviews on them and see if there is any hidden flaws you didn't notice. Dropping a few hundred bucks or a grand is a big deal and you should be sure of what you want before you drop that kind of cash. I'd also recommend holding off on buying all sorts of accessories for the first week or so while you try out the camera at home, this way you can still return it without getting stuck with a bunch of accessories.

Good luck ;)

Break from digital : A vacation to film land

2010-08-22T18:36:00.011-06:00

I don't think I've really mentioned it much (if at all) here on my photo blog but I collect old and unique cameras. Every once it awhile I'll put down my digital cameras and pick up one of these to head out for a little film fun.

The majority of the older cameras I have are medium format TLR's and the odd box camera, there are a few 35mm exceptions like my elegant Werra 3 and the low fi Smena 8M.

It is when I have these cameras in hand that I remember how exciting taking photos was when I was a kid. Each frame was precious because you only had a finite number, no erasing unwanted photos or memory cards that allow for thousands of photos. There was always that feeling of anticipation as you waited to get the photos back from the lab wondering "did they turn out?" Or in some cases "I have know idea what's even on this roll" lol. The kids growing up in the digital age missed out on this (I feel old saying that and I'm only 29), don't get me wrong I love what digital sensors have given us in photography but it's also taken something away.

Today reminded me of that era and gave me a glimpse of that old excitement when I saw this camera while surfing the web:

(Photo from www.japantrendshop.com)

It's the Superheadz Blackbird Fly, a new 35mm TLR that hails from Japan. Other than Seagull I don't think any other company is producing new TLR cameras, sure there was that digital Rollieflex a few years back but at 2MP it was more of a joke than a real camera. These little Blackbird Fly's (aka BBF) are a little pricey at a touch over $100 but are cheaper than the medium format Seagull TLR. I like the fact that they shoot the readily available 35mm film, it's a little easier on the pocketbook compared to spending over $1 per photo with 120 film not counting the film itself. If you're shooting MF because of the higher detail negatives you're most likely shooting on a MF SLR or a higher end TLR anyway so 35mm makes sense for those of us just looking for some fun.

If you are however interested in the medium format route you can get into it on a fairly low budget. The Holga 120N is a cult classic in the field of lomography and can be had for under $50 if you look hard, Diana's (the inspiration for the Holga) are also still available and fit a shoestring budget. Some vintage cameras can be found on ebay or in your local antique shops, the Lubitel II and 166B made from bakelite instead of metal can generally can be had quite cheaply. Lastly, and not to be overlooked, the archaic yet still fully functional Kodak box cameras often sell in antique shops for around $10. The only piece of advice I'd offer when looking for vintage medium format cameras, assuming you want to shoot with them, is to make sure they shoot 120 film and not 620. It is possible to respool 620 onto the fatter 120 spools but its not the easiest process.

Another interesting little camera that is made by the same company is the Superheadz Golden Half which is quite unique itself. This is a throwback to yet another popular genre from yesteryear, a 35mm camera that only uses half a frame per photo netting you twice the pictures! A few years back I was trying to find something similar on Ebay and the vintage versions were fetching prices that were outside of my range. At just over $50 these are still a tad on the pricey side all considering however they are unique and since they're new you don't have to worry about buying one and finding the lens is covered in fungus ;)

(Image from http://kualalumpurcity.olx.com.my)

I ended up ordering an orange Blackbird Fly and a "black mountain" Golden Half, once I get them and put a roll through each I'll make another post reviewing my findings. At one point I'll dig all of my vintage cameras out, take their portraits, and write up a post about all of them too but that'll be down the road.

Insuring your gear - Have you even considered it?

2010-07-26T15:46:00.007-06:00

If the unthinkable should happen are you covered?

This is a topic that isn't addressed very often but is quite important. How much gear do you own? Could you afford to replace any or all of it if it got damaged/lost/stolen/vandalized? Most likely the answer is no, at least not at the drop of a hat anyway.

You have to insure your car if you want to drive and if you want a mortgage you have to have house insurance, plus both of those are big ticket items. Your camera gear, if it's valuable, should be treated the same way especially if you're using it to make money.

First things first I just need to say that I'm basing the information in this article off of my own experiences, costs and policies may differ depending on which company you deal with and where you live.

After I picked up my 5DMKII I realized I really needed to look into insurance, I was starting to carry around over $8000+ worth of gear to a photoshoot and it was making me nervous. A quick call to my insurance provider and I had all the info I needed. Since I only do photography on the side and use the money mainly for funding my ~~addiction~~ hobby I qualified for a "semi-professional" rate provided I didn't earn more than $5000 per year. The insurance company referred to this as "scheduling items". All I had to do was draw up a list of equipment I wanted to insure, note the replacement value and serial numbers, then submit it to the broker. My rate was $3.50 per $100 worth of gear I was insuring per year. So to insure $10,000 worth of equipment costs $350 per year or roughly $30/month. If you are making money doing photography then you should already be claiming that income as a small business on your taxes and this insurance is considered a business expense which can be written off. Also worth noting is that if you schedule items they are not subject to a deductible, you simply make the claim and get reimbursed.

To my knowledge just about everything is covered, say if I'm up in the mountains taking photos and I lose my footing and drop my camera over a cliff I'm safe. There are probably some limits to this but when I ran down the list of most likely scenarios they were all covered.

So what happens if you fall outside of the semi-professional range?

If you're an amateur photographer who doesn't make any money off of photography should you still insure it? That's up to you, if you have regular house insurance it should cover items like this however you will have to pay a deductible which may exceed the cost of replacing or fixing the piece of gear. $3.50/$100 is pretty cheap, $5 a month will cover $1700 worth of gear. If you think about it you may want to say no to that extended in-store warranty next time and just buy insurance instead.

If you're a pro and are making over $5000 a year I would hope that you don't even need to read this post because you already have your gear insured but if not I'll cover it anyway. I talked to my broker today before writing this article just to make sure I had the correct info, unfortunately professional rates aren't a straightforward number, they have to be calculated based on a number of things so I couldn't get an exact rate. The gentleman I talked to though said it was most likely still close to the $4/$100 range with the exception that you are also required to get liability insurance which is a minimum of $400/yr. If you're making a living doing photography though this is just a cost of doing business and having that extra liability insurance isn't a bad thing if all of a sudden a lightstand falls on a model ;)

What if you rent and don't have house insurance?
Get renters insurance. Period. Its that simple. I've known a few people who have lost everything in fires that weren't even started in their apartment (it was a duplex) but since they had no insurance they were left with nothing. From what I've heard renter's insurance is quite a bit cheaper than house insurance since you're only insuring your belongings and not the structure you live in (your landlord should have insurance for that).

That pretty much sums up all the info I have to give on this subject, hopefully it sheds some light on a topic that I haven't seen covered much.

Travel Photography - Destination Halifax NS

2010-07-25T17:23:00.009-06:00

Peggy's Cove just outside Halifax NS, Canada

The narcissistic seagull of Peggy's Cove

**Note all photos from this trip can be seen here in my flickr gallery and they are geotagged if you want to know the photo's location***

As I write this my summer holidays come to an end and I'm back to work soon but I had a refreshing break and got to see some more of the beauty that our country has to offer.

My original summer holiday plan was supposed to take me to Serbia where a friend's father still has a house. We were going to check out the Adriatic coast and use their house in Serbia as somewhat of a basecamp. Unfortunately plans fell through this year but where one door closes another opens, a friend moved out to Halifax last year for school and was gracious enough to let me come out and stay with her for a week. I'd always wanted to see the east coast, I often see those tourism commercials and am always surprised by the how much Canada has to offer.

From the photographer friendly Peggy's Cove (shown at the top) to the period correct Alexander Keith's Brewery on the waterfront Halifax proved to be a fantastic place to visit.

(Alexander Keith's Brewery)

I've done a modest amount of travelling so far in my time and often I think "nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live here", Halifax did not receive the same internal reflection. Quite the opposite rather, I could definitely handle living in this amazing little city (not sure how the winters are though lol). The buildings in downtown Halifax are just awesome, they are all older style buildings with extravagant little embellishments as you can see below.

Facade on a building located across the street from St Mary's basilica

A random street shot just to show a typical downtown view

I definitely left of piece of myself behind in that port city, so many amazing places to visit that are within walking distance of the downtown. For example Point Pleasant park on the southern tip of Halifax is this dense forrested area that had me wondering if I was in northern Saskatchewan until the view opened up to reveal the water.

A glimpse of the harbour is revealed while walking to the shore at Point Pleasant.

This is my friend's "Secret Spot" at Point Pleasant that she was nice enough to share with me ;)

If you find Point Pleasant to be a little too rugged for your liking the Halifax Public Gardens may prove to be your cup of tea. Located between Spring Garden Road and Sackville St this huge Victorian style gardens is a very sculpted and well groomed botanical oasis just on the edge of the downtown district. Lots of sculptures and a variety of floral gardens greet you as you stroll along the walking paths.

Not sure who this is represented in this sculpture but it looked quite nice ;)

The reflections in the pond drew the attention of my camera quite quickly

Plenty of flora around for botany lovers

Among other places to see while visiting Halifax is St. Mary's basillica with its medieval looking architecture and exquisite stained glass windows and towering vaulted ceilings.

St. Mary's Basilica marvels passers by on Spring Garden Road

Amazing stained glass and huge arched ceiling definitely gives this place a surreal feeling.

The harbour, as would be expected, is quite a busy place and is loaded with shops and tourists. Land and boat tours are constantly departing and returning, museums, pubs, restaurants, and gifts shops litter the waterfront.

One place you should stop and see is Nova Scotian Crystal where you can watch the workers as they bend, shape, and blow the glass into stunning works of functional art.

A worker puts the finishing touches on a crystal glass.

Adjacent to the workshop is the storefront and gallery, nice pieces but unfortunately out of my budget

In the end there were a few places that I didn't have time to visit but the places that I did see were great. I met some really nice people, ate some fantastic food, and got to spend some time catching up with a good friend what more could you ask for ;)

Update: Photos from my Halifax trip are now available for purchase in book form!

A Glimpse Of Halifax by James Hildebrandt | Make Your Own Book

Grad Portraits - On Location Shoot

2010-07-06T17:51:00.020-06:00

Another instalment in the "why do I do this to myself series" ;) The first was the hair salon shoot where I shot 20+ models in a very short space of time. This round it was 16 grad portrait sessions at 20 min each. Ironically I scored this job because one of the hair salon shoot models referred me ;)

All joking aside it was a fun shoot, the photos turned out well and by pushing myself I learnt a thing or two.

My main concern when I accepted the job was what happens if it rains? We were shooting at an acreage an hour from where I live. I drive a Mini Cooper, not exactly the most roomy vehicle ;) I arranged to have an SUV available so I could bring out my 9ft backdrop roll. The plan was to get there an hour early and setup an indoor studio in the large garage attached to the house, this way if it did suddenly rain we could just pop in and switch to studio shots.

As the shoot approached the forecast turned from sunny to thunderstorms and rain, the night before the shoot we had the worst storm in 3 decades according to the news. Also the night before the shoot there was some issues and I was not able to use the SUV. After tossing and turning for a few hours I devised a plan to use my 5ft wide backdrop role for single shots of the grads and then use my new foldout 5x7 backdrop, something I had just received in the mail a few days prior.

Here is the setup I envisioned and in the end it was exactly how I shot.

The backdrop roll was just wide enough for some 3/4 length shots as well as some with two subjects standing close. The main light was a White Lightning Ultra 1200 fired into a 40" Steve Kaeser softbox umbrella with a second Ultra 1200 gridded and pointing at the backdrop. Every once in awhile I'd turn the gridded strobe around to rimlight the subject from the back.

After the individual and two-person shots I'd move the grad over to the horizontally placed collapsible backdrop, then I'd bring in the parents on either side for some close up portraits. The collapsible backdrop was 7ft wide (in this position) but its got rounded corners so I still struggled to shoot a group of 3 at times.

It didn't end up raining at all that day though it was quite windy earlier on in the morning, since the studio portraits were already working well I decided to shoot half outdoors and half indoors for everyone.

The outdoor photos were quite a bit easier though I did have some issues earlier on with direct sunlight. When I had scouted the location it had been overcast so I couldn't quite tell where the sun would be. All of the key locations around the yard were situated so that afternoon sunlight worked best, for the earlier shots I had to use a few alternate locations or when possible just turn the subjects so they were backlit by the sun. Fill flash was pretty much mandatory so I put my 580EXII to work.

One thing that surprised me quite a bit was the longevity of the LP-E6 battery the 5D MK II uses. I already had a 2nd battery as a backup but since Canon spec'd the LP-E6 at around 550 shots I figured I should get a 3rd spare (16 grads x 100 photos each = 1600). After going out of my way to find a store that had any in stock I didn't end up needing it at all! I shot the whole day on one battery (~1600 photos!) and still had 1/4 battery left. There aren't many devices nowadays that even live up to their specified battery performance let alone triple them! Just another reason why I'm sticking with Canon. Oh and the 580EXII lasted on just one set of Sanyo Eneloop batteries too!

Summary

Would I do it again if asked? Yes but my bid would be at least 50% higher, I realized later I had undercut myself when I gave the initial quote.

What did I do wrong? All in all not much, see "what would I do differently"

What did I do right? Brought backup gear (though it was not needed) for just about every piece of equipment. Bringing tons of bottled water to keep hydrated, when you're talking all day long directing people for 8 hrs you need lots of water. Making a trip out to the location ahead of time so I knew exactly what I was up against. Shot in RAW, due to the lighting outdoors changing minute to minute the extra exposure latitude that RAW gave me helped immensely. Gear checklists so I didn't forget anything (except a posing stool).

What would I do differently? Secure a rock-solid method of transport for my 9ft backdrop paper. I also would have brought a posing stool, I had thought of it the night before but didn't write it down on my checklist (luckily the acreage had one for me).

What did I learn? Planning for the worst case scenario is always the way to go, weather can change and helpers might bail, always have a backup plan.

Gear used:
Canon 5DMKII, 24-105mm EFIS L lens, 580EXII, White Lightning Ultra 1200 x 2, Cameron portable backdrop stand, 5ft roll of studio grey paper, 5x7 Impact Collapsible Backdrop, Yong Nuo PT04-TM wireless triggers, ASUS 1005HA netbook for dumping files.

Backup gear I took but was unneeded: Canon T2i w 18-55mm IS kit lens, Canon G10, Interfit 42" dual reflector, Cameron 400W studio strobes x 2, 3 YN460 MKII speedlights, 2 Nikon SB-26 speedlights, 6 sets of Sanyo eneloop AA batteries.

Car Photoshoot Round 1

2010-05-16T21:45:00.006-06:00

The final image comprised of 8 composite shots.

Just a quick post about my first real attempt at lighting a car using off camera flash and a list of do's and don'ts from the experience.

I did this shoot with a fellow photographer friend of mine, we took turns between pressing the shutter and being human tripods holding the flashes. All in all I was quite happy with the final product. I would have liked to had a few more variations from different angles but since it was our first time we just tried to keep it simple.

My initial idea was to head out after sunset so that we didn't have much ambient to worry about, the intent was a finished image much like the one above with the car surrounded by darkness. My buddy Perry wanted to go around sunset so we could try shooting both ways and since we had plenty of time that is what we did.

Here's a shot that Perry took while it was still quite light out so no flashes were used. It shows a little more of the location we were using, we did the shoot behind one of my company's buildings since it backs a field and we know the place is quite dead on the weekends.

Image courtesy of Perry VanDongen

Gear:
Canon 5DMKII
Tripod
50mm f1.8 Prime Lens
Yong Nuo PT-104TM wireless transmitter and two receivers
Two Yong Nuo YN460MKII flashes

Do
... lock down your tripod to avoid any movement.
... keep the camera in one spot then light each aspect of the car shot by shot.
... bring fresh batteries ;)
... pick a place that is out of the way.
... use a softbox if possible to avoid bright reflections
... bring a wireless shutter release if you have one
... take the time to light the ground all the way around the car
... take lots of photos in each "pose" it only gives you more options in post
... bring a few rags to wipe down the car

Don't
... pick a spot with a lot of lights around, they'll get reflected on the car.
... shoot a dirty car, the flash lights up dust quite well ;)
... leave your aperture too wide open making the DOF less than the car's length
... forget that leaving your lights on with the car off will kill your battery
... bother trying to shoot before dusk if you want to use speedlights
... light the car at angles that will yield harsh reflections (when possible)

In the end the shots where we tried to mix ambient and strobes didn't work out too well and thinking back on it I now why. What we should have done is taken a few shots that just exposed ambient then shot faster shutter speeds to light the car with the strobes. Instead we were trying to do both at once and simply didn't have enough watt-seconds in my dinky speedlights to pull it off. Some of the "don'ts" listed were learnt the hard way, for example I accidentally left the aperture at 2.2 so the front of the car is a little soft. Also despite having detailed my car that afternoon by the time we got to the location it covered in a thin layer of dust.

The final image at the top of the post was comprised of 8 different car shots (plus a few texture/logo layers). Using the "lighten" blend mode in PS I stacked each photo and masked out the areas I didn't want to show up. This gives you amazing control and allows you to create a finished image that would most likely have been impossible to light in a single exposure.

For the interior shots I actually had the seat laid all the way back and sat inside moving the speedlights around while my friend snapped away. A nice surprise about the interior shots was that they hid all of the smears/fingerprints on the windows.

All in all I think we accomplished what I had in mind when we set out to do the shoot. Next time out I'll definitely do a few things differently but we did pretty good for a first attempt. In the end this was a great learning experience and since it was my own car there was no pressure, we could just play around and have fun.

Ok I bought a dSLR now what?

2010-04-27T21:41:00.019-06:00

I bought a digital SLR camera. . .

now what?

A few people have approached me lately with essentially the same question, some were asking about what kind of lenses they should buy others about what kind of software they should use. Thinking that these were probably fairly common questions I decided to write up a little guide outlining a few things you should consider. They are arranged roughly in the order you should consider them too ;)

What attachments/accessories/lenses should I buy?

This all depends on what you plan to do and your budget but here are a few suggestions:

UV Filter

Chances are good that if you bought your camera at any respectable shop they would have tried to sell you one of these right away. No it's not a con by the sales associates (mostly) the idea is that it if something is going to get scratched it'll be a $30 filter instead of a costly lens. If you're just starting out in photography you probably won't need a top of the line brand filter so don't let the sales person get carried away trying to upsell you there.

*Tip: One interesting quirk to watch out for is what you see in the image above. It happens if you're using filters when taking long exposures at night of northern lights. I won't get into the physics of it but it has to do with a certain wavelength of light and the two parallel faces of your lens and the filter.

Lenspen

I think that all photographers should have one of these in their bag. At around $10 you'd be crazy not to have one anyway. One one end is a retractable brush that is good for knocking loose dust and debris and on the other side protected by a cap is a slightly concave felt pad for getting more stubborn materials off your glass. Over time (and depending on usage) they should probably be replaced so you have a new felt tip, that being said I've had mine for years and see no need to change it yet.

Tip: They also make lenspens for point and shoot cameras, they have a smaller triangular felt pad for cleaning the smaller lenses.

Carrying bag/Camera Backpack

You just dropped a lot of money on your new camera so you should spend a little cash in order to protect it. There is a plethora of options in this department, unfortunately once you're getting into dSLR size bags the price goes up because there is less demand for them.

Above are some choices from LowePro, a company that's been around for decades and is well respected among photographers. There are a variety of choices ranging from simple hip pouches to sling bags and full backpacks which even accommodate laptops.

*Tip: One word of advice is buy a slightly bigger one than you need so that if you pick up a few lenses later on you can still carry them.

Tripod/Monopod

Investing in a decent tripod would probably be next on the list for most people.

Why do I need a tripod? There are a number of reasons but mostly it allows you the luxury of shooting at slower shutter speeds without producing blurry pictures. If you read my guide on understanding lighting you'll already know that you always want to keep your ISO as low as possible (sensitivity to light) in order to get the sharpest photos, however if your available light is already quite low the only options are to increase your aperture and/or lower your shutter speed.

If you're wanting to do any of the following photography you'll need a tripod:
Landscapes, wildlife, macro, sports, lowlight/night photography (lightning, northern lights) and anytime you're using a telephoto zoom lens

The rule of thumb is that 1/60^th of a second is the slowest shutter speed you can safely shoot handheld (though this is changing as image stabilization technology improves) but with a tripod you can have exposures lasting as long as minutes or even hours. As I mentioned above any time you're using a zoom lens you should be using a tripod, the reason is when you're zoomed in that far any small movement gets multiplied by your magnification X.

Good brands for tripods are Manfrotto, Slik, Gitzo, Velbon to name a few. Avoid tripod's designed for video cameras, they tend to be sloppier. When you're looking for a tripod you want one that is sturdy and won't allow your camera to move when all the adjustments are tightened up.

Tip: A monopod may be what you're after as well, they are good for sports photography because they don't take up much space . Keep in mind though that you can always use your tripod as a monopod simply by not splaying the legs out. I'd recommend starting with a good tripod and if you think you need a monopod later then go for it.

Extra lenses:

In short the best two lenses you can add to your kit are a zoom that compliments your kit lens and a nice fixed prime lens.

Zoom lenses:

Most dSLR's come with a general purpose standard lens, typically around 18-55mm. For most situations this is the best lens to use however sometimes you need a little extra zoom and that is where the telephoto lenses come into play. A good companion to say an 18-55mm kit lens would be something like a 70-200mm or a 70-300mm, this way you're not missing much range between the upper end of your 18-55mm and the lower end of your telephoto. If you find a good deal on a lens that will leave you with a gap don't rule it out though, it just means you'll have to keep this in mind when shooting and you may have to move back a little to get the same composition in your shot.

Depending on your camera manufacturer you might be able to find older lens used for a fraction of the cost of a new lens. For example Canon's EF lenses will work on their dSLRs but due to the fact most dSLR's have a smaller sensor the magnification factor will be larger and I'll explain this below in a bit. When in doubt call your local camera shop (Don's or Phase II for example) before purchasing a used lens to make sure it will work with your camera and if possible try it out on your camera first to make sure it fits and the auto-focus is compatible.

A note on cropped sensors:

If you have a dSLR camera and paid less than $3000 for it chances are good that your camera's sensor is what's referred to as a “cropped sensor” or “crop sensor”. This goes back to the days of 35mm film cameras, the film was the part that “sensed” the light and was 35mm diagonally across. The sensors in consumer grade dSLR's are smaller than that of the 35mm frame hence the term “cropped sensor”. What this means is that if you find an older used lens that was made for a film camera the zoom rating will not be accurate anymore. For example if you put a Canon 100-300mm EF lens on a Canon Digital Rebel dSLR which uses a 1.6x crop sensor your effective zoom will actually be 160mm-480mm.

1.3x – Canon EOS 1D/1D MkII
1.5x – Nikon D40/D50/D70/D70s/D80/D200/D2XD2Hs Minolta 7D/Fuji S3 Pro Pentax *istDS/K100D/K110D/K10D
1.6x – Canon EOS 300D/400D/20D/30D

Here's a nice little reference table of standard zoom sizes and their effective zoom's on a crop sensor.

Full Frame 1.3 Crop 1.5 Crop 1.6 Crop

Don't let any of this dissuade you from saving some cash by picking up an older telephoto though as there is another advantage besides the extra zoom. All lenses suffer from some inaccuracies due to how the lenses are ground and what materials they are made from etc, this results in the center of the lens being sharper than the outer edges of it. When you put one of these older lenses on a crop sensor camera you dramatically improve the quality of the image because the sensor only uses the central portion of the lens thus discarding most of the area that is degraded.

As mentioned previously if you plan on shooting with a zoom lens you should really consider using a tripod, at higher zoom ranges any vibration or shakiness is multiplied dramatically and will result in blurry images.

One last thing to note is that when buying any lenses you typically pay a lot more if you want a larger aperture (aka a faster lens). Where a 70-300mm F5.6 lens may cost $250 the same lens capable of f2.0 may run in the thousands.

Prime Lenses

Before the days of variable zoom lenses they were all fixed zoom aka prime lenses. Why would anyone even consider a lens so limiting? Below are 3 very good reasons:

1. Image quality
Variable zoom lenses are made up of many more elements than a fixed prime lens, this means any errors in how each of these elements are ground will add up and therefore decrease the total optical quality of the lens. Due to this fixed lenses tend to be sharper across the entire image, not just the center. Other optical issues like barrel distortion, pincushion distortion, and chromatic aberration are reduced in prime lenses.

2. Speed
This term may be new to you but when someone refers to a lens as being “fast” they mean it takes in a lot of light allowing you to use a faster shutter speed. Due to how they are made they often are available with very wide apertures (1.2, 1.4, 1.8 etc) compared to the variable lenses. Why is this important? Photographers always run into the same problem: not having enough light. Say you're shooting indoors and want to avoid the use of a flash (at a wedding for example) and your camera tells you in order to get a proper exposure you need to shoot at 1/4^h of a second at ISO 100 at f5.6. 1/4^th of a second is going to result in a blurry shot even if you're using a tripod because the people will probably be moving a little. If you have an F1.4 prime lens available that would give you 4 more stops of light to play with letting you shoot at 1/60^th of a second instead which is shoot-able handheld. In short it gives you options.

3. Shallow depth of field thanks to wider apertures

By using a very wide aperture (F1.4 or 1.8 etc) a very dreamy effect can be accomplished as backgrounds softly blur away allowing the viewer's eyes to be drawn to what matters.

So which focal length should you buy?

If you're going to pick up a prime lens I suggest going for a 50mm. The reason is that this is a very popular focal length for portraiture and therefore manufacturers make higher volumes resulting in lower prices. For both Canon and Nikon a 50mm prime can be found for under $150 and most likely other manufactures have similar prices to stay competitive.

Keep in mind though you may have to apply that multiplication factor to the focal length that we covered earlier in this article so your 50mm may end up working more like an 80mm if you're shooting a Canon. Don't get hung up on that though as generally “portrait” lenses are regarded as anything between 50-100mm.

Software Options

Here are a few options when it comes to image editing/library management. I highly recommend trying all of the free ones first as well as any trial downloads you can find before spending any cash at all.

Photoshop (CS4 is $1000, Elements Ver 8 is $129.99)

Now for image editing software Adobe Photoshop is the gold standard in the industry (CS4 is the current version), it’s the program that everyone uses. It is also ridiculously expensive which leads to a lot of pirating, there are tons of torrents available if that is the path you choose (I'm not condoning it). Another, more affordable option, is Adobe Photoshop Elements which is a "lite" version that sells for $129.99 as I write this at London Drugs. Check Adobe's website for downloadable trial versions before dropping any cash.

Pros: It is the industry standard bar none.
Cons: Pricey, A bit of a steep learning curve, I've used it for 8 years and am still learning new things every day.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) FREE!

GIMP has been around for years now and has come a long way, it is by far one of the most full featured photography programs second only to Photoshop and maybe a few others. The best part is that since it started out in Linux the software is FREE. I recommend downloading simply because it is free and trying it out, chances are it will do everything you need it to do. Realistically the stuff that Photoshop has that GIMP lacks is more for advanced users anyway. There are parts of GIMP that aren't very user friendly or just outright backwards if you're used to Photoshop but the price kinda makes up for that ;)

Pros: Its FREE, full featured, and has an abundance of free tutorials and books online
Cons: Steep learning curve, not user friendly in some instances, awkward if you're used to Photoshop

Picasa a FREE program made by Google

I'm a huge fan of FREE and often recommend this program. It's no Photoshop when it comes to features but it is very user friendly and covers all the basics like cropping, resizing, exposure correction, and some nifty filters for spiffing up your photos. Picasa also acts as a photo manager for organizing your pics and has other handy features like "email" that will re-size your photo and automatically place them in a new email for you to send (supports outlook, gmail, and a few others). Personally I don't like the photomanager portion of it but that's just me.

Pros: It's FREE, covers most if not all of the “basics”, allows for fun projects like collages and slideshows
Cons: Due to its easy to use nature more serious photographers may not like the lack of complete control.

Adobe Lightroom ($369.95)

It takes its name from the film days where photographer's would view their negatives on a light table etc. Essentially it is a workflow tool for organizing your photos and is also a feature rich "digital darkroom". It gives you a plethora of controls for developing your photos and most "pros" use this to import & tweak their images before editing them in Photoshop. This isn't really a tool for beginners but if you're shooting in RAW already you might want to look into it.

Pros: Its fast becoming the industry standard for workflow and photo management, offers finer development control and Photoshop, great for processing RAW files
Cons: Price, Semi-steep learning curve, really meant for serious photographers

Everyone photographer should have a pocket camera...

2010-04-09T03:20:00.000-06:00

Altoids, the curiously strong (and cheap) camera case!!!

It doesn't matter if you have a billion-pixel-best camera in the world-uber-DSLR hopped up on steroids it won't amount to jack squat if you don't have it with you when you need to take a shot. A few times now I've had my shots or videos used in the news simply because I was the only one present with a camera, the shots were not always the best quality but they were often the only ones available. In one instance there was a large accident near where I work, photos I took were used by the local newspaper in an online story and the video was used by a few local stations. One day at work we had some stray moose wander into our parking lot and once again I had some of my footage make it onto the news. Last winter during a -40º C cold snap a spur of the moment experiment let to a video that ended up being used province wide of water freezing before it hit the ground. They played it throughout the winter whenever there was a cold snap ;)

Point and shoot cameras are sometimes looked down upon by us "serious" photographers but there is still a place for them for multiple reasons, the main one being size and portability. Another key advantage is that they don't attract a lot of attention, something very handy for street photography or events where "professional cameras" aren't allowed. A few years back when I visited China I accidentally left my point and shoot back here in Canada. I was so envious of my fellow travellers as they popped candid street photos while I had everyone shying away from the business end of my monstrous 40D. When I first purchased my G10 I read an article of a man who had to cover a university's championship baseball team's trip to the white house, his G10 slipped under the radar because it wasn't an SLR. [On a side note that last link is an interesting read since he accidently snapped his SD card in half whilst trying to dump the shots]

My current camera "family" is like the 3 little bears story, my SD780IS is the baby, my G10 is the middle one, and my 5DMKII is the big one. In this story however the "middle" one isn't necessarily the right one. Each have their place and for this post I'm going to focus on the SD780IS and the G10.

I'll admit I'm a bit biased towards Canon personally but even if you're a die hard fan of brand X it doesn't really matter when it comes to point and shoot cameras. Its not like the SLR world where you have hundreds or thousands of dollars invested in glass that's keeping you loyal to a specific manufacturer. Some of the Nikon cameras coming out are becoming tempting, likewise Pentax has some cool water and weatherproof point and shoots and Panasonic's Lumix series is quite good as well.

Getting the most out of your tiny camera.
CHKD is one of the biggest reasons I'm still going back to Canon for my tiny camera "fix". If you haven't heard of it I recommend clicking the link. Basically its what is referred to as a "firmware extension" that unlocks tons of control in your point and shoot giving you SLR-like features. Shutter speed, aperture, ISO, custom bracketing and even RAW! Using the shutter overrides some people have claimed insanely fast shutter speeds above 1/20000th of a second. But the fun doesn't stop there, you can even run scripts on your camera like a motion detection script that some have used to capture lightning, or an intervalometer script to take cool time-lapse shots. These clever MIT students used a cheap Canon A470 running CHDK to take pictures in SPACE!

Perhaps you're a photographer who is just starting out, say you want to get into using some off camera flash ala strobist well if you're running CHDK you can set your on-camera flash to manual to avoid that nasty pre-flash that is preventing you from using those cheap optical slaves. This summer I'm planning on doing a fashion shoot using only my SD780IS just to prove it can be done. If/when that happens I'll post the results here.

Know your limits, then bend or break them
The image quality of a point and shoot may not rival a full frame SLR but if you wield it correctly and know your limitations amazing things can still be done with these cameras.

Generally the really tiny cameras (like the Canon Elph series) all suffer from the same thing, a small sensor and small optics. The very thing that makes them so nice and portable is their biggest downfall. Small sensors don't work well with low light situations or tolerate high ISO's very well. The small lenses they come with often suffer from barrel distortion and pincushion distortion when they are either zoomed all the way in or all the way out. While the lowlight issues can't always be avoided the optical distortion caused by small lenses can be easily corrected using software like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom.

One of the frequently overlooked issues with point and shoot cameras that is getting worse with every generation is the mega-pixel race, every year they're cramming more and more photosites into the same size sensor. In more than a few instances its been proven that older version of the same cameras that are lower MP actually produce better images.

For the most part the image quality of most point and shoots aren't going to win any awards but what I told you this doesn't have to be the case? Well one way is to take a bunch of pictures then stitch them into one huge picture. Essentially you fake a large sensor. Confused? Let me explain. Say your point and shoot at full resolution and highest quality takes a really sharp 5x7 but once you start to blow it up to 8x10 or 11x14 it starts to look poor. Now take that same subject but zoom way in (optical zoom only) and take 20 pictures to cover the same area. Now since each of your photos have enough resolution to make great 5x7's when you stitch them together with some software like this you'll have a very large shot that looks sharp. The shot below is an example of trying this technique out, it was taken using a piddly 3.2MP Canon SD200. It was made up of about 50 individual photos and I later printed it sharply at 16x20!

What about the middle road?
Ok some of you may say those little cameras are too tiny, I want something a little beefier. No problem, the Canon G series, the Nikon P600, or the Panasonic Lumix LX3 among others might be right up your alley. All 3 bring SLR-like control to the table, are still pocketable (mostly) and have. Once again I'm biased towards the G10 but this time it is attachment based in that I can use my 580EXII on it. That being said the other two have some nice perks of their own, the P600 for example has built in GPS for automatic geotagging and the Panasonic will do HD video. All 3 still suffer a little from the smaller sensors with respect to ISO noise (try to keep it below 200) but the G10 at least in good light could give some dSLR's a run for their money.

I'm not sure about the Nikon or the Panasonic but the G10 has one huge ace up its sleeve, amazingly high speed sync. Using a wired connection the G10 can sync a flash up to 1/4000th of a second thanks to its electronic shutter. This feat can let you do some pretty amazing things like overpowering the midday sun. There are two ways to do this, either use a very high power strobes full blast like an AB1600 or White Lightning 1800 and crank your aperture up to f16 or higher, or use a few speedlights at low power at a very fast shutter speed.

In conclusion
Don't dismiss these diminutive cameras, keep one in your shirt pocket and keep these tips in mind:

When possible avoid low light situations
Try to keep the ISO below 200
Use the low key nature to your advantage (street photography, concerts etc)
Get large sharp images by taking a bunch of smaller ones and stitch them together
Use the features unique to smaller cameras like the electronic shutter to you advantage
Take advantage of the video feature, most point and shoots are near camcorder quality and newer models are

Softbox Umbrellas from Steve Kaeser

2010-04-07T23:11:00.001-06:00

Two 40" softbox umbrellas from www.skaeser.com

I picked these up a little while ago and have been meaning to write a review for a while but haven't had a chance.

I'll start by saying that I love softboxes, especially ones that I can use my speedlights in. Last summer (or was it the summer before?) I took the plunge and picked up the 28" Westcott Apollo softbox for speedlights after watching the Onelight Workshop DVD. Since then I've almost totally abandoned my umbrellas ;)

Obviously I was quite stoked to come across these softbox umbrellas while surfing the web, at the time of purchase you could get 2 for a measly $29.95 on sale. Unfortunately their site only listed UPS for shipping and living in Canada I've been gouged all too often by UPS's exorbitant brokerage fees. I decided to email the company and see if they'd ship USPS instead, to my delight they said they would and they sent me an invoice. They wanted$25 for USPS shipping ($5 less than UPS) and while I thought that was a little steep for a $30 item I realized the box was probably oversized so there wasn't much I could do. Fast forward a few weeks and UPS knocks on my door, no that was not a typo they still shipped UPS! I ended up getting charged another $20 for brokerage even though I went out of my way to get a USPS quote! So now I've paid $45 for shipping on a $30 item. Not pleased with this I emailed the company and have yet to get a response (about a month ago at time of writing). Thats the end of my rant, I'll get on with my review and sample images now. I just couldn't in good conscience write a review of this product without explaining some of the extenuating circumstances.

On with the review!

Shot with a 580EXII in Steve Kaeser Softbox Umbrella

The umbrellas came with nice carrying bags for the umbrellas, an extra that I wasn't really expecting for such a low priced item. My next surprise was the build quality which was in fact quite good! I've bought some cheap umbrellas in the past and regretted it when they nearly fell apart in my hands, these however I see sticking around for quite some time.

I couldn't wait to test them out so I arranged a quick test shoot with a girl I had actually just done a shoot with the week prior. Like the previous shoot we just did it in her apartment using a nice large section of blank white wall as a backdrop. Since the area we were shooting in was relatively small I opted to just use a single softbox umbrella.

Initial impressions:
Right off the bat I noticed that there was a lot more spill with these than with my Westcott Apollo, I'm not sure if it was due to the larger surface area or the fact that the Steve Kaeser boxes don't have a recessed panel like the Apollo. If you put a gun to my head I'd say it was probably the lack of recessed panel. This does limit you a little if you're working in a small environment but its definitely not a dealbreaker.

One thing I had read on some forums was that light distribution was not equal across the whole umbrella. I really didn't find this to be that much of an issue, if there was a hotspot at the center I didn't notice it very much at all. I found the quality of light to be on par with my Westcott. As you can see from the shots my 580EXII didn't seem to have any problems filling the softbox.

I've yet to try them out with my studio strobes but would imagine they would work pretty well. I would imagine the region blocked by the head might be a little darker but I'd have to see whether it is negligible or not. The nice thing is that you don't have to go out and buy a specific speedring to use them with your equipment.

The breakdown:

Pros:

Cheap (provided you don't have the shipping hassles I did)
Well built
Fairly even light (some sticklers might disaggree)
Versatile in that either speedlights or monoblocks can be used

Cons:

Diffusion panel is not recessed and results in spill
Diffusion panel is not removable for cleaning etc

Conclusion:
For the price you'd be crazy not to have at least one f these in your bag. They're as small and portable as a regular umbrella yet give you the effects of a softbox. I still like my Westcott better but when you think you could get 8 of these for the same price I'd say start with a set of these instead.

Improvements:
If there were ever a rev 2.0 made I'd suggest making this unit convertible so it could be used as a shoot through as well, if they also made the diffusion panel removable it could then also be used as a reflective umbrella making it one of the most versatile pieces of gear ever!

A few parting shots ;)

Abandoning PC Sync for 1/8" stereo jacks

2010-03-21T17:51:00.000-06:00

After reading David Hobby's recent post regarding his dislike for the antiquated PC Sync socket I sat laughing and saying to myself I couldn't agree more. This poorly designed connector has been around since the 1930's, it doesn't lock in place, and they wear out quickly. If you're unfortunate enough to break one or wear it out to the point it is unusable its next to impossible to find a replacement socket. I've worked in the electronics field for nearly a decade now and pride myself on being able to source obscure parts yet I still can't find a decent source for these.

Anywho as Mr.Strobist himself said its time for the PC Jack To DIE!

I recently picked up some new (to me anyway) White Lightning studio strobes which came with some rather well used cords, one of which was completely ready for retirement. I decided to just make some new cords but thought I'd improve the design. The existing cord was a 1/4" mono jack to a PC sync jack, I opted to make a new set but replace the PC sync end with a readily available 1/8" stereo jack instead.

In for a penny, in for a pound I decided to convert most of the rest of my equipment to 1/8" as well. When you're out shooting a gig the last thing you want is unreliable equipment and to me anything that is connected via PC sync cables is unreliable.

First up is my PT04-TM "poverty wizard" wireless triggers. These were nice and easy to mod because there is quite a lot of room inside. I didn't have any 1/8" sockets lying around but I did happen to have some stereo "Y" adapters that I could part with so I hacked them up.

If you're going to attempt something similar I'd advise you make note of the polarity, some devices work fine either way but I know my triggers are polarity sensitive. Inside the PT04-TM receiver the wire going to the center pin of the hotshoe is positive the the one going to the collar is negative. On the 1/8" jacks the tip is positive and the sleeve is negative. In my case I used stereo jacks because that is all I had lying around so I just tied the ring and sleeve together to make it mono. The photo at the top of the article shows the almost finished product, later I added epoxy where the wire entered the case of the receiver. This ensured the wire couldn't accidentally get yanked out and tear a bunch of the wiring.

Closeup of 1/8" socket mod of the PT04-TM receiver

Here is a zoomed in photo of the internal wiring, these particular PT04-TM receivers already had a PC Sync mod done to them when I got them. The heat shrink on the cables wasn't crucial but its better to play it safe when possible.

Next up was my hotshoe-to-pc sync adapter (shown in top picture), for this one I rummaged around until I found an old Sony Walkman I had lying around and gutted it for the 1/8" headphone socket. Normally I would have just went to one of the local electronic supply companies but it was the weekend and I couldn't bring myself to pay 5 times as much at Radioshack. Luckily the adapter was one of the larger ones so there was ample room inside to fit the socket, unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the internals. The process is the same anyway, center pin is positive and collar is negative.

Two Seagul SYK-3's modded with bypass switches and 1/8" sockets

The final gear to mod were two optical slaves I had purchased here for dirt cheap, when I picked them up I had this mod in mind since they're the cheapest hotshoe housing I could find ($5.55) with the added bonus of being optical slaves. The only issue is that I needed to add a switch to turn off or on the optical slave part. I could have just placed a piece of electrical tape over the sensor eye to disable it however I needed to electrically disconnect the slave circuit if I wanted to use this on my 580EXII. For some reason the 580EXII doesn't like cheap optical slaves and will only fire once, the flash then has to be turned off and on again before it will fire again.

I've finally cast off the shackles of the PC sync socket, all that lay before me is reliability and reasonably priced cables ;)

On a side note I picked up some sweet cases from Don's Photo in Saskatoon, these were in the bargain bin for around $10. They come with customizable foam and are rock solid little cases. I was tired of my triggers getting banged around in my bag so I thought I'd protect them a little.

My PT04-TM's and a few odds & ends housed in a Vanguard Swing 8 hard case.

Hopefully if we shout loud enough about how much the PC sync connector sucks the manufacturers will finally start to include 1/8" sockets in their products. Heck even a mini 2.5mm socket like most cell phones have would be fine, as long as its a connector that is abundantly available. Now if only everything would start using mini-usb connections for charging ports...

Guide to getting into off-camera lighting

2010-01-25T23:24:00.003-06:00

**Originally written for the camera club at my work**

So you took the plunge and bought a digital SLR, you've been having fun shooting in available light but you want to start playing around with studio lighting, this is your poor man's guide to getting started. If you're not poor you may want to look into starter studio lighting kits (starting around $600-$700) however this guide only covers speedlights which are cheaper and more portable & versatile than a full studio setup.

Requirements:
Camera with a hotshoe or PC Sync socket
Internet Connection (optional but you'll want to be doing lots of reading)
Budget:$100-400 depending on how far you want to go

1) Flash - $50 and up depending. You'll need a flash to start off with, we'll be using them like studio strobes so we don't need the fancy "auto ttl" style that cost big $$ (I made the mistake of buying the fancy ones and I never use any of those features). Look on ebay or kijiji for older flashes, it doesn't matter which brand because we'll be triggering them wirelessly. I snagged two Nikon SB-26's off kijiji for $100 each which was a good price, I wish I would have just bought these instead of my fancy ones and saved hundreds of dollars. Make sure that have the following features:

Manual power settings - most are adjustable from 1/1 (full power) down to 1/64th or 1/128th in 1/2 or 1/3 F-stop increments
Adjustable head that tilts and pan
PC Sync Socket – Not completely necessary but a very handy feature to have
A standard hotshoe - Some older Vivitar flashes as well as others have an oddball hotshoe that require an adapter to fit in a normal hotshoe, its best to simply avoid these ones.
TTL trigger voltage -ie 5 or 6V, anything below 12V or so should be safe. Some older flashes can be up to 600V and can fry equipment so never use older flashes directly on your camera. You can check this with a volt meter by charging the flash to fire (set it to the lowest power incase you get zapped) then use the DC setting on the meter to check between the side pin and the center pin. Its kinda hard to describe in text, hopefully this picture makes it clearer. If you're buying on ebay make sure to ask about the trigger voltage if it is not listed, don't risk buying it if you can't be sure. If you're buying it off of kijiji then bring some batteries and a meter along to test it out yourself

Some suggestions on decent older flashes to look for would be Nikon SB-26's or 28's (Nikon flashes are great because they have built in optical slave triggers*), Canon 540EZ, Vivitar 285 (be careful as older model 285's have high trigger voltages). If you want to buy new flashes but don't want to break the bank checkout www.bhphotovideo.com and look at 3rd party brands like Bower or Nissin, $150 will get you a Nissin that is comparable to a $600 Canon EXII and still has all the ETTL-II auto features. *More about Optical Slaves in the next section Triggering Options

2) Triggering Options – Prices vary

Alright so now you have a flash but still no way to trigger it remotely, there are a few options that can be done cheaply:

Wireless triggers – Starting at $20-30

This is the method I'd recommend hands down. The “gold standard” in photography for triggers are Pocket Wizards but they cost around $300 for each transceiver and you need at least 2 to start. Lucky for us our friends in China have made affordable versions for $20-$30 a pair (includes transmitter and receiver). The triggers I recommend are the PT-04 model, some manufacturer makes these and various companies put their logo on them (YongNuo, Jiansi etc). At the time of writing this article you can pick up three (as show in the image below) for $34.99USD with free shipping on ebay. People sometimes jokingly refer to these triggers as “Poverty Wizards”, some say that they're not as reliable as their pricey alternative but I've never had any issues. I have 4 sets and I use them on professional jobs without any worries, I normally only use 2 at a time and the other 2 are backups. With a bit of modification you can even extend the range by adding an antenna to the transmitter although even un-modded you'll get 50-100ft.

Pros:

Cheap, no wires, flashes aren't likely to get accidentally triggered by other photographers, does not need line-of-sight.

Cons:

The cheap “poverty wizards” may have quality issues (though I haven't experience it), batteries will eventually need replacing (but last over a year at least)– AAA's in the receiver are easy to find but the transmitter takes 23A 12V which are harder to find – Here's a link to a 5-pack for $3.48USD http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.475

Optical Slaves
I mentioned optical slaves earlier, some flashes come with built in optical slaves but you can also buy little adapters. This is a very cheap method of firing flashes off-camera however they have some big problems with digital cameras!! These triggers were great back in the days before digital however the new flash systems do not work well with them. The reason the flashes on new cameras fire a pre-flash before the main burst of light, this pre-flash lets the camera's sensor determine the proper power required for a good exposure. If you're trying to trigger the slave with your camera's built in flash the pre-flash will trip the slave and by the time the main burst comes the slaved flash will have already fired.

There are ways around this however. Buy a specially designed optical slave which accounts for this (Wein Digital Peanut) for around $100, OR the cheaper route is to trigger it with another flash that is in manual mode and therefore will not emit this pre-flash. Often I'll use only one wireless trigger on my Canon 580EXII and use it to trigger my Nikon SB26's which I've set to slave mode.

Pros:

Wireless, No batteries (for the basic ones, not sure about the advanced ones), very simple

Cons:

Doesn't play nice with digital flashes using ETTL (pre-flash), needs line-of-sight, will be triggered by any other flashes present (ie other photographers in the area)

PC Sync cables (oldschool)

$5 or less for very short cheap ones to $50+ for longer brand name ones

Last on the list is the wired solution. Its not a bad idea to have a few of these cables around as a last resort but I wouldn't suggest using them as your primary means of firing your flash. The cables aren't that cheap (even though they should be) and the connector they use is very poorly designed, I don't know why its even still around when a simple headphone jack would work better and is abundant. These cables have a lifespan and become intermittent over time, the connector doesn't lock in place so they often slip out. All in all the worst of the options.

* I'd still recommend buying a few short PC sync cables especially if you get the PT-04 wireless triggers that have the socket, as crappy as they are they can still save your a$$ is a pinch ;)

Pros:

Simple and straightforward

Cons:

Not really that cheap especially for longer cables, connections deteriorate over time and become intermittent, connection is not secure and can fall out while shooting.

3) Light Stands & Adapters

Now that you have a flash or flashes and can trigger them remotely you'll need to put them on something. Investing in at least one proper light stand is recommended but cheap tripods can fill in as well depending on your needs. If you're wanting to special softboxes etc a light stand is the way to go but if you just want to mount the flash or even add an umbrella or two a tripod will suffice. Places like XS cargo or the various liquidation centers often have tripods for around $20. With that said you can find cheap ones at www.bhphotovideo.com starting at $20 USD + S&H as well. Cheap swivels can be found for ~$10 each online, “normal” ones are about $30 each. Post adapters like the 1/4” receiver can actually be pretty pricey so just try to buy a swivel that comes with one ;)

Shown here is an umbrella mounted on a tripod using an umbrella swivel. Note that if you are using a PT-04 wireless trigger it will add more height to the flash and it won't hit the center of the umbrella, this is where a small PC Sync cable between the receiver and flash comes in very handy.

4)Basic Light Modifiers (Umbrellas, Softboxes, Grids, Snoots, “Stoffen”etc)

If you're getting into off camera flash chances are the look you're going for isn't going to be produced with just a bare flash. Flashes emit light from a small source which means harsh shadows. The sun is a small point of light high up in the sky and you see how harsh mid-day shadows can be however on overcast days the whole sky becomes the light source because the clouds are “diffusing” the light. The most common light modifiers are trying to do the same thing, turn a small light source into a larger one.

Umbrellas – Starting around $10 and going way up from there depending on brand/size/type

These are one of the most common and most basic light modifiers, they are simple and they work well.

They come in a few different flavours: Reflective, Shoot-thru, and Reversible

Reflective umbrellas are normally white on the inside and black on the other side, you shoot the flash into them and use the reflected light.
Shoot-thru is just how it sounds, you shoot the light through the umbrella.
Reversible umbrellas are basically a hybrid, they have a covering that can be removed so they can work as reflective or shoot-thru

Softboxes – Starting around $100 and going way up from there depending on brand/size/type

These are similar to umbrellas but give a slightly more even light, in addition they are more directional so you have finer control to avoid spill. If you're shooting with speedlights (ie flashes that are designed to mount onto your camera's hot shoe) your best bet for a softbox would be the 28” Apollo from B&H for $114USD. If you plan on getting one there are two items that B&H sells, for reasons unknown to me one item is cheaper AND it comes with an umbrella swivel for mounting your flash. Look for B&H item #WEASLK

Grids, Snoots, and Gridded Snoots ;)

These modifiers are used for restricting light, they're used various circumstances like back/edge lighting where you want to light up just the back of a person's hair without having the flash produce glare in your lens from spill. Other uses are for lighting backdrops behind a subject to create a spherical gradient. Basically any time you want to light a specific area without having light spill into other regions you'll be reaching for one of these. If you're the crafty type these can be easily made from commonly available items (hint use this as an excuse to go to your local pub to find black straws).

Stoffen aka Omnibounce

Stoffen is actually a company but just like “Kleenex” its become synonymous with this light modifier. For a simple piece of plastic the actual Stoffen Omnibounce is ridiculously over priced, you can find knockoffs that will do just as well or you can find ways to make your own by searching online. If you do buy a knockoff make sure you get the proper one for your flash as they are shaped differently depending on the brand and model.

These are used to simulate a “bare bulb” flash, they produce close to a 360°x360° light source. It is best used in smaller rooms where it bounces around off walls and ceilings to illuminate the whole room. Often you'll see paparazzi and journalists using them in completely the wrong way ;) They'll use them outside where there is nothing to bounce the light off of, in this instance they are just wasting 2-3 stops of light and overworking their flashes.

5)Resources for learning to light better

Having all of this gear means nothing if you don't know what to do with it, in this section I'll outline some great on-line resources for learning how to light.

www.strobist.com

A blog created by former newspaper photographer David Hobby, a few years ago he quit his day job to try his hand at blogging and now has one of the most visited websites for photographers on the internet. To say this site is a goldmine of knowledge is an understatement, David has been kind enough to create FREE course material. TheI suggest starting with his Lighting 101 series and going from there. The lighting 101 material starts off essentially where this guide does, with the equipment you'll need. From there it goes on to cover lighting basics onward to more advanced techniques. Thousands of people have got their start in lighting by visiting this blog.

Strobist DVD Semimar: If you can afford it (or if you can find someone willing to lend you a copy) this 8 DVD set covers all of the Lighting 101 information. If you find the online written material hard to follow then this DVD will help a lot by showing you visually.

Strobist on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/) With nearly 70,000 members the strobist group on flickr is a very active ~~cult~~ community of fellow lighting enthusiasts. The group showcases other strobists work, mostly as they progess through the various assignments on the

strobist material, all shots posted are required to include information (settings) on how they took the shots so its a great place to learn and be inspired. There is also a discussion portion where topics range from troubleshooting equipment to “how would you edit this photo” to building your own DIY gear. Everyone is eager to help and seem nice enough (unlike a lot of other online forums) so if you get stuck along the way to learning how to light like a pro you should stop by here and get some help.

Onelight DVD Seminar (www.onelightworkshop.com) by Zach Arias

Inline with the strobist “movement” Zach has put together a 2 disc seminar that follows him through various types of location shoots while explaining lighting concepts. He got his start shooting bands in Atlanta and one day decided to quit his job at Kinkos to got at it full force, the gamble paid off in spades. This seminar doesn't “hold your hand” as much as the Strobist dvds but it has a higher energy to it and he does shoots that are more exciting. Definitely worth a watch if you can afford it or can borrow a copy from someone who has it.

Zach also has an online blog that is worth checking out at www.zarias.com

www.diyphotography.net

This is a neat little website (or blog rather??) that collects tidbits of great info from around the net. Normally geared towards making your own gear on the cheap this site is worth checking out periodically to see whats new in the DIY world.

Go Go Gadgets On The Go

2009-11-15T15:49:00.000-06:00

I've got a few pieces of gear to share with you that I'm starting to find invaluable, they are all small and easily portable and meant for use on the go.

The main item I wanted to discuss is my new eeePC netbook, its been a few weeks now and I'm convinced that nobody should be without one least of all photographers packing light.

eeePC

When I first heard about the miniaturized laptop movement (OLPC, uMPC, eeePC etc) a lot of people were saying they were severely underpowered and for the price you could get a decent laptop for $100 more. Because of this I kept my distance but decided I'd check in on the technology once in awhile. A few weeks ago I finally took the plunge, my b-day was around the corner and I figured I'd treat myself with a netbook.

I settled on the ASUS eeePC 1005HA model, it seemed to have enough oomph to do basic tasks and have a long enough battery life to get me through any typical shooting jobs. After having it for awhile now I find I underestimated both the power and the battery life (although admittedly I did upgrade to 2GB of RAM). I've had laptops before and they did their jobs however I often hated lugging around all the power adapters etc. Battery life on most laptops was about 2-3hrs but I never trusted that and found myself never bringing it anywhere that I couldn't plug it in anyway. The netbook however gives me 6hrs + of constant heavy use and 8-10hrs of light use and standby, I've yet to even have a low battery warning pop up.

Far from being underpowered I find myself running all sorts of programs on this machine, even crunching through 200MB+ psd files in Photoshop. I just finished a series of art prints that I made almost entirely on the netbook, from vectorizing them in Inkscape to layering/blending/compositing them in PS.

I'm always working on a project of some sort and this netbook lets me take my work wherever I want to go, from whipping up a 3D model in Sketchup to making a quick poster for a friend's charity event in Gimp I have the tools to do it wherever I take my netbook.

For even more versatility I installed Ubuntu 9.04 through Wubi which is an installer that lets you install Linux as if it were a regular program in Windows (good for newbs like me). Provided you have a wired internet connection to start with getting the rest of the eeePC specific drivers and bells & whistles installed was easy, I followed most of this guy's post on how to do it. His article is for installing it as the main OS instead of dual boot which the install through Wubi creates. Also he is using the netbook remix edition of Ubuntu. He lists all of the packages you need to install though to get the wifi working and all the function keys etc, just type them into Synaptic and you'll be good to go.

Here is what makes it great for photographers:

Portable Storage - Use it on location to dump memory cards, even if you have enough cards to handle your shoot it still provides a level of redundancy in case a card fails or you accidentally delete the contents.
Impromptu Slideshow - Showing your client/model/customer the shots you've just taken on the back of your camera is often cumbersome and doesn't give them a good view, use the netbook instead to give them a better show.
Image Editing - While it isn't quite a desktop replacement you can still do quite a bit of editing on this machine. Sometimes doing a quick edit to show the client your concept and make sure you're on the same page can save you wasted time later in post.
Internet Access - This assumes you have an available wifi access point, you can upload shots to say Flickr or Picasa etc shortly after you take them or post them on your blog.

iTouch/iPhone
The next piece of gear I wanted to share was a device that almost nobody has heard about ;) Ok fine so they're ridiculously popular, so popular in fact I actually avoided upgrading my 60GB ipod photo purely because I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon. I was foolish to fight progress, the iTouch I picked up is a very versatile piece of gear. Its like a mini computer really, the web browsers I've used on small devices previously (pda's, Sony PSP, etc) were frustrating to use and very slow. The iTouch/iPhone browser experience is lightyears ahead of those and its fairly speedy too, all that remains is for apple to pull their heads out of their a$$es and allow flash to work on them.

Here's what makes it great for photographers.

Portfolio in your pocket - Whether you're just showing friends your latest photoshoot or pitching yourself to a prospective client it is handy to have your entire portfolio at your fingertips.
Apps galore - While most of the photography apps in the store are geared towards gimicky effects for the iPhone's camera there are some that can be used for serious photographers. Some are simple calculators for Depth Of Field (DOF), some simply tell you sunrise and sunset times by your location, others give suggestions for shooting in certain situations (neon lights, campfire, lightning, aurora etc) but some like the dSLR remote lets you control your camera remotely and even see through the viewfinder (only on certain models).
Portable inspiration - When browsing the interwebs keep a folder of photos you find inspiring or of shots you'd like to try, then dump them periodically to your ipod. This is also handy for keeping an album of poses if you're shooting people, often times I'll draw a blank mid-shoot on how to pose the subject only to realize afterwards that I should have tried "this angle" or "done that instead".
Maps* - Running late and can't find the location you're supposed to be shooting at? There's an app for that ;) Google maps can be very handy in this instance, this summer while on a roadtrip to BC our car overheated and thanks to the ipod we found a VW dealer only 1.5 kM from where we were. *This assumes you have wifi (or a data plan on the iPhone).
Scout Locations (Using iPhone Camera) - See an interesting alleyway or perhaps an alluring spiral staircase that you want to come back to for a shoot? Take a snap of it. Some software even lets you geotag the location so you can even get directions back to where you took the photo.

Digimate III portable HDD and card dumper
This device made the list because of its potential, I truly haven't reached the point of not being able to live without it. Long story short the one I received had some bent pins in the CF card slot so I'm in the process of getting a replacement. Hopefully that doesn't scare you off though, this is the first incident I've had like this in many many orders from this company so they're track record is still good!!!

Essentially this device is an enclosure for a 2.5" laptop hard drive, however unlike most of its kind this one had built in card readers and a chip that lets you plug in a memory card and copy its contents to the hard drive. I really can't believe there aren't more products like it out there, the ones that do exist are often so overpriced they go extinct quickly due to lack of sales.

I was able to test out the one I received using other memory card slots however and found it to work very well, transfer speeds while not blazing fast were more than sufficient.

This device is really just a shell, you need to still purchase a hard drive to stick into it. The price of drives comes down daily so for as little as $50 you can buy a 250GB sata drive. On that note I should point out that there are 2 versions of this item, one for SATA drives and one for IDE drives. IDE drives are starting to reach the end of their lifecycle and are therefore become more expensive than the more abundant SATA drives. Unfortunately I didn't realize there was a SATA version when I ordered mine so I was stuck with IDE and a 160GB size limitation.

I'll try to post a followup on this device once I get my replacement. I can't see myself using it every day (except maybe as just a portable HDD) but I can see it being a great companion while travelling and for an extra layer of redunancy during photoshoots. One final thing to note however, this device requires the HDD to be formatted as FAT32 which is something that Windows has issues with. Windows will limit you to a max of 32GB partition size which can be annoying. You'll need to use a third party software program to format the drive, I used GParted in Ubuntu as a quick method but plenty of tools exist for Windows environments too.

Why it's great for photographers:

Large storgage - Even if you get the IDE version which is limited to 160GB thats still a ton of shots. I carry two 16GB cards when shooting RAW with my 5DMKII and don't often worry about space, this would be like having 10 cards.
PC Free Transfers - If you're like me you already have enough gear to lug around, being able to travel without a pc (even a netbook) will cut your weight down a lot.
Extra Redunancy - Even if you have tons of memory cards and don't require the extra space its still a good idea not to keep all your eggs in one basket. Dumping the cards to this device will help protect you against accidental data loss.

Photo Archiving Pt 1 - Learn along with me

2009-09-15T01:01:00.000-06:00

There is a word that can make almost any photographer cringe... "archiving" or alternatively "backups". It just seems like one big Monday, lots of tedious repeditive work thats boring. Well all it takes is one harddrive crash and you'll realize just how important it all is. I've been lucky so far (knock on wood) in that I haven't had any HDDs fail but a few friends have recently experienced it and that was enough to light a fire under my butt.

This post may turn out to be a series, at least thats my current intent. As I go about backing up and archiving I'll share with you what I've learned in hopes that it saves you time. Everyone has different needs so what I do may not work for you.

First things first, what types of backups are available.

1) CD's and DVD's
2) Harddrives (HDD)
3) Online

I have over 400GB of photos and now that I'm slinging a 5DMKII each trigger press means a 30MB+ RAW file. CD's and DVD's aren't going to cut it except for maybe the finished edits from each shoot. Harddrives are getting cheaper by the minute, a 1TB drive is around $100 right now, this will definitely be one of the options I go with. Online backups, this is a viable option but it depends how much you shoot and how much you're willing to spend on storage space. Another downside is that its one of the slowest of the 3 methods since most service providers limit upload speeds.

Conclusion: A nice mix of all 3.
After I'm done editing a shoot I'll burn DVD copies of the top pics as well as upload them to my flickr pro account (full size of course). I'll use HDDs for the main backup possibly in a RAID 1 configuration or multiple external HDDs that all contain the same data incase one fails. We'll go more indepth into this later.

Staying Organized
This is the most important aspect of archiving, I'm no saint when it comes to this but I'm turning over a new leaf ;) Last week I had my photos scattered across 5 harddrives, some internal and some external, none in what any sane person could all an organized fashion. I've spent the last 3 or 4 days, a few hours at a time, copying them all to a 1TB external drive.

First I created folders on the 1TB drive to classify the photos in the root of the drive

People
Places
Personal

From there I can make more specific folders
People
>Modelling
>Family Portraits
>Weddings

Places
>Travel
>Nature
>Animals
>Urban

Personal
>Family
>Parties
>Other

These are just examples, I may change or add or remove folders and sub-folders as I see fit. The point is there is rhyme and reason to the folder layout. Keep the sub-folders fairly generalized or else you'll just end up with another maze of folders to navigate through.

Importing your photos properly
Taking a little extra time when you're dumping your memory card will save you lots of time later. If you're not already using some form of photo management software its time that you started. I highly recommend Adobe Lightroom 2 but another (and free) alternative is Google's Picasa. Both will catalogue your photos and give you options when importing. Both programs have the ability to detect when you plug in a memory card and will ask you if you want to import. Choose the appropriate folder to import to and name the folder with a descriptive title like "Crooked trees with Sarah", then be sure to add keywords that will help you search out the photo later. For example my the previously mentioned import was a modelling portfolio shoot I did out at the crooked trees so I keyworded it as follows: people, modelling, fashion, portrait, female, girl, location shoot, crooked trees, trees, 40D, autumn, fall. With these tags I should easily be able to search my catalogue and find them quickly by only entering one or two of those keywords in my search. Another option during importing is to replace the generic "Image_001.jpg" filenames with something more descriptive. Again in this case I might use "Crooked Trees Sarah" as my prefix so that my files come out Crooked Trees Sara 001.jpg, Crooked Trees Sarah 002.jpg etc.

Off-site Backups
Another thing I should note is the importance of an off-site backups. You never know when disaster could strike and either your house gets broken into or you have a house fire or flood etc. This is where backup option #3 the online backup is handy but most of the time you don't have all of your photos online. When you're burning off a DVD take another 10 minutes and burn a second one off to store at your parents place or in a safety deposit box at the bank. The same can be done with a second external HDD, the only issue with this is having to go pick it up periodically and update the new files on it. It all comes down to that cliche of "don't put all your eggs in one basket".

A quick note on HDDs and RAID
I'm ashamed to admit, being a tech and all, that I didn't really keep up to date with what exactly RAID is. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Discs

There are various RAID configurations, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia

RAID 0 (striped disks) distributes data across several disks in a way that gives improved speed at any given instant. If one disk fails, however, all of the data on the array will be lost, as there is neither parity nor mirroring.
RAID 1 mirrors the contents of the disks, making a form of 1:1 ratio realtime backup. The contents of each disk in the array are identical to that of every other disk in the array.
RAID 5 (striped disks with parity) combines three or more disks in a way that protects data against loss of any one disk. The storage capacity of the array is reduced by one disk.
RAID 6 (striped disks with dual parity) combines four or more disks in a way that protects data against loss of any two disks.
RAID 10 (or 1+0) uses both striping and mirroring. "01" or "0+1" is sometimes distinguished from "10" or "1+0": a striped set of mirrored subsets and a mirrored set of striped subsets are both valid, but distinct, configurations.

The most common ones you'll probably see is RAID 0 & 1 and possibly 5. RAID 0 is useless to us and I'd actually recommend everyone stay away from it period, basically it makes 2 HDDs into one big one, the problem is that if either HDD fails ALL the data is lost!

For us either RAID 1 or RAID 5 is what we need, with RAID 1 you essentially have two mirrored HDD's that can be used to repair or recover the other HDD in the event that it fails or becomes corrupted. With RAID 5 its similar to RAID 1 except it uses 3 or more HDD's and protects against any 1 failing.

Redundancy costs money, for the HDDs it'll cost you double since you need twice the space. To have 1TB with a RAID 1 setup you'll need to buy two 1TB drives. You'll also need special hardware to manage the RAID setup, either a RAID controller in your PC or an external HDD enclosure that has a RAID controller built in. These are not cheap. As I write this the cost to put together an external HDD enclosure with two 1TB HDDs configured as RAID 1 its about $400CAN.

Based on the price tag the RAID solution may not be for you, this solution is more for the advanced hobbyist and professionals who earn money from their photography and can't afford to lose any photos.

In closing...
As I researched more and more about archiving in the digital era the more I realized that no one method is foolproof or permanent. With film the negatives can last for years, they may yellow or have colour shift but the image integrity is fairly good. With digital, when failure or corruption does occur, the results are normally catastrophic. CD's and DVD's degrade over time, the initial promises of 100years is definitely rubbish, HDD's are mechanical and fail over time and the platters lose their magnetism. Online backups can suffer server failures, though specialized online backup sites would probably have redundancy to protect from this. In the end you may want to make hardcopy prints of your most treasured photos as they will probably last the longest ;)

Hopefully this post wasn't too boring, I know it is a little lengthy and there were no pictures ;)

I'll post more as I go further with my archiving and learn more.

Digital Adventures In Infrared

2009-08-11T20:42:00.001-06:00

Test image taken with my Canon G10 using an 850nm IR filter, coloured in PS during post.

Infrared photography has always intrigued me, there is something about white trees and dark skies that brings a surreal nature to the images. With the dawn of digital cameras came the apparent dusk of IR photography, IR blocking filters that are installed on the sensors almost rule out IR photography entirely. There are still a few methods left and that is what this post is about.

The IR blocking filters, sometimes referred to as "hot mirrors" apparently are not all created equal. Here is a website that lists various camera's sensitivity to the infrared spectrum, unfortunately it appears to be a little dated but you can see the variance between cameras.

One quick way to see how sensitive your camera is to IR is to point your TV remote at the lens and see if you can see the IR LED light up when you press buttons on your remote. This is only the first step however, even if you see some light it still may not be sensitive enough but its a good start!

Assuming your camera has some sensitivity to the IR spectrum you can try what I did, purchase an IR pass filter for your camera. This filter blocks the visible spectrum and lets the IR light in. Filters are available in various wavelengths, in my case I used an 850nm IR pass filter.

Since we're blocking out quite a bit of the spectrum with the IR pass filter and since our internal filter is blocking a lot of the IR our exposure times will suffer. The image at the top of this article took 4 seconds at F2.8 with an ISO of 200 in the midday sun. Other cameras and filter combinations may yield different results but you should bank on having to bring a tripod, hand holding is simply not an option.

Another, more dramatic option, exists to enable your camera to take IR photos. There are companies which will take your camera and remove the IR filter or hot mirror from the digital sensor. This method has its pros and cons, it will reduce your exposure times greatly but can also limit your camera to only being able to take IR photos. It has also been noted that most cameras will have problems with their auto focus mechanisms due to the change in thickness of the filter over the sensor. Personally I'm not that big an enthusiast that I'll be sending in my 5DMKII any time soon.

IR image faked in Photoshop

If you don't like either of these options you can always try to fake it using an image editing program like Photoshop or Gimp etc. While the results vary as much as the methods and the fact that it can be very time intensive it can yield some interesting images and give you another avenue if other options are not possible.

My Gear
I've been buying more and more stuff from this great Hong Kong based site, the other day I read an article that claimed people had success using IR filters on their G10 by use of a special adapter. I quickly checked out my Hong Kong connection and sure enough I found a 58mm filter adapter for $8 and a cheap IR filter for $19. So for approx $30 I was willing to take a gamble and it appears to have paid off!

Good luck!

Everyone should have a pocket camera...

2009-07-19T16:45:00.000-06:00

It doesn't matter if you have the most amazing whiz bang billion mega pixel uber-DSLR on the planet, it won't mean a lick if you don't have it with you when you need it. I don't know about you but my pockets aren't big enough to carry my 5DMKII around with me wherever I go and I probably wouldn't feel safe carrying it around everywhere anyway.

Enter the point and shoot camera, the much laughed at kid brother to our "serious" cameras. With technology getting better by the nano-second it might be time to re-evaluate the pint size light digitizer. There are a number of reasons to have a decent P&S around, the biggest is obviously size and portability.

Point and shoots are often relegated to candid snapshots at birthdays and drunken party picks etc but they don't have to be. In this post I'll speak out for the little guy and pitch it's story and hopefully sell you on the ideas and views I've arrived at.

1)Size - Obviously this is one of the biggest advantages that P&S camera have over their bulkier brothers. Small enough to fit into a shirt pocket, there is no reason why you can't have a camera on you at all times.

My SD780IS in a slightly modified Altoids Mint Tin - a nice cheap protective case

2) Video - While some video cameras moonlight as still cameras, often with very poor results, point & shoots do a marvelous job as video cameras for the average person's needs. The trend now is going towards HD video which makes them all the more attractive. There has been a few times when I've sent photos or video clips into the local news simply because I was the only one who captured a spur of the moment event. Case in point, a few weeks ago two moose wandered into our parking lot, on a whim I took a clip and sent it in. They ran it the next day and I then had the newspaper calling me to see if they could use it on their website. Did I get paid, no, but it got my name out there and maybe my website got a little boost in traffic.

Little clip from my SD780IS of two moose wandering into our parking lot at work

3) Macro - With their small lenses and sensors P&S cameras have an advantage when it comes to taking macro photographs. Its not unheard of to have a 1cm minimum focal distance when the camera is placed into macro mode.

Shot with my G10 at the Mendel Conservatory

4) Photo-stitching - OK so maybe the little point and shoot is a little light on resolution, don't let that stop you from capturing a nice landscape shot. Instead of taking the shot in just one image zoom in and take 30 photos, once stitched together it could easily eclipse your DSLR.

Taken way back with my 3.2MP Canon SD200 this shot is made up of over 50 images stitched together.
Link to larger version which is still reduced by 50% or more

5) High-end P&S cameras- Don't want to leave the manual controls and external flash capabilities of your DSLR behind? Well there is still a market of high-end point and shoot cameras available. The Canon G series cameras for example are almost the go-to standard for reporters and journalists. Nikon and Panasonic also make models in this category as well so there are options even if you're not a Canon fellow like myself.

It's even possible to do a full fledged modeling shoot using one of these as is shown in this video.

6) Bells & Whistles - Lastly there are some new technologies emerging that can make your P&S even more versatile. Geo-tagging is just starting to catch on, companies like Eye-Fi are offering the ability to geo-tag your photos on the fly and upload them wirelessly to your PC or various photo sharing sites, all built into a little SD card. Nikon's P6000 is comparable to the Canon G10 but also comes with built in GPS for geotagging anywhere you can get a signal, this was enough to have my second guessing my G10 purchase.

In conclusion most people nowadays probably got their start in digital photography via a simple point and shoot, I know I did way back 2001 with a 2MP HP P&S. Often though people tend to overlook these cameras later on once they enter the DSLR world, hopefully this shows some reasons why you may want to reconsider them as viable photographic tools.