Hey Ya'll, How's your week going? Me? Pretty good. Today I want to talk about what my favorite camera is to shoot with. Now I am very lucky I have many cameras accumulated during my years of photography from film to digital and out of all of the camera's I have I have a couple that I would call my favorite. They are not necessarily my best camera's or my newest. They are not even the ones that I would take on a big trip. But they are fun to shoot. And that's the most important thing I think is that they are fun to shoot. That's why we do photography because it's fun and a great way to experience life. First we'll talk about film camera's because film and digital are different animals.

Film Camera's. I have been shooting my own film camera's from the mid 1970's and have had and accumulated quite a few camera's. My first camera in film was the Pentax K1000. This is the camera that I learned basic photography on. Nice and simple the only thing that wasn't mechanical was the meter in it that was powered by batteries. I have shot 110 camera's for family stuff but to tell you the truth the ones I used were like toys and didn't take very good photo's. 35mm has been my standard for years and I have just got into 120 medium format film. My favorite film camera is a 35mm and cost me just 120 dollars. It's the Canon Canonet QL17 GIII. It came out in the 1972 and is a range finder camera. It is known as the poor man's Leica.  It focus is quick and precise. The QL in the name stands for quick loading which it is and easy to load. It can shoot in Shutter priority and will not shoot if you are way out of whack with your settings. It will shoot in manual. And it is a very handsome camera. I have got nothing but great photo's out of it. It has a 40mm fixed lens with a maximum aperture of f1/1.7. My runner up is a Canon Demi EE17 which is a 1966 camera that shoots half frame 35mm. Not it is a sexy camera and the only thing that kept it our of the top spot is that it uses zone focusing so sometimes you get out of focus shots. If it had the same focusing as the Canonet it would be #1. But the Canonet Ql17 GIII is my favorite film camera to shoot.

Digital Camera's. From my first digital camera a Kodak point and shoot I have gone through many camera's. From High end professional models to consumer camera's. Some were more fun to shoot than others. I have shot Simi professional with high end cameras and as an amateur like I am now with consumer and of course I use my phone like everyone else. Let me start out by saying that my phone isn't my favorite digital camera although it does get great photo's when needed. I have shot all different sensor sizes and have enjoyed all of them. Most of my photo's in my website are shot in crop sensor (APSC) sized. I am shooting full frame sensor Sony's now as my main camera's and love the results I get from them and they go with me when I travel for photography trips. With all of the lenses that come with them. My favorite camera to shoot and the one that I use the most isn't a full frame or a crop sensor camera. Its smaller. Now I have camera that will shoot under water and if you count GoPros ones that will clip onto things for unique shots and even shoot video's. But it's not those camera's also. The thing that makes it the most favorite for meIs the mobility of this little camera. It can fit in my pocket or around my neck and hardly is noticed. I purchased this little camera to go to Washington DC with my wife. I wanted a camera that I wouldn't be consumed by while with her. So she wouldn't have to wait on me fumbling with lenses or settings. It's a perfect travel companion and goes with me on almost every trip. It's so versatile that I use it as a backup to my bigger Sony's when I travel. It's the Canon Powershot G7XII which came out in 2016. It has a 24-100mm full frame equivalent lens at f1.8-2.8. It has a 1" sensor. at 20megapixels. Its articulating screen is also a touch screen and can easily move focus with a touch of the finger. I have it set up so it will accept 52mm filters like a polarizer and ND filter. It also has an electronic ND filter that you can use. It shoots in Manual and all of the other modes that my larger cameras do. Is it perfect? No but it is my favorite. It goes with me almost anywhere for the just in case photo's. Are other camera's better ? You bet but this one is fun. When I take my big trips this year it will be right beside me. When I went to South Dakota it was there for shots in the car and in towns. I didn't carry my big camera for town walks just this little point and shoot.

How funny is it that even though I am a devoted Sony shooter my favorite camera's to shoot are both Canon. Digital and Film. LOL Both of these cameras are point and shoot camera's and I don't have to mess with bringing extra lenses and gear when I'm out and about with these cameras. What are your favorite camera's to shoot? Camera's are very personal things and I suspect there will be all sorts of answers to that question. Well that's it for me this week until next, Get out and Shoot. With your favorite.

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope you've had a super week! This week I want to talk about something I don't think I've talked about much. Off camera flash and the mechanics on how to hook up your camera to shoot off camera. I was recently on a workshop that my club had on Portrait Photography and using off camera strobes. You may not know but I used to do a lot of portrait work and shot weddings and the such. But as I've got older I haven't done as much. You can use off camera flash to do all sorts of photography from table top , macro, real-estate and yes portraits. Attending this workshop got me thinking about the past and the tools and the mechanics on how to set up off

camera flash even if you shoot film instead of digital. Honestly I haven't shot much off camera flash with film but have recently and it works pretty well you just have to figure out how to get the flash to sync with your camera when you push the shutter button. Now most camera's have a hot shoe on top of your camera that you can put a flash and through the connection when you push the shutter your flash goes off. This is a very flat and not flattering light and to improve it you must get the flash off of the camera and to the side somehow. Thats what this blog is about the mechanics of OFF Camera Flash. 

Sync Cord: The easiest way is with a sync cord. This cord goes from a port on your camera (usually covered by a little plastic cover) to a port on the flash or strobes that you have. This is how it was done in the old days and cords and cables were strewn all over the place. This is a cheap way to do it and it works. The drawback is the cord you can only go as far away from your flash with the length of your cord.

Infra Red triggers: Infra Red triggers are built into some camera's. They allow you to trigger the flash through an infra red signal that comes from your camera to the flash. The trick is that it is proprietary. You must use your camera's brands flash. With Nikon you must use Nikon flash , Canon you must use Cannon flash. Which makes this a very expensive endeavor as brand name flashes are very expensive. Also you must have line of site with these triggers . Much like the remote control of your TV you can't have anything get in-between the camera and flash or it doesn't work.

Radio Triggers: These triggers use radio waves to transmit a signal from your camera to the flash or strobe. You hook a transmitter to your camera's hot shoe and receiver to your flash or strobe light. Then through radio waves you can trigger the flash to fire when you press the shutter button. These are very popular and come in many price ranges from 40 dollars to hundreds of dollars. Pocket wizards were the industry standard many years ago but you can have all sorts that work great. The biggest thing with these is to make sure that you are not on the same frequency as another nearby photographer or your flashes will work off of his press of the shutter too. These triggers do not need line of site and can be placed almost anywhere and the radio waves will reach them witch is great for back lighting where the light is placed behind the subject. These types of triggers only trigger the flash they do not work with TTL of your camera they are used on manual flashes and strobes.

TTL Radio Trigger/Controllers: Then there is the Controller trigger. It takes all the info from your camera and transfers it to the strobe and makes the proper power flash off of these calculations. It can shoot TTL and High Speed Sync. It can control from your camera many flashes at one time and have them flash at different powers to each flash. These triggers are proprietary to the brand of camera you have. So if you have a Nikon you have to get a controller that fits a Nikon. The controller mounts to the hot shoe and you can dial in what you want and what channel each flash is on. You can have external receivers or they are built into the flashes themselves. The flashes/strobes have to be compatible with the controller used. Godox brand is the most popular but there are others also. The controllers cost about 70 bucks but you must also purchase the flashes and or strobes .

Slaves for Multiple flashes: If you have more than one flash that you want to trigger but only have one trigger and one receiver or only have a sync cord going to one flash you can use optical flash slaves that hook to the second flash or strobe. When it sees a flash from the first flash that is synced it goes off instantaneously . You must manually adjust these flashes but the system works well and I used it for years before I got newer trigers for my flashes. 

Being able to control the light really makes you a great photographer and shooting off camera flash and strobes is the first step in really being able to CONTROL the light. Not just react to it. Hope this was helpful until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hello Everyone! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Pretty well. Hey I was thinking about what I would take on a Street photography trip let's say to New Your City. The Big Apple! I have never been but am looking to go soon so what would I take on let's say a long extended weekend trip. What camera gear or my computing needs for that matter. I know I want to be quick and nimble while in route so just a carry on bag if flying or taking the train. So I would want all of my gear and clothing to fit in the carry on which would be some sort of backpack. Light on gear and clothes. So let's get started with the easy stuff clothes.

If I was going on a 4 day trip to include travel days on each end. I would probably take two pairs of pants the ones I was wearing and one other. And a couple of shirts. These clothes would have to be very packable not jeans or clothes like that. I like to travel with convertible pants that can become shorts at a moments notice and shirts that are super light weight. Just to make things easier well say that this trip is in the spring so cool in the mornings and warm during the day. So I would want some sort of jacket that would compact down to a small size when it warmed up. Just a few personal toiletries to get by with. A comfortable pair of shoes because I'll be doing some walking. I would put all of this in some sort of packing cube that would fit in my backpack.

Now let's talk about camera gear and computing. I'll start with computing because I would keep it simple some sort of iPad maybe my iPad mini. It's small and compact and I'll be able to back up my photo's from each day and even edit some if I need to. Now to camera gear. I have lots of good choices to choose from. If I wanted to keep it super small I could use my point and shoot Canon G7XII . Its small compact, 20mp type 1 sensor and has a 24-100 equivalent lens with maximum aperture of f/1.8-2.8. It's very discrete and small and would go almost unnoticed . But never have been to New York before I would want something a little more punch. I would probably bring my A7C with a 50mm and a 16-35mm lens. Both are small-ish but would definitely be noticed more than the point and shoot. And of course I would have to carry some sort of bag to hold the extra lens and batteries. Or I could carry a 20-70 f4 lens I have and the Sony and just do one lens. It would be a bigger set up but it would have a better camera set up with just one lens. Now if I was really brave I could go with a film camera and shoot film the whole time there. If I were I would bring my Canon Cannonet GIII QL17. This is known as the poor mans Leica with a 40mm f/1.7 lens. It would definitely tic all of the boxes but then its film and won't be as flexible as digital. So what to do? On a special trip like this I could go without a camera and plan a trip to B&H Photo Video and buy a camera for street there. It would almost be worth it maybe something like a Fuji X100 a built to be a street camera. There are so many ways to go. What would you do?

Well since this is all hypothetical I would probably go to B&H and buy a new camera just to say that I had done it. But in reality it would probably be the Sony A7C although I think the smart choice would be the Point and shoot.  Well that's just me dreaming. What would you do? Let me know. Until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey 

Y'all ! Hope you're having a great day! We as camera buffs are always looking at the latest and greatest in cameras and camera related gadgets. We as consumers try to dissect what is different or what is newer on each of our cameras and new ones that come out each year. And to admit there is a lot that is different between camera brands and models but there are some things that are the same of all cameras. Even ones from decades long ago and we forget that these little machines still have  the same goal to capture a moment in time , an image. Remembering what is the same makes the photography much more simple. I think that cameras are getting more and more complicated when they should be staying simple. I shoot with all kinds of cameras from older film cameras to newer mirrorless cameras. Sometimes I think that the newer ones can be more complicated than the early film were. Why do you think that is. I certainly don't know. Maybe the newer generations didn't know how simple it was in the past to take a photo. But people that were raised holding a computer in their hand that was advanced than the computer that sent men to the moon seem to think that things need to be more complicated. Now I'm not generation bashing I just want to explain what is the same in photography. Lets start.

The medium used to capture the image. Although it has changed from film to digital sensors a lot of the same principals still apply. In the film days you could choose your film based on either black and white or color and you could choose the sensitivity of the film by the ASA (American Standards Association ) now known as ISO (international Standards Organization ) . Modern Digital you can dial in your ISO and you can change the look of the image from color to black and white. Just the same as film. Are the newer Digital sensors more flexible than the roll of film? Well of course they are but doesn't that make it more complicated . With more choices comes paralysis by analysis . Not being able to make a decision quickly. Like buying glasses at the eye doctor. There are a wall of choices hundreds of choices  and to you they all look alike. Hard to make a choice. But besides that they are really the same.

Lenses used in film and digital are basically the same. Although more modern the newer lenses are basically the same with aperture blades that can open and close to make the hole bigger or smaller. There are focusing rings that you can manually focus with. Many older lenses are manual focusing while newer ones are auto focusing using little motors and gears inside of the lenses to do the work that your hand and eye did. Now does the newer lenses focus quicker and maybe even more sharper focus? Well of course they do. But they are very similar except most modern lenses are much larger to house the newer components. 

Shutters are the same. Shutters with the ability to change shutter speeds. Either Focal plane shutters or leaf shutters in the film era worked very much the same as the modern shutters . Now shutter speeds go up to 1/8000 of a second where 1/1000 was the norm for many years in the film era and consumer cameras were at 1/500. Now we have mechanical and electronic shutters and I'm sure in the future mechanical will be a thing of the past but they do the same thing. They let light in for a certain amount of time so they do the same thing.

View finders are kind of the same. Optical view finders showed you what was going to be in your photo. Modern view finders do that and a whole lot more. It can be like flying a jet with heads up display with all of the gismos in the frame when you are viewing your subject. Stuff like the meter, battery life, camera settings like shutter speed, ISO and aperture . All which is very nice but can become kind of cluttered. Of course you can pick and choose what you want to see in your view finder.

Meter to measure light. Just about all cameras from the 1960's and on had some sort of meter in them to measure the light. Film camera's used center weighted metering where modern cameras can use an array of different metering modes to include center weighted. Matrix or Averaging metering mode takes in the whole scene and averages out meter reading. Most photographers use this type of metering 100% of the time. Why so many choices? Just to confuse you LOL! I think that modern metering is better than old but I didn't have a problem with the old ones either  and still use them in my film cameras.

Things like shutter buttons, self timers, and the such are all still there. So what I'm trying to get at is yes they have changed but the principals like the Exposure Triangle are still the same. Basically you have a box that captures light and puts the image onto some sort of medium. So when you look at that new camera that has all of the gismos on it before you spend your hard earned money make sure you need the gismos that it is offering. Many times the answer is no you have all that you need in the camera you have that will still take great photo's.

Until next week , Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey What's Up? How is everyone doing this week? Me? Pretty well, thanks for asking. This week I want to talk about something I don't think I have discussed before, websites. If you're reading this you know I have a website . It's what all of these blogs are attached to. I have some of my best photo's in galleries that you can see. I really don't try to sell photos but will if someone wants one. But the question is do you need a website if you are just an amateur photographer? I really don't think so .  Now don't get me wrong this blog isn't against websites just that I don't think that you need one but let's do some pro's and con's on websites.

Pro's: Websites are easy to put together and create. There are all kinds of companies with templates that let you build and personalize your very own website. If you want to sell some of your images these websites make it easy to do so. They may even take care of all of the work and just send you your cut of the money made from selling images. You can have a blog if you like to write like I do. I've never been much of a writer growing up but after I got a website and gave it a go I found that I liked doing it. They like anything else can be inexpensive. I think I started mine for 5 bucks a month for the basic service but I think the price has risen over the years but it's still less than 10 dollars per month. But like anything else the more you want to do with it the more it will cost. You can have world wide coverage of your photo's and presented the way you want them to be seen. If you use any social media type service they will compress and alter your photo's a little. And of course it's kind of neat to say " just check out my website" when you're taking to someone new.

Con's: It takes effort to keep up a website. You have to update the site with new images and blogs to keep it current . You don't have a staff to take care of this you are a staff of one. Subscriptions can be a pain. How many do you have from Adobe, Netflix, Hulu, ... This is just one more.  So there is the website and then there is the domain name mine is MaxStansellPhotography.com but that doesn't come free you have to purchase and make sure it's not already out there. You will probably have a email attached to the domain name so there is the upkeep of that also.

So there are some pro's and con's It looks like the pro's have over taken the con's but the con's are strong arguments. To tell you the truth If I had to do it all over again I don't know if I would get a full fledged photography website. Most if not all my activity on this site is this blog. I keep it pretty active as I post once a week. I think that the only reason that I keep this website open is because of the blog. I have over 350 of them and I don't want all of that work to disappear .  I have the basic subscription so it's fairly cheap to keep. I don't update the photo's as much as I should but I do like saying "Check out my blog" or "Check out my Website" Its something I have built. But if you just want to share photo's there are sites like Flickr, 500PX, Instagram or even on Facebook. Most of these sites aren't really secure so when your photo is out on the web it's out there for anyone to grab. With a website Its a little more secure but still there are ways folks can get your photographs. Me I really don't care that much if someone uses my photo's if they aren't making a profit from it. I would prefer they ask but I have found my photo's in Text books and web articles and I'm not too bothered with it. I don't do photography to make money it's for fun. But Monday Quarterbacking I would get a website but one for just the blog and maybe not to showcase photography. But that's just me. It doesn't cost much to do a website and I do enjoy playing with it.

Well that's my thoughts . Until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope your day is going great! This week I want to talk about little cameras that over time have lost appeal to bigger and better cameras but are starting to get more popular again. Kind of like bell bottom pants , they were in then out and now I see celebrities wearing them again. Point and shoots are kind of the same. When digital first started point and shoots led the way getting people into digital and as more top of the line digital DSLR cameras started getting popular point and shoots started fading and then when cell phones with cameras on them well that all but killed the point and shoot. And for good reason the computational  photography that is available on cell phones is amazing and you get great photo's from them. But there is something about holding a dedicated camera in your hand and making photos with it . There is something to it . It's easy point and shoot! Are they great? Generally speaking point and shoot photo's are not as good as your phone but there are the exceptions. Some camera companies have been making high end point and shoots. Some with fixed lenses like the Fuji x100 series, the Ricoh GR series of cameras. Both have fixed focal lengths and APSC sensors but have become very popular if not cult like. Both run over 1000 dollars for a fixed focal length camera. Mainly made for street photography. But they both are popular. Then there is the Sony cyber-shot RX100 series of cameras and the Canon G7x series of cameras with zoom lenses which both run over 1000 .  They both have 1.0 type sensors (smaller than APSC) but still larger than a phone sensor. There are others by Lumix, Leica, Olympus that have point and shoot cameras also. Let me tell you what I like about these cameras.

There are lots of things  to like. One they are small and portable. Most will fit in your pocket especially a jacket pocket. If your out on the street or just taking photos they are so small they do not intimidate anyone around because they don't look like a quote "Professional Camera" But these cameras can pack quite a punch especially the ones that are high end. I own a Canon G7x mark II an older one of these and it takes great photo's. It can shoot in full manual and all of the other modes like aperture , and shutter priority . It has a built in flash that can be used for fill flash. I have mine set up so it can use filters like a polarizer and ND filters. When I take long trips I use it as my backup camera and on a upcoming trip to South Dakota I will use it as my walking around camera in towns and the like not lugging a full frame camera just for snap shots of the cities. The full frame lens equivalent is 24-100mm f1.8 to f/2.8 which is great. What's not to like. And it's the older model. There is a Mark III out there. I can stick it in my pocket or around my neck with a vintage strap from another point and shoot film camera the Canon Canonet GIII QL 17 a 1972 model. Point and shoots are easy to operate . I can put this little camera in auto and hand it to anyone to take my photo  or a group shot of us if we are on a trip. So I would say don't turn your nose up at point and shoot cameras they are awesome little machines that are really worth the money you put into them.

Until Next week ! Get out and shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week! Me? I'm doing great thanks for asking. I have been looking at my blogs today and counted them and this one is the 355th blog! Can you believe it! It's the beginning of the year and I have been thinking about the year to come. Last week I announced my big trip of the year to South Dakota and I have had South Dakota on the brain! Places to go things to see and of course all of the travel reservations which includes flying! So today I thought I would do a blog on traveling with photography gear. I think the way that you travel will determine the way that you pack and travel with your gear. For example if you're traveling by car my be very different than traveling by plane. What to bring? How to Pack it. What not to bring. So lets start simple.

When you travel you don't have to take everything you own every time you leave the house. Of course if you're just beginning in photography you don't have much maybe one lens or two and a camera body. If that's you travel is easy! Bring it. But if you've been into photography for a long time like me then you can't bring it all. You can't even carry all of it at one time. You may even have trouble putting it into one room! LOL Yes I have lots of gear! If you're traveling by car you can bring almost anything that your car or truck can bring. You can use big strong pelican cases to hold your gear. My only caution is to try to keep your gear out of site. Don't leave on seat of your car in site of other people not as nice as you that might want your gear. Thieves love photography gear because it is expensive and small easy to snatch and get away with. So be careful with your gear. 

Now if you travel by bus, train or plane it can be a little bit more complicated. First travel lite! Be aware of what your photography trip will consist of. Is it travel and street? Is it Landscape or Wildlife? Try to think in advance of what you will be shooting and what you will need. Leave all of the other "what if" stuff at home. Traveling by the above mentioned bus, train, or plane means that some of your luggage may not be with you but checked into some sort of cargo hold. Make sure your camera equipment is with you at all times as carry on. So pack accordingly because airlines have restrictions on carry on size and weight! Not so much with trains and busses. Now besides your personal clothes toiletries you must plan for your photo gear. Make sure it is secure and safe in the bag that you bring onboard. Try to make your camera bag not look like a camera bag when traveling. They are easy to spot. And remember it's not just camera gear it's editing gear if you are going to be gone for a while. I have traveled with both laptops and iPads and either can be used to edit and backup images while traveling. Modern iPads work well and are small and lightweight and work well but aren't as easy to use as a laptop or as easy to see if you have old eyes like I do. I just purchased a used MacBook pro just to travel with and use for Photography club meetings. Most of my computing is on a large desktop but I got such a good deal it was cheaper to take the laptop than the iPad if something happened and it got broke or stolen while on my trip. Anyway these items should be carried with you also. Most airlines let you bring a carry-on and a personal bag so my computing will be in the personal bag. Make sure you check with the airlines on size and weight limits to carry-on items. Make sure all of your charging needs are in your carry-on also it would be bad if you got to your destination and your checked bag got lost with all of your charging stuff. Your gear would be almost useless. And that stuff is hard to replace on the road much easier to replace clothes that were in lost luggage than charging gear. Here is an example of what I'm taking to South Dakota with me on the plane. Carry-on: Camera Body, 20mm f/1.8 for night shots, 20-70mm for general shots, 100-400 for wildlife and isolation shots. Extra batteries, chargers wipes, SD cards and stuff associated with main gear. Note: Batteries must be brought on carry-on check with airlines for specifics . In my Personal bag: Laptop , point and shoot (my backup camera) chargers associated with gear. Thats the photography gear I'm bringing for a week long trip. Main bag weighs 16 lbs personal bag much lighter.

Film is another matter. I don't have much experience with film but what I have read that if your film is 400 ISO or lower you don't have to worry about X-ray scanners at the airport but if higher you do. If you feel uneasy ask for a hand check of all of your film. I haven't decided if I want to carry a film camera with me on my trip to South Dakota yet. As it will not be the big part of my photography just a novelty I probably won't take it with me but if I did I would let it pass through the X-ray and not worry about it.

What to put in your checked bag? Besides clothes and personal items I would pack my tripod or monopod although very important part of photography gear your trip wouldn't be ruined if you lost either of these. Now if it was photography where only tripod shots like Astro it would be bad and I would consider taking it on the plane with me but other than an extreme I would keep it in checked baggage.

Remember to have a happy and safe trip "peace of mind" on gear and items you bring with you is super to have. I place an Apple Air Tag in each of my luggage. I have one in camera bag , personal bag, checked bag one on my wallet and keys. I love that I can in a second look at my phone and see where my checked luggage is. If if misplaces something while on the trip I can see where it is. This is pretty awesome and creates lots of piece of mind.

I hope you do get the chance to travel for a photography trip! It is such fun just to concentrate on just photography when traveling. You really get some memories that you couldn't get if you were just vacationing with the family. So until next week get out and shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope your week has been as good as mine. Last week I told you about my big trip for the year going to South Dakota. During this trip there will be lots of great opportunities for great photography. From Landscape, Astro/Night, Travel and Street. But most of the shooting will be Landscape type of photography. I need to take a kit that is capable but also light weight. Well as much lightweight as I can be using full frame camera gear. Clothes wise I need to be able to layer depending on what the temps will be but also be as lightweight as possible. Taking only a 4 day supply of clothes we will be doing laundry while we are there to keep the amount of clothes down. Don't mind wearing pants or outer shirts more than once. I've got this to a pretty good system and have a spread sheet that helps me keep track on what I need and what I pack. I will also have to backup files and maybe do some quick editing so some sort of computing device I will need to bring with me. So let's start with computing.

Computing- The last big trip I took to Utah I took an iPad mini for my computing needs. I was able to backup files and do some small editing. Since that trip I have got a iPad Pro with M1 chip which is very capable and have used it on many outings and club trips. I'm not much of a laptop guy. My main computer is a Mac Mini with a couple of 27 inch screens. I have recently upgraded my laptop that was so old it wouldn't run Lightroom. A fellow member of my photography club upgraded her laptop and I bought her old one so if I had to run a Photography Club meeting I could. ( All of the electronics from the meeting room hook into a Laptop) So I think that I will bring that laptop on the trip. I got a great deal on it and don't have much money invested in the system. It is a 13 inch MacBook Pro and works for what I need. It's as lightweight as my iPad Pro and if something happened to it I wouldn't be as upset as I would my iPad. So the MacBook Pro and backup Solid State Drives to backup SD cards and to do some editing. Now lets talk about camera gear.

Camera Gear- My main camera for the trip will be my trusty Sony A7III. A long in the tooth camera but still gives me great images. It was released in 2018 but a great camera. It has dual card slots and everything else I need for still photography. Lenses that I will be taking with me are the Sony 20-70mm f/4, Sony 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 and lastly a Sony 20mm f/1.8. The 20-70mm will be on the camera most of the time it's a fantastic lens and very sharp, the 100-400mm will be used for Wildlife and isolation landscape shots. It is by far the bulkiest of my camera kit but an outstandingly sharp lens. The 20mm will be used for astro/night  photography. Thats my main kit but I will have a backup camera with me a Canon G7XII point and shoot a very capable camera that I can shoot in manual and RAW format images and also have filters to shoot waterfalls and such. Film, I haven't quite decided on a film camera yet. As film will not be my main focus I still like playing with it. A small camera will be the best bet. I'm leaning toward a plastic point and shoot Olympus Supertrip 35mm. It's very lightweight, compact, takes Okay photo's and has a flash. I will only take a few rolls of film with me maybe taking one photo at each place we go to. And of course I will have my phone with me taking shots everywhere we go to include food shots of meals we eat. I usually send a photo of my main meal of the day and send to my wife so she sees that I'm eating right. I will have a tripod with me on this trip mainly for sunrise, sunset and Astro/Night photography. I have two to choose from. Both are carbon fiber . I have a travel sized that I've used for years when I was shooting Crop sensor cameras and a larger one I just got after I went back to full frame camera's . The smaller one will probably win out because the largest lens I'll be using with a tripod will most likely be my 20mm. It will be dependent on room left in my checked bag with my clothes in it. If I have the room the larger one will go but if room is scarce then the smaller one will work.

Bags and other stuff- My main camera bag will be the Shimoda Action X 30L bag. This bag will carry my Sony Landscaping kit Camera, 3 lenses. and be my carry on , on  the plane, I have a Vanguard ALTA Rise 33 camera bag. This camera bag will hold my 13 inch laptop and small cameras accessaries this bag will be my personal bag on the plane. My checked bag will be an Eddie Bower roller Expedition bag that will hold clothes, tripod and some other stuff. Inside this bag I will have packing cubes to separate and keep everything in order. And of course I can't take a trip without my trusty fanny pack. I'll be wearing this daily it holds my phone wallet and can even hold a small camera like my point and shoot.  I will have apple air tags in all of the bags to keep track of them, especially in the airports.

Well that's pretty much for the gear that I will take on my trip. I'm so looking forward to this trip. I think part of the fun of the trip is the planning of it. At the time of this writing of this blog I am still months away but am gearing up and getting ready. So until next week. Get out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey 

Our big trip this year will be to South Dakota! I know a hush has fallen over the crowd. People don't really know about South Dakota. I have seen it ranked #2 most boring state behind Idaho the #1. But for a photographer it has a lot to offer! Two National Parks, National monuments , The Black hills, Cowboys and cowboy towns , Wildlife like bison , elk, deer, rams , bears. Lots of cool stuff for a photographer. I have to admit that I didn't know much about South Dakota before I started researching it. Robert came up with the idea mostly because he's into Astro/Night photography right now and it's one of the best places to shoot the stars which we will be doing hopefully successfully.  But as I started researching I kept finding gems to photograph. When we first started planning we saw that Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons were only a state away and we rushed into planning an even bigger trip. But the time effort and money it would take to see the two iconic places wasn't worth it in this trip so we concentrated mostly on South Dakota.

We plan on spending a week in Rapid City SD as our base. Our longest drive will be a hour and 45 min to Devils Tower in Wyoming. This means only one hotel to book and returning the rental car to the same place is cheaper than driving to another town. We will fly in and out of the same place which makes that cheaper. It will be a more relaxed trip than the Utah trip where we stayed in 5 different places so I'm looking forward to that. Day trips will include, The Badlands National Park, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and Wind cave National Park, Devils Tower and Deadwood, Steam train ride between Hill City and Keystone SD.  As you can see lots of opportunities to get great landscape, and wildlife photos. We will also have some night shoots sprinkled in just for fun. One might be Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane's grave site in Deadwood. Aces and Eights! Since the shooting and driving will be less there will be more time to shoot and relax and won't have the pressure of getting to the next place the next day.

I'm hoping that this will be a great adventure like the Utah trip was. But make no bones about it an adventure will be had. We've made the plane, hotel and rental reservations and have started counting the days before we leave. Still planning and refining our itinerary .  So now you know where I'm going the next blog will tell you what gear I'm taking with me. So until next week Get Out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Ya'll! Hope your week is going well. This week it has been chilly outside and I've spent the time writing blogs. This week's blog is the third installment of the Street Photography Gear series. This week we will discuss bags and accessories for street photography. This will be the last in the series about street photography gear. As you know I have an obsession about camera bags. I have gone through many of them and right now I have settled on a few that I will discuss. 

Bags. There are many different ways to carry gear when doing street photography and as I have said in past blogs about street smaller is better. Let's start with the smallest and work our way up. First of all you can go with one camera and one lens and just use a strap to carry your kit with. This is a great way to go if you only have one lens. Next if your camera kit is small enough a fanny pack or a small sling bag can carry a point and shoot and a item or two. I often use a fanny pack even if I have another bag. I like to carry my wallet and phone and keys there to be handy and not pulling at my pants all of the time and slows down the pick pockets. The next size is a sling bag. I love a good sling bag one that is big enough to carry a filter and extra lens maybe even a water bottle. I have one that I have made out of a large lumbar bag (fanny pack) and a camera insert. I call it my purse and like a ladies purse it has all sorts of things in it . From snacks , chap stick, and first aid kit. LOL  The last one I will talk about is a small backpack. It can be designed to be a camera bag although I like the plain ones with a camera insert in them. They blend in with the environment and don't scream I have a 1000 dollar camera inside. They are great for walking around all day and have room for a jacket if it gets hot after a chilly morning. It has room for storing souvenirs without carrying around shopping bags. I have one that is very comfortable and can pull the insert out of my purse and put into the backpack. All but the backpack have easy access but I usually have a Peak Design camera clip on the strap of the backpack and can clip my camera to so I have hands free operation. The main thing with all these types of bags is to be comfortable.

Accessories. Things that a street photographer can use but are not necessary. Tripod, a tripod isn't necessary unless you are shooting at night to shoot car trails or night landscapes. I would suggest a small travel one so you're not carrying a big tripod. Sometimes instead of a tripod if you are trying to show motion is a parking meter or park bench to set your camera on. Filters can become handy like a polarizer. I always have a polarizer on hand just incase I need to knock out some glare or reflection of something.  Maybe a haze or mist filter to give some ambiance to a shot. But filters aren't really a street thing. Then there are all kinds of other accessories that you would have with any other form of photography from light meters, SD card wallets, cleaning stuff and even rain gear for your camera. All of these are optional and personal to you what you think you will need. The bottom line is don't bring the kitchen sink smaller is better and less is more.

There is nothing more that I like is taking a stroll through a town that I haven't been before and having the appropriate kit can make the experience enjoyable and fun. If you bring too much you will feel like a pack mule and you won't enjoy yourself as much. But keeping your kit dry, safe and clean is a must to protect the investment you made on your gear. So until next week Get Out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hi Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! Me? Can't complain. It's cold outside so I'm writing some blogs trying to get ahead. This blog is part 2 of the Street Photography Gear series and we are going to talk about lenses. To me lenses are the  most important part of a kit. A good lens can last for decades and can have a unique look to it. For street photography a good lens should be sharp fast to focus and small with a reasonably wide aperture. It's hard to find a lens that has all of those capabilities and one must compromise. 

Focal Length. Street photography is shot fairly close so wider focal lengths are used as compared to Wildlife photography where long telephoto lenses are what is primarily used.  Subjects are fairly close to across the street being the furtherest you will usually have to shoot. So from widest say 16mm to longest 85mm. The sweet spot for most photographers is either 35mm or 50mm range. Environmental Portraits may be shot at say 20-24mm and indoors let's say 16-35mm. For me I like to shoot 28mm to about 50 at the longest.  I do rarely shoot at longer than 50 and sometimes wider than 28 .  Like with all street gear the smaller is the better so long telephoto lenses say like a 70-200mm are not usually used for street photography.

Zooms vs Primes. This war has been going on for ages. Do I use a zoom like a 24-70mm which will cover all of my focal lengths or do I use a single prime and zoom with my feet? For me it comes to size again. A 24-70 will cover most of your focal lengths but it will also be heavy and intimidating for street portraits. A smaller camera/lens combo would be better. Whereas a 35mm or a 50mm will be lighter and be so small that it won't intimidate most people like a larger lens would. You could go either way. And I have. Sometimes I feel just like caring a 28-60mm that I have with just a camera strap and no bag and just walk around. Other times a 50mm and a 20mm primes will cover what ever I need and are smaller and compact with a small camera bag. It also depends on the light. Darker scenes I tend to go with primes because they usually have wider apertures than zooms and let in more light. So no wrong answer It just depends.

Apertures. As I said before smaller size lens is better for street photography because you are carrying everything. Generally speaking wider apertures mean larger lenses. Especially in Zooms. If you have a f/2.8 24-70 lens and the same lens at f/4 the f/2.8 maximum aperture lens will be much heaver. In primes if you go wider than f1.8 they start to get bigger. Generally speaking a wide aperture lens is great for street photography especially at night when it's darker. Most of street photography is done hand held so getting as much light in and keeping the shutter speed up will keep sharper photos. But if you're shooting during the day it's not as necessary a f/4 lens will work just fine. In my kit when I shoot street I'll take a zoom 28-60mm f/4 during the day and have a f/1.8 prime for when the light isn't as good. With newer cameras that can shoot at high ISO's now a days wide open apertures aren't as important. If you are going to shoot say car trails with a tripod they are not inportant. Or a nighttime city scape on a tripod not as important. So it depends on what you're shooting.

In summary you can see it really doesn't matter what kind of lens you have for street photography . The focal length will be from say wide 16mm to normal-ish 85mm on the long size. Primes and Zooms both work well. You probably already have lenses in your kit that will work. So until next week "Get out and Shoot!" 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

What's up Ya'll! Me? I'm doing great! Hope you are! This week is the start of another series. This is Street Photography Gear .  This is the first part of a 3 part series on gear for street photography and photo walks . The gear I’m going to talk about today is the Camera or Camera body to use.  In street photography and doing photo walks the size of the gear is more important than the brand name of the gear. Now street photography can be taken with almost any type of camera from your phone to the most fancy Mirrorless camera. Street photography has been around since the beginning of photography itself so lots of different cameras from film to digital has and can be used. In street photography and photo walks size is very important for a couple of reasons. The first reason is weight. When doing street photography you are usually on foot walking everywhere you go. So the size and weight of the gear is very important. You want to be as light as possible. The second reason is to be inconspicuous when you are shooting and walking around. You don’t want to be the center of attention when your walking around. You don’t want to be intimidating to the subjects you are photographing .  These are the two reasons that lightweight small gear is wanted. So there are so many types of cameras so I will break them down in a couple of categories. First one is small point and shoot.

Digital Point and shoot Cameras. Point and shoot cameras are great because they are all one piece. No lenses to mess with just the camera. I consider your mobile phone as a point and shoot but not my first choice as a street photography camera but they work great in a pinch and are wonderful if the lighting conditions are bad because of the computational photography program algorithms built into the device. Point and shoots with zooms are great also because they are very versatile with the zooms. I have a little Canon G7XII point and shoot that I love. Point and shoots with fixed focal length lenses work well too because they take all of the decision making out and you just have to frame and shoot. Some of the most popular point and shoots fall in this category . The Fujifilm X100 cameras . The Fujifilm X100 VI is the latest version of this camera and it comes with a 35 full frame equivalent lens on it. Just made for street photography. All of these cameras are small and lightweight and can fit in your pocket for concealment .

Digital Interchangeable lens Cameras. These can be either DSLR cameras or Mirrorless cameras. They can be either rangefinder shaped or traditional SLR shaped. The key here is as above smaller is better but any will work. As with all of these camera's if I haven't mentioned it before the sensor size doesn't really matter. Can be full frame , crop or Mircro 4/3rds or even smaller. Generally speaking the smaller the sensor the smaller the lens and lighter the kit and extra lenses. Any brand will do but some of the big names are Leica, Fujifilm, Nikon, Canon and Sony and let's not forget Olympus and Panasonic. All these brands and if I've missed one produce photographs that are of great quality. The main point here is to be light as possible and really be familiar with your camera and make sure you have enough batteries to keep your camera going for hours. This big advantages of these camera's is the versatility. The ability to change lenses at will from lets say a fast prime lens to a Zoom lens with many focal lengths built in. Choose your lenses carefully and don't carry too many of them. I would say two at max one on the camera and a spare. Any more than that you will be changing lenses more than taking photographs.

Film Camera's. All modern cameras have been influenced by the older film camera's. The most famous street photographers all used film and cameras carried. Leica being the king with the M series of cameras. But other manufacturers work well too. Small is still the king here. Small rangefinder like Leica, Canon, Nikon to larger like Rolleiflex medium formate twin lens cameras. Being a master at film is a must if your shooting film because film doesn't have the dynamic range of digital and care and correct metering is a must. Most if not all of these camera's are manual focusing and zone focusing system might be very handy for quick shooting. There are interchangeable lens cameras and point and shoot with fixed lenses. My main film street camera is a Canon Canonet QL17 said to be the "Poor mans Leica" . It's a rangefinder 35mm point and shoot with a fixed 40mm f/1.7 lens and a leaf shutter for silent shooting. Shooting with these camera's requires much skill but if your into film it can be quite fun.

In summary it doesn't really matter what camera you use for street but smaller is better and less is more. Being able to handle it with ease is probably more important than what camera you have. You probably already have a camera that is perfect for street photography. Until next week get out and shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

What's up Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week! Me? Doing well. It's springtime and my wife has me doing chores in the yard. This week I want to talk about doing something different. Out of your comfort zone. We sometimes get trapped in one type of photography say Wildlife or Portraits or Street. Now this is good to hone your craft or your passion but I think it also hinders your growth and your imagination and you get stuck in a rut. I know it has happened to me. Sometimes new gear will snap you out of this but sometimes it's just changing the subject that you are shooting. Maybe the way you shoot. This week I want to talk about doing something completely different . Now I am mainly a stills photographer and hardly ever shoot a video even though I have a Youtube channel. LOL Most of my videos are about going somewhere a hike or camping trip. I have recently got back into biking and am having a good time exploring by bike. Not only is it good exercise but it's fun and I've started to incorporate camping into my bike riding. And one of the best ways to document my travels is by using a GoPro and video my travels. I have recently made a few videos that I will link later on in this blog. Now I am no great videographer I bearly get by. Some folks say that if they have trouble going to sleep they just look at one of my hiking video and off to sleep they go. LOL But shooting these videos is making me look at photography in a different way and I think making my photography better. 

Now I'm not saying shoot video that's just me but maybe a different type of photography one that isn't in your comfort zone. Getting out of your comfort zone is how we grow.  It doesn't have to be crazy different . Maybe you shoot Wildlife maybe you shoot some sports. You're still shooting moving objects just a different subject. If you're a portrait photographer you shoot street or wildlife where you don't have control over the situation. Maybe instead of using your regular camera you use something else. A cell phone or a point and shoot or just a prime lens. All of these things will make you a better photographer. Understanding that the basics of photography don't change just the subject and the "how too" does. The holidays is a great time to do this. Taking photo's of family and friends and maybe just using your cell phone or a point and shoot without getting too technical with lights and everything. Sometimes as photographers we tend to think too much. You know what ISO what shutter speed my aperture . When you use one of these other automatic cameras it takes away all of the thinking because they are mostly automatic. You as a photographer loose control over every aspect and have to rely on what you can control composition, available light and the such. 

Snapping out of a photography funk isn't always easy but shooting something different helps. Next year I have some photography projects and trips that will test my photography skills by doing something different. This year I started shooting film again and it has really kept me interested and excited about photography and hopefully made me a better photographer. So get outside and shoot something different!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Links to recent videos can be found on my YouTube Chanel “Max Stansell Photography”

Autumn's End, First Bike Touring Trip, Neuse River Trail Ride 30.5 miles

Hey 

Y'all ! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Doing great. This week I want to talk about GPS. When I first started out in photography in the 1970's (yes I'm that old) there was no such thing as GPS (Global Positioning System) Now if you want to go somewhere you can't live without it. I remember driving from North Carolina to New Mexico with just a map a road atlas if you will. But now a days I can't go anywhere with out my GPS. We use GPS for all kinds of stuff. Our phones have it and when you log on somewhere the internet knows where you are because of GPS . We use maps on our phones and GPS is certainly a big thing but what about in photography? I think GPS can be very important in photography. Especially Travel Photography. We have the ability to attach a GPS coordinate to the photo we took and can tell where and when it was took. This is a fantastic thing. Now I have written about GPS before in previous blogs but I heard a Podcast from the "Digital Story" and thought I would echo some of what Derrick Story said in the podcast. By the way if you don't listen to the podcast you should. So what good is GPS in Photography?

Fire BushValley of Fire State Park Nevada. GPS in photography can be used in many ways. First of all it can be used for posterity . When were gone and one of our grandchildren are looking at a photograph of Mom and Dad and wonder where that photo is taken they can look at the GPS data and tell exactly where and when it was taken. I personally think that if you're not at home taking photo's you should have a GPS coordinate attached to your photo. Have you ever gone through your photos and found one that was pretty awesome but didn't know where it was taken? GPS would fix that. You can use it to see where you have been and what photo's you took where. It's pretty neat! But how do I get GPS on my photo's? Fall Colors House

Getting the GPS on your photo's can be done many ways. The first and easiest is if your main camera has GPS built into the camera. Not many camera's have this but some do. The next best thing is to attach a device to your camera that records the GPS and puts the data on the photo you take. Most camera companies make these but are expensive and attach to your hot shoe usually so you will have something sticking off of your camera. The next best way is with Bluetooth. All Smart phones have GPS and if your camera has bluetooth capabilities then through your camera software you can get the data from your phone via bluetooth and it will record to your photographs. Cockspur Lighthouse This is the way that I do it. And there are other ways. While your out shooting you can pull out your cell phone and take a photo then when your in post you and manually sync the photos that you took in the same area to the cell phone shot. And last but not least is the manual way by going to a map in editing software like Lightroom and manually putting a dot on the map and linking it up with photos you have imported to Lightroom. For me the bluetooth auto linking works best for me. I use Sony software for my cameras and after fiddling around the first time and syncing the camera and the app on my phone it works pretty seamlessly. But it didn't always but the app is better and it syncs pretty quick . I'm sure that the other Camera companies are pretty similar and will work seamlessly like the Sony does for me. You'll just have to do some research to find out how to get them to talk together. For me I will check at the first shoot of the day if they are not synced I can manually do it pretty quick and it will automatically do it all day. Sometimes it picks it up very fast and I don't have to do anything. But I do have to check. If I'm using 2 cameras it only syncs to one at a time so I just have to choose a camera and sync the other in post.

Using GPS on travel photography is fun and easy to do and I think everyone should be doing it. So until next week Get out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! This week I want to talk about 3 smart phone apps that I use while doing film photography. I have fallen back in love with film photography and do it as much as I do digital photography. I love the challenge and the analog machines that I capture images with. But I also like modern technology and use it to help with the older cameras and film.  I have 3 apps that I have that I use regularly to help me. With the cost of film I try to get it as right as I can the first time and not make as many silly mistakes that I often do with digital.  Theses apps help me visualize, properly expose and develop the film that I am using. 

Visualize, The first app that I use is"Viewfinder". This app helps me visualize the scene even before I take my camera out. It's a framing tool that you can put the aspect ratio of your camera , the lens and even the film that you are using. You can program it to act like your cameras for example one of my cameras is a Bronica 645. If I am using Kodak Tri-X film and a 75mm lens it will show you exactly what you will get with your camera. So it's great for Framing and finding the composition before you take out your camera . When you have the composition that you want then you can set up your camera and take the shot. This is a new app for me but I really like it. Especially when I'm shooting black and white film it lets me know what the scene will look like. On my digital camera's I can do this in camera but not with the film cameras. In color it's not as an aid as in black and white but still is useful in framing the composition you want. This is not a free app I think it cost 5 bucks one time purchase and can be used with IOS and Android phones.

Expose, I use "myLightMeter Pro" app. Using a good light meter with
film is a must. Most of my cameras have built in light meters but the cameras are old and don't always give you a good exposure. I have hand held meters that work great but this one in a pinch or as a backup is great. You can calibrate it to your specific lenses and film. You can also calibrate it to a handheld meter to make sure it's accurate. This works great when I'm shooting street or something where I want to be lightweight because I don't have to carry an extra meter just my phone that I have on me all of the time anyway. You can make the app look like an old fashioned meter or a modern meter and you can move the dials around after you have metered the scene and apertures and shutter speeds move around to correspond to your choices. They have a free version I think but I bought the pro version for 10 bucks one time purchase and can be used with IOS and Android phones.

Develop, I use "Massive Dev Chart" to help when developing. You can get this free online website and what it does is helps with measurements and times of all the chemicals used when developing film. The app does the same and also has built in timers to help with the process. I use this mainly with Black and White photography. My color photography process is pretty set in stone and works great. Black and White film is much more flexible and you can use many chemicals, times and processes. This app tells you the developing time, delusion, and other aspects of all of the film stocks and speeds of films. So if you're using Ilford film it has the times delusions and formulas already figured out for all of the types of chemicals you can be using. This app is available for IOS and Android and is free I believe.

I highly recommend all three of these apps. There a many apps out there and I assume all of them are pretty good these are the three that I chose and can recommend. They make life much easier than it used to be before the internet and you had to go to a library or find a book for all of this stuff.  Thanks to these apps my film photography adventure still continues and it's a lot easier. Until next week Get out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Ya'll ! How are you doing today? Hope you've had a great week! This week I want to talk about gear you actually need as a photographer. I just watched a great video by Cody Mitchell on this subject.  I'll be piggy backing his video. Please watch the video on this link Camera Gear You Actually Need as a Beginner. It is a fantastic video and 

especially as a beginner slows you down so much that you miss a lot of shots by the inability to make a decision. So as a beginner as Cody Mitchell says you really only need 6 items and that's what we'll talk about today.

Camera. Of course you need a camera but it doesn't need to be the most expensive camera. As I have said in the past I use "Used" cameras that are cheaper and considerably not as fancy as the newer ones. And as far as I am concerned I get great photo's. And if I don't it's not the Camera's fault it is usually mine. Depending on your budget there are all sorts of options available. Cody goes over a list he has compiled in his video and shares links to a spreadsheet he had made with different budget options depending if you're starting in film or digital photography.

Lens. As I mentioned above I shoot almost all of my photo's with one lens. A zoom lens. It's in the focal range I think you should start with. A standard lens 24-70mm. It will cover a wide range of situations that you will encounter as a beginning photographer. This is also where I think that you should invest the majority of your
budget. A good lens last a long time and will outlast any body that you buy. I think the saying is you date camera bodies but you marry lenses.

Tripod. You should have a good tripod. A sturdy tripod that will hold the heaviest camera/lens combo that you will have. This is an item that you don't go cheap on either. You don't want to break the bank and with tripods ( you easily can) but you don't want to go cheap either . Somewhere in the middle. A good tripod will last for years and years. My travel tripod I've had over 10 years and I've just bought a larger tripod that I expect to do the same.

Camera Bag. You need something that will carry all of your new gear. But you also want it protected also. Bags are my weakness and I have bought bunches of them.  You should have a bag that you can carry with you that is comfortable and protects your gear. A sling bag that can carry your new camera/lens combo is a great choice for walking around town. If you are doing more landscape stuff a backpack will come in handy make sure it has a spot to carry your tripod.

The next two items to me are optional depending what kind of photography you are doing. If you're doing Landscapes or maybe using film. I have both and think when you need them you need them. For me and the type of photography I do Landscape/Travel and Film I consider them essential but if you're doing wildlife or portraits not so much.

Remote Shutter Release Cable. The remote shutter release cable lets you fire the camera without touching it. Sometimes at low shutter speeds just touching the camera to press the shutter button causes enough shake to blur your image. And for long exposures you can lock down the release for as long as you want to take very long exposures.  Some would argue that you can set a self timer on your camera to get the same effect and to a point they are right depending on how long the exposure is. They are inexpensive and you must get the one that fits your camera especially digital cameras .  They tend to have proprietary connections on some cameras .

_MSP9577 Hand Held Exposure/Spot Meter for film, Most digital cameras come with very good meters built in to the camera that will give you average meter readings which work well in most situation. But film cameras may have old meters that aren't accurate or not have a meter at all. A good meter when shooting film is essential I think. If you are a portrait photographer and use external lights. Meters come in handy when figuring out the exposure when using strobes. I think that this item should be purchases if you are primarily a film photographer or are going to use strobes. Meters are expensive and if you don't need one I wouldn't spend the money.

So those are the 6 things that were mentioned in the video but I would add maybe a camera strap. A neck one or a wrist strap to keep your camera safe when you are handing your camera so you don't drop accidentally .  Other than that I think that you can make great photography with the items listed above and really learn your craft with only these items. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope your week and day are going well. This week I want to talk about something a little different. Bikes and Photography. If you follow me on social media you know I've been doing a lot of biking in the last few months and posting videos of my adventures. Now I'm not a big video guy but bicycles and video seem to go together quite well. I use a GoPro (an older one) and I use iMovie from Apple to edit my movies. I have taken most of my ideas from Robert my Photography Wingman who is an excellent video maker and story teller. Making video is a lot harder than making a photograph .  There is a lot to it and you must tell some sort of story when making the video. Then there is the audio that goes with it which may me more important than the video. I don't do a lot of talking in my video's mostly music which I try to find music that is free and that I won't infringe on anyones copyright . To me picking out the music is the hardest part because it becomes the backbone of the video. So lets talk about hardware that I use.

Being able to shoot steady video is a must and you should be able to do it safely. If you're on a bicycle and pedaling you don't want anything to distract you so you don't get in an accident. If you are holding your camera in one hand then that hand is not on the handlebars making it more dangerous. So I have my camera/cameras attached to something.  I have one GoPro attached to my handlebars via a snap mount. This mount uses magnets to secure the camera to the mount which makes removing it easer to change batteries or just remove the GoPro at the end of the day. I highly recommend these mount as I tried to do it cheaper with mounts I already had but didn't work nearly as well as the Snap Mounts do. The magnets attach to the GoPro and to the mount itself so they "Snap" together. When you take the GoPro off of the mount you can attach it to any metal surface and it will stick. Like a pole or refrigerator. It also opens up and can be used like a small tripod. The other mount I sometimes use is a helmet mount that goes on my helmet. This gives the viewer the point of view from head high so as I look around the video pans with me.  I can control the one on top of my head either by pushing a button or by using my phone via bluetooth. My phone is also attached to my bike handlebars and use it for navigation , milage and the such so with the tap of the screen I can turn the helmet camera on and off. The one on the handlebars I just use the button on the camera. I don't run the camera all of the time but take maybe 20 or 30 seconds snapshots of the ride along the way. Trying to pick out interesting things to see for the viewer. Then in post I put all of these little snapshots together to make a story.

Software: Like I said before I use iMovie . This is a very simple program that comes with Macs. It is very easy to use and it is drag and drop. You can insert Text and photo's into the movies you make along with the music clips that you are using. It puts everything on a timeline. You can cut and trim the video clips to make them more story telling and you can blend them together so the video is smooth not choppy .  There are much more professional video editing programs out there but for me this is the easiest one for me to use. When your video is finished you can export it out as a file or send it directly to Facebook or Youtube. I usually make a file and then send it to Youtube where I link it to Facebook if I want to . Depending on the quality that you shoot the video you can put out in 4k if you shot it in 4k. I usually shoot in 1080 that works for me. Here are some examples of my biking videos.

Autumn's End, Neuse River Trail 30.5 miles, 1st Bike Packing/Touring Trip

Please checkout my videos. Well that's enough for today on video and bikes. Until next week Get out and Shoot. 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey 

Y'all ! Hope this week is going well! This week is the last blog in the 4 part series of Landscape Gear. We have covered camera bodies, lenses, tripods and filters and this week we are going to cover bags and inserts. I have to admit I have a problem when it comes to bags I have been searching for the right bag for decades and have gone through many but have finally settled on a few that I have been happy with for a few years. I will go over what I think is the answer for a new Landscape photographer.

Bags come in a variety of sizes and shapes and have all kinds of things built into them but basically they hold our gear when we go from place to place. When we get there we take out our camera and they are an empty bag with a lens or so in them. For me the biggest consideration is comfort. It took me many years to figure this out. I aways seemed to get bags with all the pockets and gizmos until I figured out that comfort is the main consideration when getting a new bag. Whether it's a backpack or a sling bag it should be comfortable. With the weight of your gear the comfort should be the most important consideration. Of course protection of your gear is important. From bumps and shocks and from the weather. I would steer away from cheap bags although they might look good and have all kinds of compartments they are often uncomfortable especially when weighed down with gear. An easy way to get around this is with camera inserts. Camera inserts are containers that hold your gear. They are usually a rectangle box with padded compartments for your gear. This box with your gear can easily be put in an ordinary backpack that you already own and is comfortable. I use this method many times when I just want to carry my camera and maybe one lens. It is great for backpacking and hiking when you already have comfortable backpack to use. I also use it in a shoulder bag that I have that was really a large lumbar bag (fanny Pack) but this insert fits perfectly in. If you've been reading my blogs for a while you will know this bag as my purse that I carry my street stuff and sometimes my landscape if I have a short distance to walk to carry gear. 

Bags and inserts are very personal and must be chosen with care or you will accumulate a lot bags before you find the right one. I know I did and I sold or gave away all of the bags I didn't use except for a few. My main backpack now is a Shimoda Action X 30 liter bag. It is the most comfortable backpack that I have ever used made out of waterproof material and water resistance zippers. It has a separate place on top of the bag for things like a jacket or mittens. The purse I have already told you about which I really love and use all of the time. I have a few day hike backpacks an Osprey and a Mountain hardware that I can put insert in for day hikes and the such. I think that a good backpack for your camera gear as a landscape photographer is probably more practical than a sling bag for the walking and hiking you may have to do to get to the spot where you will photograph . Remember not to get a backpack that is too large. The bigger it is the more stuff that you will bring to weigh it down and make it uncomfortable.

There you have it the end of my 4 part series on Landscape Photography Gear. Hope you have enjoyed it and hope it helped a little when choosing gear for your landscape kit. Until next week Get out and Shoot. 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope your week is going well! This week is the 3rd in a 4 part series on Landscape 

Tripods. Since the Ansel Adams times to today a tripod is a useful piece of Kit for your Landscape Photography. With modern camera bodies and in camera stabilization tripods aren't as needed as they used to be. Some Landscape photographers don't like tripods at all but I think they do have their place although I don't use them as much as I used to. For shooting in low light conditions or where I want to show motion like waterfalls or capturing clouds crossing the sky. And in Astro Photography it's a must. So what kind of tripod? I don't think the make and model is as important as the quality of the tripod. Tripods are made in all different kinds of materials from aluminum , wood, carbon fiber and plastic. I prefer carbon fiber they are lightweight and strong. They also come in many price points from cheap to very expensive. I would land somewhere in the middle around 200 dollars you can get a fairly decent one. You want a tripod that is large enough to support your camera and your heaviest lens with ease. They come in weight ratings so make sure to find them while doing your research. If you have the choice between a cheaper one and a somewhat expensive I would go for the somewhat expensive . They will last a long time! I've got a travel tripod that I've had over a decade and I've just bought a heaver duty one in the last year because my gear has got heaver. I spent about 200 bucks for each.

Filters. Filters can be a very important part of a Landscape photographers Kit. There are really two types of filters that you should have. The first one is the most important items in your Kit is the Polarizer filter. A polarizer filter can take the shine and reflection off of shiny surfaces and enhance the colors of leaves and foliage. The polarizer can't be duplicated in photoshop and makes blue skies bluer and just enhances  your photos. A must have. The next filter is the Neutral Density filter. It cuts out the light and allows you to slow down your shutter speed. This works great for flowing water like a waterfall and makes the water blurry and smooth giving water that dreamy look. These filters come in different strengths or stops of light. The more stops of light the darker. A 10 stop neutral density filter is almost completely black. When shooting waterfalls a Polarizer to cut the glare off of the water and a neutral density of 2 or 3 will make great shots. Neutral Density filters also come in a Veritable type that will have say a 2 to 8 all built into one filter. Now filters also come from cheap to very expensive and the same rule I used with most things is not to buy cheap and not expensive somewhere in the middle will be a good quality.

Well there you have it 3 out of the 4 part series. So until next week Get out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! This week is Part 2 of our series on Landscape photography Gear. I have been shooting Landscape photography for quite a few decades and will try to pass on what I have learned by trial and error. And believe me there has been lots of errors! This week we will discuss the Lenses you will need for Landscape Photography. Through my travels and decades of shooting Landscapes I have gone through lots of different lenses from top of the line to the cheap kit lenses. I have gone through primes and zoom lenses and have come up with what I think you need in your Landscape photography lens Kit so lets get started. If you are new to photography you should match the correct lens to body. What does that mean? In the last blog where I talked about camera body and sensor size you should match the appropriate lens to body. You can't use a crop sensor lens on a full frame camera but you can go the other way around. If your confused get with a experienced photographer to help you through the process.

Zooms or Primes? Well during my time shooting Landscapes I have gone through phases where I shot only primes and phases where I have shot zooms only. After all of that trial and error I have come up with what I think its a good answer. You really might need both! LOL For over all general Landscape photography I think that Zooms are the best option. Let's say you're on a trail and can't get off of the trail a zoom is great at zooming in or out to get the composition that you want without leaving the trail. Zooms work great for this and the quality of zooms these days are fantastic. In years past it was primes that had the sharpness and contrast that you wanted but now with newer zooms you can't tell the difference. Now remember I said both. For general landscapes Zooms but for specialized I say Primes. What is specialized Landscape? I think that Astro/Landscape that a prime would be better. Mainly because you can get a wider aperture to get more light in for the shot. And also Macro I would prefer a Prime lens. But these are specialized areas of Landscape photography and are only needed if interested in those areas.

What Focal Length Lenses? Well this is a tricky subject and I will start and say it depends. I know that's a lame answer but it depends on what type of landscape photography you like. I would say look at some of your favorite photographers and their photos. Thats what your are going to try to emulate as a budding landscape photographer. So if your favorite photographer shoots wide angle shots I would get something like a 16-35mm lens But if you favorite photographer shoots isolated shots I would say a 70-200mm might work for you or maybe your in the middle and a 24-70 might be the ticket. Well look there I just named the holy trinity of lenses. the 16-35, 24-70, 70-200. These are all great choices to landscape photography. You need to find out what you like to shoot. Right now in my landscape kit I'm shooting a 20-70 and a 100-400 and that's all I'm carrying. On my last Fall Colors trip those are the only two lenses I took for a 5 day trip in West Virginia and they worked great. Now I have a 16-35 but haven't used it in a while. I didn't want for anything else on my trip . But that's me. You might be different. You need to find out what you like need. I do shoot astro occasionally so I have a 20mm that I use. Usually a 14 to 24mm primes are used for this. I only take this lens with me if I expect to shoot Astro. You may think that you need every lens that there is but honestly a two lens kit for Landscape is all you need a long and a short .  Say a 16-35mm and a 70-200mm would be great for most people.

What about Apertures? In an earlier blog I said that Aperture is the most expensive part of photography and it should come into play when buying and choosing a lens. The wider the Aperture the more you can isolate and blur or create bokeh in your photographs. Which is great if your taking portraits but in landscape you want as much of the scene in focus as possible.  So shooting at Wide apertures f/2.8 in zooms is not needed. These lenses are also very expensive. For example I have a Sony 20-70 f/4 lens cost is 998 on Amazon the Sony 24-70 f/2.8 lens newest version cost 2200 on Amazon. Big difference! So I'm saying if you are not going to shoot portraits you don't need the f/2.8 Zoom in any focal length . I think that if you get a constant f/4 lens you will be very happy in Landscape Photography. Most landscape shots are shot at f/8 or smaller like f/11 to get the most depth of field in focus. So spending the extra money to get the fancy lens for landscape is a waste if you ask me. I've had both and they are both great lenses but for what I shoot the f/4 lenses work best for me . Not only are they cheaper but they are lighter and smaller. Things I need when walking through the woods. Carrying around a 70-200mm f/2.8 is like carrying around a toddler all day. It just wears you out. With my prime lenses for Macro or Astro photography. For Astro I wouldn't get wider than f/1.8 a f/1.4 although is nice is twice the weight/size and cost where a f/1.8 will give you the results you need. For Macro a f/2.8 is the common Aperture. Remember the primes are specialties and not needed for general Landscape Photography.

Used or New? Well that depends on your finances. I would say that if you can afford newer lenses get them they are very sharp and any corrections are made in software. And they tend to be lighter. You can buy these used also but from a reputable  seller like KEH or MPB you still get a warranty although a shorter one. I like used and all of my lenses I buy used if possible since I'm on a fixed budget.

So in conclusion I would say get a short and longer zoom in your kit. Say 16-35mm and a 70-200. I would get them in fixed f/4 aperture. For specialty lenses like Astro or Macro I would get Prime Lenses as mentioned above. So until next week Get out and Shoot. 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope you having a great week. Me? Pretty good thanks for asking. This week I want to start a Landscape photography gear series. This will be a 4 part series going over what I think you need to take quality landscape shots. If you are into landscape photography you don't need to break the bank for photography gear to get great shots. It can be done very simply with minimal gear. This series in Landscape camera gear I will try to explain what is important and what is not. I have been shooting Landscape photography for quite a few decades and will try to pass on what I have learned by trial and error. This first part is on the camera body.

First let me start by saying it doesn't matter what brand of camera you get. All of the manufacturers of modern cameras (within the last 10 years) will work for great landscape photography. If you look through magazines or any photographs that have inspired you by any photographer to become a Landscape photographer probably took those photos on a camera that is quite a few years old. Those are fantastic photo's and you don't know what brand or how old the camera is they are just good photos. The most important factors in choosing a camera brand is how does it fit in your hand. Do you like the menus. Does it work for you ergonomically . Will you be happy with it in your hand. So if you don't already have a camera this is how I would choose brand is how does it feel in your hand.

Let's talk about sensor size. Camera sensors come in all sizes from Micro 4/3, APSC, full frame and Medium format. Let me be the first to say that sensor size in Landscape photography does not matter! You can take great photos on a cell phone with the sensor size smaller that your pinky fingernail. If you are just getting into photography I would steer you away from Medium Format because the size of the sensor and file size is just overkill for landscape photography. AMT2016-sony-a6300-review-0423-2Photographer: Anthony Thurston But everything from a cell phone to full frame sensor will work. Micro 4/3 cameras OM Systems (formally Olympus) or Panasonic will work just fine. These small camera systems will have small lenses which will be great for hiking into the backcountry for landscapes. APSC (Crop Sensor)  from Sony, Canon, Nikon or Pentax will all work great! Over 90% of the photos on my website came from a APSC sized sensor on various cameras. Full frame cameras give a little better low light performance due to the size of the sensor and also shallower depth of field which is not really a desired feature in landscape photography. But theses sensors may be better for Astro/Landscape photography. If that is what you are interested in. 

Should I buy new or used? If you are worried about warrantees then go new. But as I said earlier you don't need the newest or latest and greatest camera to shoot landscape. Landscape subjects don't really move much so high speed tracking and focusing isn't necessary. Mirrorless camera's rule the camera bodies now a days but DSLRs are still valid if you are trying to save a buck. An example is a Nikon D850. One of the best DSLR cameras ever made but just remember with the older cameras that if you upgrade you might have to upgrade the lenses also because when Nikon and Canon switched to mirrorless they also changed the mounts of their cameras. I personally use a Sony A7III that came out in 2018. They have came out with many upgrades since this camera came out but this camera still takes great photo's for me. I don't see the need to upgrade in the near future. So if you do buy used do some research take into account lens mounts and the source of your purchase. I would buy from a place that specializes in selling used like KEH or MPB they give smaller warranties on items purchased from them. Either way just know that simple gear works great for Landscape photography and all of the video stuff that they put on the newer cameras won't help you at all in Landscape Photography.

Like I said this is the first of a 4 part series on Landscape photography camera gear.  The next blog will be on Lenses used in Landscape Photography. So until next week Get out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

What's up Ya'll? Hope you're having a great day! This week I want to talk about something I have never discussed before. Because I just figured it out! LOL Shooting in different Aspect Ratio's. I have always just shot in what ever default the camera came in and cropped in post to the Aspect Ratio that I wanted. Sometime this works fine but others I end up chopping something off that I didn't want to like the top of someone's head. But if you shot in that Aspect ratio to start with you would not have that problem. Now if your not familiar with Aspect ratio's lets do a little review.

Aspect ratio in photography is the ratio of an image's width to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. For example, a 3:2 aspect ratio means the image is three times wider than it is tall. Most common aspect ratio's in still photography are 3:2 , 4:3 , 1:1 and most recently 16:9.  To put in more common terms 3:2 equals a 6x4 print you used get with film photography, 4;3 ratio is like the old computer monitors more square, of course 1:1 is square like old 6X6 film cameras and instagram loves this format. And more recently the 16:9 ratio is modern HD moitor and TV size. The latter is the one that I make all of my Title pages for the blog with the titles on them. They fill up the screen. Now there are other aspect ratios especially in printing. But cameras mostly shoot in these 4. My older camera only has two but my newer one has all 4.

Now that we know what aspect ratios are why would we change them in camera? Well for one reason is if you plan to print in a specific ratio you can make sure that it's framed correctly. When you look at your screen and your electronic view finder it's already cropped to the ratio that you picked. Lets say you picked 16:9 when you look at your camera there is a black bar above and below the photo giving you the aspect ratio of 16:9 when you view back on the screen its the same. If you don't like it and shot in raw and import to Lightroom you can go to cropping and put in original aspect ration and it becomes 3:2 again showing all of the photo that was in the black bar part of your camera screen. Older film cameras you used to get focusing screens that would show the lines where the different aspect ratio's would be. So back to the question why would I change ratios in camera? To me it puts a restriction on shooting which makes you think. Kind of like using one prime lens for a shoot for a whole day.  It makes you look at the world a little different making your creative juices flow again. And that's a good thing. If you're in a rut one way to get out of it is shooting restricted a little.  Say shoot 1:1 (square) all day. You will be surprised the shots you will get. And your mind will start seeing that way. It's much like shooting in black and white for a day the same thing happens. For a bonus it's a fun way to get your mojo working again without spending money!

Most camera's will have this feature you just have to look for it . I'm using older cameras and both of mine have it. The older one only has two choices but the newer one has 4 choices. I'm going to start experimenting more shooting like this. So until next week get out and shoot and experiment with Aspect Ratios ! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! How's your week going? Mine is going pretty well. This week I want to talk about my 2025 Film Photography Project. Last year I brought film back into my photography and had a great time doing it. I relearned how to process my own film and create negatives.  How to scan with my camera to get digital copies into my computer where I could do editing and send to screen or print. The whole point of that project was to relearn and perfect those processes to get nice film shots. Images through chemistry not electrons. I got to use some old camera's of mine and purchases a few more camera's. I got to shoot with camera's from the 1960's , 70's and 80's. Perfected using in camera meters (when they worked) and hand held meters to get the proper exposure. I got to see how less critical some camera settings were for certain

Last year I shot mostly 35mm film stock. I shot it full and half frame. I took lots of photo's and even made a book of my prints. This year I'll still shoot a little 35mm but mostly 120 film. Medium format. Last year I purchased a Bronica ETR SI 645 camera . I got very lucky in the purchase and you can read about it in this blog. Bronica ETR SI first thoughts With an almost new vintage 1990's camera I plan on taking this camera around with me on other photo projects and trips and using it to make images. Hopefully I will get well thought out and planned fine art photos. This is not the camera for taking snap shots. I hope to take Landscapes and Cityscapes of places I travel to. It will be going on my big trips with the club but maybe not on trips where I have to travel in a plane. It's fairly big and bulky .  I've got at least one trip that I'm in the works of planning that will require plane travel. But mostly everywhere else. I really only took test shots last year with the camera to test the camera gear and my ability to process the film. I took the camera out today and started playing with it again and I'm not ashamed to say that I had to pull out the manual a few times to figure things out. The 645 format of this camera is the smallest of the medium format and it gives me about 2.5 times the surface area of a 35mm. I did this size to save on film. I'll get 15 shots per roll instead of 12 of 6X7 film or 6x6 film. I do like the format of 6X6 so maybe a camera will be in the future but until I find a great deal I'll be shooting this Bronica.  I plan on shooting black and white and Color film. For color I will be shooting mostly Kodak Gold 200 a consumer film stock. Maybe a roll of Kodak Portra every now and then a professional film stock. And for black and white most likely Illford, Kodak, or Shanghai film. I do like the look of color but will have black and white with me always. What's nice about this camera is the removable film backs so I can switch between color and black and white in mid roll to save on film. Hopefully my skill will improve and I get some dramatic Landscapes is what I'm hoping. 

Hopefully at the end of the year I'll have a book made of medium format film shots made with my Bronica. Until next week Get Out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! This week I want to tell you about a photography trip that I took on New Year's eve. This is an annual trip that my photography wingman Robert and I take every year to capture the first light of the new year. Places we have gone are Carolina Beach NC, Mt. Mitchell, Charlotte, Cape Hatteras and this year it was Kill Devil Hills NC. Last year we added a member to the crew Mike and this year we added one more Caitlin. So we had 4 photogs on this trip. We are all in the same photography club and go on outings with each other often. So let me tell you about our trip.

First we left early on New Year's Eve to head to the coast. First stop was Alligator Wildlife Preserve. Mike is the wildlife expert in our group and comes here often and knows where some of the animals tend to stay. We arrived about 9 o'clock and rode around on dirt roads looking for any type of wildlife. We really wanted to see a bear this day. We saw lots of birds from
Tundra Swans, Hawks, Buzzards and lots of other birds. But no mammals and certainly not any bears although there were signs that they were around. If you know what I mean. LOL We stopped and had a picnic lunch provided by Robert. There were roast beef sandwiches with homemade bread. He likes to take credit but we all know that his wife did most of the work. It was a fantastic lunch which filled us up. The next stop was to scout Kill Devil Hills and Jockey's Ridge State Park.

Scouting Jockey's Ridge, If you don't already know. Jockey's Ridge is a very large Sand Dune Array with lots of sand and a very big Dune. I would guess maybe 3 or 4 Stories high. They actually hang glide off of the dune. Mostly in the summer. The dunes are always shifting and changing and we wanted to see where we would set up for a potential night shot and for the sunrise shot that we came for. We had got permission to be on the Dunes from the State Park (Jockey's Ridge State Park) after and before operating hours of the park. We wanted to get our bearings before trying to find something in the dark in the sand and with the least amount of hiking in the sand which is hard. We found our spot for the sunrise shot but decided to go to Bodie Island Lighthouse for the nighttime shot instead of the dunes.

Sunset Shot. Robert and myself had done a little research and found a spot to do a sunset shot in Manteo NC and eat at a restaurant that we had gone to before for Supper. Prior to going to Manteo we went to our overnight rental and took a few hours off to rest before the nighttime activities started and we had gotten up real early . After our rest we headed off to Manteo which was only a few minutes drive away. What we had forgot in our planning is that it was New Year's Eve and the town of Manteo had some plans of their own.
All of downtown was blocked off for the nights activities so we had to park a lot further away than we expected and it took a little longer to get to our spot. The long shadows of the end of the day had started across our scene so the shot we had planned didn't go as planned. But there were lots of other shots to get. So we did those on the way back to our truck. We did have a great dinner at the restaurant that we had picked out. Then we headed to Bodie Island Lighthouse for our nighttime shot.

Bodie Island . Robert has recently got a Star Tracker to shoot the night sky with. This is a device that moves the camera at the same speed as the earths rotation so you can take longer shutter speed shots . This lets you lower your ISO and bring in more light and keeps the stars pinpoint sharp. The wind was starting to pick up speed as the night went along and it was just a little windy when we shot there. Robert went through all of the motions of showing us how to align the star tracker and taking shots with the machine. I went with my normal set up that I usually use here. Tripod, ISO 1000, Shutter at 20 sec and f/2.0 aperture . This combo seems to work well with my camera/lens combo and I got some really good shots. It got colder and started to mist. Almost a heavy dew that got on everything and made some interesting shots. After the nighttime shots we decided to head to the rental and get some sleep before we had to get up for a early morning shoot at Kill Devil Hills.

New Year Sunrise. We got up and headed to Kill Devil Hills. It was very windy maybe 25-30mph wind with gust even higher. It was 50 degrees with a wind chill of 38. We got to our starting point a little early so we waited in the truck until it was time to hit the dunes. I put on my insulated coveralls to stay warm. I grabbed my tripod camera/lens combo and headed up the dunes.  The higher we got the winder it got. The wind was picking up the sand and blowing it across the dunes. Sand got everywhere to our equipment to our ears and eyes. We worked many compositions but I think I got what I wanted out of the shoot. After maybe an hour on the dunes it was time for breakfast! We stopped at a place that Robert and myself had gone to in the past and it hit the spot! We then started our way home. We stopped at Alligator River on the way home and saw less wildlife than we had seen the day before. I did see a couple of otters playing in the water but only got one shot of them.

This was a great trip and love going with my photog friends. Fun was had by all and lots and lots of laughs were had. Can't wait until next year I wonder where it will be. Until Next Week Get Out and Shoot!

Hey Ya'll! How's it going this week? Me? Great! Thanks for asking. Well it's 2025 and a new year is upon us and it's time for resolutions right? Don't know if I've formally done this before, I know I've stated upcoming projects and the such but not really resolutions . So this year I'm going to make a couple and one big one! As you know I have been dabbling with photography for many years and decades. (since the mid 1970's) This will be the first photography related resolution that I make and I'll try not to break them. So let's get on with the resolutions.

Finish Projects. My first resolution is to finish projects that I have set for myself. Mainly my Small Towns Project that I started last year and didn't finish. I also want to complete my Medium Format Film project. I discuss this project in a future blog so I won't go into detail with it. I also have my continuing Posting 365 day project where I post to Instagram each day. I'll leave a link below for you to follow my progress if you want. Dedication and planning will be the key to finishing these projects and with doing so I hope to become a better and more rounded photographer.

NO NEW GEAR! Yes I said it. No new camera gear for 2025! This will be very hard to keep as I am a gear hound with lots of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). I have great gear and really don't need anymore, although I do have a lens I've had an eye on! LOL But I'm going to resist because I cover the focal length with lenses I already have. This past year I purchased a lot of gear from lenses to film cameras. Yes that was plural quite a few film cameras. Although they weren't as expensive as one digital camera there was quite a few. So many I'm having trouble picking which one I want to use every day. Hopefully my medium format project will keep me in focus with one film
camera. Maybe? Now it doesn't mean I won't buy stuff that is camera related. Like film or accessories for cameras but no more bodies or lenses. Of course if I come upon a killer , can't pass it up, once in a lifetime deal I will jump. But they hardly ever show up. The money that I spent on camera's and lenses I'll try to spend on trips and adventures instead. Still photography related but not gear. Yes this will be hard for me to control myself. I order so much stuff my wife periodically ask me what I have ordered. LOL She asked me the other day and I didn't have anything ordered . A first! LOL

Fine Art Black and White film Photography. This year I want to work hard on making really great Black and White film photographs. From the metering to the final scan into my computer. I want to perfect the process. I shoot color and process color film too but I do that pretty well but the timeless look of Black and White and shapes and tones that the medium shows I think is stunning. So you will start to see much more Monochrome photo's from me in the future. We have a guy in our club who is new to photography but his Black and Whites are stunning and I wan't to do the same with film as he does with digital. I also want to become proficient in the Zone System of metering which was created by Ansel Adams.  I've already started studying and trying to learn the system. Maybe there will be a blog on this but I must get much better and proficient than I am now before I can talk about it.

Well those are my New Years Photography Resolutions. What's yours? Have you started a Photography Project for the new year? I think they are great and a lot easier than trying to loose weight or to stop smoking. Let me know what kind of photography resolutions you come up with. Until next week Get Out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey 

Y'all ! Hope you're having a great day and week! Today is Christmas and the big event of opening presents and family doesn't start until tonight. There is only one blog left for this year as there is only one Friday left. So what a better time to talk about 365 day projects. There are many types of 365 day projects and today I'll go over 3. Now to accomplish these projects you don't need any fancy gear no new camera or film or even a camera at all maybe just your cell phone. But a camera would be easiest. What you produce doesn't have to be winner shots because who can make a winner shot every day? But they should be well thought out and planned to make a successful project. The three projects are Posting Once A Day, Photo Once A Day and Print Once A Day. I have tried and failed at each of these but one I have been successful for at least a few years. So why would you do a project like this? It keeps you shooting! You've heard practice makes perfect and you must put in 10000 hours of work in something to be proficient at it. Well that's why you take on a project like this. It makes you Shoot , Think and Plan about photography. Let's talk about all three of them. flickr

Post a Photo a Day,  This is the one I have been doing for quite a few years. I post once a day to Instagram. Instagram is a social media site that used to be only photography but has become a lot of video but that's where I post. It could be to Flicker, 500px or even Facebook. If you would like to see the kinds of photo's I post  I'll leave a link at the bottom of this blog. To me posting once a day is easier than the other two types of 365 projects. I have tried both and failed miserably. But it is the most visible and acceptable. If you take a photo once a day but no one see it there is less pressure to produce and for me it was easier to fail. To print a photo each day means you have to have lots of photo's on hand to choose from so not only are you taking photo's but you are printing them also and like before no one see's them but you.

Take a Photo a Day, This is a very challenging project. You must have some sort of camera with you all the time and believe me it's a struggle to find something interesting to shoot every day. And with our busy lives just finding the time is a problem. I think that you should have a detailed plan on what to shoot every day maybe a list of 365 things to look for to shoot every day so your eye is always searching for something new. As I have said before I have tried and failed this project a few times. But I think that this would be a fulfilling project and something to talk about. I completed a 365 shoot a day project. Not many can say that. It's like hiking the Appalachian Trail. Many have tried but only a few have done it.

Printing a Photo a Day, To me this may be the hardest to complete. First of all it takes a monetary commitment. Ink and paper aren't cheap. And what happens if your pinter dies? And you still have to take the photo's to supply. But the rewards would be great! 365 prints a year. And if they were 8x10 think of the memories and heirlooms that you could pass on. And you would become a master printer in the process! I can defiantly see the benefits of this Photographers Eye project.

For me the post project is the easiest. I usually shoot maybe once a week or so and that shoot say a photowalk supplies me with photo's . I call it feeding Gram. LOL I have to have enough to keep posting something new.  The shoot once a day is very hard and it could be combined with posting which would make it even harder. The print one is the hardest I think because not only do you have to feed that printer but printing is a skill I really don't have and then there is the ink and paper that you would have to provide which sometimes cost more than the printer. But there you have it three 365 projects that you can do next year. Until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great Holiday season. It's the end of the year and there are certain things I think that every Photographer should do to end this year and begin the next year on the right foot. Now I'm a very organized person and this stuff might not apply to you as it does to me. Planning the next years activities and trips is crucial to having a successful year. And reviewing the previous year can help in figuring what went wrong and what went right with projects or trips.  

Reviewing things that went right in your last year project and trips. Did they go as planned? Were the plans you made good did they have enough detail or too much? Was there enough time to complete? Was it fun? Because most of all Photography and the things we do with it should be fun! Thats why we do it. Take a good honest look at how your year went. Did you get good winners? Last year I had a couple of good winners but not as many as years past. Why? Maybe it was the subjects I was shooting. Maybe I wasn't as inspired. Maybe I just wasn't holding my tongue right. There could be many reasons but be honest and figure it out so you do better next year. Start planning for next year by setting up projects and trips. I have just started my trips planning and one is the a yearly New Years sunrise shoot that I do with my photography wingman Robert. This year we have added a couple of other photographers so there will be 4 of us. We are also talking about a trip to the mid west in May I'll give you more info when we start to plan and finalize the trip. There is our yearly fall trip with my photography club that I sure will be attending. So there are at least 3 trips that I already have planned and I would like to take my camper out for a couple of more trips with my wife and Forrest the wonder dog. But I still haven't finalized any of that. I want to finish my Small Towns project that I started this year but for some reason or another didn't finish. So that can be a weekly small trips. I'm looking at doing maybe a small bike packing trip also that will produce some photography or at least a good video. I think bike riding and video kind of go hand in hand. Then there is the photography Club stuff that I will be doing. As one of the officers of the club I tend to get volunteered to do some sort of presentation or two during the year. Then there is this blog that keeps me thinking and writing about photography.  Last but not least there is my Film Photography that I am still going to do. This year I want to concentrate on medium format photography with my Bronica ETR SI 645 film camera that I have. So I have lots to do and plan for this year.

Some other maintenance things that I think photographers should do. First I think that you should check the firmware updates on all of the camera equipment that you have. From Camera Bodies to Lenses and even some flash heads you can check and maybe upgrade the firmware.  Another maintenance item to do is to change the copyright year on the metadata on your camera if your are doing it in camera or in software like Lightroom. This is easy to do but also easy to forget. So at the first of the year make sure you change the year. What about updating your inventory of your camera equipment? Keeping this up to date and sent to your insurance company can be critical if you break something but it's not on the list of items you insured. So it's a great time to do an inventory not only for insurance reasons but maybe you have some stuff that you don't need anymore and can sell or maybe you have some stuff to upgrade. The biggest item I need to upgrade is my Laptop. Although I use a MacMini desktop computer for most of my editing stuff my laptop is almost obsolete because of age and not being able to keep up with newer operating systems and software. I have been using an iPad for mobile editing and it works good but I may need a newer laptop to run Photography meetings and it would be much easer on trips than my iPad. So that's one thing I'm thinking about upgrading this year. I'm down to a couple of models of MacBooks but haven't decided yet but I'm sure it won't be long before I'm writing a blog about my new MacBook.

Well I have rambled on enough. The point of all of this is to plan your year and get ready so all you have to do is start shooting. The less you have to figure out the more energy you can put towards your photography. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out some more of my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great day! It's the holiday season and folks will be buying photography gear for Christmas. I've already had a couple of people ask me for recommendations for loved ones. This week I want to talk about the most expensive item in Photography. It doesn't matter what brand you used whether it be Sony, Canon, or Nikon or any other brand. And it's not an item per se but an element in the exposure triangle. Its Aperture !  Let me explain a little. Aperture is the opening in your lens. The f/stop that people are always talking about. The largest size aperture will determine the total cost of a lens to a certain point. It can make the price of lenses double. If you've bought many lenses you know that they are expensive enough. I have written about Lenses in the past like which is better prime or zooms and other topics. But I was watching a YouTube video and it was the basics of photography and this guy said that Aperture was the most expensive part in photography. And I started thinking about it and it is. I have never thought about it before but it really is. For almost any type of photography the Aperture  (especially in zoom lenses)  is the most important part of the equation . I've always said invest in good glass not camera bodies. Good glass is expensive but it will last much longer than the body will. New technology will make the fancy new stuff on your shiny camera body not so new after a couple of years but a good lens can last decades. Good Zoom lenses aren't cheep but one with a low aperture can almost cost as much as that fancy new  camera body does. For example in Amazon a Sony 20-70 f/4 G lens cost 998 dollars today. A 24-70 f/2.8 GM cost 2299 dollars today. By comparison a Sony A7IV which most Sony professional portrait and wedding photographers use at 33 megapixels cost  2098 dollars. Now it's not the biggest and baddest Sony body but you can see that a a low aperture zoom lens cost money. And most folks want a zoom lens.

So what does all of this mean? Well what it really means is to decide what kind of photography do you shoot? Do you really need that low aperture lens? If you are a professional  portrait photographer and need the separation or bokeh or a wedding photographer maybe you need that fast lens. And if you're a professional go ahead and buy it you can claim it on your taxes as a business expense. But most of us are not professional and don't have the easy access to cash. Take me for example I am a hobbyist and take photo's for fun I'm retired and on a fixed income so money is tight. Do I really need the wide open apertures when I shoot most of my stuff? My main lens is the one mentioned above the Sony 20-70 f/4 lens and I bought it used from MPB used to save even more money. I don't shoot portraits where I need things to really blur out in the background. If I do I don't use a zoom lens like mentioned before. I use a prime lens which is less expensive and I can get wider apertures like f/1.8. Let me share  a shoot I just did. It was the Christmas parade. In our town it starts at 4pm which means about mid-way through it will get darker and on the f/4 lens my ISO's will rise dramatically . So when it started to get dark I put on a 50mm f/2.5 lens and got great results. So if you want to shoot with wide apertures Primes are the way to go. You can get them at f/1.8 reasonably cheap and that is plenty of aperture for blurry backgrounds. They do make f/1.4 and smaller but you get back to the expensive range again. So if your a landscape or really any type of photographer that's not a portrait or wedding photographer I would go with lenses with say a constant f/4 for the maximum aperture . It's a middle of the road aperture lens. Not the cheapest kit lens with variable apertures. Most modern lenses use software to correct lens flaws that more expensive lenses correct optically making them more expensive. The middle of the road works great for me and how I shoot and I don't want for the biggest and baddest new lens that just came out. If I need separation or the blurred out bokeh I grab one of my primes. In the big picture it's a lot cheaper and I get as good or better results. 

Well that's enough for today until next week grab the gear you own and Get out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Ya'll! We are in the last month of the year and I think it's a time to remember the last year and the photography highlights. Seeing what we have done and planning what we will do is an annual process for me. I think that planning is important part of having a successful year. I try to plan trips and projects as much as I can but looking back is a process that we should do also. This blog is about looking back at the great year that I have had. 

Projects: I had a few projects this past year. This blog is one of my photography projects. It's a way I can express myself and give my opinions about stuff Photography and otherwise related subjects. It's quite an  undertaking coming up with topics, trying to make it interesting and Photo's to go with the text. This is at least the third year of weekly blogs.  I feel obligated to put one out each and every week. My next project was the Small Town project. This is where I would pick a small town and spend a day taking photo's and documenting the town. I had about 25 small towns picked out in eastern North Carolina. I got to about 2/3rds of them but not quite all. So I didn't finish this project. But it really gave me a weekly thing to do. I would travel each week to a different town after doing a little research and photograph the town. Sometimes my wife would accompany me and we would make a day of it. But for some reason I didn't quite finish this project and will begin again next year to finish and when I Virginia Shed finish I will make a personal book on it. So that will go on the next years goals to finish. Maybe my biggest project was the film project. In this project I took vintage cameras shot film and processed it at home and bring into Lightroom and process like digital photos. I absolutely loved this project and it took me back to my roots of photography. It started out slowly but became a main part of my photography for the year. I bought inexpensive film cameras cleaned them up and ran some film through them. I even bought a Medium Format Camera. I got better at the processing and the photography and by the end of the year I was getting good results. I did make a book of the photo's. I made it like the old fashioned books with printed photo's Charleston West Virginia attached to the album with the little sticky corners to hold the photo's in place. This was a great success and I carry a film camera everywhere I have my digital. The last project is like every year making a book out of photo's that I think were winners. I have completed this book and it will be mostly an heirloom passed down through generations I hope.  To me it's a way to preserve my photography by printing a book. 

Trips: I was very lucky this year and was able to go on a few trips .  Me and my photography wingman Robert went on a few trips . First there was our annual New Years trip to Cape Hatteras that Mike joined us to bring in the new year. We also did a couple of other trips one to a local farm to shoot a cabin , one to a friends house to shoot some of his live stock. We went to Virginia a couple of times once to shoot the milky way and another to shoot race cars at the Virginia International Raceway . We did some back country roads trips also . Our longest trip wast to Indiana for a Bicycle road race that he was going to ride in. We made a road trip out of it and hit 8 states in 5 days. We make a great photography Duo and hope to take many more trips in the future. My photography club also had two trips this year not to count the monthly workshops which sometimes included day trips. Our first trip was to the low country of Georgia and South Carolina hitting Savannah and many spot northward. It was a fantastic trip with a great group of folks. The other trip was the Fall Colors Trip to West Virginia. We were in the New River Gorge National Park area and had wonderful colors and as always a great group of people to photograph and share the experience with.

Over all I had a great year and am looking forward to the next .  I have already started planning for next year and hope to have a busy photography year next year. How was your year? Let me know. Until Next week Get out and shoot!

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week! This week I wan't to talk about my 35mm film cameras. Which happen to be all Canon's. I can tell you that this was not a planned thing and I have never really been a Canon fan before but there you go. When it comes to film I'm a Canon Shooter.  I have 3 main 35mm cameras that I use.  The Canon AE-1 Program, Canon Canonet QL17 G3, and the newly acquired Canon Demi EE 17 half frame camera. Now I have several other 35mm cameras but these have become my main ones mainly due to the great lenses they have.  Although they are all 35mm cameras they are not the same. Like an assortment of fine screwdrivers they each have a specific role like different tools in a toolbox.

The first one that I got was the Canon Canonet QL 17. I was really looking for a rangefinder type of camera. Leicas were well out of my price range so I started lookin for a camera that would fill this need that I wanted to fill. I discovered this camera through hours and hours of research. First I bought a Canonet 19 the earlier big brother to the QL 17 and it took good photo's but the 1961 model was large and heavy and I had to use a external meter because the meter that's on the Canonet 19 was not working. So I found the QL 17 . It's known as the poor man's Leica.  It's a true rangefinder not just a look a like .  The lens is sharp with lots of contrast and has a 40mm lens with a max aperture of f/1.7. This is a great walk around camera and is great for casual photowalks. With a fixed lens you don't have to worry about extra gear. Fun to shoot and looks good also!

The second Canon I have is the AE-1 Program. One of the most popular camera's ever produced. I got this one from a friend who gifted it to me. The one thing I like about it is the Viewfinder is clear and sharp and focusing is very easy. This camera is the most versatile of these cameras with up to 1/1000 second shutter speed and interchangeable lenses. I purchased a 28mm lens to get this camera kit where I want it. I use this for photowalks and project work. Like my cities and film projects that I'm currently in the process of doing. This is the Cadillac of my 35mm cameras . Love the images that I get out of this camera and it has a grip on it that makes it easy to hold.

The third Canon in the line up is the Canon Demi EE 17. This is a half frame camera. Which means it shoots frames that are half the size of a normal 35mm negative. So you get twice the photo's that you would get with a normal 35mm camera. This will become my companion camera . When I'm shooting digital this small camera will fit in the bag nicely. I will be able to get some film shots without using a lot of film. It has a 30mm f/1.7 lens which is very sharp. You will find this camera in my bag almost all the time whether I'm shooting digital or film it makes a great companion and backup. Its a very fun camera to shoot.

All three of these cameras can shoot in manual and in Shutter priority mode. All of the meters are accurate to 1/2 stop which is fine for the negative print film that I shoot. Will this assortment of camera's change? I'm not thinking so right now but things change. I also shoot digital and medium format film. Photography is so much fun you can live in the past and shoot film and you can take all of that basic work to your digital work flow which makes it better too. My advice would be to explore all of the different types of photography to become a better photographer. So until next week get out and shoot!

Hey 

Y'all! Hope your week is going well. The holiday season is upon us and I'm watching Hallmark Chistmas movies already! LOL The holidays are special and time to spend with friends and family. A great time to capture the meaning of the season to you.  Holiday photography can be fun and memories can be had to share with the ones you love. Now we've all had that uncle Bob who had a good camera and was taking all kinds of photo's and fumbling with his equipment all of the time. Sometimes you had to wait for ole uncle Bob to get his stuff together before the shot was taken and the mood may have been lost. Don't be that guy! For Christmas photography simple is better. Being spontaneous and quick to the trigger is the best for these type of photography and don't be shy of using your mobile phone. When I think of intimate family photography I think of my friend Jennifer who takes great cell phone photo's. She post and shares online and the photographs are fantastic. She has a big Girl Camera and takes wonderful photo's but the everyday shoot from the hip shots are great. (Don't tell her I said this don't want her to get a big head) LOL Now there are all types of photography from formal portraits, Christmas cards, casual snapshots, to details of decorations and food being prepared. Lets talk a little about each.

Christmas Cards. These need to be planned well in advance of time to send these out. And they may be a thing of the past with all the new advances in tech. People don't send cards like they used to. Or if they do one they send it via Email or online. But I'm in favor of the Printed card with a special personal note when sent out. I must confess I haven't done one in a while but they are fun to do and are sure to make someone's fridge or mantle. 

Formal Portraits. I did this one Thanksgiving and of course I over did it. I had backdrops , Lights , Tripod the works. The photo's came out well but it was a lot of stuff going on. I wouldn't recommend this but a great family portrait using a self timer is a must do every year. This way you get at least a photo of everyone every year. With additions to the family and youngsters growing up in the photographs. This can easily be done with a cell phone or your big boy/girl camera set with the self timer. Make sure you get everyone in and go wide enough so you can crop a little to get the right size for framing.

Now you can use your phone to take most of these shots. I suggest bringing them into LightRoom to give them the sparkle that they need. Although most shots shot with your phone look good you can make them look better. And of course bring in your regular shots into your photo editing software like you always do. Afterwards you can export in any size or quality you want to social media or to get printed.

Details. To me this is the fun part. Table decorations, Decorations around town. Christmas lights, Food being prepared , the turkey coming out of the oven . To me photographing these things during the holiday really puts me in the mood for the holidays. Stupid Hallmark movies are getting me all misty eyed. LOL Until next week Get out and Shoot!

I'm looking forward to the holidays and hope you are. I wish that each and every one of you have a happy and safe holiday season. 

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a good week. Me pretty well getting ready for another fall trip to the mountains. This year we'll ( my camera club) will be going to West Virginia in the New River Gorge Area. Thankfully we didn't plan to go to the devastated North Carolina mountains this year as we have done in the past. It saddens me all the devastation to the place that I hold so dear to my heart. Well this week we will talk about something I don't really talk about too much. How your camera isn't that important in photography. I know, I know, I'm a gear guy and this blog is mostly about the gear that we use. Now I'm going to tell you that for most of us the type of camera body that you use doesn't matter. If you watch YouTube or Instagram or Ticktock you know that they Pops are always hyping the latest and greatest camera body's , what they can do , how many frames per second how fast they focus, the megapixels or whatever new feature they might have. I'm here to say that unless your are a professional photographer or specialize in some sort of photography that needs 120 frames per second or focus that can track a fly in mid-flight you don't need the fanciest camera out there. And I'm here to tell you that if you're an average photographer like I am if you buy the top of the line camera that you are wasting your money buying features that you won't use and unless you have disposable money unlike myself you should use what you have.  For most of us our photo's won't improve with the new camera.  If you use your camera like I do for street, travel or landscape photography a new body will not improve your photographs. The frames per second or the fancy fast focus will not focus any sharper than the camera you have. Unless you're shooting wildlife or sports the fast shooting or fast focusing won't help. Megapixels don't really matter except for crop factor if you really want to crop in a lot. If you're using your photo's for social media, or printing for your wall how many megapixels isn't really going to matter if you have 24 megapixels or more. Now this is all my opinion. I think that you would be better suited in buying good lenses and spending your money there than in fancy bodies and not improving your lenses. Road to the TempleGoblin Valley State Park Utah Lens quality I think is more important than that of the camera body itself. A good lens no matter what body you have on it will give you sharp photo's. I try to practice what I preach my main lenses each cost more than the body that I put them on. Only one of them is the top of the line but the others are very close to the top and very high quality. The camera body that I am using is a Sony A7C which is very new to me. It is not considered a professional camera but a consumer grade camera. It was released in 2020. The camera that was a Pro/Sumer camera that used to be the main camera is the Sony Cherokee A7III which was released in 2017 I still have it and used it around the house and for my negative scanning. So I don't have the latest and greatest camera body. But I still think that I produce very good photo's and don't think the camera body is holding me back at all. Very much the other way around. I don't think that I use only just a little of what my current camera body can do. 

So why am I telling you all of this? Because I think there is too much pressure on getting new camera's the latest and greatest. Don't get me wrong everyone wants and likes new gear. But for most of us it's not needed but with social media , Peer Living Waters pressure there is a lot of pressure to upgrade to the latest and greatest. And yes I have fallen to this in the past. Thinking that if I get this camera or whatever type of gear that my photo's will get better. So I would buy that new body. But the photos never get better. I may focus faster, the megapixels may be more but the photo's still look the same. You've always heard folks say " Hey that's a great photo you must have a nice camera" And you always think to yourself. Silly the camera didn't take the photo I did. You wouldn't complement a carpenter " Hey nice house you must have a nice hammer" No you know the EYES skill that the carpenter has built the house and the hammer was just a tool. The same is with the camera. It's the photographer that took the photograph not the camera. It's just a tool. So if you want to take good photographs I would advise you into investing into photography education, learning how to use the current camera you have and practice , practice , practice. You will come out with better photographs and spend a lot less money. Then and only then when you reach your camera's limits then upgrade.

Well that's all I have for this week . Until next week get outside and shoot!

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Well last week I was in West Virginia on a Fall Colors workshop with my Photography Club. We spent 5 days going around taking photo's of the stunning landscapes and cute little towns. We were based in Fayetteville West Virginia in an Air B&B and traveled mostly in the New River Gorge National Park area but did veer away from the park many times. We had good food and fellowship and did editing and helped each other in areas we are weak in. I love these workshops it's like being with my photography family and I'm the crazy uncle. We had some members that had never been to West Virginia before and it was fun showing them around and seeing what photo's they got out of the new environment. They really got some good ones I think from what I saw when we were editing. When we go on workshops they are really workshops not vacations. Although we have fun and kid around we start before the sun comes up and often finish after it sets. We eat a local restaurants to support the communities we visit and the food is usually excellent. We may eat in one night making spaghetti or Pizza. I like to explain it as summer camp for old folds. There is a lot of kidding and joking. We even give nicknames like in summer camp. Fun is guaranteed .  For this trip I tried to keep my equipment simple. Usually I bring lots of lenses and equipment. This time I brought 2 lenses. The 20-70 F4 and a 100-400 , both Sony to go with my Sony A7C body. I was the only Sony of the group. I was very happy with my choices.  I did bring filters and tripod and that was it for digital photography . I did bring my Canon Demi EE17 half frame Film Camera but didn't get through a roll of film. I was too busy with my digital and I was Volunteered to take and make the trip video. You can see it here at this link. 2024 Fall Trip West Virginia It is very hard to shoot photo's and video at the same time. I think they both suffer when you try to do both. It's much easier to pick one or the other and just shoot it.  But I was doing both plus trying to get some film in and of course an iPhone shot or two to post quickly into social media. So I was working 4 Cameras. For photo editing and backups I used an iPad pro with the M1 chip in it. I would back up photo's to an external SSD hard drive then pick a few photo's to edit in Lightroom (mobile) the same with iPhone shots I would bring them into the SSD and choose which ones to edit and post to social media like Instagram and Facebook. I was the only one using a iPad everyone else was using a laptop and to tell you the truth I will probably go back to a laptop when the iPad becomes too slow to work on but now it works fine for mobile editing. The house we were staying in was very nice with a great view of Hawks Nest State Park. I even got my own room this time which was a first and I quite like it . Usually I'm sharing a room or bunk house with the other guys on the workshop. Usually we spend a full week but shortened it this year to 5 days because we had Spring Workshop in the Low Country of Georgia and South Carolina and there were some people that didn't have the vacation or PTO days to go on this trip. We only had 6 attend. But the cost was still low. 350 for 5 days and share gas and house food. You can't beat that for being economical for all the stuff that we did and our accommodations .  Here is a quick rundown of what we did on our trip.

Day 1- Travel day- On the way to Fayetteville WV from North Carolina is about a 6 hour trip. We stopped at  Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was very windy and cold when we got out of the warm truck I was riding in.  After that we went and found a local Restaurant and had a great lunch. We then headed to Brush's Falls just off the road on the way. We have never been to this waterfall before and it was fantastic. We left there and headed towards our house and stopped for Mexican food before getting to the house after dark unpacking and going to bed.

Day 2- Grandview and Sandstone Falls in the New River Gorge National Park. First it was to Grandview which looks over the New River and it makes a big "U" turn in front of you. It was cloudy so the sunrise wasn't great then we went to Turkey Spur Overlook which looks over the same spot in the river but much higher (stairs) After that we headed to Sandstone Falls near Hinton WV. After shooting the falls we ate lunch in Hinton at a cool restaurant that we've ate at before. We then headed to Thurmond WV an abandoned town on the way there we stopped at a waterfall Dunlop Creek Falls a very nice waterfall on the road to Thurmond. After shooting the Town we were pretty tired and decided to head to the house and cook some spaghetti . It was delicious. Thanks Caitlin .

Day 3- Babcock State park Day. First we to breakfast at Cathedral Cafe a restaurant that was made out of a church with stained glass windows . The meal was good and the people watching was good too. Then we headed to Babcock State park. If you look up West Virginia and look at photo's you will see the Grist Mill at Babcock. It is a photographers eye candy and the colors always seem to be pretty good. This year was no different. Perfect shooting. Cool weather, leaves falling and colors popping. What's not to like. We then headed to New River Gorge and the Bridge there. The place was packed the most people I've ever seen there. We went to the Bridge over look and then took the road to the older bridge going under the Big bridge. The next day would be Bridge day a festival where there are Base Jumpers, Bungee jumpers, People Rapelling off of the bridge. We decided not to attend the festival . One there would be lots of people and you would have to have clear bags to carry your gear. After the Bridge area we went into town and to eat and the little town had doubled in population and eateries were packed. We picked one and waited 45 min to be seated and had lunch. We then walked around town a little then headed to Nuttalburg WV an abandoned coal mine once owned by Henry Ford. It was kind of cool. After that we headed home and stopped at Walmart to get something to eat for Supper. 

Day 4- Hawks Nest State Park. We stayed away from the Bridge because of Bridge Day. They close down the bridge so the traffic is diverted around so all the roads get busy with traffic. Hawks nest was just 3 min away so we did a sunrise there at the overlook. It was a good sunrise. We then went and explored the rest of the park. It was very chilly and pretty. After spending the morning there we headed to Gauley Bridge. A small little town and explored a little then had lunch at a local BBQ place. Everyone was pretty tired so we headed to the house to do some editing and rest a little.

Day 5- Travel day Home. This day we got the house all settled and packed up our vehicles for the trip home. We left and on the way home we stopped at Camp Creek State Park. We stopped at Campbell Creek Falls which was a lovely fall with lots of color all around. The next fall was Mash fork falls. This was not much of a fall. We headed out and stopped on the way home at a local establishment to eat lunch then headed home. This was a great trip and I had a great time. Just wish it was longer. LOL

Until Next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! Me well its fall my most favorite season of the year! I love everything about it. Cooler weather, fall colors, harvest and beautiful landscapes to be had. My photography club takes trips this time of year just to capture the beauty of the season. Now my goal is to capture stunning photographs of the fall colors. But this is not a haphazard endeavor .  It is very much a planned one. In this blog I want to explain my process in how I find and make great photographs and the planning that is involved. And the apps and websites that I used to do this.

The best way to shoot stunning photographs is to put stunning scenes in front of your camera. But not only do you have to go to these places you must be there at the right time of day. We all know as photographers that there are certain times of the day that are best for great photographs. The golden hour that sunrise and sunset come into but don't forget the blue hour and twilight. So not only where you go to get those stunning photographs but when you go is important. So where do you start to your planning? 

First you have to come up with a place you want to go for the stunning photographs. For example a few years ago me and my Photo wingman decided to take a trip to Utah. Neither one of us had been before so we had to start planning our shots. We knew that there were many stunning shots there but there was still a lot of planning to do. Our first stop was Google. We Googled Utah and looked at images. We also used 500px and looked up Utah.  There are many fantastic photographs already taken of the places we wanted to photograph and so we picked out many for each of our stops on our 10 day trip.  We then went into detail trying to plan the correct time , direction of the sun, and the view point of the shot we wanted. To do this we used Photo Pills.  Photo Pills is an app you can buy that you can used to track the sun the moon , stars when and where blue hour and golden hour will happen.  Really anything logistical about your shot you can calculate and plan before you even leave home. Now Photo Pills is a big complicated app like Adobe Photoshop is but it is also as Fort Fisher Tree Milky Way powerful too. Here is a link that can help you navigate Photo Pills. Photo Pills Video Help Other apps and websites that can help your on your planning are Google Maps, Google Earth, Flickr, Instagram, 500px, and many more.  One of the few things that you can't plan for is the weather. Usually only a couple of weeks in advance can you plan for the weather. Apps like The Weather Channel, Weather Bug, clear outside or Weather on your iPhone can help with this. When you plan months in advance you just can't plan for the weather. I've got a trip to Cincinnati OH planned for this weekend that we've had planned for months and it looks like we are going to be pretty wet but don't let that deter you. Some of my best shots were shot in inclement weather.  When we went to Utah we did intense planning for shots and just the logistics of our trip from hotels we would stay in the route and order of things we would see make sure you put at least that much planning in your shots that you want to get while you're on your photography trip. That way you bring home those stunning shots that everyone will be envious of.

The great shots that you see online are not cute accidents. They are calculated and planned for well in advance and they are no accident at all.  Using all of the tools mentioned above will help you become a better photographer with more winners to print and put on your wall.

Hey Ya'll! Hope you've had a great week! Me? Pretty good. Fall is here and what better time to talk about photographing waterfalls! One of my most favorite things to shoot when I go 

If your shooting smooth silky waterfalls the first thing you'll need is a Tripod. You need one that is sturdy enough to keep your camera still during those longer exposures. One you don't mind getting a little wet on the bottom but one you trust will keep your camera still and safe.  When shooting water that you don't want to move and stop the motion you might not need the tripod. A Polarizing filter of some sort . A circular or a linear one .  Water can be very shiny and you can really get hot spots in the water the polarizer cuts the glare just like a good pair of polarizing sunglasses do.  I just love the shots looking through the water at some round stones at the foot of a waterfall. If your shooting a longer shutter depending on the time of day you will also need a Neutral Density filter to slow down the shutter if its too bright outside. Usually a 3 stop in conjunction with a Polarizer does the trick but may need more depending on the brightness of the scene. A remote release of some kind can come in handy. This will eliminate the camera shake of a hand pressing the shutter button causing not as sharp photo's. It can be wired or not wired doesn't matter. Or you can do like I've been doing the last couple of years and shooting with a two or five second delay which gives your camera time enough to quit shaking before you press the shutter. And of course a camera that you can shoot in Manual. The lenses that you use will be determined by the size and the closeness as which you are to your subject. The further away the longer the lens.  Usually I'm at a wide or midrange zoom seems to work for me but I have used a telephoto on further away waterfalls and for detail shots of the waterfall. Now for the how too.

The composition of the waterfall is like composing anything else. You want a foreground , middle and background. Leading lines like a log in water comes in handy also.  Make sure you shoot Horizontal and Vertical shots . Some waterfalls seem better vertical and some better in Landscape mode. When shooting in the fall (my favorite time to shoot) I like to have some colorful leaves at the foreground if I can and trees surrounding the waterfall if you're lucky enough to have some good color. If your shooting flowing silky shot the first thing you have to do is look at your scene and with your minds eye (photographers eye) see the shot you want. Set up your tripod and attach your camera securely. Remember your around water be careful. Frame your shot, Put on a polarizer and adjust so you don't have the glare on the water. ISO at the lowest you can, put your f-stop between f/8-f/16 . I try for the sharpest and what will cut out the most light so I'm usually between 8-11. Now slow your shutter down. Look at your meter! I find that usually 1.5 to 2 stops under exposed works well. But it all depends on the flow of the water.  The slower the water the slower the shutter will have to be. Take a shot. Remember to expose for the brightest spot in the frame you can always bring back the shadows in post. If you need a ND filter install it on top of the Polarizer and try again. This is where the fun kicks in. Make sure you don't slow the water too much or it will just disappear but too fast it just looks blurry. Adjust it so it shows motion. To me these are some of the most satisfying shots I take all year . 

In Post production edit like you always do. For me I usually change the profile to Adobe Landscape that puts some saturation and punch into the colors and at the end put a little vignette to draw the eye to the center of the photo but just a hint on one not too strong.

Well that's all my secrets to shooting waterfalls. I truly love chasing waterfalls. I advise to get there early and shoot before all the people get there and it's usually darker so you might not even need that ND filter. You can also get lots of different angles without getting in someone's .way or they be in your way.  These last two shots were taken just this week in West Virginia on our fall workshop. Having a blast shooting waterfalls this week. So until next week enjoy fall and get out and shoot!

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week! Me? Pretty good. This week I want to talk about a little photo trip that I took to Virginia International Raceway located near Danville Virginia. My Photography wingman Robert came up with this trip months ago and we tried to go once before but I had some medical problems and we had to turn around and come back home. But this time I'm doing great and we took the 2 hour drive to get to this Raceway. I am NOT a car guy or a race guy and really don't know anything about racing . This is more of a road racing type of course with lots of turns hills not just an oval track. Which I kind of like. When we arrived we got inline with all the other cars but we were different. You look at the line of cars and they go Porsche, Porsche, BMW, Audi and then us a Volvo station wagon then Corvette. These people were race and sports car people. LOL We got parked in the infield of the Raceway which is very large and spread out. They have places for camping and RV parking for those folks who want to park their RV and sit and relax to watch the race. There is a big speaker system and you could hear the announcers talking about the racing that was going on. And they had an accent . More European than American. So the place has a cool vibe and the roar of the race cars even boost it even more.

Now shooting this is at least for me was kind of difficult. You can walk around and find you a good spot and if you have a decent Long range telephoto you can really isolate the cars. But the problem is that they move pretty fast. If you crank up your Shutter speed you can get a really nice sharp photo. But the car looks like it's parked on the raceway. To get it to show motion you have to be able to Pan your shots which isn't as easy as it seems. I tried many ways to do this . First I put my shutter on high speed to shoot many shots hoping I get one in focus. Hard to believe this didn't work too well.  I tried slowing down my shutter speed and shutter on high and still didn't get the in focus shot I wanted with everything blurred. I tried using wider lens but still didn't get the sharp car with everything else blurred. Then I tried to shoot Single shot and just shoot one shot as the car came by panning my camera and this seemed to work better for me. I started getting sharper shots with blurry all around but not a lot. So you have the panning shot which is really fun but there are others to get . One is in the pit area where they prepare the cars and fix them if they get crunched up a little. I really liked this as well. Lots of neat stuff that you don't normally see. If you like shooting people there are lots of interesting ones to see and take photo's of. Now this was a practice day and qualifying day for the race teams so you got lots of different classes of cars to look at and see. They all looked pretty amazing to me not knowing much about racing.

Would I do this again. You bet and now I know what to expect maybe I could get some better photos than what I got this time. I had a great time with my wingman Robert and we both got some good shots but struggled a little. If you get a chance to photograph a race or something similar I would highly recommend. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey Everyone! How are you doing? Me ? Wet! LOL I’m sitting in a hotel in downtown Cincinnati right now and thought I would start this trip Blog. It has been a very interesting trip so far. And a wet one. If you have watched the news you know that hurricane Helene really did some damage to the southern Appicacian Mountains from Georgia all the way to Ohio. And of course it’s been chasing us and dumping rain everywhere we go. It’s early Sunday morning and we (my photography wingman Robert) have been rained on since Thursday. Our plans have been changed by this storm but it din’t stop it. The original plan was to make our way to Brookville Indiana for a bike race that Robert was to participate in. I just came along for moral support and to document the event. We would make stops along the way and do some photography. Well I now know that my camera is very much weather sealed because we’ve been shooting in the rain ever since we left home. LOL After the race we were going to spend a night in Cincinnati and then drive to the Knoxville Tenn. area to visit a friend of his then take I-40 home. Well... the hurricane messed up all of those plans . So here is what happened. 

We have had this trip planned for months with the hotels and the logistics that come with a trip plan to include photo stops along the way. The only thing that we couldn't plan for is the rain. When we left on our first day Helene barely had a name and was hundreds of miles off the Florida coast. Little did we know that it would affect our trip for the next 5 days 8 states and almost 2000 miles. When we left it was misty and a little bit of rain but this was another rain event not associated with Helene. As we headed north west the rain became more steady. We traveled through Virginia and West Virginia and arrived at our first destination Charleston West Virginia the state Capital. We checked into our Hotel and headed out to find some Mexican Food and to go to a shot that we had planned with Photo Pills. And when I say we I mean Robert. He did all of the Photo Pills stuff with the trip and did a great job! When we got to our first stop it was misting a little but the scene was just as Photo Pills said and we were in the perfect spot to get the shot we were looking for. After we got the shot we headed to the state capital and it looked amazing! Well done West Virginia! We headed back to the Hotel to get some sleep before the next day.

Day two we are in bike race mode. Today our main goal is to drive to Brookville Indiana register for the race and do all the things we needed to do for the race. When we woke up guess what? Yes still raining. This rain was apart of the Helene system but it still had not made landfall yet in Florida. The predictions were that it was going to make a left turn and maybe Indiana would be spared. We Passed by Cincinnati and headed to Brookville a small town about 30 miles north west of Cincinnati. It was raining really good by now. We stopped and had some Skyline Chili. Robert had been talking this up for months so I was ready for the treat. I guess it's an acquired taste because it did not live up to the hype but I could use this to rib and make fun of Robert the rest of the trip. LOL We got to our hotel and chilled out while the rain continued to come down. We then went into town and skipped and jumped through puddles to get to the registration. Robert registered and got the bag of goodies that comes with the race. The place we registered in was a German Beer hall and we ate German food and listened to a Polka band that played. It was really cool. Everyone was saying that it was going to clear up by race time. 500 people had signed up and paid for the race. The beer hall was not crowded though . ( a sign of things to come)  The weather map did not look good...

Day three I got up early as usual and it was raining outside. I looked at the radar and it was all green not a good sign. Robert woke up later and asked how it looked I told him he didn't want to look at the Radar. He went downstairs to get a charger for his phone and when he came back he had a very sad face and said that the race was off for him because it was pouring down and even if it stopped the roads would be very slick with water and leaves and just not worth going down. He was not alone. We went to the start of the race and there were maybe 40 riders starting the race in the rain. We took some shots of downtown in the rain. The " in the rain" will become a theme. We headed to Cincinnati to start a new chapter of this trip. We also found out that damage was happening to the NC mountains and that I 40 was closed in a couple of places around Asheville where we were planning to go through would not be reasonable. So we got in touch with Roberts friend and cancelled that part of the trip and had to re-route our trip to the east. We booked a room in  Harrisonburg VA and headed to Cincinnati. This would be our busiest day yet. We headed to Cincinnati and found our hotel but it was way too early to check in so we went to a parking garage across the street. We called the hotel before we arrived because they had over 100 thousand power outages in the area in the morning prior. We called the hotel to make sure they had power and they did. There was suppose to be a festival in the downtown area but it got canceled because the storm that made all of the outages also tore up all of the tents and things they had set up for the festival. So we got out and walked and took photo's "in the rain" and surprisingly had a great time walking the city. We walked down by the baseball and football stadiums and the waterfront. We stopped and had lunch at a Korean Chicken place. Another theme is food from different countries. It was pouring outside so we decided to do something inside and took a Uber to a Sign Museum. This was a cool place with all kinds of Neon signs but upon our arrival I see Robert patting himself down. He can't find his phone! We finally demised that he left it in the Uber! Long story short we couldn't get with the Uber driver so Robert locked and wiped his phone and went to ATT and got a new one. We continued our trip and went out to eat at an Irish Pub and had fish and chips. Later that night we got with the Uber driver and she brought Robert his phone. Now he has two. Of course since he wiped out his old phone he had to set up the new one. We all know what a pain that is. So Robert stayed up late trying to get the new one set up.

Day four would be our longest driving day at almost 8 hours. We got up it was still raining and headed to a diner that was recommended to us for breakfast but when we got there it was closed. So we went back to the hotel checked out and headed toward Columbus. We stopped at a Bob Evans and had breakfast (much better than the Skyline Chili) and hit the road. We started in Ohio, then Pennsylvania , Maryland, West VA, and then Virginia. We took backroads thru most of it so we got to see the country not the interstate. And it was very nice we stopped a few times and took photos "in the rain". We finally make it to Harrisonburg and checked into our hotel which ended up being the best hotel and cheapest that we had the whole time. We went and got a Pizza " Italian food" and went to bed it was a long day driving in the rain. 

The last day of our trip we had about 4 hours of driving to do and of course it was raining when we got up. We packed up and drove home on backroads all the way home. When we got into our home county it finally quit raining but the roads were wet from a recent rain. All in all it was a fun trip. We got some good pics and had a ball like we always do. Good discussions, jokes and food make a great trip. You always have to look for the silver lining. I found out how to shoot in the rain without getting specs of water on my lens and that my camera can take quite a bit of rain and still function properly.  It was sad that the storm tore up the NC mountains that I love so dearly. Please pray and support this region that was devastated by the storm. We got rained on but the storm changed the landscape of our mountains and changed lives forever. Until next week get out and shoot !

Hey Ya'll! How's it 

Construction- There are a few types of construction of filters. There are the "Circular Screw In" type. They are round and screw into your lens. So they have to be the same filter size of your lens. So if you have a 67mm filter sized lens you have to use a 67mm filter. You could buy many different filter sizes to fit all of the different sized lenses you have but that can get very expensive quick. The easiest way to use these is to get the largest filter size of you lenses say 77mm and use step down rings to take the 77mm to the 67mm lens that you have. Step down rings are only a few bucks and you can get one for each size of lens you have.  This way you only buy one set of filters. The next type of filter uses a filter holder that connects to your lens and you slide in the filters to the holder. So you would have a filter holder with adapter rings that would fit all of your Filters lenses and just one set of filters. These filters tend to be more expensive. The system works but is very clunky and cumbersome. The other construction design are magnetic circular filters. Like the screw in type but uses magnets instead of threads. The great advantage to this one is that you can pop them off and on very easily without fumbling with trying to get the screw in type screwed in or off. Sometimes the screw in type get stuck and are hard to get separated. The magnetic ones eliminate this problem. So those are the different construction types now for the ones you need and don't need.

Graduated Neutral Density Filters.  This filter is not needed anymore. It was used for high dynamic scenes like sunrise when the sky is so bright and the foreground is darker. This filter would darken the sky so you would have a more even scene. But this can be accomplished better in post production. You can take a bracketed shot and blend in Adobe Lightroom and use the linear Graduated tool and control exposure , color, contrast and almost anything . The Graduated ND filter can't do this as well. So this is a not needed filter. Now for what is needed.

Polarizer filter. The polarizer is the most important filter of them all in my opinion.  It does what no other Polarizer filter does, and it can't really be duplicated by Photoshop.  You may have heard it called a circular polarizer also.  It actually comes in two flavors - one is the linear and the other is circular. The circular is the more popular of the two and screws onto the front of your lens.  It has a rotating part that you can turn to increase or decrease the effects of the polarizer.  The linear polarizer is typically a square filter, and you will need some type of holder that attaches to the front of your lens. There are really only two positions.  If it doesn't work, rotate it 90 degrees and it will be working.  Both kinds will block 1 to 2 stops of light that travels through them, so you must make adjustments.  Your camera will automatically do this if you have it in one of the auto modes. A polarizer does a few things. The first thing it does is increase the saturation of things.  You can make your blah skies turn them bluer than blue. It will also increase the saturation in vegetation making leaves greener.  It also knocks the glare and reflection off of things. Looking through a storefront window, if you see yourself in the reflection, using a polarizer will make the reflection disappear.  If you look at water and it's too shiny, when you use a polarizer it will let you see to the bottom of a clear lake.  It's just like wearing polarized sunglasses when you're driving. Not only do they darken, but they knock the glare off of the windshield so you can see clearly.  With a circular polarizer, you can adjust as you like by turning the ring. For best results, the sun should be 90 degrees from where you're pointing. So not behind or in front of you, but to the sides.  This filter is great whenever you shoot around water, say shooting waterfalls.  This is a must-have in any photographer's bag.  Price will vary on the quality of the filter. Generally, you get what you pay for.

Neutral Density Filter- These filters are used when you want to darken the scene to either do a long shutter release or you want to open up the aperture of your lens.  This filter is used quite a bit for video work.  But for photography, it's mainly for long shutter release or opening up your aperture to give that great bokeh in broad daylight. Say for example you wanted to take a portrait in bright sunlight but you wanted to use an open aperture of 2.8, which is pretty wide open.  You would have to crank up your shutter speed to the thousands to get it to work if your camera would even get that high.  But when you put on an ND filter which darkens the scene, the wide aperture would let in enough light and you could slow down your shutter speed. I mainly use these filters to show motion.  I can do a long exposure in daylight and still blur a waterfall or have motions of the clouds drift across the sky giving a cool effect. These filters come in different strengths.  They are measured in stops of light.  Usually 3,6,8,10.  You can double up and have a 6 and a 3 together to make a 9.   Or a 3 stop and a polarizer to give a 4 or 5 stop light reduction. This is the combo that I usually use for waterfalls.  These filters can come in either square or circular filters.  For the square ones, you will need a holder of some sort to attach to the front of your lens.  The circular ones just screw onto the front of your lens, so you need to know your filter thread size. (usually found on the front of your lens) One thing to be careful with the screw on ones is that if you stack them you may get a vignette on the corners of you're photo because of the thickness of the filters block out the edges of your frame.  There are also Variable Neutral Density filters which instead of buying a 3, 6, 8 and a 10 stop filter you buy one filter and like a polarizer you spin a outer ring and make the filter darker or lighter. So you just have one filter instead of 4 to carry around. These Variable ND filters used not to be very good but in recent years they have got much better. Thats what I use now. So I recommend them for ease of use and affordability. 

So the two filters you need for photography are the polarizer and the Neutral Density. Now there are all types of cool filters that you can get like "Mist" filters or different effect filters. But these you don't Need but can be nice to have. You do need the Polarizer and the ND filter. I have just updated my digital kit to the magnetic system with circular filters from K & F. For my longest lens (100-400) I've converted screw on filters I already had to magnetic ones using screw on magnets with this kit I have two filters a 77mm Polarizer and a 77mm Variable ND filter. For my other lenses they have the same filter size (72mm) and I bought a kit from K&H that included a polarizer, a 3 stop and a 6 stop ND filter. I got this kit because the filters are thinner and for the wider angle lenses when I stack them I don't get a vignette. Now for film it's a total different discussion which would be a different blog. So what filters do you have? Well I think that's enough for filters for now. Until next week get out and shoot!

Note: The last two photo's of the blog I grabbed off of google to illustrate the effects of the filters.
 

Hey Everyone! Hope you've had a great week! Me? Pretty good we've had tropical storm Debbie come through the last couple of days and the Olympics are on so I've been doing a lot of photography stuff. Photography stuff you say? Yea! Thats what this week's blog is all about. Preparing for a photography trip. Usually my big trip of the year is with my photography club where we take a week or so and head somewhere for some good ole fun with photography. But wouldn't you just hate to show up somewhere and not have the gear you need? Whether it's camera gear or clothes. Wouldn't that just suck? Thats where planning comes in. Planning for the trip can almost be as important as the trip itself on having a good fun time. There are lots of things that can ruin your trip. Like I've got my camera but forgot my battery charger or you have a SD card failure and don't have another. What if you're doing a night shoot and you forget your headlamp? I've seen all of these things happen to me or others in the club and it all happened because of poor planning. Now admittedly I am a over planner but I think you must plan for a big trip.

Make a list. I have developed a spreadsheet that I use for every trip. Now it's nothing special it's just a list of gear, clothes, toiletries and stuff that has been geared to me. It doesn't have to be a fancy list like I have it can be just things jotted on a piece of paper. But make a list and check it twice. Just like Santa.  I keep this list handy on my computer that I can make changes on the fly. I print it out a day or so before the trip and physically check things off as I put them in my luggage or camera bags. Don't take for granted that you have all of this list in your head you can still forget stuff. I recently took an overnight trip and I had my camera gear dialed in but IMG_1459 I forgot something to sleep in. Nothing major but what if that had been extra batteries? Or a headlamp for a night shoot? As my wingman did. Although you do have a cell phone you can use for light what if you drop that and break it just because you forgot a 20 dollar headlamp. That would suck!

Start early. When thinking of your trip start early. As I said earlier I gear my whole year on our big fall trip. So I try to streamline and update my gear well in advance of showing up to one of the great spots we've chosen and can't figure out my gear because it's brand new. So start early fine 22814418_10210727646164222_1824769434837060805_n tuning your gear before you get to those spectacular places. I have been fine tuning mine all year. I've recently switched camera bodies I have it almost programed liked my older one but there are some differences between them. I have my custom settings set so if I come upon some wildlife I just set to custom 3 and that puts all of my sports or settings in. Or if I want to shoot street I put on 1 and I shoot in Black and White and Jpeg +raw.  All at the flic of a switch. I also try to dial in my lenses that I'm going to carry on the trip. So I have as few as possible but what I need. Depending on the itinerary I might have a specialty lens thrown in like a 20mm f1.8 for night skies. Or I might take something out of my bag that I might not need. 

Don't forget all of the other things besides camera gear and accessories. What about clothes? Take clothes that are versatile and that you can layer if it gets cold. What about hats. Is it going to be very sunny like out west? Maybe a large brimmed hat. Is it going to be cold maybe a stocking cap and gloves. Here is the link to a blog I wrote about things you need to bring. Things you need to bring. Things like chargers , how will you process your photo's  backup and such. Here is a blog I wrote about winter dressing layering your clothing and such. Winter Dressing the Part .

I think the big takeaway of this blog is to start planning now and keep planning all year and keep a list that you can modify as your needs and trips vary.  Hey and don't forget things you can do right now. Like formatting  your SD cards before you go. I just reformatted all the cards in my SD card wallet so it's ready for my trip. Make sure you have enough room on an external drive your taking for backup. What about checking all of your settings on your camera before a trip. Maybe you were doing some long exposure where you used the self timer at 2 seconds and you didn't switch back and when you went to take a photo and nothing happens then two seconds later snap. You could miss a photo because of this. I have.  So make sure your camera is set to go every day before you go out. 

Now the actual packing part. Remember less is more and you're the one that has to carry the stuff you have packed. Bags with rollers may be helpful. If you're traveling by air maybe you want to check the heaviest bag and keep a change of clothes in your carry on with your camera gear just in case they loose your luggage. I put Air Tags in each of my luggage and my camera bags when I travel. It's nice to see where your luggage is and provides a piece of mind when traveling. Don't forget simple things like ear buds, maybe a snack or granola bar with you for a quick in between meal snack. Sunglasses a must!

Remember make a list and check it twice! Or more! Start early and keep updating your list. Customize to your trip. If you remember all of these things your trip will run smooth and photography is all that you will have to think about. Until Next Week! Get out and Shoot!

Hey Ya'll! This week's blog I'm going to try something different. I'm going to take you through my thoughts threw the whole process of me buying a used film camera. Now this doesn't really have to be about buying a film camera it could be any type of used camera or equipment. There are a few types of ways to buy used equipment one if from a friend or a store where you can hold and touch the camera. But there are not a lot of camera stores anymore that you can buy used equipment so I'm going to talk about the online world and my process while I buy a new to me film camera . The best way is to go to an online camera store like KEH or MPB because they go through the cameras thoroughly and give honest grading of these cameras. But they do not have a big selection of film cameras.  No new film cameras except some cheap plastic toy ones and a new camera from Pentax (which I have my eye on) have been made in decades so condition is an issue. The best source of used film cameras are on eBay where you can get a selection from all over the world but then again condition is an issue since you can see or hold the camera . You have to take the word of someone who is trying to sell this item. They may elevate the condition just to get it sold. So the title a "leap of faith" is required when purchasing  them unseen except through photographs and you know how easy it is to manipulate photo's. Well that's where are story starts. I have purchased from KEH, MPB, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace I have had success in all and feel pretty lucky. So this blog I'm going to take you with me and write bit by bit as the process proceeds. First is the buying part.

-7-5-2024- I had a doctors appointment and like always I was early and in  the parking lot I was browsing through facebook marketplace and saw my next victim . LOL It was a Canon Canonet 28. I own a 1961 Canonet 19 and a 1972 Canonet 17 and this one is in the middle somewhere. The price was 50 bucks. I figured it was 50 bucks so if it was crap it will be a cool nicknack or I can use it for parts. Either way it's 50 bucks. The add said it worked the shutter clicked meter worked but didn't know if it was accurate and it needed light seals. So I paid with PayPal, and now I'm waiting for the camera. I will write more when the camera arrives in a week or so. 

7-10-2024 Well bad news. My oder was canceled by the seller for some reason. This is the first time that this has happened to me. I didn't get an explanation but maybe it was for the best. Well I can still look for a camera. I have been interested in a half frame camera to play with maybe now is a good time to try one out. The search starts again.

7-10-2024 Well I've decided after some research to get a Canon Demi EE17 half frame camera. I spent many hours looking at different cameras and reviews on youtube and in written reviews before I took a leap of faith and Purchased this one from Japan. These camera's were released in 1966. I did some eBay researching and found one for 169 dollars I made an offer of 140 and they countered with 159 so 10 bucks off. So I took another leap of faith. The condition is near mint and the photo's looked good and they gave an explanation of everything about the camera. I have never had a problem ordering from Japan but you do have to pay a hefty shipping fee. But I usually get the item within a week. I have a confirmed order and payment and now I'm waiting for shipping.

7-12-2024 Delivered! Wow! Two days and I just got the camera from Japan delivered! The camera was packaged very well and everything that was promised to come with the package came. I got a UV filter, camera strap assembly, and carrying case and of course the camera. The camera was as advertised and was in very good condition. This particular camera has only one light seal that surrounds the viewfinder that goes through the back door of the camera. This was missing but I have some light seal material and made a light seal to go around the viewfinder. Not as fancy as the original but it should work. I checked the light meter and it was very close to a meter app that I use on my phone that has been calibrated. I'm going to run a 1/2 roll of film through the camera in Auto and the other in Manual with an external meter and see how it performs.  I'll let you know the results. There is no fungus or hazing in the lens or viewfinder which is one of the most important things for me for a camera this old. The camera feels very solid and I ran a dummy roll of film through it to make sure things like rewind , counter  and advance lever worked. They worked well.

Yet another successful eBay encounter. I am very happy with my purchase although I don't like the hefty shipping expense from Japan but I did get it in two days and it was wrapped and packaged very professionally . So I guess you get what you pay for. Buying online is a leap of faith and doing lots of research. I probably looked at 50 or more cameras before I made the decision on the one I got. Some were cheaper and some were more expensive but you just have to do the best you can , trust your gut and take a leap of faith. I look at how many transactions that they have had and what the positive approval rating they have. I try not to buy from someone who has only a few transactions. Most of my camera stuff has come from Japan but with that you should expect large shipping fees. Japan is the mecca for used film cameras since most of them were made there during the height of the film era.

Well that's it for me this week I hope this helps. Remember the same techniques and tips goes for any type of camera equipment that you are looking for online. Well I've got a new camera to shoot! Until next week Get out and shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week. The last month or so Its been super hot and dry here in eastern North Carolina and now we are in a wet pattern. So getting out and about has been uncomfortable at best. But hopefully soon I can get out and about and by the time this blog comes out the weather will be cooperative. I have been writing blogs for quite awhile now and I have talked about photowalks and travel and street photography many times but I don't think I have ever explained the "what is?" of the terms. Thats what this blog is all about. There is nothing I like more than this type of photography. It has become one of my favorite things to do. It gets me out and about and exploring new and interesting things that I normally wouldn't see.  I've recently had to create a presentation on this subject for my photography club and this is fresh on my mind. So first of all what is a Photowalk.

Now I have just "Googled" the term Photowalk and it's basically what I think it is. To me it is a leisurely walk with the intent of taking photographs. When I think of photowalks I think of walking through a town not a hike through the woods. This can be done in your home town or a town you have never been to. Now I like to plan a photowalk but it could be unplanned as well. It doesn't have to be a large city like New York or Chicago . Bartender waiting for Customer Boston It can be the town that is next to yours. While planning a photo walk I like to find out some of the history of the town. Maybe google the town and look at some images of the town. Find out the interesting part of the town and go there and walk the streets. Photo walks can be done solo but are great with a photo buddy or two. Both street and travel photography can be done while doing a photowalk. You can concentrate on one or the other or just take what catches your eye and decide later if its street or travel. While out on your photowalk hop into local stores and shops and see what you can see. You will be surprised on the cool little shops and stores you will go to. And make sure to stop into the local coffee shops and local restaurants . Stay away from chain stores and restaurants you can go to those when you're at home.  Walk the main streets but don't forget the side streets and check Charleston Bridge out behind stores or peek down alleyways sometimes the best photo's come where you don't expect them to be. I love a good photowalk with a buddy and eating at a cool little restaurant or diner for lunch. 

Street Photography is the capture of candid or everyday life in a public place. Since the beginning of photography there has been street photography. Capturing everyday life in the click of a button. Man Waiting for T Boston Freezing time. When I think of street photography I think of black and white film shot for news papers in the 1950's and 60's. With street photography you are documenting an act or a scene . You are a fly on the wall witnessing ordinary life in an interesting way. You are documenting history. Now you can take photowalks where street photography is the main subject. Usually larger cities are the easiest for this purpose because of the target rich environment . But you can also shoot in small towns as well. Street photography is not planned it just happens in front of you and you get the shot and it's gone. One way to shoot some good street photography is find a good and interesting background and wait for someone to walk through it. Thats about as planned as it gets. Look for shadows and interesting Georgia Queen Paddleboat compositions when shooting. It doesn't always have to be people your taking photo's of . Make sure you're dressed to blend in to your environment . No bright colors or big flashy Cameras to draw attention to yourself. Small and discreet is the order of the day. So how is street photography different than travel photography?

Travel photography is the documentation of a places landscapes, people, customs and history. They are photo's that you take of a place to remember it. These photo's can be planned. Like Sunrise or sunset Marine One or events that happen on a regular schedule. Research and planning come in handy for this type of photography.  Say you are taking a trip to Boston. (which I highly recommend ) There are so many landmarks and interesting things that are specific to Boston that you want to capture. Google and plan your walk. Plan your stops where you want to go and take photo's. Maybe the landscape of the skyline of a city would be a great travel shot. Think as if you're making a brochure for the promotion of the town or place your visiting . What would you take photo's of. Maybe a market , a big landmark, a stadium like Fenway Park. Make sure you take a selfie with the landmark behind you. You just have to . LOL  Make sure to use different POV (point of view) don't always shoot at eye level. Get your typical winner shot that you see on the internet then get one that is special or unique to you. If you're on a cobble stone street make sure you get your camera low to Boston Harbor at Night highlight the cobble stone.  Make sure you take some food shots. Especially if a town is known for a special type of food. Like Lobster or Clam Chowder is in Boston. If there are lots of monuments or art make sure to photograph at night like in Washington DC. Its a great place to shoot at night.

I just love photowalks where I can combine street and travel photography together. They seem to go together like peas and carrots like Forrest Gump would say. You can easily go back and forth between them. Some of the techniques and tips work for both. Dressing not to draw attention to yourself. Small gear not to draw attention or intimidate anyone you may be photographing.  Travel light and don't carry a large bag with all kinds of gear in it . You'll be tired enough with just the walking . One camera and one lens is a great choice. Comfortable shoes and bring some water.  Have fun and explore!

What are some of the places that you've gone to do photowalks? Well that's enough rambling for this week until next. Get outside and Shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! Me? Can't complain. I've been indulging myself this year in film cameras. I just love these little machines. I have been exploring film like I never did before. When I first started in photography shooting film was the only option and I only shot manual SLR cameras and 35mm film. I really didn't even know about other formats or film sizes. Of course this was way before the internet and all of the info that we can get on all sorts of things now. I have been learning about all kinds of film photography that I never even knew that existed like the topic today of Half Frame Photography.  Now I have shot and own many 35mm cameras and even medium format 120 film with my Bronica ETR SI. But half frame is very interesting to me. Half frame is pretty much what it says its half of a regular sized 35mm shot. It takes the 35mm and doubles the exposures that you would normally get. So if you have a 36 exposure roll of film and you shoot half frame you get 72 shots out of it. So this is a very economical way to shoot. Of course there are advantages and disadvantages of shooting half frame. Half frame camera's came out in the 1950's with Olympus being the leader and the one who made them famous with their Penn series. Other companies followed like Canon. I have just purchases a half frame camera from Canon a Canon Demi EE17 which came out in 1966. I have just received it and put a roll of film through it.

Advantages of shooting half frame. Well the biggest and the most obvious is that it's more economical . You can shoot twice as much for the same price. But there are more advantages as well. The half frame camera's are set up to shoot in Portrait Orientation so normal shots when holding the camera are vertical. You have to turn the camera to get a landscape shot. This makes you look at things with a new perspective and makes your eyes look for portrait type shots which makes you grow as a photographer.  This orientation also makes it easy to shoot dyptics which is two photos with a theme or as a landscape. You can also shoot trypics just as easy to make a landscape . This is very cool for story telling and using photography for telling stories or concepts. Very cool! These cameras are small. About the same size as my Canon Canonet 17 but with a smaller lens protruding out of the front. So they make good travel and everyday camera's.

Disadvantages of shooting half frame. Well the biggest is the resolution of the negative. It's the half size of the full 35mm and therefore will show more grain and look more film like. If your like me that may not be so much of a disadvantage but if your looking for crisp sharp non grainy shots just use your digital camera that's what they are best at. I have heard that the resolution is great for printing up to 8 x 10 and using on social media is no problem. I will let you know when I have developed and scanned some into my computer. But for now I just have to go on what I have researched. 

I am very much looking forward to adding this camera to my arsenal of film cameras .  I think that it will become a great cary around everyday camera even when I'm shooting digital its small enough to come with me to shoot some film on every outing. Even when my better and larger cameras can't come. So until next week get out and shoot!

Hey 

Y'all! Hope your week is going well. This week I want to review yet another film camera that I have picked up. It's a half frame camera that shoots twice the shots that a normal 35mm camera shoots. It's the Canon Demi EE17. This camera came out in 1966 as a response to all of the success that Olympus had with their half frame cameras the Penn line from the 1950's into the 60's. Canon had some other Demi models prior to this one but this was the last one I believe.  This is a sleek modern looking camera for the 1960's not as boxy as some camera's in this era. It shoots 35mm film but shoots photo's at half the size of a

Film: This camera uses 35mm film. Normal negatives are 36mm X 24mm this camera shoots 18mm X 24mm giving you twice the shots. So a 36 exposure roll now shoots 72 shots. Resolution can be a problem with grainer shots. But from what I've read that for social media and prints up to 8 X 10 come out just fine. I'll let you know.

Viewfinder: The viewfinder is Portrait oriented. Much like most of us use our cell phones to take a shot. To take a landscape oriented shot you must rotate the camera just the opposite of most cameras. Inside the viewfinder is the meter readings and focusing distance.

Focusing: To me this will be the biggest challenge while using the camera. This is not a SLR or a Rangefinder it uses zone focusing. You have to guesstimate the distance you are shooting and then put the lens to that distance focusing. I have an olympus camera that does this and surprisingly you get pretty sharp photo's most of the time but trying to shoot wide open at a close subject will be a challenge.

Lens: The lens is a Canon F/1.7 lens. I have been very impressed with Canon's film lenses and maybe that is why I'm buying a lot of Canon film cameras. This camera makes my 4th Canon film camera.

Exposure: This camera does have a built in meter which will allow you to shoot in Shutter priority. In the mid 1960's mercury batteries were the norm. The meter uses a 1.3 volt mercury battery that you can't get anymore. In my Canonet I have the same situation but I use a 1.5 alkaline battery. Which works but is not as accurate as with the mercury battery.
If I have problems with this there are ways around this . First I could use an external meter which will work fine. There is also a regulator that you can get that drops the voltage from 1.5 to 1.3 volts if necessary. 

Self Timer: This camera does have a self timer but with all vintage cameras self timers seem to be the weak link and you are advised not to use them because if they break usually your camera becomes inoperative.

One thing I like about this little camera is that you don't need a battery to shoot it! You can shoot it manually and use a meter or the sunny 16 rule. So where will this fall in my film camera arsenal ? This camera will become my go with me anywhere film camera. Even if I go on a digital shoot like a wildlife shoot I can take this little camera with me and still get some film shots. If I go on film shoots with my Canon AE-1 35mm or my Bronica ETR SI medium format this will be a great backup and fun camera to use.  Is this the best film camera in my collection?  No but it might become the funnest one to shoot not worrying about how many shots I take. I think it will become a good travel companion. If I want super sharp clinical photographs I can always shoot digital but for feel and mood I shoot film. So until next week get out and shoot!

Update: I have put a couple of rolls of film through this little camera and I'm really liking the camera. The lens and the zone focusing has been going great and I might only have maybe 1 or 2 out of focus in a roll. The meter is working great and pretty accurate. I haven't had any out of exposure shots yet. I am shooting Shutter priority which makes this camera very fun to shoot. Its small but solid feel is great. It is fast becoming my favorite film camera. I included a couple of diptychs in the blog that I took and scanned. I like trying to tell a story with the diptychs. Cheers!

Hey Everyone! Hope you're 

having a great week! Me ? Pretty good . Thanks for asking! LOL Today I want to look into the question in the title of this blog. Am I a closet Canon Shooter? Over the years I have shot many cameras and my main cameras have been my trusty Pentax MX during the film days I also had a Pentax K1000 as my first camera that I bought. So during the film era I was a Pentax shooter. Then during the early stages of my digital era I shot Nikon.  Started with a fancy point and shoot and then onto a Nikon D90 and on to a Nikon D800 full frame with the holy trinity of lenses to go with it . So I was defiantly a Nikon Shooter. When I turned 50 I went mirrorless and got a Sony A6000 crop sensor camera for hiking and camping and slowly over the years converted slowly to Sony shooting an Sony A6300, Sony A6500 all crop sensors then I decided to change back to full frame and got a Sony A7III and a A7C which I still use as my main cameras. I have a very good collection of lenses to go with the two full frame bodies. As I stated before I have always shot film off and on since the mid 70's and started developing my own negatives in the 80's. A few years ago I bought some vintage cameras and started shooting with them. I wanted a rangefinder type of camera. Couldn't afford a Leica. So I bought a 1962 Bell & Howell/ Canon Canonet 19. (If you purchased them outside of the US they were just Canon Canonet but in the US at the time they had to be attached to an American company Bell & Howell) . Anyway I got this one off of eBay and it was fun to shoot.  I also got a point and shoot digital Canon Camera a G7X MII to carry with me while I commuted back and forth to work. A small camera that could be my EDC (every day Carry) camera. Later I traded a guy in my camera club for a Canon EOS M camera that had been converted to Infra Red and use that for special IR stuff. Wow so that's 3 Canon Cameras. Then I found a nice Canon Canonet QL17 GIII on eBay and couldn't resist. This one is a 1972 model. That makes 4 Canons. So then a few weeks ago I got gifted a Canon AE-1 Program camera. This one was introduced in 1981. That makes 5 Canon's. The older Canon film cameras are one from the 60's one from the 70's and one from the 80's. None of this was planned . I was never a big Canon guy. I don't have anything against them but was never a fan either but there you have it I now have 5 Canon camera's. Now I don't use the 1962 model very much anymore it has a 45mm F/1.9 lens that is very sharp but kind of tight for the way I shoot. So it doesn't get put in the bag and  doesn't get much use. The IR camera has a 590nm conversion and I take it out every now and then . I'll be taking it with me on a workshop this weekend but it stays stored away mostly.  Now my Canon Canonet QL17 is a great small rangefinder and has a 40mm F/1.7 on it . Another sharp lens but the length for doing street sometimes seems long for the way I shoot.  I do use it as my everyday carry film camera. But I also have an Olympus Super trip that my mother had that I carry when the size of the camera is more important than sharpness. It's a little fixed 35mm F/4 lens with Zone Focusing. Just a step above a box disposable camera. But is it's fun for casual snapshots and has a built in flash for indoor stuff. My newest Canon the AE-1 Program is going to replace my trusty Pentax MX as my main 35mm camera for street and Travel/Photowalk Projects.  So even though I always tell people that I'm a Sony shooter when they ask I guess I'm really a Closet Canon Shooter. For specialty stuff. Film , Infrared, and EDC point and shoot I shoot Canon and for everything else I shoot Sony.  Unless I'm shooting Medium Format Film then it's the Bronica. LOL This is truly a 1st world thing. I have lots of cameras and love them all. I am after all a man and a gear head with GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)  I can't get enough of these small photographic machines . And of course all of the gismo's that go with them. So the answer is yes I'm a Canon shooter but I'm also a Pentax, Bronica, Sony, Olympus and iPhone shooter as well. LOL So until next time . Get out and Shoot!

PS: An update since I've written this blog. Now it's 6 Canons! I just purchased a Canon Demi EE17 a 1966 half frame camera. More info in a future blog. Good Grief Charlie Brown! LOL

Hey Ya'll! How's your week doing? Mine? Fantastic ! This week I want to talk about 24 hours of photography that I had this weekend with my Photo Wingman Robert. My camera club has workshops every month and sometimes we have add-on workshops in-between . This weekend was going to be an add-on workshop. It was supposed  to be a perfect weekend to photograph the milky way . We wanted to go to Cape Hatteras with the unique lighthouse in the foreground and the milky way behind. But the lighthouse is having maintenance done on it and has scaffolding all around it. So we decided on Bodie Island Lighthouse. We have done this shot in the past that's why we wanted the Cape Hatteras shot somthing different. Maybe next year.  A week before the workshop the weather forecast was not good and was forecast to be 100% cloudy and not to have clear skies which is best for the milky way shot and the club cancelled the trip. Robert and myself had reserved a place to stay for the trip in Manteo North Carolina and we decided to go anyway. If it rained we'd get some rainy day shots. Maybe we could get some cool shots.

We started our trip on Saturday morning at 10:30 and headed toward Manteo. But instead of going the quickest route to get there we took a long way there purposely going through small towns that we haven't been to or really looked at before.  Our first planned stop was in Williamston North Carolina we stopped at a park that runs along the Roanoke River that was named Moratoc Park. It was a small park with water access for fishing boats and kayaks. There was a building there that looked like it was used for events and weddings. We then headed out again to  our next stop which was Bertie Beach on the Chowan River on the Bertie County side of the bridge. This brought back memories for me as I grew up near hear and did a lot of swimming in the Chowan River with cypress trees all around. We then headed toward our next stop in Elizabeth City North Carolina. This is a town that I want to explore more. We drove around town and stopped for a photo or two.  Our next stop was Kitty Hawk and the Wright Memorial National Park. I have been here  many times I really like the National Parks and being retired military I get a lifetime free pass to enter into the parks. Robert picked up his America the Beautiful Pass as he is retired military also. We stayed here and took quite a few shots. Our next stop was to check into our place we were staying and get something to eat. We like to eat local and not chain food like McDonalds. We saw a local restaurant that wasn't for tourist but looked liked locals ate there and so we ate there . Big win! If you are in Manteo eat at Darrells it's awesome and good prices too.  We then went to Kitty Hawk State Park which is comprised of Sand dunes. We had found a sunset shot we wanted to get. It was very windy and sand was blowing everywhere and hiking in the soft sand after a big meal was not the best for me! Thanks Robert! LOL we did find the spot and set up for sunset photos. But the clouds did not cooperate with us and we got some shots but nothing great. We made it back to the car and went and got some cold drinks and headed to the Bodie Island light house. If we thought 
that the wind was blowing bad at Kitty Hawk it was twice as bad at Bodie Island lighthouse. Had to hold down my tripod to keep camera as still as possible. At one point the wind blew Roberts tripod over but he caught it in time. I'm guessing that the wind was steady at 25mph with gust up to 35mph. But we got some shots and I was very pleased. The wind was blowing so hard that the clouds kept moving and we actually got shots with the Milky Way and clouds in it . Pretty cool. I was very satisfied with the results. We headed back to our room for a few hours sleep before we would go out again to shoot.

The next morning there were puddles in the parking lot telling us it had rained overnight but it wasn't raining so we went to our next stop a small lighthouse in Manteo. Marshes lighthouse to shoot a sunrise. It was so early that we could park very close to the waterfront and we set up and started shooting. We shot for an hour or so and we got some color in some of our shots and it was cloudy and we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. After the sun was well risen we headed for breakfast. We stopped at TL's Family Restaurant and had a great breakfast. I highly recommend !
 We then headed back home the more direct route than the one we came on. We stopped in Columbia at the visitors center and took some photo's at boardwalk there. We left there and headed home. On the way back we had a black bear cross the highway in front of us before we got to Plymouth. It was a very healthy large bear. We slowed down but our camera's were packed away so we didn't get any shots but it was still awesome to see this bear. We made it home about 10:30 in the morning. 24 hours of fun and shooting! And we got some keepers also. 

Gear I took for those that want to know. Main camera body was a Sony A7C a 24mp camera. My lenses were 20mm f/1.8 for the milky way shot. My new to me Sony 20-70mm f/4 G and Sony 100-400 GM. This is pretty much my landscaping kit except I would swap out the 20mm for a Sony 16-35mm f/4. This is the kit that I take to trips where versatility is a must. I have the assortment of filters and all of the accessories that go along with the kit. All carried in a Shimoda 30 liter Action X backpack. The original. I also took my newest companion film camera the Canon Demi EE17 a half frame that uses less film and is really fun to shoot. I think this little camera will accompany me on lots of adventures to come. My tripod was a Sirui AM 284 carbon fiber with a Inndrel N44 ball head. I picked this up this year since I went back full frame it's a little larger than the Pro-Master one I have used for years. If I go anywhere where street or travel photography will be I also take a Platypod Extreme camera support plate instead of a tripod.

I don't really have a moral of the story here. I think the club made the correct decision on not going on the workshop but I also think we made the right decision also on going. I had already cancelled one trip to Manteo earlier in the year so I was going to go either way. Didn't want to cancel again. We both had fun and it wasn't too expensive splitting cost of gas and lodging. So find you a Photo buddy or wingman to go on photography trips with. You'll have a ball and come back with some good photo's to boot! Until Next week! Get out and Shoot!

Hey Ya'll! Hope your week has been great! Mine? Great! This last weekend my photography club the Goldsboro Area Photography Club had its monthly Workshop/Photo trip. We have some sort of workshop or photowalk monthly to pair with our monthly meeting topic if possible. We get the ideas for our trips and workshops from critiques that we pass out at the end of the year asking questions about how to improve our club and one of the questions is where would you like to go or what type of workshop would you like to attend.  The Mount Airy/Pilot Mountain had been on a few critiques in the last couple of years and the club had never been to it so we decided to try it out this year. Spoiler Alert! It was a hit and we had a ball. So why is this small North Carolina foothills town worth a two and a half hour drive to get to? If you grew up in the US in 60's and 70's you definitely know about the TV show Mayberry RFD starring Andy Griffith . This show depicted a small southern town in the 1950's and 60's with its Sheriff "Andy" with its main character. A single father with Opie his young son played by Ron Howard who was famous for his 1970's hit "Happy Days" and later became a director and won an Academy , Emmy's, and even a Grammy and many more awards. The backdrop for this great show was the little town Mayberry which was modeled after Andy Griffiths childhood home town of Mount Airy. If you haven't seen Mayberry RFD you can still find it in re-runs still showing on TV it was that good of a show! Still showing 50 years later. Now about our trip.

As I said earlier we had quite a drive to get to our first destination of Mount Airy. So we left at 7 in the morning with a small caravan heading to Mayberry. LOL  Now that might seem like a long way to go for a day trip but I would say that sometimes the drive to and back from the trip are as much fun as the workshop/photowalk itself. You get to talk to fellow photographers and friends and catch up on what they are doing and what they are thinking. It seems like when we get back together we all become silly like when we were kids in summer camp. We just can't help ourselves. On the way up we stopped at an overlook that shows the road to Pilot Mountain with the mountain looming in the background. It was just a one shot stop but it was enough to get our photography juices flowing. We made it to Mount Airy and arrived at the Andy Griffith Playhouse and found parking. Now this is a small town so anywhere you park you're only a few blocks away from anything.

We walked to the main street in town which of course was named "Main" street and the street is lined with specialty shops and eateries. Everything "Mayberry" from Floyds barbershop to Opie's candy store. Even a little restaurant called "Barneys" (who was Andy's Deputy Sheriff) . There are lots of cool murals painted all over town and it is a very cool town to photograph. There are old patrol cars that you can take a ride in and I even saw a trolley that would take you around town. We stayed on foot checking out all of the sites and peeking into shops along the way to get the souvenir or two. We had lunch at Barneys. I had a Barney burger special which was great! There is a ice cream shop that some of our members took part in while everyone kind of spread out and took photo's.

After awile we decided to start our way back home which meant a stop at Pilot Mountain State Park. Pilot mountain is a distinctive rocky knob that rises 200 feet from a forested base. This unique looking peak is very photogenic. We stopped and got our photo's of this rocky knob then headed to the visitor center to learn about the area and of course get more souvenirs . LOL We then headed back home with a stop at a 7-11 convince store to get a Slurpee for the ride home. Which is starting to be a thing. LOL 

We had a great time shooting and exploring this little tourist town of days gone by.  Consider joining a local photography club for outings and fun workshops and a chance to meet people who are like minded and love to have fun. Until next week! Get Out and Shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope you've had a great week! Me ? Pretty good and it's getting hot in the south. Heat index over 100 degrees Fahrenheit today. Whew! Thats why I'm indoors writing this blog to stay cool. I know I've been all about film the last couple of months but today I want to talk about some digital adjustments I'm making to my digital kit. I am updating my mid-range zoom.  There are a few reasons that I'm updating my mid-range zoom. First let me say that the zoom that I replaced the 24-105mm f/4 G is an excellent lens and had great optical quality and built like a tank.  It had a great focal range but its biggest draw back was that it is heavy. It was heavy enough that I wouldn't take it with me if I was going on a walk or photo walk around town. It was just too big and heavy weighing in at 663 grams compared to the 488 grams of the 20-70mm. No matter what camera I put this on the Sony A7III or my Sony A7C it was very lens heavy. The length was 4.5 inches before being extended for the longer focal lengths compared to the 3.9 inches of the 20-70mm. So it was bigger and heaver. And if you know me I like compact camera kits and lenses for a walk  around photowalks that I love so much.  Ever since this lens came out in 2023 I've had an eye out for it but just haven't pulled the trigger.  Until last week. Now you know that I really don't buy very much new equipment and I found one at MPB and traded my 24-105mm and a beloved 28mm lens for the 20-70mm. I hated getting rid of the 28mm but I knew that I wouldn't use it with the new lens on.  If I need a 28mm lens to play with I have two other manual ones that I can adapt to my Sony digitals. So let me go over some of the specs of this Sony 20-70mm lens.

-Sony 20-70mm f/4 G. As the model name says its a 20-70mm focal range . Most mid-range are 24-70mm even though its only 4mm wider than standard mid ranges it does make a difference. Great for street and a travel walk around lens. This may be the only lens with this range and the 20mm focal length is great for folks that Vlog. Works great for arm distance selfies and videos.

-Sony 20-70mm f/4 G- The f/4 is the constant widest aperture for this lens. Now there are many lenses with f/2.8 widest aperture and they are great and expensive. Almost twice the price and weight of this lens. That is only one stop of light difference and unless you really need that one stop you can't tell the difference.  I have been using f/4 lenses for quite a while and don't miss the one stop of light if I really need to shoot in super low light I either use a tripod or put on a prime with one or two stops faster than the f/4 like a f/2.8 or a f/1.8.

-Sony 20-70mm f/4 G The G moniker on this lens means its of high quality. Sony makes standard lenses with no moniker, G lenses like this one and G Master lenses highest quality. This is a very sturdy build lens and feels good in the hand.  It is moisture and dust resistant with rubber gaskets that seal everything and one between camera and lens. 

-Lens features- This lens sports an aperture ring which I love on my lenses. It has two programable buttons that you can program all sorts of stuff on from eye focus , to almost anything else in the camera. It has a manual/ auto focus switch. It has a click/de-click button for the aperture ring. and an iris lock switch. It uses 72mm filters which are the same as its sister lens the 16-35mm f/4 G which I also have. So I don't have to buy new filters.

-Focusing Motors- Its has dual XD linear focusing motors. Which means there are two rails with motors on either side of the lens and the focusing is super quick and really beats the older type of motors and focusing systems found on the older 24-105mm. It is very quick. The 20-70 has a minimum focusing distance of .25 meter or 9.8 inches compared to the .31 meter or  14.9 inches on the 24-105mm. This makes it very good for close up detail shots within 12 inches.  Does very good on close up stuff.

-Stabilization- This lens is not stabilized unlike the 24-105mm. But almost all of Sony's camera have IBIS (in body image stabilization ) which will work just fine for me and probably saves some on the weight of the lens which I'd rather have a lighter lens than the stabilization .

Is this the perfect lens? I don't think that a perfect lens exists. With every one there are compromises that have to be made if you want all the bells and whistles the lens will be heavy and bulky. If you get a stripped down model well you won't get what you want either. For now this tool seems just right for me now and will fit the way I shoot now.  What I do know that this lens will probably be on the my Sony A7C almost all of the time because it seems to be a great fit and will also work for my Sony A7III if I need it.  I have been shooting this lens for a few weeks now and love the images that I get out of it. The weight and handling of this lens is great! My over all feelings of this lens is that it's another great lens from Sony in my Kit.  Well that's enough about this lens. Until next week make sure you Get out and Shoot!
 

Max Stansell Photography Hey Everyone! Hope your week has been as good as mine.  This weeks topic is about making memories with your camera. When we take a photograph we freeze time. You can go back to old photographs and you can see everything as it was back then. Going through your mom's shoebox that is full of old photo's you can see how life was way back when. You can see the clothes , cars and how people lived when the photo was taken. This is very cool. But if you didn't take the photo or if you were not there you don't have the memories. But if you look at a photo that you took years ago you can remember everything about it. The smells, the weather, the sounds the things that you can't see on the photo. This is one of the things that I love about photography.  The hobby of photography offers things that other hobbies don't, Memories. When you look at one of your old photo's the memories flood in . 

How do we preserve the memories? Well back in the film days it was easy we sent our film to be processed and got back prints and negatives. But now a days everything is on a disc of some sort. My advice is to print some way some fashion. I print books usually at the end of the year or for film projects. This year I'm doing a film project and I'm actually having 4x6 prints made of the keepers of each roll. So that takes care of my photography themed stuff but what about family and friends that you take with your smart phone. What about the memories that you have on Facebook? I answered that and went with a company that goes onto your facebook and puts into a book all of your photo's . You can cull out the bad ones and rearrange them the way you want but its a great way to save all of the family photo's that we have now on Facebook or social media.

My camera gets me out and about. I heard that your camera is a passport to life. Meaning that without the excuse of taking some photo's we would just stay at home and not explore the world around us. That was certainly the case for me. When I got back into photography at the dawn of the digital age I took a lot of photo's at home and in my back yard. Still lifes, Macros and the such. But after a while that gets old so I started venturing out to the state parks. There was one only 10 mile from my house that I had never visited before and now I'm there 3 or 4 times a week. Actually it got to all of the state parks in North Carolina. I started hiking and visiting all of the state parks , camping and exploring all along the way. I then joined the camera club in our town that even got me out and exploring even more.  Now I travel up and down the eastern sea board and even took a trip to Utah a couple of years ago. Great memories made one every thrip. None that would have been possible without Photography. When someone names a place that I have gone before the memories flood in of the times when I was there . I can go back and see the photo's of trips I have made, the clothes I was wearing, my weight, what job I was working at the time. All of these memories flood in like it was yesterday. So to me Photography isn't just about the images we make but the memories that we take with us along the way. Well that's it for this week until next. Get out and Shoot! And make some memories.

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great day today! Me ? Pretty good. I'm excited about this week's blog. I have been out of commission for a couple of weeks and was itching to get out and shoot. My photography wingman Robert had never shot film before. So this Sunday we planned a film only photowalk. I set up two cameras that would be pretty equal. Both were 35mm and both had working meters in them to make shooting easier for Robert. I supplied both with 50mm lenses and 28mm lenses.  I also supplied the film one roll of Kodak Gold 200 film (Color) and a roll of Ilford HP5+ (B/W film) . Both at 36 exposures so 72 shots each. Robert was thinking that 72 wasn't very many shots to shoot but he later found out that shooting film is a lot different than shooting digital. I told him that this experience would make him 

We made it to the first town that we were going to shoot. We sat in the car and I went over the controls of the camera he was going to be using. Showing how to Focus, read the meter , Aperture , ISO setting and changing lens. I made sure he understood everything about the camera. We loaded the first roll of film . He was using the Canon AE-1 Program. This is the same camera that he had gifted me a few weeks prior. As a matter of fact after the day was over he had more film though it than I have. I was using my trusty Pentax MX that I have had and used since the early eighties a manual only camera. And off we went. It was very fun to watch Robert work this old camera. I did catch him trying to "Chimp" a couple of times . (looking at the back of the camera) and many times he had forgot to advance the film and went to push the shutter button after composing focusing and getting the exposure right and nothing because he had not advanced the film. I asked him if he could imagine having to learn how to shoot the camera back in the day and having to wait for a week or so to see your photo's came out and then trying to figure out what you did right or wrong without the immediate conformation of what you just shot like with digital. I asked him what was what he missed the most and he told me the flip screen for really low shots because now you have to get really low. But I have to give it to Robert he was committed to doing a good job and it seemed like he really got into the process and took his time shooting. I told him about how much higher a percentage of good shots you get when you have to take your time to get everything right in the shot instead of just shooting away with a digital camera. I told him that if he took some of what he was doing today and applied it to his digital camera just think how good some of the photo's would be.

It was a great day we went to 3 small towns to walk the streets and shoot the interesting things of these towns. It took Robert all day to get through 72 photographs and this was a great exercise . I don't expect Robert to start shooting film but it was a good exercise for him to do and maybe slow down his shooting to get the great shots that I know he always gets. So this is a good exercise for you to do also. Even if you don't shoot film take your camera and shoot manual and limit yourself to 36 shots for a walk around town. Take time to compose and make sure everything is perfect before you pull the trigger. Slowing down will help your Photography. I took all the film at the end of the day. I had 2 rolls of color and 3 rolls of Black and white. I shot a little faster than Robert did and shot an extra roll which was to be expected I was very comfortable with the camera I was using.  

The next day I developed all of the film and Scanned into the computer. We had some really good shots and Robert did a great job. Only one or so were out of focus. And all were exposed correctly. I sent him his shots for him to go over and see what he has done. He was surprised by what he got. 

I enjoyed this experiment with Robert and hope he did too. Trying something new in your photography can make you a better photographer. If you're stuck doing the same thing all the time you don't grow.  Until next week! Get out and Shoot!

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week! Me?  Fantastic! I just got back from one of my camera clubs (Goldsboro Area Photography Club) workshop. Thought I would tell you about it. Our camera club is a very active club and we have some sort of workshop every month. This month was Wildlife photography . At our meeting which we have once a month also we had a great presentation by one of the wildlife photographers in the group and it was fantastic .  He showed us great examples on the how and the why of wildlife photography. Now I am not by no stretch of the imagination a wildlife photographer. I don't really have the patients for it. But I do like to do it in a workshop environment . So once or twice a year I become a wildlife photographer. 

Our workshop was lead by one of our senior wildlife photographers and he did a great job! Kudos MIKE! Usually when we have one of these workshops we go to a wildlife preserve. Pungo National Wildlife Preserve or Alligator River Wildlife preserve or Lake Mattamuskeet . All in North Carolina. Great places to go to see bears, geese, swans and all kinds of wildlife. This year we went to South Carolina to Huntington Beach State Park and then to Brookgreen Gardens located in Murrells Inlet.  What I liked about this is that there were real bathrooms there and we didn't have to drive around all day looking for wildlife. It did require a three hour drive to get there and we wanted to be onsite by 6 am.  So that meant a O'dark thirty wake up and leaving the meetup place by 3 am.  It was a nice enough drive. We carpooled there and being able to catch up with friends along the way kept us awake and lively. We arrived at Huntington Beach State Park a little after 6 am parked and headed to the causeway where we could view wildlife on both sides. Big water features supplied food and resting places for the wildlife from all sorts of birds and alligators. Got some great shots of some wildlife and some unique marsh landscapes. We then went to a couple of different spots in the park and had more opportunities to see some more wildlife and visit the bathrooms and park store for refreshments .  The weather for the day was Hot with continued Hot! Temps were at 90ish degrees Fahrenheit with a heat index of 105! At about 10:30 we headed to Brookgreen Gardens which was just across the highway from the State Park. We got our tickets and got in. Price is 22 dollars for adults with discounts for seniors and military. But the price is well worth it . I've paid more for less.  The gardens were fantastic and manicured to a tee! Big live oaks with Spanish moss hanging from the trees.  Artwork and fountains and pools are all over and there is a small art museum with hand carved work there.  There is also two or three places to eat there. We ate at the main restaurant and the food and AC was excellent!  After we had a nice lunch we headed out to the small zoo that is located in the gardens. They had all sorts of small animals from eagles, owls, farm animals, red wolfs and otters. I would highly recommend Brookgreen gardens for everyone! It is a very beautiful place but I would also suggest that you go when it's not quite as hot! When it got to be about 3 pm we were about done and headed back home another 3 hour drive and had time to mull over the days events and cool off in the car AC. We got home about 6. This was a full day of fun and shooting and being with friends for some wildlife .  I really enjoyed both Huntington Beach State Park and Brookgreen Gardens and would recommend it to anyone! So until next week get out and shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week. Me? So, So. I've been dealing with Kidney Stones. UGGH! But today so far a good day. The other day Robert (my photo wingman) and I were going to the Virginia International Raceway to shoot a car festival. But on the way to Virginia the Pain from my Kidney stones got so bad that we had to turn around before we got there and come home. We'll make it to VIR in the future. But we had a good 4 hours worth of driving and lots of good talk and of course if your talking to me lately film will come up. I know film is old science compared to all of the new digital cameras but there is just something about it that I like. Anyway he said that he had some cameras that someone had gifted him and he had never shot film before so I told him I would have a look at it and run a roll of film through it to see if it worked or not. He brought me the camera and it was a Canon AE-1 Program. Now I have heard about the Canon AE-1 before and what I didn't know is that there are a few versions of the basic AE-1. The AE in the name of the camera stands for Automatic Exposure. The original came out in 1976 and can shoot in Shutter Priority and Manual and is very solid camera and became a favorite among photographers. In 1981 the Canon AE-1 Program came out and its about the same as the AE-1 but can also shoot in program mode where the camera basically becomes a point and shoot and all you have to do is focus. It will also shoot in shutter priority and Manual.  Then there was the Canon A-1 which will shoot in shutter , aperture and program mode and manual. Does it all but is a little different design from the AE-1 and AE-1 Program.  Confused yet? LOL I was too I had to do a lot of research to figure out these camera's. So from what I could deduce from online is that the AE-1 and the AE-1Program were the more popular camera's and the A-1 although it can do more wasn't. The Canon AE-1 series of camera's was very popular for Canon and in 1984 the olympic were coming to the US and Canon even had Olympic versions of the cameras. This copy isn't that it was built after the Olympics in 1984.

So I got this camera to test out and first things first I had to figure out what kind of battery does it use and how to get it installed. This camera must have a battery to operate not like most of my camera's that only need a battery to work the meter. So I googled and figured out that the battery compartment is on the front of the camera and found that it uses a 6 volt battery 4LR44 just like that my medium format  camera uses so I had some batteries. I loaded it with a new battery and looked through the viewfinder and the meter was functioning (I'll check accuracy later) which was a plus.  I cocked the shutter and pressed the shutter button and it made an awful squeak when it fired. Which made me concerned that it may need to be sent off to have it CLA'ed (Cleaned, Lubricated and Adjusted) I cleaned it up the best that I could It has been sitting on a shelf with lots of dust bunnies on it. I stuck a roll of  Kodak Portra 400 in it and went around the house just shooting all kinds of stupid stuff just to see if it worked. I did check the meter against 2 different meters I have and it was about one third off in the overexposed range which is fine by me. It squealed and made all kinds of noise but seemed to work great. The viewfinder was brighter than any other of my 35mm cameras which I like having old eyes .  I shot on shutter priority mostly and one or two on manual and one or two on just program mode. When I developed the roll they all came out great no exposure problems at all. Which means all of the shutter speeds seem to work well and the electronics in the camera work well. The only problem was that horrible squeak. I got on Youtube and saw a few videos on how to lube the squeaky part to make it quit. So I tried .  I may have put more oil than I was suppose too but I did get it to stop squeaking and it sounds correct. I gave Robert my results of what I did to the camera and all of the research that I had done. He told me to keep the camera that is was better for this camera to be used than to sit on a shelf collecting dust.  I am very grateful and glad to add this camera to my film collection.  This camera will replace my Pentax MX that I have been using for a lot of my film project work. Now with a new camera system I will need some goodies. It has the 50mm f1.8 kit lens that it came with and I have just ordered a 28mm lens. Thats a great combo for what I'm going to use it for mainly street/photowalk  type stuff. People ask me when they find out I'm a photographer what kind of camera do I use and I say I shoot Sony. But this will make my 5th Canon that I own. Three film and a point and shoot and one that had been converted to IR. So maybe I'm a closet Canon Shooter. But don't tell anyone! LOL 

Now I'm the only one that I know that actively shoots film. I know a couple of other folks that can and have shot film but don't mess with it too much now. I'm one of the few people that have the time to do all of the developing scanning and now worry about how sharp the images turn out. I love the look of film. So Robert and I are planning to do a film only photoshoot. He has never shot film before. So it will be fun to see him learn how to operate, and load film into the camera and how it may change the way he shoots. I don't think that he will convert to film because it's quite a process from the time you click the shutter from the time you see the image. He's used to instantly seeing the image after clicking the shutter. Well that's it for this week . I'll let you know how the film photoshoot works out. So until next week Get out and shoot!

PS. Hey Ya'll! I wanted to share an experience with you that I just had. As you probably know I've been into film camera's this year and a good source for equipment is Ebay. We've all heard the horror stories of bad deals and people not getting what hey ordered. I have just aquired and nice little Canon AE-1 Program that came with a 50mm lens but I wanted a 28mm to go with it. So I got on Ebay found one for 60 bucks and ordered it. When I got it , It was not what I ordered it was a Canon 2X converter for the AE-1 Canon. I quickly sent a nasty gram to the seller and to my surprise she refunded my money overnighted the lens to me and let me keep the 2X converter. This was the only camera stuff that she had in her online store and think she didn't know much about it and was glad to get rid of it. Anyway I ended up with a free lens and a 2x converter for free. I can honestly say that I've never had a bad experience on Ebay (but I know they happen). Cheers! 
 

Hey Ya'll!  How's everything going? Me? Well that's what this blog is about. I've had to have a minor surgery that has kept me in the house for a couple of weeks. (don't worry nothing serious ) Couldn't have picked a worse time for this to happen. I've got two photo projects I'm working on and the weather has been great and I'm tied to the house for a couple of weeks. So what have I been doing with my time? I'm trying to do as much photography stuff that I can to keep me in touch with the art that I love so much. Even writing this blog is one of the things that is keeping me busy and in touch with Photography. So in this blog I will give some advice if you end up like me all raring to go but can't .  So here I go with some suggestions.

-Go back in your catalog of photos and re-process them. Go find a photo you like from 5 or 10 years ago and process it like you do now. With all of the advancements in Lightroom and Photoshop I bet you can do all sorts of things that you couldn't do then and really make some of those old photo's really pop. This will give you something to do that will improve your skills and bring back to life old photos.

-Go through all of your equipment and make sure it's spotless and clean and ready to go. This will get the camera back in your hands and while you're going through your gear you might find that you need some gadget that you can order online and they will bring it right to your doorstep. Someone recently gave me an old film camera so I cleaned it and ran some test film through it to make sure everything worked fine. And of course I ordered some stuff like a new lens off of eBay to make this camera into a Kit. 

-Listen to photography related podcast. They are great and you can learn lots of stuff from them. Some of my favorites are "The Digital Story", "PetaPixel", "This week in Photo" , "Picture this" and " The Future of Photography" and there are many more.

-Do some indoor Photography. Set up a table and start photographing things from still-life  to water drops. There are all kinds of things. You can go on Youtube and look up a specific shot and see how they did it. Look up Photography ideas and there will be all kinds of neat stuff that you can find to shoot.  I took my medium format film camera and figured how to hook it up to modern strobes. You could also do some sort of macro photography indoors. Table top photography has endless possibilities. 

-I can't believe I'm going to say this but you can read a photography book. I have several (don't tell anyone Im a Nerd) They are pretty cool and you can learn a lot. Looking at a photo in print is much different than on a screen. You can study the greats without leaving your couch.

-Go on to YouTube and search for the type of photography that you like. There will be all kinds of tutorials on how to do stuff and short videos of trips if your into street and travel like I am . I can spend hours going through YouTube watching the how to's and the where they went.

-Do some online learning with Kelby One or Creative Live. Lots of learning from some of the best in their fields there may be some cost but its well worth it. You can learn things from iPhone photography to Astro or even using your iPhone to do Astro photography. Everything from editing to portrait lighting can be learned through these online courses.

These are just a few of the things that you can do that are photography related if you get stuck in the house for a while like I have or in the winter when its too cold to go outside. In Photography there is so much to learn and do that you could and I have almost spend a life time learning. And these days it's as easy as typing on your computer. I'm sure you have some ideas that I haven't even thought about please share. So until next week Get out and shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! Me? Not too bad. This week I want to talk about the most familiar focal length that you're not shooting. Now we've always been told that the 50mm focal length is the closest to the human eye can see. I would even broaden that out a bit to 40-60mm somewhere in there is the sweet spot of the human eye. I think that back in the film days that 50 mm was the most familiar focal length and that was the lens that you always got with your new camera was the nifty fifty. But I think that in modern times that the familiar focal length has changed. In this modern age of photography everyone has a camera on them (Smart Phone)  and most of the normal lenses are set to 28mm range give or take a few millimeters. Everyone has a camera and they are used to seeing the world through that 28mm focal range. We take selfies, photo's of family and friends, events, landscapes almost everything is taken with our phones and we've got used to the focal length. The look of it. How it frames a scene. It's fairly wide compared to the 50mm and distorts the face of someone a little but we've got used to it. We like the look. Why don't you have a 28mm lens for your camera then? Well to tell you the truth there aren't that many to choose from. 

Now I really didn't notice the 28mm range until I started shooting film again. My film cameras I either had a fixed 40 or 45mm lens or had on interchangeable lens camera's had a 50 on them. But when I started shooting them they seemed tight. Too close and I was always backing up. Back in the film days I din't do that, the nifty fifty was just right. The reason is the smart phone camera that I have with me all the time taking shots of all kinds of stuff my eye had readjusted from the 50 to the 28mm of the phone. I had a 28mm for my Pentax but didn't use it too much I decided one day just to shoot the 28mm and I loved it!. It stayed on my camera almost all of the time. I would only pull the 50 out to shoot something across the street long distance for my street and travel stuff. Otherwise the 28mm was just right to my eye.  I loved this combination so much (28 and 50) I even got a 28 for my digital cameras and have a 28 and a 50 that I take with me when I'm shooting digital street to emulate the film set up that I have with the same focal lengths. I just love the combination of the 28mm (the new familiar) with the 50mm (my old familiar) when I'm shooting street or travel type photowalks. I just got a "new to me"  film camera system and the first thing I did was order a 28mm for my new system. Even in my medium format system set up I have a 30mm equivalent and a 50 equivalent focal length which matches my 35mm film and full frame digital cameras set up closely.

The new familiar ,28mm, has that look and is very versatile. It's great when shooting environmental portraits. It's wide enough without distorting the scene. It's great for landscapes rural or urban wide enough to get all of the scene in. Its great for taking a photo of someone your having lunch with or something close up like in street photography. This is a great lens for family photos during holidays. There are lots of advantages of the new familiar 28mm.  The 28mm is small and lightweight and great for carrying with you when you're on the go. The prices aren't much different than the nifty fifty maybe a little more but well worth it. I bought one used for a couple of hundred for my digital and even less than a hundred for my film cameras. There is not much bad to say about this little lens. For me it has become one of my favorite lenses and focal lengths. If you haven't shot with one I highly recommend getting one and trying it out. Until next week get out and shoot! Maybe the new Familiar.

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week. This week I want to talk about the final adjustment of me going back full frame. My long Telephoto solution.  As you can see from the title of this blog I have Chosen the Sony 100-400mm lens for this section of my photography kit. But I wanted to give you a review of the lens and why I chose it instead of other lenses in this range. When I was shooting crop sensor I had an effective full frame equivalent of 15-525mm focal length. But since I've gone back to full frame I could only go to 105mm. So I needed a long telephoto. Previously when I was shooting full frame Nikon my longest lens was a 70-200 mm that I used for portraits and landscape. It was a fantastic lens . But I rarely shoot portraits anymore. The 70-200 is a great lens but I wanted something a little more. I mainly shoot travel landscape Cockspur Lighthouse and occasionally wildlife. The 70-200 would be great for landscapes but for travel a little big and for wildlife too short.  When I was shooting crop sensor I liked that I had the option to shoot up to 525mm.  But I rarely shot at the very long end of that focal length.  I could get a third party lens from Tamron or Sigma that would fit this focal length and work great but I wanted to stay with Sony lenses. I also wanted to buy used to keep the cost down. I could have gone 200-600mm but I thought that was just too much especially on how I would use it.  So the Sony 100-400 seemed the right lens for me but there are two versions. The original came out in 2017 and the newer one  in 2022. I decided to go with the older one after watching many reviews and articles on both of them. So the lens I got was the Sony 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 G-Master OSS. What does all that mean? It's a 100-400mm focal length. Maximum aperture is F4.5 at 100mm and 5.6 at 400mm. It's a G- Green Heron Master lens which means it's the top of the line , one of the premium lenses the only one in my kit. And The OSS means that it's optically stabilized . 

So that was my reasoning behind getting the lens that I did let me talk about the lens itself . First of all the build quality is fantastic. Built like a tank! Much like my 70-200 that I had with Nikon. It's a weather sealed lens that means I can get it in a little weather. It has all of the seals to protect it and your camera. It has 4 switches on the side of the lens. It has a AF/MF switch .  It has a range switch Full to Infinity to 3meters, It has a OSS off and on switch. And a mode switch with 2 modes. Mode 1 is for everyday shooting and Mode 2 is for Panning.  It has 3 buttons on it that can be used to control something on your camera like turning Eye Auto Focusing on or off.  It Also has a switch that will tighten or loosen the lens to Zoom more smoothly depending on your taste.  It also has Snowy Egret a removable tripod collar that can be adjusted or removed as needed.  As of this blog I've only used just a couple of times and it is sharp and easy to use.  There is an art to using longer lenses which I am learning but not great at yet. Maybe it's the weight or the size of the lens but it may take me a while to get used to it. It is a great lens that will give me many years of service.

Well that's it for this week and hopefully the end for all of the gear change blogs that I have been writing lately. LOL So until next week make sure you get out and shoot!

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Pretty good. Today is another rainy day so I thought I would spend my time writing yet another blog and yet again about another piece of gear. I know , I know I have GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). As you know I've been really into film this year. From shooting , Developing and Scanning I've really been into the process and the film project I'm doing. Then I got to thinking what kind of project can I do next year that will keep me into film?  I thought how about medium format and try to shoot fine art landscapes and such. The only problem I have with that is I don't have a medium format camera. Well I didn't. I do have one now. And that's what this blog is about the Bronica ETR SI. This is a Japanese camera made from 1989 - 2004 when digital was killing film camera's. The company has been around since the end of WWII and the ZENZA BRONICA first appeared in 1959. So it's a company that has a history in medium format cameras. This isn't a sexy camera like the Hasselblads are. It is known as a workhorse no frills camera. It is also known as a poor mans Hasselblad. Which is funny I also own a poor mans Leica with the Canon Canonet QL17 LOL. This camera was mainly a studio and Landscape camera . Let me go over some of the specs.

It's a SLR type camera. Which means you see through the lens when you focus. Unlike the twin lens and the Rangefinder type of cameras. Which means there is no parallax going on. What you have framed is what you get.

It is a system camera. Which means you can configure the camera many different ways. With different film backs, to viewfinders and lenses.  It also has a speed handle that can be attached that has shutter button and rewind lever attached. It is very versatile and can adapt to many shooting situations.

This is a 645 (6cm X 4.5 cm Negative) medium format camera. It has many different film backs to shoot all sorts of film. It can shoot 135 film (35mm) , 120 film, 220 film and polaroid . Using different film backs for all of them. You can also switch film mid roll. For example If your shooting 120 color and take a couple of shots , You can take the film back off and put one that has 120 black and white film without finishing the color film and go back and forth.  This will keep you from wasting film when changing back and forth between types of film. It can also shoot panorama with a special film back using 35mm film.

Lenses- It uses Zenzanon lenses made by Bronica. In earlier models it used Nikon Nikor lenses until they had their lenses perfected. The lenses also include the leaf shutter along with aperture .  The lenses come in maximum aperture of f2.8 and f4 and are super sharp and are plentiful and can be easily purchased.

Shutter- As mentioned above it has a leaf shutter instead of a focal plane shutter. It has a range from bulb to 1/500 of a second. With a leaf shutter you can sync your flash at any speed it isn't restricted to a certain shutter speed like a focal plane shutter. This camera also has a mirror lock-up feature to keep camera steady when shooting at low shutter speeds. The shutter is controlled from the main body and must have a battery power to operate. If battery dies it shoots at 1/500 as a default.

Other features. It has a multiple exposure lever so you can take more than one shot on the same frame, Battery check button to check the strength of your battery and a cable release socket.

Viewfinders- You can choose between two different viewfinders. One is the waist level finder that you look down and through the lens and the other is a prism view finder that you look through like a normal SLR. The prism view finder has a meter in it and can shoot in Aperture Priority. With the waist level you have to use a hand held meter to get the proper exposure.

I was very lucky to find this particular camera .  What I got with the kit was the body, 2 film backs a 120 and a 220, Prism and a waist level viewfinder, 2 lenses a 50mm and a 75mm both max aperture f 2.8, and Speed handle. All in the original boxes with receipts when they were bought in the early 90's.  Main body , lenses, prism viewfinder and 120 film back had never been used. They were owned by a professional portrait photographer that had purchased as a backup. He died a few years ago and a friend was selling them.  I saw the kit on Facebook marketplace and was surprised when I inspected them how good of shape they were in. I was very lucky. I am now learning all I can about 120 film and have shot one roll through it and developed it . I am pleasantly surprised at my results. I am very excited about using this camera for years to come and projects to come. Well that's enough about gear for today. Until Next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week! Me? Super! Tomorrow I leave for a photography trip with my club and I'm super excited. But that will be another blog. This week I want to talk about a project I'm thinking of doing. If you follow this blog you know I'm in the middle of a film project and I'm really enjoying it. So I was thinking what kind of project can I do next year that involves film. Right now I'm shooting 35mm film and its easy to get and I' used to using it. But what about another type of film? Then I thought what about medium format film? Now I didn't know anything about medium format film. Never shot it and don't even have a camera that will shoot it.  So I had to start researching medium format film. Let me tell you there is lots to learn. First of all there is the film. The film most commonly used is 120mm film. There is also a 220 film that is basically the same as 120 but longer so you can get twice the shots on a roll. But 120 is the most common and many manufactures make it as for 220 I could only find one company that still make it and its in China. So that's the type of film but it's not that easy.  Depending on what camera you get determines what size the negative will be.  There are many sizes. There is 645 cameras. They make a negative that is 6cm X 4.5cm thus the 645. There is 6x6cm and 6x7cm they are kind of close a square and not quite a square.  Then there are the 6x9cm which is more a traditional aspect ratio. Now that's a lot to take in. The bigger the negative the less shots you get on a 120 or 220 roll of film. So with the price of film that has to be taken into consideration. The bigger the negative the more resolution and the less grain and sharper the image will be.  

Next is the camera type. I've only used 35mm before and have used SLR and Rangefinder type cameras but with medium format there are all kinds of cameras you can get and use. Like 35mm camera's these cameras are old and they really don't make them anymore. But there are so many different kinds. There is the twin lens reflex. TLR's. They are the ones with two lenses in the front and have a viewfinder that you look through the top while the camera is at waist level. There are foldable camera's. They fold up fairly flat and when you open them there is a lens and bellows system. But you must be careful when buying so you don't have light leaks in the bellows. There are Rangefinder type of cameras that look like their 35mm little brothers but much larger. These camera types are either fixed lens camera's or in the TLR's hard to find lenses to change out if at all. You have SLR cameras that look like the 35mm cameras but much larger!  Then you have system SLR camera's. The system camera's are more versatile than all of the above. They have interchangeable lenses. They may have interchangeable view finders. (A waist viewfinder and a conventional viewfinder.) The most cool thing is the interchangeable film backs. With these film backs you can shoot 120, 220, 35, polaroid, and digital if the backs are available. These camera's were mostly used by professional photographers. Some of the film backs also rotate so when shooting you can go from landscape to portrait without moving the camera you just rotate the film back. All of these cameras can come with a leaf shutter or a focal plane shutter. The advantage of a focal length shutter is the speed you can get faster shutter speeds. With a leaf shutter you can sync your flash at any shutter speed. Focal shutters are louder and leaf shutters are quieter.

So there is lot to figure out. What size negative and what type of camera . The prices of these cameras can go from 3 to 4 hundred dollars for a camera to thousands. This all depends on type, condition and of course brand. A Hassabald is much more expensive than a Yashica. I also need to figure out what I want to shoot in this project. I plan to shoot fine art type of photography. Landscapes and Still life. Shooting Medium format is a slow process. Not fast like 35 or super fast like digital. I have made a couple of decisions after all of the research I've been doing. I have decided on the 645 size of camera and negative size. This size is more than twice the size of 35mm film and should give me the look I'm Looking for. I have also decided on a camera. I purchased a system camera set up. It's a Bronica ETR SI. It has interchangeable Lens , film backs and viewfinders. I'll go over it in another blog. I got a great deal on Facebook Marketplace. I got it early so I could practice with it and I can use it in my film project I'm doing now so when I get ready next year for the Medium Format project I'll already be comfortable with the camera .

Projects are a great way for a photographer to learn more about theirselves and to challenge them in photography. I hope you can find a project that motivate you to get out and shoot. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Pretty good. First of all I want to start out to give props to Derrick Story who has one of the best Photography Podcast around! I borrowed this title from him. He has a podcast on this topic and it really resinated with me. Because that's how I feel about photography. First if you haven't listened to his podcast it's the Digital Story and it can be found in any of the podcast services or you can google "The Digital Story" and listen to it there. Now back to the subject. When your buying a camera or camera system is the most important thing to you image quality? Or does the camera have to feel good in your hand? To me it has to feel good. I have to like where all the buttons and gismo's are. Shooting should be fun and not complicated or uncomfortable. But for some people it's not like that it's the bottom line of image quality that is the most important. How many megapixels , what's the burst rate, how fast does it focus . Image quality is everything. If you're a professional photographer I can understand that. But very few of us are Professional. Since this is my blog and it's all about me! LOL I'm going to take the other side of this argument and say that the Shooting Experience is more important that the image quality.

I have been in photography for a long time. When I got my first camera image quality was the furtherest from my mind because all film camera's pretty much had the same quality.  It was the shooting experience , how the camera felt in our hand , the taking of the photo's with friends and family. That was the fun part. Getting the photo's back from the lab and looking at them a week or so later it wasn't on how sharp the photo's were but the people and things in them. Now when I got into digital there was a time when I was obsessed with the megapixel count and how fast it shot (the image quality) But then I got away from that and started shooting crop sensor camera's and the image wasn't as important as the experience. You have a much better experience hauling a crop sensor camera and lenses compared to carrying around a full frame sensor camera. And the quality didn't change much. If you look at my website 90% of the photo's are shot with a crop sensor and they look great! (or at least i think so) I have shots on my website that were shot with point and shoots and with iPhones . So I think getting a camera for quality isn't as important as it used to be because any camera you buy today will give you great photo's. Even your phone. So maybe that's why I like film so much it's the experience, the feel, the sound of the shutter and the mirror slapping up and out of the way. Zone focusing, using old lenses on new digital camera's just for the feel of the old lens even though new lenses may be sharper. I like to set up my digital camera's as much as I can like old film ones . I like using lenses that have aperture rings on them to set the aperture like I would on an older film camera. I usually shoot in Aperture Priority or Manual to keep it close to as what it was when I was shooting film. I do like smaller cameras to shoot because large ones are just too heavy to tote around. I would rather take a point and shoot camera to shoot on a photowalk instead of a big bulky camera like I did on the last trip to the low country. I used a point and shoot and a film when walking around Savannah and had really good images. Were they as sharp and flawless as a more modern full frame camera kit? No but I don't even own a modern full frame camera kit. Mine still works fine. I think of camera systems as tools that you use. I wouldn't take a film camera to capture a race car race. I would take a big lens and camera to catch what I could. But I would take the film camera for a walk about a town and not the big lens camera.  I would take a crop sensor camera on a hike because it would be more comfortable (shooting experience) than a big digital camera that might have better quality images. How a camera feels in your hand is more important than the technical aspects of it. If you're not comfortable you won't take very good photo's. But I've seen photo's taken with a phone that are great because it was the right tool for the job at the right time and the photographer was comfortable using it.

I feel as I've gone off of the reservation a little. What I'm saying is that its not the technical aspects of the gear that is important its how it feels to you when your using it that is important. I have a Sony 24- 105 lens that takes great photo's but its just too heavy to take around with me so I'm having the conversation with myself should I change it out for a 20-70mm lens that is newer and lighter has an aperture ring that my 24-105 doesn't .  I'm thinking so I just haven't pulled the trigger yet. To me the 30mm difference in the lens is less important than me hauling a twice as heavy lens with me. I would get better photo's with a lens that I'm bringing with me and using instead of a lens that sits in my bag because it's too heavy. The shooting experience is more important than quality of the image. Well I've gone on enough on this subject. Please enjoy your gear and don't get it just because it's the newest and the greatest it should be comfortable to make the shooting experience greater ! So get out and shoot!

Hey Ya'll ! Hope you've had a great week! Me? Pretty good! This week I want to talk about a subject that will improve your photography by leaps and bounds. We as photographers are always trying to find the magic cure or recipe to great photography. We try new gear or special editing techniques. We download all sorts of presets hoping some other photographer has found the magic combination of settings in Lightroom. But there really isn't any secret sauce! The key is to keep it simple. Make your photo's simple. How do we make a photograph that will catch someone's eye? It's by taking out everything that is not needed in the photo .  Taking away all of the distractions for the viewer to see what was so special in the photo you took. By Subtracting! Why do we want large megapixel camera's? So we can crop and still have good resolution. Why do we crop? To get rid of unwanted things in our scene. We Subtract. To me that's the main reason to Raven's Roost Va. have a high megapixel photo. So we can crop or subtract. Thats why cropping works! 

It's not what you leave in but what you leave out that will make your photographs good. People use longer focal lengths for that exact reason when shooting street photography or wildlife or landscapes. To isolate what is important in a shot and to take away everything that is not. One of the great sayings in photography is " If your not getting good photo's move closer your not close enough" The saying is true because when you move closer you take away all of the surrounding stuff that doesn't matter to your photo.  Your Subtracting the junk to make your photo better. When you edit one of the final steps in editing is to do a boarder check. Checking the boarder for unwanted things that are poking in your photo. Subtracting the junk that isn't needed or wanted for the good photo. Distractions! Less is More!

Cades Cove Tree Someone long time ago asked Michelangelo the famous Renaissance sculptor and painter. " How did you make the "David" statue out of a single peace of Marble. He said " I took away everything that wasn't David". He Subtracted! So as we can see this system ins't new it has been going on for centuries ! Now I'm not saying that using this method that you will become the Michelangelo of photography but it should make your photographs more appealing and simple. Without all of the distractions you can show the people what you liked about the photograph to begin with.

So how do we do this in practice? It's all good to say that we need to subtract the distractions in our photo to make them Light House Stairs better but how? I think we should slow down. Get back to basics. We've become button pushers and don't take enough time setting up the camera , composing( framing) or waiting for just the right moment. We want to click , click, click and move on to the next thing. I am very much guilty of this process. As a matter of fact until I started shooting film again I was very much the "Clicker of Photos" My expensive camera just became an expensive point and shoot.  So I think that slowing down getting the correct aperture , composition and waiting for the correct moment to push the shutter is how we eliminate (Subtract) distractions. 

So that's it for this week. Subtract distractions for better photo's. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're doing great! When writing this its the first day of Spring so Happy Spring! This week I want to talk about some of the Classic Debates that we photographers have about our great hobby. We photographers love to debate and have fun disagreements with our Photog friends. One of the classic is about camera companies. In my camera club one of the questions that we ask new members is what type of camera that they shoot. No matter what kind of camera it is we hear oohs and  cheers from the people who have that camera and from those that don't. The most classic is Canon vs Nikon these camera lovers are really loyal to the brands that they have chosen and get very outspoken about their cameras. I guess because they have spent so much money on them and want to reinforce their decision to investment in them. LOL So lets get started with the debate.

Full Frame Sensor vs Crop Sensor.  This is one of the most debated topic and people are really serious about it.  Ever since the first Full Frame Sensor Camera came out. (Crop Sensors were first) this debate has begun. They both have positives and negatives to them and I have even written a blog on this one Debate.  I have many years shooting both and can tell you that the differences especially with newer cameras are very small. Full  Frame Sensor are better in low light but not as much as they used to be and crop sensors give you more depth of field. Camera's with full frame are larger and crop sensors are smaller.  Those are the biggest differences. 

Manual vs Auto. Some photographers say that you are not a real photographer unless you shoot in Manual. Others say I can get better photo's quicker by using the Auto settings. I started photography in an age that there really wasn't a choice. It was manual only. I think you should know how to shoot in Manual but think you should use the auto modes and use manual when they don't work. It will make your work flow less complicated and concentrate on composition instead of what shutter speed to use when shooting manual only. 

Photoshop vs Lightroom. This debate has also been around for a while. Photoshop was the first editing program for older photographers then Lightroom came out with easy editing and organizing system.  I use both. I use Lightroom to organize my photo's and do the simple editing that I do and if I have to do some heavy lifting or editing I'll send the photo to Photoshop to do the things that Photoshop is better at. But choosing one over the other is just silly . You should be using both to get the best out of your photo's.

Zooms vs Prime Lenses. I have also had a blog on this subject also. I have a love for both and think that both of them have a place for your photography. Zoom lenses are great for when changing your position is hard like Landscape and wildlife. Primes are great for when you can control your position like Portraits and Street photography. Zooms tend to be heaver than primes and usually have a larger minimum aperture . They both have their place. But to choose one over the other I don't think that is right. But using both to fill out the needs of your photography.

Film vs Digital. This is mainly an Old guy debate as most young photographers have never shot film. But for guys like me _MSP6316 this can be a debatable topic. I like both. I like the look of film . I like the flaws in it. Digital can be flawless and is awesome to shoot with and you can shoot to your self content. With film your limited on the amount of shots on a roll of film. Film is like listening to vinyl record albums. It has a something , something that you can't put your finger on. This is a debate that I have with myself all of the time.

Color vs Black and White. This is a big debate among photographers. Some folks won't shoot Black and white and some won't shoot color. Since the digital age you can shoot both at the same time and I do this sometimes . There is a saying that states " when you shoot color you take pictures of their clothes when you shoot black and white you shoot their souls". Don't know who said this but I do like it. Black and White has a timeless feel to it and sometimes shooting in color the colors just get in the way. I love both and sometimes shoot both at the same time and pick the one I like the best in post.

Natural Light vs Artificial Light.  Among portrait photographers this is a big debate. Some will only shoot in natural light and say that it gives the best colors . Those that shoot with the aid of flash or strobes really control the light and can shoot in any situation. A definite advantage to be able to shoot with the aid of flash because the possibilities are endless. Shooting in Natural light does and can have a special quality to it but getting the light just right can be tough.

So here are some of the classic debates in photography. Do you have some that I don't know about. Please list them in the comments. So let's stop debating and start Shooting! So Get out and Shoot! 

Hey Ya'll! Hope everyone had a great week! I sure did I went on a workshop to the Low Country of Georgia and South Carolina. The camera club that I have been a member for over a decade decided this year to take a trip in the spring. Usually we only do a Fall Colors trip in the Mountains somewhere but this year we did a spring trip. We had one planned in 2020 but COVID put a stop to it. Our fall trip is a week long trip but we wanted our spring trip to be shorter to give people who can't take a whole week off to go to the mountains a chance to go on a trip with us. Our trip was to start on a Wednesday and come home on a Sunday. Last year we took a scouting trip to help plan our trip for this years workshop. Afterwards we (Mike, Robert and myself) had many meetings and came up with an itinerary for the trip. We had settled on two days in Savannah Ga. and two days in Beaufort SC. Caitlin our club's president secured our lodging at both places and as always she did a great job. So then there was just the countdown to the day the trip began. We had 10 people attend and one of them was a former member that had moved away to Tampa Fla. and he drove up to meet us in Savannah. So here goes a day by day of our workshop.

Day 1.  The day was a travel day mostly. We wanted to get there as quick as we could to be some rain that was in the forecast for the next day. We arrived early enough to park our cars at our first rental. (we were too early to check in) Our Florida compadre met us just as we were getting ready to head out. Our house was just a couple of blocks away from the famous Forsyth Park and fountain there. So that's where we headed first. We tried to get as much in as we could walking the streets of Savannah because we knew that rain was on the way the next day.  We wondered down from Forsyth park towards the waterfront stopping along the way for drinks and to take photo's.  When we finally got to the waterfront we found a place for supper. We had a nice supper and explored the waterfront area. We then started the way back to Forsyth Park to get a nighttime shot of the fountain. We did so and headed back to the house. We did a lot of walking and some folks took an Uber from the waterfront back to the house instead of walking the 10 or so blocks. It was a good full day!

Day 2. The weather dictated most of this day. Thunder and heavy rain early in the morning. When the rain slacked up a bit we headed out to Tybee Island to maybe get a shot of a lighthouse or two but the rain was too heavy so we just got something to eat at a local restaurant and headed back to the house. By early afternoon the weather had gotten better but our President had gotten a touch of food poisoning and was really out of commission for the rest of the day and most of the next. Some of us went to the Tybee Island Lighthouse and to Pulaski National Monument to take some photo's of the light houses. It was very windy but we managed to get a couple of shots. We decided to have Pizza delivered that night to the house instead of going out to eat. The rains didn't ruin our time in Savannah but it did seem to cut it short.

Day 3. The first thing on our agenda was a sunrise at Tybee Island pier. We loaded up very early with all of our stuff because we were going to Beaufort SC and checking out of the Savannah house. We had a nice shoot at the pier and had another hearty breakfast.  Then off to the Beaufort area. We were too early to check in and our house was at a gated community just outside of Beaufort.  Our first stop was to get some photos of Shrimp boats which we did then we went to Port Royal Cypress Wetlands. This was a fantastic spot to shoot wild birds, alligators, snakes and other wild life.  We spent quite a while there walking the boardwalks and taking in all the sights and sounds. We then walked to a local place and had lunch that was quite good. Our president stomach was starting to get better. We stopped at a ruin of an African American church and took some photo's and then went to Hunting Island State Park to scout out the next mornings shoot. We had planned to go to a seafood restaurant that evening but we needed reservations and had called too late for the day so we made reservations for the next day. We then went to a place that was near our next shoot which was Sheldon Ruin Church to do some light painting. We stopped by the house to drop off our luggage and then headed out . We went to the restaurant under much hype of the menu of Steak and Potatoes. We got there and there was no steak and patatoes but the menu was Wings and things. It still was a great dinner and we went to the church to do some light painting which worked out great. Then it was back to the house to get some shut eye and up early for another shoot.

Day 4. Up early! We headed out to Hunting Island State Park to shoot the driftwood trees with the sunset. We got there and it was dark and we headed out down a short trail to get to the beach . It was in a different place than the scouting trip and it was fabulous!  There were many trees there and we got there about an hour before the sun peeked its eyes out so we got really good shots. After we exhausted the shots there we went to the lighthouse there at the state park and the "No See Ums" were out! Got a few shots of the Lighthouse and it was off to Beaufort to eat breakfast. The restaurant was packed and we are a group of ten so it's hard to seat us and we waited quite a while for seats. We finally got in and had a great breakfast or brunch it was so late. By then everyone was done and wanted to go back to the house. So we didn't shoot the town of Beaufort as much as I wanted but  folks were tired. We had reservations at a very cool restaurant that evening and had a great meal of seafood. When we got back to the house we were going to do some light painting. We were going to use sparklers and lights out on the beach. We got to the beach and the "no see ums" were terrible swarming. They died down a little later but were bad at first. We tried to light the sparklers but they were duds and couldn't get them lit. We dished that idea and worked with some colored lights that we had brought and got some good shots.

Day 5. Day 5 was packing up and heading to Magnolia Plantation before going home. We went to the plantation and it was nice. We took a train ride and walked through the gardens and saw the plantation grounds. It was a nice place to visit. Then we all headed home.

All in all it was a great trip and I got some good photo's. I always look forward to the clubs trips and workshops and can't wait until the fall trip.  Until next week Get Out and Shoot!

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week! I know I've been writing a lot about film photography the last month or so and it's mainly because I've been really into film during the same time. I've talked about camera's, developing and scanning and even how to meter. I have talked about all of the technical and material stuff but I haven't talked about the feel of shooting with film again. We photographers are really into gear and the how-to of photography and I think sometimes we forget about the why and the feeling of photography. We concentrate on megapixels and how many frames per second and auto focusing . We forget all of the famous photographers over the last 100 years didn't have any of these modern convinces and their photographs still stand over and above a lot of modern photographers. Not that there aren't great photographers now but gear isn't the reason of what made them great. It's the feel , the art of the photography that made the greats great. To me shooting film is back to basics.

Back to Basics. Shooting film makes me go back to basics. The seeing the scene. With film photography I have to slow down. Each shot cost money. Even with me developing my own film and Scanning it myself its almost 50-.75 cent per shot which doesn't sound like a lot but does add up after you're used to shooting for free with digital. Each shot matters. So you take your time waiting for the perfect scene. When you find that perfect scene then there is the metering part. These are 50 plus year old camera's and trusting how you are metering is really key to getting a good exposure. Knowing if you're going to error in exposure you should error in over exposure. Framing and composition is very important. Although you can edit that in post every time you crop you introduce more grain. Every part of the process in film photography affects the way your final image will turn out .  The film itself is very important. The manufacturer the ISO of the film do you want to shoot black and white or color. All of these things matter when shooting film.  Even the way you develop the negatives and what chemicals you decide to use will change the way the final image will turn out.  Everything matters when making decisions when shooting film.  Maybe that's why I like it so much. You have to be involved in the shooting process and even the developing process. They all make a difference when shooting film. You are involved. You make all of the decisions. The camera's I use for film are 100% mechanical. The only thing that is electronic is the meter. I really like that. Film fits the style of photography that I like Travel and Street.  For younger photographers that are just discovering film it's all new and the nostalgia of film. For me it's back to the roots that I remember.  Are the images better than what I get with digital?  If you're looking at technical things like sharpness color and pop. No not really but if you're looking for the "how does it make you feel" factor then yes. You've heard me say this before it's like listening to a vinyl record album compared to listening to a digital recording. The vinyl has pops and cracks that you can hear but that gives it character and something you can't put your finger on. Film is the same way. The grain and the colors just give it that something.

Shooting Digital. When I first started shooting digital 24 years ago I had to learn what Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and being able adjust your ISO.  I had to relearn. I had shot manual for over 20 years and had only had film cameras that were mechanical manual camera's. I din't even have auto focus. That was something else I had to learn.  After a couple of years I had it all figured out and became basically an Aperture Priority photographer just like I am today.  When I'm shooting digital I tend to shoot a lot and almost anything compared to when I shoot film. If something looks a little interesting I shoot. I don't think so much because my camera does all of the thinking for me. I pick the aperture and the camera does the rest. Really if you looked at my photo's most everything starts at F8 and my camera at this point is just a point and shoot. I will adjust my Aperture depending on what look I want but basically I put on F8 and let it eat.  I don't have to think about metering, I don't have to think about ISO or focusing . The camera does it all and it does it great. But after a while you stop thinking and just point and shoot. It (to me) takes the fun the artistry to it out of the shot. If you mess up when you're taking the shot you can fix it in post. Digital images you can do so much in post that its an art in itself . And believe me if Ansil Adams had Lightroom and Photoshop he would be one of the experts .  But everything seems so slick and automatic.  For me it seems like the involvement feels less than when I shoot film. Don't get me wrong I'm not knocking digital I love to shoot digital but I also love to shoot film. 

Conclusion. I love the involvement I have when I shoot film. I love the process from start to finish. I think that shooting film makes me a better digital photographer. I think that going back and forth between film and digital makes me a better photographer. Where if I only shot digital I get into the point and shoot mode and don't think as much because I know I can fix in editing.  If you take a better photo in digital then when you edit you even get a better photo. So if you look at the technical aspect of Film VS Digital I'd say that Digital wins but if you are looking at feel and that X factor I'd say that Film wins. So until next week get out and shoot !

  Hey Ya'll! Happy Friday! Hope your week is going great! Me ? I'm doing well and excited about this weeks topic. As you know I have been working on a film project this year and have been getting into and relearning how to shoot film. It's not as strait forward as you would think it .  Many of the camera's that are used "now a days", are old camera's and the meters that are in them may not be as accurate as they used to be when they were brand new if they work at all. For one thing they don't make the same batteries as they used to .  Batteries used to be made with mercury which was outlawed and they Alkaline which is not as stable as mercury was.  The voltages are different too which affects the accuracy of the meter. So if you have a in camera meter that works and that is accurate you are very lucky. What is nice about these old camera's is that you don't need a battery to operate the camera the only thing that the battery operated was the meter.  So we just have to find a different way to meter. That's what this blog is about.

Shooting film is different than digital. When shooting film you hear expose for the highlights because you can bring the detail out of the shadows. So you can shoot up to a Stop under exposed with no problems. I set my exposure compensation at 1/3 under exposed just to save the highlights. If you over expose the highlights you can't get the details back. Film is the opposite . All the details are in the highlights so if you want to error you Over expose. Most films can be over exposed one or two stops but can only be under exposed one stop. The best practice is to get it right in camera and a good meter that you can trust no matter if it's in your camera or not. Hope that explanation isn't too muddy.

When metering for film and not using the camera's meter ,if it had one, there are a few choices. You can go with inexpensive to expensive and from convenient to not so much. Here are the ways. The Sunny 16 rule. This was developed by Kodak many years ago and works great but might not be as accurate so we are going to stick to mechanical meters. So the meters are.  Use your Smart Phone, A on camera meter that attaches to hot or cold shoe, Handheld meter, and a Spot Meter. I'm only going to talk about 3 of these. Spot metering although is very accurate it is very expensive to buy a meter that does this. And unless you are a high end professional photographer I wouldn't recommend. Film is expensive enough. But the other three I have used and will discuss. You can also use the obvious your digital camera set to the same ISO and transfer the settings to your Film Camera. But that's big and bulky and you have to carry 2 camera's. And it's a pain. But it does work.

Smart Phone, You can use a APP on your phone. Some are even free. Your smart phone uses the camera on your phone and you point the phone at the scene press a button and the app will give you the settings for your camera .  I used an app that I paid 5 dollars for and I got that I could calibrate the phone to match a trusted meter that I have. Using this is easy but cumbersome and inexpensive because you already have the phone and can use a free app. If you are only going to shoot film every now and then this might be the way to go.

Hand held meter, A dedicated hand held meter is accurate and easy to use. I think is a must for any serious photographer to have. Very useful in flash photography. The draw back here is that they are rather expensive and are bulky. You can get a decent one for 200 to 300 dollars. If you already have one like I do this is another no cost alternative. But it is bulky and something extra to put in your pocket or around your neck. 

Hot/Cold shoe Meter, These little meters connect using the Hot/Cold shoe on your camera. So they are always on your  camera and you don't have to have something in your pocket or carry with you. They come in two basic colors black and a silver to match your camera . They come in many prices mine was 70 bucks. Mine is accurate but can be adjusted if not. The one I have is USB rechargeable so no batteries. These are handy and sit atop of your camera but may take away from the look of your camera if your into the coolness of film cameras .  Some of them have dials that may mimic what your  camera has and look cool also. Mine has a dial and a digital read out for the numbers. I think the most convenient of the three.

Shooting film is fun but expensive so you want your meter to be right. All of these choices work and give accurate readings.  My choice is the hot/cold shoe one just for the convenance of it. It's always there I don't have to fish into a pocket to pull a phone or another meter out. It's USB chargeable so I don't have to mess with batteries. It was fairly inexpensive I've paid more for filters. So if you want to shoot film these are the choices for metering but you could always go the Sunny 16 rule. So until next time. Get out and Shoot!

Hey Ya'll! How's your week going? Mine? Pretty good. It's a rainy day so I thought I would catch up on writing some Blogs. This week I want to talk about an old camera I just got off of eBay for 100 bucks. As you know by reading my blogs I like used and old stuff. I have a photography project shooting film that I'm in the process of and I do have a couple of great film cameras. But I just needed one more! LOL I was looking at a camera that could shoot manual and maybe auto a little and had a fixed lens. There is all kinds of newer automatic plastic camera's but I wanted one a little more advanced and it needed to look good too. I like the rangefinder style of cameras especially for what I'm going to used it for. Street and walking around a EDC (Every Day Carry) film camera.  I have a 1961 Canon Canonet (the original) but it's big and heavy and the lens is 45mm. A little long for what I like for walking around with. I have a Pentax MX a great camera and I have all the lenses to go with it but I will bring all of the lenses (I can't help myself) which makes it too heavy and bulky and no auto on it at all its fully manual. What I decided on was a Canon Canonet 17QL GIII. It is the last version of the Canonet that Canon released in 1972. They produced the camera until 1982.  They were very popular cameras and that means there are lots of them out there so the prices will stay down. Now buying from eBay is not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of trust going on because these are not established camera companies that you are buying from . Usually it's an individual that is selling them. I have been very lucky on the things that I have bought and sold on eBay and have had no problems. So I found one and purchased it. One of the main reasons that I got it was because the light seals had been replaced already something that you have to do with old cameras because they just go bad so I just went for it. When it came in I was pleasantly surprised it was in good shape . I cleaned it up and inspected it . Everything seemed to work. There was no visible fungus on the lens and all functions worked. So I had to put it to the test and run a roll of dummy film through it to make sure it advanced and rewinded when I wanted it to. It passed again. Now it was time for a real test . So I got a roll of Kodak Gold 200 and loaded it up.

So now lets talk features of this new to me but old camera. It is a rangefinder camera which means when you look through the viewfinder you're not looking through the lens but through a window on the side of the camera. Inside that window you can see a yellow frame which is where you're photo will be. There is a meter on the right that only works in the auto mode. Auto mode for this camera is Shutter priority . You pick the shutter speed and the camera picks the aperture .  If the camera thinks that you are over or under exposed it will not let you take the photo.  The meter runs off of an odd sized battery. The original batteries were Mercury and newer ones are Alkaline . The mercury ones keep the correct voltage longer so the meter will read accurately longer. Alkaline work but they don't last as long. I checked the meter and it reads accurate with a new battery in it. Meters in older camera's are usually broke or don't read properly so this is a plus for this camera. This camera comes with a battery check button where you can push the button and a light will shine letting you know that the battery is okay. The lens on this camera is a 40mm f1.7 which is a nice fast lens although I would like a wider one but that's what it comes with. The lens is very sharp and crisp and has good contrast. It is a 48mm filter thread which is a odd size. I had lots of filters and lens hood for 49mm so I got a set up ring that goes from 48-49mm so all of my old stuff would work on this camera. When shooting in Manual mode you have to use an external meter or the Sunny 16 rule. I will have a blog on how to meter for film on old manual camera's like this one. You can use a meter or an app off of your phone. This camera is a quick loading camera that means you don't have to thread the film into a slot when loading it you just lay it down and it will do it for you. It has a film indicator window on it so when you advance the film it will let you know that the film is advancing. It also had a ready to fire indicator window that will be orange when the shutter is ready to advance. And of course it has a counter to let you know how many shots you've used. It uses a leaf shutter which goes from B "bulb" to 1/500 of a second. Not super fast so I might need a ND filter if I want to shoot at open apertures in sunlight. This will mainly be a walking around camera so I think that I'll be good with the Sutter speed. It does have a self timer on it although I have read and heard on Youtube not to use it because if it breaks you're camera will not work and this function is prone to failing on this model. Not a problem I have a I phone for that. It does have a hot shoe that I haven't tested . Not planning to shoot flash with it but its nice to know I could.

I took my new little camera with me on a photowalk to Kinston NC about 20 miles from my house and walked around town shooting things I saw. I used either a phone app that I had calibrated to be accurate or my digital camera to compare to make correct exposures.  So when I shot it was a little time consuming. I'd have to Meter , Set the camera , Focus and shoot. Focusing on this camera is a little different than other camera's. There is a little patch in the middle of the screen and when you're out of focus there will be two object there you focus until there is one object . It works really well as I got some really sharp shots from this photowalk. I got kind of into a grove shooting this little camera and enjoyed it quite a bit. The next day I developed and scanned the film myself and was shocked on how good this camera did.  So for about 120 dollars (which includes shipping) I've got a good little rangefinder camera that will shoot in auto and manual with a nice sharp lens! Well that's it for this week . I've been having a ball shooting film again and going through all of the processes of developing and scanning. Until next week . Get out and Shoot!

Hey 

Y'all! Hope you're having a Super week. This week I want to talk about gear again. LOL ! Thats what I do. Now you know I love shooting used gear. And if you've been reading my blogs from the beginning I do like shooting film also. But what about shooting vintage lenses on your new mirrorless camera? Can it be done? You bet it can and it's pretty easy and fun to do.  Bringing life into old and vintage lenses is great. The older lenses were built to last. Film lenses and camera's were built to be used a lifetime and still have lots of life left in them. I personally shoot a camera that is over 60 years old and it still functions like it was new. New 60 years ago not like new today. If that makes sense. Now I'm not saying that a vintage lens is sharper or quicker than a new lens is because it's not but it has a quality that gives it  character.  Vintage lenses are manual focus lenses and have an aperture ring that you have to manually have to set.  So getting sharp focus is up to you.  But why would you ever shoot a vintage lens on a new mirrorless camera? The first reason is that it's just cool and fun to shoot. Some of these lenses come in focal lengths that just aren't common anymore. I have three or four vintage lenses but the one I like to use the most is a 28mm. It's a focal length that you just don't see anymore on modern lenses. Another reason to use vintage on new cameras is to get some photography mojo working again. It slows us up to take time to compose and focus the shot. Instead of just pointing and shooting like we can now with our modern cameras and phones. So how do I find a vintage lens to shoot? You may already have one on an old film camera that is stuck way back in the closet. If you have an old SLR film camera chances are you've got a 50mm f1.4 lens on it.  It really doesn't matter if your old camera was a Canon, Minolta, or Nikon you can adapt it to your new camera. If you don't have one you can find one on Ebay or in a pawn shop very cheaply. Sometimes less than 100 bucks. Now think of that a 50mm f1.4 for 100 bucks. These old lenses are built with high quality metal and glass and are fantastic.  Now these are manual focus lenses but can easily be zone focused for street photography for fast shooting. All the markings are there for easy set up. Speaking of set up how do you make your new camera use vintage lenses?

I shoot Sony cameras but I'm sure you will have the same settings on whatever camera you have you will have to dig a little in the manual or look up online. The first thing we need to do to shoot vintage lenses on new cameras is to get a lens adapter. For example the vintage lens that I use is a Pentax 28mm. I shoot Sony so I have to get an adapter that takes the Pentax mount and adapts it to a Sony mount. You can get these adapters off of Amazon for 25 bucks or so. Modern mirrorless camera's are little computers with all kinds of sensors on them. Old vintage lenses have no electronics at all so when you put the adapter on your vintage lens and hook it to your camera your camera doesn't know that there is a lens there. Most camera's are set up by default not to release the shutter if no lens is attached. So you will have to go into the menu and find that setting and change it. Most modern camera's have Focus Peaking to help focus when in manual.  The camera highlights in some color the areas of the image that is in focus. You will have to also turn this on to help you focus. My cameras have in body stabilization. How great is that to have a 50 year old lens and now it is stabilized ! When you put a modern lens on the camera it can see what focal length it is through the electronics on the camera even if it's a zoom lens.  The camera adjust the Stabilization to match the focal length. When you use a vintage lens you have to put that number in. For example I set it to 28mm for my lens. Then when the camera can't see the focal length it goes to 28mm otherwise it's in Auto and adjust to what lens I have on. Now if I changed to a 50mm vintage lens instead of the 28mm I would have to go and change to 50mm. But since this is the only one I am using currently I don't have to change this setting. And that's about it. You can set your camera on Manual or Aperture Priority like I do. I adjust my Aperture by the ring on the lens and focus and shoot. If you're in Manual you do the same but set the shutter speed like normal. So that's really all there is to do. So if you have a vintage lens you only have to come out of pocket about 25 dollars or so for the adapter and you can rock and roll with a vintage lens.

So be the cool kid on the block like me? LOL ! And until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey 

My Favorite focal range is in the mid-telephoto range like a 24-70. My first one in this range was back when I was shooting Nikon. I had the holy trinity of lenses. I had a 16-35mm , 24-70 and 70-200. But by far my most used was the 24-70 f2.8 lens. This Nikon lens was sharp had great contrast quick to focus and just a dream to shoot with. It was built like a tank and was heavy like one also. I've taken so many fantastic photo's with this lens and loved it dearly. This may be the reason I hung onto my Nikon gear so long after I started shooting mirrorless.  It was hard to sell this great lens but I had to let it go for newer gear in the mirrorless family I was shooting. The next favorite lens in this focal range was the Sony 16-55mm f2.8 lens. This is a crop sensor lens made by Sony for the crop sensor cameras that I shoot. The effective full frame equivalent is 24-82mm right in my wheelhouse for photography.  I still have this lens and love it dearly and am not planning on getting rid of it anytime soon. It is also very sharp and very quick to focus and built like a tank also. But what about other focal ranges?

Wide angle lenses. I've had a few wide angel lenses and have had a few that I really like. One of my first was a prime lens that I had got for my full frame Nikon. It was a 14mm f2.8 Rokinon lens. It was an inexpensive but sharp lens and built like a tank. It was a manual lens and was great for astro photography. My next favorite was on my crop sensor mirrorless Sony its the 10-18 f4 lens made by Sony.  It is an older lens but is still a fantastic lens. I've used it on lots of landscapes and waterfalls. Its super sharp lens and is still in my kit. I also have one for my full frame camera 16-35 F4 lens. It may be one of the few lenses that I have bought brand new as most of them I buy used. This lens works great for my full frame and has a aperture ring on it which I love for changing my aperture.

How about longer lenses? Besides my first lens I talked about earlier I've got two lenses that I have used that were my favorites in the past. The first one is when I was shooting Nikon a 70-200 f2.8 lens. This was a fantastic lens for many photography styles. First it was a great portrait lens super for head shots with great bokeh. I have used it to shoot weddings a great walking around lens to get all of those great candid shots. It was great for landscape photography for isolation shots and last but not least it was great when used in conjunction with a 2.0 converter for wildlife. This is a super lens and hated to see it go. It was built like a tank and was super heavy especially holding it for a wedding my arms would get sore. The next lens was built for my crop sensor camera its the 70-350mm that gives me a 105-525mm full frame focal length. This lens is super sharp and quick to focus and I always get stunning photo's when I use this lens which is still in my kit.

Primes. Lets not forget these great lenses. As a old film photographer I really love my primes since zooms back then were inferior to the prime lenses. Prime lenses are great! They are inexpensive , sharp, and  have wide apertures .  What's not to like. My first favorite was my Pentax 50mm f1.7. I've had many 50mm lenses but the first one is my favorite and I have a copy of one now on a Pentax film camera. My next one is the Nikon 85mm f1.8 lens. This was a fantastic portrait lens and street photography lens. I hated to sell this lens but the person I sold it to "Caitlin" loves this lens also. I've also had this lens in the Sony mount and love it. I now have a 20mm f1.8 that may be my favorite prime right now. Its a Sony and has an aperture ring and is a fantastic astro photography lens but can be used on my crop sensor camera as a street lens at a 30mm full frame  equivalent.

Now for the winner, winner, chicken dinner! This is an all purpose lens that touches the wide , mid and telephoto ranges. It is "spoiler alert" is my newest lens. I have used this lens for a couple of months now.  And it's been on the full frame over 90% of the time since I've got it. It's the 24-105mm f4 lens by Sony. It's sharp quick to focus and is built like a tank. It's my all in one lens. I bought it used from MPB. I traded some not so favorite lenses for it. How long will it be my favorite? Not sure I do have two more lenses coming but for now it is . What is your favorite? Until next week Get out and shoot your favorite lens! 

PS. It's been a while since I've written this blog and my favorite has changed! A couple of times. LOL I'm now in love with a 50mm and a 28mm lens that I shoot on a Sony A7C and my Pentax MX film camera that I have the same set up. It will probably change again. LOL Get shooting!

Hey Everyone! Hope you've had a great week! This week is a continuation of last week about scanning your photo negatives to get them into your computer and into Lightroom or Photoshop. First let me start off as saying I am not a professional at scanning but I do it pretty well for me.  If you are an avid photographer you probably already have the tools you need to do this. So lets start there, what you'll need.

1. Film Negatives
2. Digital Camera
3. Tripod or stand
4. Light Box

I'm sure you already have these things if you're reading this .  The digital camera can be any modern digital
camera . I'm using a Sony A7C that is a 24 MP full frame camera. But it doesn't matter if it's crop sensor or full frame sensor. Megapixels doesn't matter all that much either but more would be better but whatever you have will be fine. For lenses almost anything will work I'm using a Macro lens set up but a 50mm
prime will work too. Some sort of tripod or stand . I have converted an old black and white enlarger stand that I didn't use anymore into a copy stand but tripod will work.  Light box of some kind. I'm using an old iPad that I don't use anymore and googled white and saved a white photo. Cranked up the brightness on it and it seems to work. I did put a diffuser on it that I had laying around. I would suggest defusing the light if you can. But you can buy light boxes from Amazon for under 50 bucks. And really that's the basics of what you need. 

The how to's.  First set up your tripod or stand and set up your light box underneath.  Try to make sure that your camera and your light box are level. You don't want to distort your photo by having your camera tilted one way or the other. Place the negative in a negative holder or flat on the light box. Use black construction paper
to frame the negative so your camera will only be focusing on the light coming through the negative. Focus and take photo. Care must be taken on keeping dust and particles off of the negative. Negatives create static and are magnets for dust and stray particles. The cleaner you keep the negatives the less work you will have in Lightroom or Photoshop removing all of the dust.  Also leave a little of the space between each photo in when you take the photo. That clear space is perfect for getting the correct white balance. And that's it for the scanning now to the computer!

Now load those photo's onto your computer. I do most of my editing in Lightroom but you could use photoshop just as well. Once you have them in you have a scanned negative but you don't want a negative you want a positive. There are two ways to do this. The manual way and the easy way. I have done both. The manual way is basically going into the curves section of your photo and reversing everything. This will make a positive but the colors will need to be tweaked and basic panel can also be tweaked. But remember everything is backwards! So if you try to increase exposure with the slider you have to darken to lighten and vice versa. The easy way is to get some sort of plugin in Lightroom or action photoshop. I have used both in the past. The one Im using now is "Negative Lab Pro" in Lightroom. This is my workflow now.  First after I get into Lightroom I create a virtual copy of the negative and stack them. I edit the copy that way if I screw it up I can get my original scan without having to actually re-scan the negative. One I have the scan I take it into the develop module. I make sure it's oriented correctly . Sometimes they are backwards and you can just flip horizontally. Then I get the white balance picker and choose the space between negatives. Then I crop. I then bring up the plugin . I have many choices to choose from but for this I just choose basic and hit the convert button. It converts the Negative into a Positive photo and your colors should be close . I then look for spots and specs of debris that was on the negative and remove with the healing tool. If I need to sharpen. Old manual lenses and old eyes sometimes it's not in focus. I'll take to Topaz AI Sharpener. If you have grainy photo's that's just the way film looks and a de-noise program will not work because those spots your seeing are not noise its grain in the film. And you are basically done. You can print or send to social media.  It's pretty awesome and is fun to do. It can be a little time consuming but worth it in the end and you did it your self. The whole process to go from film to Negative to Scan cost approximately one or two dollars per roll. Compared to the 12-20 dollars a roll to a professional lab that will send you back your negatives. A big savings and the results can look great! And the more you do it the better you will become.  You can practice on old negatives you might have in your closet in a shoe box somewhere. There are all kinds of tutorials on Youtube where they will take you through the manual process of converting Negatives to Positives. It's pretty easy. Now this is a basic set up to get you started you can improve your photo's by using better lightbox than an iPad. One that has a CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 90 or better. I did and my scans did improve. So until next week get out and shoot! Some film!

Hey Everyone! Hope your week is going well! This week I want to talk about how I develop my film. Yes I said film! There is something about film that I really like. It's like listening to old vinyl record albums . Something about the analog system. I won't get into many specifics of how but an overview. I have been developing film off and on for more than 40 years. I have developed black and white film and color slide film and now color print film. It's a lot easer than you think. If you can bake a cake you can develop film. It's all about following directions that come with the chemistry that you are using. Depending on the manufacture of the chemistry you're using the only thing that really changes is the time and temperature of the chemicals that you use. One of the reason that I am developing my own film is that its a lot cheaper than sending it off to a professional lab. I already have all of the special tools that you will need to process your film. So all I had to do is find all of my stuff get some chemicals and go. If you have been reading my blogs you can see that I'm doing a film project where I use a film camera and at the end of the year make a photo book of what I've captured. I have some film that I bought a few years ago before it got so expensive and I'm going to use it for the project. The last time I developed film was in 2019 before COVID.  I was really surprised how much the price of things have gone up! But that's another story. I'll also tell you how after the film is developed I scan the negatives with my digital camera to get them into Lightroom or Photoshop and make them ready to print. So that's a lot lets get started.

Tools you'll need. This will sound like a lot but you can buy kits with everything for under 150 dollars.

• -Developing Tank and film reels. This is a light proof tank that all of the film processing will take place.
• -Changing bag. This is the light proof place that you put the film onto the reels into the developing tank 
• -Chemical bottles. This is what the stored chemistry is kept in . You can reuse the chemicals for up to 20 rolls of film.
• -1000 ml graduated measuring cup
• -Thermometer to get the chemicals to a certain temperature.
• -Timer, You can use your phone
• -Disposable rubber gloves to keep the chemicals off of your skin

Any other items you'll need you'll have at home like scissors and a bottle opener . So here is the process to develop the film.

First you have to get the film onto the reels and in the developing tank in complete darkness. This is where the changing bag comes into play.  This takes some practice and I would try on a dummy roll of film if you have one before trying it on the real thing.  Inside the changing bag you'll place scissors, bottle opener, film, developing tank and reels. Close the end of the double sided bag and place your arms into the sleeves. You then open the film with the bottle opener cut the film leader off with the scissors then thread onto the reels and put inside the tank and secure the tank before taking your arms back out. When this is done you're ready to process the film that is inside the lightproof tank. You can now take everything out of the changing bag.

Mix the chemicals . For color print film the process that you use is C41 it will be printed on the film box of the film your using. This is the process that is used for most color print film. Black and white is a different process and slide film is even different than that. You mix the chemicals according to the directions that come with them. Making sure to clean your funnels and mixing stick between not to cross contaminate the chemicals. 

Next is getting all of the chemicals to a certain temperature. It is usually 102-106 degrees Fahrenheit.  This is easily done by placing all the chemical bottles in a larger tub full of water at the desired temp using the Thermometer. You will have to add hot water to keep the chemicals at the desired temp during the process to keep the temp in range.

Now down to business. Follow the instructions that came with your chemicals! These instructions are just what mine were yours may be different. This is where your timer comes into play or your phone.

1. Pre-wash film by putting warm water into the tank and let sit for a min. Then dump out.
2. Add Developer to tank for 3 min. Agitate every 30 seconds(this is to dislodge any bubbles) then pour developer back into storage bottle
3. Wash with water for 1 min. Change water 3 times
4. Add Bleach to tank for 3 min. Agitate every 30 seconds(this is to dislodge any bubbles) then pour developer back into storage bottle
5. Wash with water for 1 min. Change water 3 times
6. Add Fixer into tank for 5min. Agitate every 30 seconds(this is to dislodge any bubbles) then pour developer back into storage bottle
7. Wash film thoroughly at least 6 times. You can open the development tank now and see your negatives!
8. Hang film to dry with a weight at the bottom so film doesn't curl.

Thats basically it. Keeping times precise and temperatures accurate are a must. Making sure your utensils and funnels to get chemicals back into storage bottles clean between chemicals is also important. I know it sounds like a lot but after you've done it a couple of times you'll be a pro. Just follow the directions. Really the hardest part is getting the film onto the reels and into the tank is the hardest part. You can develop 2 rolls of film at a time. All of this developing can be done at your kitchen or bathroom sink. I would suggest the kitchen because you have more room.  Now you have negatives of your film I cut into five frame strips and put in a protective sheet that has sleeves for the negatives. The next step is to Scan and get them into your computer. If you had all the equipment you could print with an old time Enlarger in a darkroom but that's a lot it's much easier and better on the computer. I'll have to explain that in another blog next week since this one has dragged on. So until next week get outside and shoot! Some Film!

Hey ya'll! Hope you're having a great week! Me doing great. This week I wanted to talk about an additional photo project I'm starting on top of the one I'm already doing on small towns in eastern NC. I'm an older guy who started my photography journey in the film days in the era of manual only! I have been watching a lot of Youtube videos on film photography. I pulled out some of my old cameras and started checking the meters on the ones that have meters to make sure they still read correctly. And they did. I had at least 3 cameras that still had film in them. Now I used to develop my own film and even printed way back in the day in a make shift darkroom that I converted my bathroom into. But the problem with doing that is that you have to do a lot of film stuff to make the developing part really worth it because if you don't you'll do a couple of rolls and then you won't touch for years and your chemicals just go bad. I just got rid of some chemicals that were dated 2018! LOL  Back then I was shooting more film and having fun. I could actually get film fairly cheaply. But when COVID hit and the lock down a lot of younger photographers got interested in film and shooting film became cool. So film stock , cameras and everything associated with shooting film Guitar Crosswalk got expensive and harder to find. So while rummaging through my stuff I found 12 rolls of film that I had bought rather cheaply a few years ago. So I got to thinking . Maybe I should do a film project and name it 12 rolls.  Shoot the 12 rolls and make a book out of the good photo's I get.  Not to become a full time film shooter but maybe take the camera with me when I go on a workshop or an outing and take a few shots with film until the 12 rolls are exposed . So which camera to use? I have a couple that I would be comfortable with using for the project. A 1961 Canon Canonet rangefinder and a 1982 Pentax MX SLR. I also have an Olympus Point and shoot just one step up from a disposable camera that my mother had. I decided on the Pentax because it has a meter built in (which I just checked to be accurate) . And I also have multiple lenses that I can use with it as the Canon has a 45mm fixed lens. As the title indicates I have 12 rolls of fujifilm color 200 35mm film. I do not plan to develop these rolls myself. I still have to research but I want a company that will develop my film and send me the negatives and downloadable scans would be fine. But I plan on using my camera to scan these negatives and processing them in Photoshop to get what I want out of them. I have done just a little research and most of the companies don't send back your Pentax MXPentax MX, My Pentax MX from 1982 Super camera works great! negatives and this is a must for me or I will just do them myself.

So what will I take photo's of ?  My photography life. If I go out to shoot wildlife with a friend maybe a shot of my friend with his camera setup with a in the wild background. If I'm shooting travel like our camera clubs spring trip to Savannah and the low country. I'll shoot iconic scenes and maybe shot of my friends. So it will tag along with me on all of my shoots. The only downside? I'll be lugging around extra gear. LOL I'm very excited to start this project. Film just has a look to it . It's hard to explain but it has a look. Can't wait to see the end Bell and Howell Canon Canonet 19Bell and Howell Canon Canonet 19,1961 Range finder Camera Fun to shoot! project and it will be good to use an old friend my film camera that I haven't used too much since digital came around. So now I have two photography projects going on at the same time should be an exciting year!

Until next week pick a photography project and get shooting!

PS. I have been checking photo labs and the prices are through the roof to get a roll of film processed at an average of 15 dollars a roll. I can get the chemicals to do 20 rolls of film for under 30 dollars. So I'll be developing mine again. Hopefully I don't mess them up too much. Other blogs will cover the process of processing the film and scanning the film. Cheers!

Hey Everyone! Hope ya'll are doing great. As a spoiler alert I will be talking about computers on this blog. Computers are a big part of photography and I think that going over my transition from a 2015 iMac to a Mac Mini M2 computer and all the trials and tribulations that this process brought to me. First let me tell you that it was a great 

Preparing . I first wanted to clean up my old computer. I have a 1TB drive on my old iMac and only a 512gb on the new Mac Mini. So I went in and deleted old Lightroom backups they take up a lot of space and I deleted everything except for the last month. I had a lot of files in my Documents folder so I copied all of  those files to an external hard drive. I had lots of video clips and movies that I had made I either removed them completely or put on an external drive. I wanted my old iMac to be as lean and mean as it could before the migration. I wanted the migration to be as smooth as possible. I knew that the migration would take some time and I wanted it to go as quickly as possible. I had to also make sure that I had an extra keyboard and mouse to run the old computer because the new computer I was going to use the one I have on the iMac. I had to scramble a little because I just got rid of a whole lot older computer equipment to include keyboards. I did find a portable blue tooth one that I had when I was using my iPad Mini for my main travel computer. Whew! Before the migration I disconnected all of the external hard drives I had attached to the iMac. Now I was ready for the new computer.

The Mac Mini didn't show up until 4:30 in the afternoon on the day that our camera club had a meeting so I had to wait until the next morning before I could start. It was worse than Christmas for a little kid wanting to open presents. LOL. The next morning I hooked up my new computer to the new monitor. You can transfer the info during migration 3 ways by WiFi, ethernet or thunderbolt.  I chose Ethernet because it was faster than wifi and I didn't have thunderbolt on the old iMac. Yes it's that old. So I broke out a ethernet switch and hooked a cable from the switch to each computer. I went online with my iPad and found the apple video on the procedures . I turned on my iMac and went to the Migration wizard . I turned on the the new computer got my old keyboard and mouse connected and started the start up process then it got to the migration part. I followed the instructions on the iPad and then it got to the part where all the info is transferred over .  It took about 45min to an hour for it to be complete. Now for the obstacles .

All of the obstacles were software related. First you have to sign into iCloud so you need to know your password. You also need to know a lot of passwords to different programs you have. I hooked up on of my external drives and nothing. This was the drive that has all of my photo's on it. Most external drives are windows based and you need a program to let your Mac talk to the drive. After I downloaded a newer version of this program the drive showed up. I had to update a lot of my programs because my old computer had an intel chip in it and the new computer has Apple silicon. This took a while but worked . I like to use clean my Mac by Macpaw on my computer. It has anti virus stuff and cleans and runs scrips to keep your computer running fast and smooth. Then there was the reactivation of all my software like Topaz and On1. So after a day or so I got everything running smooth. I'm sure something will come up in the future but I've got it 99 % done. Being patient and following the directions will let you do this easily. So until Next week Keep Shooting and get outside! 

Hey Everyone! How's your week been? Me? So So. I have been dreading upgrading my computer for a few years. This week I want to go through the process that is was to choose the correct one for me. Like many of you , You know our world is surrounded by computers. We all have phones that are mini computers we may have laptops or some sort of tablet and then there is our main computer. Some sort of desktop computer with a monitor and keyboard and mouse. This main computer is where I do the majority of my photo and video editing where I write my blogs that you're reading now. I know that big desktop computers are dwindling in popularity and the younger folks a laptop will do but for me I need the larger computer. I am a Mac user and have been rocking the iMac 27 inch since 2015. I did upgrade the hard drives and the ram to solid state drives and 32gb of ram. But it is long in the tooth as computers go and Apple does not support it anymore. I knew this day was coming but I was trying to put it off as long as I could. But the day came when Adobe Lightroom would not update because the operating system is too old. there are some workarounds to upgrade my operating system and I tried on an old laptop but it was too unreliable for my main computer.  So to upgrade is the only answer. The perfect answer was to get another iMac to replace this one. But they do not make the 27 inch any more only a 24 inch one and I don't think I could go back in size on the monitor. I did hear that they may come out with one in the future but it would be very expensive. And I need a computer now. All I knew is I wanted to stick with Mac because all the electronics I own are Apple and I have never had a problem with any of them in the past and the ecosystem that they live in is great. 

The system I chose to get was the Mac Mini .  This system has been out for years .  It is a small flat box that sits on your desk and takes up less room than a good sized book. Your keyboard and mouse hook up by blue tooth so no cords there. The only catch is you have to get a separate monitor to attach to it. There are many configurations of the Mac Mini. I've got the one that has the M2 chip in it. The older Macs were powered by Intel chips but Apple decided to make their own and this is the second generation of that processing chip. I'll be getting 512 gigabytes of storage and 16mb of ram on this machine. But the monitor is the big decision to make.  On my iMac the screen is a 5K an excellent monitor but it can't be used as a separate monitor with the Mac Mini. So I'll have to get a new monitor. 5k monitors are expensive and really hard to find. The easy choice would be to get one from Apple but the Studio Display that they sell is 1600 dollars. It would cost as much as the system I'm creating. So its not a choice for me. Don't get me wrong its a great monitor but not in my price range. Now there are  literally hundreds of different kinds of monitors to choose from. I wanted one that was as close to the monitor I had on the iMac as I could without breaking the bank. A 27inch one that is as close to the 5K monitor that I could get. I did a lot of research and without getting into the weeds of monitor specs I decided on a BenQ 27inch 4K Designer Monitor. This monitor is designed for creatives and the colors are fantastic. You still can spend a lot of money on monitors up to 1000 dollars is easy to do . This one is a mid priced one and I got it during black Friday sale to save some extra dollars. I had this monitor on a list of other monitors but what took me over the edge on this one was the sale and all the good reviews I have seen on youtube of this monitor.

Other accessories.  The keyboard is the same one that I used for the iMac and same with mouse and my external drives. I will have a 2 terabyte solid state drive that I will use for files and be the buffer of my main computer just like I do with a 250 gb SSD that I have on my iMac. I've got a docking station with extra ports and it will house the 2 TB SSD and will have a SD card reader in it also. I plan on taking the iMac since it's such a good screen and convert it to a monitor by gutting out all of the components and installing a special circuit board that will make this monitor a stand alone and it will be the second monitor of my system. But I'll do that in the future right now I have a small smart TV that I'm using as a second monitor really just to watch TV on while I sit at my desk.  I will put out another blog on how I've set everything up and the migration of my info on the old computer to the new one and the transfer of license of different programs that I use to include my cloud storage.  As of this writing which is a few months in the future of this blog being posted I've received my monitor but not the computer yet. It's the Sunday before Thanksgiving and I should get my computer from Apple in a week or so. I'm still using my iMac which I love until the new one gets all set up. 

So until next week. Get out and shoot! 

Roanoke River Lighthouse Hey Everyone! Hope your week is going well! This week I want to talk about a photo project I have in mind for 2024. I think that photography projects are great! They tend to fill out the times when we are not traveling taking photos with our families or friends. But what to take photo's of ?  My answer is things that interest you. A few years ago I did a photo project on visiting all of the state parks in North Carolina. I printed a map with all of the parks on them and marked them off as I visited them. It was quite the challenge because it was the year Covid raised its ugly head and things were closed for quite a while but I did get them all in and made a cool book of all the state parks. This year I wanted a project that would take me on day trips that I could grab my wife and dog and take off for a nice trip. Or if my wife was busy I could just take off on a little exploration photography trip. But what to take photo's of? Living in eastern North Carolina I could have chosen a number of things to photograph. Tobacco Barns has always been interesting to me. They are a dying thing as they don't use the old tobacco barns and they are rotting and falling down. Or since I live in the Bible belt maybe Churches of eastern NC. There are some really old and historic ones that would make great photographs. Maybe light houses but there is only 7 here in NC so a yearly project might not be the way to go but a cool project none the less.  So there are many choices to choose from. I'm sure you can think of lots of them yourself. Maybe the fall of the small family farm and the rise of solar panel farms popping up everywhere.  But that would be more of a journalistic Photography and you would really have to be ingrained in the farm community like the son or daughter of a farmer.  I think that a good project is one that you are familiar with. Like the State parks I had visited almost all of them before but not in one year.

I have lived in eastern North Carolina all my life except for my time in the military. I went to high school in a small eastern town and have traveled all over eastern NC.  So my project for 2024 is to visit and photograph the small towns in eastern NC. Now there are lots of towns but I grew up only a block away from the Albemarle sound. So small towns with water connected to them in some sort or way. But I didn't want it to become a beach project full of touristy shots of sandy beaches and piers so ocean beach towns are out. I want small towns that maybe are on a lake or a river or sound that in the early days of the towns existence these waterways was the only mode of transportation or commerce. There are quite a few of these and my family tree ,which winds through the beginning of our country here in eastern NC. So I may explore that more also. My family  came into the states in the late 1600's so right at the beginning of the colonization of the states from England. So I am very interested in the history of these small towns and the region .  When I think of the project I think of the book that I will eventually make.  A two page spread with a town and a small explanation or write up on each town.  I want to tell the story of the town in photo's.  Much like a brochure would if you were promoting the town. I think traveling to all these small towns and spending the day walking the streets and visiting the coffee shops and restaurants and diners of these small towns would be a fantastic way to spend maybe a day a week .  I have a list started with 16 towns on it but I'm sure as I get out and about many more will come .  Do you have any photo projects?  You should. Photo projects are a great Barker House Light House way to expand your photography skills and are just fun to do.  If you don't know what to shoot a photography project will solve that problem. Now that I have announced this project I have to complete it. Thats the hard part but I'm looking forward to exploring small towns near me.  Until next week . Get out and Shoot!

Hey 

Y'all ! Hope you're having a great week. This week I want to talk about a recent photowalk I did in Washington NC. Not Washington DC. LOL This is a little town population about 10000 and is located in eastern North Carolina in Beaufort County. It is the county seat and is located at the intersection of the Tar River and the Pamlico River and then flows into the Pamlico Sound. It is known to most North Carolinians as "Little Washington" not to get it confused with Washington DC. Little Washington is home to one of the largest historical districts featuring Victorian era homes and ante-bellum homes. Among some of its famous former residents are  journalist Charles Kuralt and film producer Cecil B. DeMille. All of this information I have pulled off of the City of Washington web page. What I can tell you from experience is that being located on the water there are all kind of water activities from fishing, kayaking, sailboarding , and sailing. Also outdoor recreation in hunting. The town has been transformed into a town trying to attract tourist and the downtown is full of shops and restaurants .  Let me tell you about my trip.

I have been cooped up in the house due to weather being cold and also rainy from the holidays last year and I needed to get out. This town is on the list of my photography project "Small towns in Eastern NC" so this was a good preliminary visit. I have been here before but it has been years and I didn't remember much. So me and my wife got in the car and headed about an hour or so north to visit this little town. We parked in the harbor district by the docks and started walking. The streets have been lined with brick but not red brick like you see everywhere these were tan bricks and look very nice. We headed toward main street and noticed that there are crab statues all painted up in various places in town. Kind of a town mascot I guess my county does the same thing with pigs and I have seen it done with bears also in another town Newbern. There is an under ground railroad museum that was closed when we went by but it's housed in a rail car in a pretty yard with a big mural on a wall.  We then started walking through the town at all the quant shops and older buildings. Being in the bible belt there were a few churches but one stood out the Saint Peters Episcopal church established in 1822. Where there was the church and old grave yard with revolutionary era graves there. We had a wonderful time walking the streets and taking photos. There is a North Carolina Estuarium there that is a learning center that we wanted to visit but it was closed also. For lunch we ate hot dogs from Bills Hotdog stand. It one of those local places that have been there since 1928 and is a staple of the community. So we got the specials two  hotdogs all the way chips and drink for 6 dollars and some change. They were pretty good. We jumped in our car and investigated some more stuff before we headed to our next destination which was "Goose Creek State Park" only 20 minutes away. After a short visit there we headed back home. I really enjoyed my trip to Little Washington and can't wait to go back in the spring. 

Until next week get out and explore and shoot!

Hey Everyone! How's your week going? Mine? Fantastic! At the time of writing this blog it is a week before Thanksgiving and I am already in the holiday mood! Too early for my brain but just right for my heart. This week I want to talk about shooting in Super 35mm mode or Crop mode as it may be referred too, I think Nikon calls it DX mode. What is Super 35mm mode? Basically its making your full frame sensor shoot like a crop sensor. Your camera crops the shot only using the middle of the sensor down to the APSC crop sensor size. Now why would you ever want to do this? Well I can think of a couple of reasons why.

If you shoot Sony like I do the crop sensor and the full frame cameras have the same lens mount. Which means you can swap back and forth lenses between each type of camera. Now why would you want to do that? One reason is just for practicality .  Instead of buying two lenses  one for each camera you only buy one that can be used by both. Usually people buy full frame lenses and use on both of their camera body types for the reason that the full frame lens is big enough to cover the crop sensor sensor completely. Full frame lenses are larger and can easily be used on crop sensor camera's but you have to add that 1.5 crop factor. Multiplying by 1.5 will give you the full frame equivalent of the lens on your crop sensor camera. The sensor being smaller its like cropping in on a full frame or zooming in. So a 35mm lens on a crop sensor would be like a 50mm on a full frame.  So now that we have that explanation out of the way back to the why would you need to swap lenses between cameras. I've recently started using a full frame camera again after years of using a crop sensor camera. Now I'm transitioning back over to a full frame camera. I have fantastic lenses for my crop sensor camera especially my long lens. A 70-350mm which is a 105-525mm equivalent lens. Now I don't shoot much past 100mm but if for some reason I need to shoot longer I could use this crop sensor lens on my full frame camera and my camera will know what type of lens is on and automatically switch to Super 35mm or Crop mode giving me that 105-525mm reach. This will save me lots of money on a full frame equivalent to this lens that I won't use too much. So that's a positive of Super 35mm.

Another way to use the Super 35mm or Crop mode is with prime lenses. Let me give you an example. Say I'm out doing street photography and I have a 50mm lens on my full frame camera. I see something a little out of reach that I can't walk to. I can push a button on my camera that I have programed to put my camera in Super 35 mode and it automatically switches into crop mode and my lens is now equivalent to a 75mm without me having to change lenses. When I'm through I can hit the button again and I'm back at 50mm. Very convenient when you're out shooting and not having to change lenses all of the time. Another great advantage of  Super 35mm mode.

So if Super 35mm mode is so great why isn't everyone using it all of the time? Well for one reason most people just don't know about it. Or maybe their camera system doesn't offer it. I'm not sure about other camera systems just Sony but I'm sure they have something similar. The biggest disadvantage to shooting a full frame camera in crop mode or Super 35mm mode is that when you crop into a full frame sensor you lose megapixels. 1.5 times the megapixels to be exact.  That can be a lot. If you have a 24 megapixel camera and you use crop mode its down to 10 megapixel which is small compared to today's standards. But if you have a larger megapixel like say a 60 megapixel camera your still shooting a 37 megapixels. So depending on what kind of camera you have I really don't think that this is such a disadvantage as smaller sensor camera's are.

Knowing what your camera can and can't do can really impact your photography and your wallet .  You may not need to buy that new equipment or gear to do what you need to do or you might just need to read the manual of your camera.  Hopefully I have brought something new into your photography. Until next week get out and shoot! 

Hey 

Y'all ! Hope you're doing well. I've just started a photography project of visiting small towns in eastern North Carolina and learning about them and photographing them. Today I want to talk about a little charming town located on the Tar River. Tarboro. Like most of the little towns I'm going to explore this one was incorporated before the revolutionary war in 1760. It like many towns in the eastern US boast that George Washington slept here and he did in 1791.   Being in the bible belt there are many beautiful Churches and buildings in Tarboro.  Now I'm no expert on Tarboro and don't claim to be I'm just learning about this little town. With a population around 10,000 this little town is twice the size of the one I grew up in. So I know small town charm and this town has it. It boast to have one of two "original" Town Commons. The other being in Boston. So if that's true I've been to both of them! Pretty cool.  It was considered an inland port up to the Civil War. Farmers would bring their Cotton, Tobacco and other wares to be shipped on steam boats to coastal ports to be shipped around the world. Located in Edgecombe County it is its county seat and has a large and beautiful Courthouse. Now about what I saw on my first trip there.

My wife accompanied me on this trip this first week of January. It was cool and crisp morning with temps around 40 degrees. We started early because I wanted to get good light to shoot in.  It was an hour long drive there and by the time we arrived the sun had come up and the little towns people were just starting to stir. Not knowing the town and doing just a little research we kind of did a drive through the town to see where we would start from. We saw a big mural right beside the visitors center and parked there .  From there we headed toward the Town Commons. I don't know how many acres this is but it's pretty big for a small town. It is speckled with monuments and park benches . Looks like a great place to have a picnic. But not today it was too chilly to stand or sit still long. Along the Town Commons are victorian style houses all kept up well. We walked down the sidewalk enjoying the views. It reminded me much of the town I grew up in. We walked down the side walks toward downtown and the Courthouse stopping along the way to take photo's of interesting buildings and houses. We stopped by a couple of churches that had very unique buildings with large steeples and bell towers. Along main street the concrete sidewalks have been replaced by brick giving it that old time look and feel. Lots of small shops and restaurants line the streets. Looks like the main street businesses in town are still alive and well with very few vacancies of shops or buildings. Many small towns have died with the coming of strip malls and shopping centers but this little town still has charm and vibrance.  We made our way back to our car taking photo's of the Colonial Movie theater and Murals along the way. We parked by what said was the visitor center. We went into what we thought was a manned visitor center but was really just a hall in the public building filled with brochures and pamphlets and maps. It was nice and warm inside so we looked and gathered more materials for research. We got in the car and made a quick trip to a nearby McDonalds for a bathroom and coffee break. Important things for folks our age. There was a Local Coffee shop that we didn't stop by maybe on our next trip when it's warmer. After our break we headed to the Blount-Bridgers House and Arboretum. The house was built in 1808 and kept up pretty well. A retirement home of a Revolutionary war Officer. There are walking trails that take you through the town and you can hear the history of the buildings and history of the town via your smart phone. We were planning on taking one of these walks (2 miles) but when we stepped out of the car the wind was howling and it being 40 degrees we decided to do this walk another day when it warmer. We decided to cut our trip short but I will definitely come back in the spring or summer to this charming town. I am looking forward to returning to Tarboro and exploring the historic district even more. There is an old church and graveyard I want to explore and the riverfront area that we didn't get a chance to see on this trip.  If your out and about and need somewhere to go , checkout this charming little town on the Tar river.

Gear for this project I'm trying to keep very simple I'm using one camera and one lens. My Sony A7III and a 24-105mm lens. This combo should cover all of my needs for checking out these cities. If I decide I need something more I will make a return trip with the gear I need. I'm trying to keep my kit light so I can enjoy my exploring and keeping it to one lens so I don't even have to think about what lens to use because I've only brought one. Just a filter or two and a small Platypod stand that I can use to set my camera on for longer exposures if needed. All of this fits into a sling bag that I can throw across my shoulders and go. I'm trying to keep it simple for this photo project.

Until our next adventure get out and shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope you have had a great week. Me it's been a crazy one so far. I can't 

For the last couple of years I have been sporting two camera kits. One Crop sensor and one Full Frame. What this means is I have two sets of lenses , Bodies and all of the accessories. If I was using one or the other for a backup on a trip I would have to have two sets of lenses . Although I could have used full frame lenses on my crop sensor camera it makes it kind of out of balance. Full frame lenses being larger making the camera out of balance and front or lens heavy. So in my opinion if you're going to shoot crop sensor camera you should shoot crop sensor lenses also. So I have recently changed to using my Full Frame camera as my main camera and my crop would be my backup. Two kits. The full frame has sparked my photography Mojo again and I'm really starting to shoot more and have more fun with photography again. I have been watching YouTube videos (of course LOL) of this small full frame camera that Sony had put out years ago that has a cult following much like the Fujifilm 100V cameras have now. It's the Sony RX1 R.  It was released in 2013 and has a fixed 35mm lens. So I was thinking I should get one of these camera's but they are so popular they are going for almost 3000 dollars! For a 10 year old camera. And it's only a one fixed lens. Thats more than my Full Frame Sony I have now times 2. Then I started thinking about the Sony's A7C that came out a couple of years ago. It's a full frame camera in a crop sensor body it's virtually the same camera and sensor that I have now but in a crop sensor body. I like that. And it's a couple of years old which means I can get it used which makes it cheaper than the new A7CII that just came out. It's a full frame camera that is in the form of the crop sensor camera that I've been shooting for years with some upgrades. Not to mention that it's Full Frame.

So I have packaged up all of my crop sensor lenses and body and have shipped them off to MPB and trading for a A7C and a 50mm 2.5 compact lens. This "new to me" camera will be a backup camera and a street photography camera .  I can use all of my Full frame lenses and it will be a good backup for my Full frame I have now. It has the larger battery like my Full frame uses so I don't need to buy extra's. It has a full articulating screen which will be nice. The one I'm getting has the silver top to give it a retro look which I like also. Why not? The sensor is the same as my Sony A7III with an upgraded processor. This camera will be great for street and casual photography. So I am very pleased with my decision but it does leave a gap in lenses. I now don't have a long lens in my lineup. The longest I have is a 100mm. I don't use the long end much but will probably get a 70-200 with a 2X converter in the future to plug that gap. Or just rent one when I need it . So lots of changes for 2024. New Computer and New Camera Systems. Once I have the new camera in hand I'll write a review of it with all of the specs. 

So until next week get out and shoot! 

Hey 

The main reason I switched to crop sensor cameras to start with was for the size. As you may know I do a lot of hiking and Backpacking and the size of a Full frame camera was just too much to lug around on a hike.  I started for the size but was surprised by the quality of the photo's I was getting. After deliberating long and hard I decided to switch from Full Frame Nikon DSLR to a Mirrorless Crop Sensor Sony and haven't looked back. I love my Sony camera's and lenses. The first thing that I noticed after I got my mid-range zoom for the full frame was the weight of the new set up. The full frame was considerably heaver . I mean a lot at first. I use a wrist strap with my cameras because the neck strap to me just gets in the way all of the time but the first time I put this combo together I almost changed my thinking. Holding this Full frame was a lot harder to do than the crop sensor. But after a while I got used to it and am still not using the Neck strap. But I may need to do some upper body workouts! LOL

Ergonomics. The other thing that is really different is the ergonomics of the Full frame Sony compared to the Crop sensor Sony. The Full frame Sony is designed much like older DSLR's that I was used in the past. The crop sensor Sony's are more of the Range Finder type camera design. The range finder design has the viewfinder off to one side instead of the middle like DSLRs. Where the buttons and dials are feel better on the Full frame to me than do the Crop sensor cameras. The larger size make it easier to hold to me even though it is much heaver.  The size of the viewfinder is much larger on the Full frame compared to the Crop sensor camera. Making using the viewfinder much easier for older eyes like I have. The resolution of the viewfinder is also better on the Full frame making it easier to see and compose.  I used the display on the Crop Sensor camera maybe 80-90%.  I tend to use it less on the Full Frame maybe 50%. I did change my over the shoulder bag for the Full Frame camera than I was using for my Crop sensor. The older bag which I love wasn't as deep as the bag that I'm using now and with the larger lenses the newer bag works better for the full frame. I say newer I've had this bag for years. One of the ones I bought and didn't use much. I did change the strap to a peak design strap like I did on my other bag that I love so much. But even though its a larger camera the bag seems smaller and hangs and works well. Its a LowePro Event Messenger 150.

Quality. The build of this camera is more robust than the crop sensor camera. It was produced to be an entry level pro camera and it feels like it.  The battery is much larger than the one is in the crop sensor and can last all day if you're just doing photography. Which I love! I don't have to worry about the battery. The sensor size is 24 megapixel just like my crop sensor camera is. Which is great for my computer storage. Also the Full frame sensor is much better in low light. Just physics. The larger sensor just has more surface area to collect light than a crop sensor does. I don't do a lot of low light photography but it will help. Dynamic range is also an area that the crop sensor traditionally looses to the Full frame. In newer camera's I don't think that this is as big a issue as with older camera's like mine. One of the reasons I wan to upgrade my Crop sensor. The full frame has dual card slots which is nice but not a necessity to me. But I can shoot one slot in JPEG and the other slot in RAW which is nice and I always have enough room on my disc's.

Lenses. I actually have a great assortment of lenses to use with the Full frame. I have some primes a 20mm, 50mm and 85mm and have two zooms a 16-35mm and 24-105mm. This is a great assortment of primes that I can use for portraits and wide aperture shooting. The 50mm is a macro lens also. My zooms are high quality zooms that I really love!  The 16-35 is perfect for those wide angel landscapes or for street photography. The 24-105mm is my main lens and the focal lengths that I shoot 95% of the time. I suspect that this lens will be on my lens most of the time. Now I won't have the focal range that I do with my crop sensor camera. The range with it is 15-525mm full frame equivalent with three great lenses. Anything long range I'll be shooting with the crop sensor camera.

I have only been shooting a couple of weeks full time with the Full frame and I really do like the photo's I'm getting out of it. Would I have got the same quality of photo's with the crop sensor? Probably, But I'm enjoying shooting with this new to me Full Frame camera .  I plan on shooting this camera for the next year and then decide if I want to upgrade my crop sensor or my Full frame. LOL What I really know is that I still love shooting and love tinkering with my equipment. Until next week , Get Outside! and Shoot! 
 

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week. The new year is almost here and I wanted to talk about my camera set up for next year. There is quite a change. If you've followed me you know I shoot almost all used equipment. I am mainly a stills photographer so specs on video performance really doesn't matter to me so that's one reason I shoot used. I am retired now so money is also a factor that keeps me in the used market also. I also can trade equipment with the company I use (MPB) which is fun and financially the right thing to do. If you have been following me you know I have been shooting a crop sensor Sony from when I gave up my Nikon D800 for the smaller mirrorless camera's many years ago. I have been a primarily crop sensor shooter although I shoot other camera's also. This year I'm going to switch it up a bit and start shooting a full frame sensor camera for my main camera again. During a recent Fall Colors workshop I noticed that my Sony A6500 was struggling a little in low light conditions. More than my photog friends with newer cameras were. Nothing that can't be fixed in post editing but there was a difference. The Sony A6500 was released in 2016 and was the flagship of the crop sensors for Sony then but a lot has changed in technology since then. I will be updating this camera body to the newer Sony A6700 that just came out this year but lack of funds will delay this purchase until maybe late 2024 or early 2025. This year I need to update my main computer set up that will take up that extra money . It is also old as it is a 2015 iMac that needs to get updated to run the newer AI driven photography programs that are coming out. It's so old that its not supported by Apple anymore and I can't update the operating system in it. So it takes priority over my older crop sensor camera . So what will my set up be for 2024?

I like to shoot lots of stuff but I'm mainly a landscape and travel photographer so I don't need a fast shooting or a quick focusing monster that the newer cameras offer. My main camera for 2024 will be the Sony A7III full frame body. This body came out in 2018 and shared many features as its siblings did the Sony A9 and Sony A7RIII. It quickly became a staple for portrait, wedding and product photographers world wide. It has many features that professionals like. It has a 24mp CMOS full frame sensor, dual card slots , in body stabilization, and has been a workhorse in the photography industry since it was released in 2018 and is still used but maybe more as a backup capacity now a days. For me this is a perfect body for me and it will solve my problems that I was having with the crop sensor. It will be better in lower light it has a better display and is set up more like the camera's I grew up with and feels really good in the hand. It has the newer battery which last a long time compared to the crop sensor I have been shooting. I had to carry 4 batteries with me when I went somewhere with the crop sensor because they wouldn't last but the larger battery last all day and I can leave the camera on with out being aware that I have to cut the camera off to save power. Thats awesome! I have a couple of zooms that I will be using with this camera a 16-35 and a 24-105 lens. These will be my main lenses although I do have 20mm, 50mm and a 85mm prime lenses that I will use when needed with this body. The only draw back that I have with this camera is the weight. Not that it's heavy compared to other full frame cameras just that it's heaver than the crop sensor camera's that I'm used to. I will use this for all of the photography that I will do next year except for wildlife where the crop sensor camera will do better and I have the lenses for and maybe street photography where being small is an advantage and doesn't intimidate people as much as a larger camera does. I do have a 70-350mm crop sensor lens that I could use with the full frame body but my camera will automaicly crop down and make the megapixel count down to 12ish compared to the 24. Not ideal ,but it's an option.The only other reason to use the crop sensor is maybe if I was traveling somewhere where space would be a concern. Like a plane trip somewhere. But that's not likely.

So this will be a big change for me. I have shot full frame before but it has been a while and getting used to the weight will be something to get used to. But I think that it will be a minimal concern. I think the quality that I will get from this set up and the versatility that I will get from the zooms I have chosen to use will be a overwhelming factor when taking this camera out and about to shoot. It's late 2023 and I have started using this combination and am very pleased with it. I have it set up much like my crop sensor camera was using the custom buttons for settings I shoot to quickly go to shooting situations I shoot like street. I do like the front dial that my crop sensor didn't have to adjust my aperture on lenses that don't have the aperture ring built in which I really like. My EDC camera is still the point and shoot Canon G7XMII. This is a cool little camera that I got myself for a trip to Washington DC with my wife and it produced such good photo's it became my EDC. (Every Day Camera) I also use it as my hiking and scouting camera.

For video next year my set up hasn't changed. I'll be using the GoPro 9 and my phone the iPhone 14pro. The GoPro I'll use for hiking and maybe mounting on things and the iPhone is just handy and the quality is really good. I am not much of a videographer and these two camera's will fill all of my needs.

Well that's what I'll be shooting in 2024 . I like shooting older cameras and this set up will work for me well. What are you using? Has your set up changed? Let me know. Until Next week get out and shoot! PS... I have made even more changes in my Kit since I wrote this blog stay tuned to this blog in later issues I will discuss them. Cheers!

Hey 

Zoom lenses are expensive. Compared to Prime lenses they are expensive even used. I will have to do some wheeling and dealings to get one now that I'm retired and then which one to get? In the Sony line up there are many to choose from. Not to mention 3rd party lenses like Sigma and Tamron Lenses. Just within Sony there is a 20-70mm 2.8 a 24-70mm in both F4 and F2.8 and a 24-105mm F4. So there are a lot of choices. With different prices too. While I was on my Fall Colors Workshop I notice that one of the best photographers in the club was using a 24-105mm F4 lens on his Sony Alpha 1 camera.  I had that lens on my radar and seeing him use it made me want that lens. I did research and I still wanted that lens. For a new lens it was 1200 dollars from any of the camera stores new. But in like new condition from MPB was only 844 dollars. Only! LOL Now there was just the paying for it. I have lots of primes and this lenses focal length would make a few of the primes obsolete. Whats good about MPB is that you can trade in lenses to lower the price of the "new to you" lens you want. But which ones? Well I decided on 3 lenses .  Two Primes and a Kit Zoom lens. The first prime to go is the 35mm F1.8 lens. This is a fantastic lens but I haven't used it much and if your not using it you need to let it go to something you will use. The next prime to get rid of is a 55mm Zeiss F1.8 lens . One of the first lenses that Sony had made for the full frame Sonys and a great lens. I have only used this lens a few times since I got the lens it was in a bad focal length for street or portraits for me. So it's gone. Next is the Kit lens a 28-60mm which is not wide enough or long enough to be very useful. So it's gone. So that the tree lenses that I've traded for the 24-105 zoom. After trading in the lenses I only owed 41 dollars. So in my mind I was trading in lenses that I wasn't using for a lens that will be in my wheelhouse for 41 dollars. So that's what I've done. I have made many purchases with MPB and have been nothing but impressed with the lenses and bodies I've got from them.

So the Sony FE 24-105mm F4 OSS lens is fantastic! It's an optically stabilized lens so with its stabilization and the Camera in body sensor stabilized sensor this should be able to shoot at low shutter handheld and get sharp photo's. Nothing but good reviews on this lens. But how will this change my photography? Probably 95% of everything I shoot is below 105mm if not more. This will make this camera my main camera used for everything except for travel when I have to take a plane or when space is very important or when I need a long lens (which I don't have or want for the full frame). This will make my upgrading of the Crop Sensor not as important as it was when it was the main camera. I did keep some primes. I kept a 85mm F1.8 for portraits and a 50mm F2.8 macro lens that I can use as a macro for both of my camera bodies. So except for a couple of shooting situations I have become a full frame sensor shooter again. Not since my Nikon days and the D800 have I been a full frame shooter. I have some upcoming projects and I'm excited on how this camera and the two zoom lenses (16-35 and the 24-105) will perform. I'm sure they will do fantastically! The one thing that is sure is that change is always happening and embracing it will make me and you a better photographer. I'll let you know how the transition back to full frame goes.  Until Next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey Everyone! Salutations! Hope you're having a great week. I have and have been busy writing blogs. Its been a rainy week so I've got into the writing groove. This week I want to talk about a cool photography technique, trick, hack whatever you want to call it. And it's showing motion by using shutter drag. You can make very interesting photographs by showing motion in your shots. A silky smooth waterfall looks much better than a frozen in time one that was shot on a high shutter speed. Dragging the shutter is the act of keeping the shutter open while a moving object is moving through it. The object will blur a little showing motion. This technique can be used in street photography or landscape , sport or any style that the subject is moving and it makes a unique shot that gets peoples imagination going .  It can be fairly simple to do and when you get the hang of doing it you can turn it on in just a second and get that unique shot while you're out shooting something else.  Maybe you're shooting a dance class and you get all of the 

individual shots of the pretty dancers but now you take a few of them spinning or dancing and you drag the shutter you have art!  Here is the technique and some tips. The MetroCommuters waiting for the Metro in Washington DC.

To drag the shutter your camera should be stable relative to your subject. Tripods can come in handy. But when your out on the streets maybe a post or trash can will act as your tripod. Shooting in manual or shutter priority is the best setting for your camera. Then you slow down your shutter until you get the desired blur that you want. You may have to experiment a little to get that blend that you want and it depends on how fast your subject is moving . A car travels much faster than a person walking. So different shutter speeds. A cool way to practice this is to go out at night and set up your camera and tripod near a road and try to capture light trails from the cars. You get cool red ones from the tail lights and white ones from the headlights. Waterfalls of course are my favorite for me especially during the fall when all of the leaves are changing and you get that silky smooth water of the water fall. Be careful not to make it too Spring Fall Falls silky and experiment with the speeds.  But a field of wheat swaying in the breeze or clouds passing by a old building would be good too. How do we get the low shutter speeds in the daylight?

Using Polarizers and ND filters for daylight shutter drag. A polarizer filter is usually 1 1/2 to 2 stops of light that is cut out. If its a very cloudy day this might be all you need. But you may need to add a Natural Density filter to it to get the shutter speed you need. A veritable ND filter could also come in handy. They come in ranges of stops and you can dial in the amount you want to get the speed of shutter and the perfect exposure. I try to under expose 1 to 2 stops and bring it back in post editing to get the look I like. You should experiment to find out what your settings will be to get that look you like. For bright days you might need a 10 stop ND filter which is black and focusing gets troublesome. But you can get some cool shots with this technique.

Panning. Panning is the art of moving your camera at the same speed as the subject so the subject is in focus and the surroundings blur. Remember I said your camera should be stable "relative" to the subject. Panning is a art but looks good for moving things like bicycles, cars , busses and almost anything. But it does take lots of practice to get it right. I'm so so at it . I probably need to practice more. LOL

Adding motion to your portfolio shots really brings your whole collection up a notch! And makes your time out shooting more exciting trying to get that cool blurry shot that shows motion.  So until next week Get out and shoot! Some Motion.

Hey 

Y'all! Hope you're having a great day. Me Fantastic! Its a rainy day here so I thought I would sit down and talk a little bit to y'all about my favorite subject , Photography. If you follow my blogs I talk about lots of different area's of photography. And there are plenty. You can really get deep in the weeds talking photography. We can be talking about something technical or some new gadget or software that just came out but what we really don't talk about is how to have fun in photography.  We get caught up in the "how to" of it all. Which is great but I think we just go a little overboard with whatever we are exploring at the time whether its technical or artsy.  I am guilty of this as much as anyone else and maybe more.  Being a photographer is much more than knowing how to use your camera (the technical aspect) or the Artsy side of it with composition ,lighting and all of the things that come with that. It should be fun also! My photo wingman (Robert) and myself have taken many adventures and we have a blast going out and shooting but we approach the shooting part different. Robert is a big reader of photography books and articles and when he goes out shooting he has a purpose. Maybe its showing motion , or a certain lighting aspect and that's what he looks for. Me I do less preparing and just go and shoot. I shoot everything from the fly on the wall to  really thinking about a shot. Is his way wrong? No I don't think so and I think that I used to shoot like Robert does also. But I don't anymore. I've been shooting much longer than he has and maybe it's something we have to go through. We (me and Robert) some times have a discussion on a certain photo that I may have taken. And he'll say something like "oh I love the way you positioned that in your subject or I love the layers of this or this angle I never thought of that ",  and he'll ask what I was thinking or how I thought of it. And I haven't . I haven't thought of any of it. I just shoot because to me shooting is most of the fun in photography. If you look at my photo's from a shoot you will see how many different things I look at and shoot and they mostly don't have a rhyme or reason to them. Its more of a "Squirrel" affect. I just see and shoot. I could be shooting a landscape and a fly lands on my leg and I shoot the fly. If I'm in a city and I walk by what I think is a silly sign I shoot and try not to think.  And that's fun. If you know me thinking is not my strong point! LOL 

The pure act of shooting and having fun gets lost sometimes because photography is technical (not as much as it used to be) for the most part and you have to get past that.  Photography should be just fun to do. Thats why we started in the first place. Because it was fun. Not because it was technical. It can be fun just shooting by yourself but its more fun in a group. Maybe you have a photography wingman like I do or maybe you are part of a photography club.  Shooting with like minded people is great and you just have a ball. My photography club is getting ready to go on our annual fall colors trip to the North Carolina mountains and we just had a meeting about things we want to see and do while there. Not once did we talk about anything technical except where the sun might be coming up at at a certain place. We talked about the things we would be seeing and shooting and the smiles kept getting bigger and bigger the more we talked and planned. It was fun and photography should be fun. I just want you to remember why you started photography in the first place . Because it was fun! Not because you wanted to shoot weddings or sports or senior portraits. Because it was fun! So learn all of the technical stuff but don't forget to have fun!

To me having fun with my camera is the best! My camera has taken me to places that I may never have gone before! I have heard it said that the camera is the passport to the world and I believe it. But don't take it too seriously it should be FUN! It doesn't matter what kind of photography or how technical you are with it , it should be fun to shoot and not laborious or too technical. Remember its not just about the Keepers from a photoshoot but the whole shoot. The Keepers will come just keep shooting! Remember Keepers don't have be be works of art they could be the photo's that you post to Facebook or Instagram. Memories and fun are what your shooting for! So until next week get outside and shoot and have some fun!

Hey 

MPB is a company that buys and sells used photography gear. The one in North America is located in New York City and they have one in Europe also. I have been dealing with the one in NYC exclusively and highly recommend it. This is how it works . You go on their website and find what you want say a camera body. You usually have a choice between "like new" condition "Excellent" , "Good". These condition ratings are explained in the website and I find them to be true. The things I got that were like new were like new and the things that were only good worked fine but maybe had some cosmetic scratches on them but didn't effect operation. I also like that I can sell or trade older equipment in to help purchase items knocking the already low price even lower. To me this is win , win! If your selling or trading equipment you give them what you think the estimate of your gear is they will send you a FedEx label and you ship it to them. When they get it they will let you know by email and inspect your equipment if they agree and they have with me so far. They will cut a check or take that amount off of your item. Your biggest problem is just packaging up your item and getting it to FedEx. If you can tell I love this company. As a matter of fact Sony just came out with a new camera body and I'm going to wait until they get them in stock before I buy it just to save some money and to be able to sell the camera body that I'm using now. Now the only question to answer is used equipment for you?

In my humble opinion if you are a stills photographer like I am I think that used is for you. If you shoot video or something that fast focus is a must like wildlife or Sports it may not be. Most of the advances in camera's now a days is in video and fast focusing but if you're like most of us that super fast focusing or video features is not a factor. If you're really like me you don't even care if your stills camera shoot video at all. That would be great a camera that only shoots stills with no frills camera and no video. I would be first in line. But I don't see that happening. So for me and most people I think that used is okay. I'm shooting a camera now that came out in 2015 and am pleased with the quality. Thats why I can wait to upgrade for when the new camera body gets in MPB.  Buying used is a great way to save some of that hard earned cash and upgrade your equipment when needed. 

So when you think it's time to upgrade your gear don't for get to think used instead of new.  Until next week make sure you get out and shoot! 

Hey 

Y'all! Hope you're having a great week! This week I want to talk about this funny word we use in photography, Bokeh. The term “bokeh” comes from the Japanese word “boke,” which means “blur” in English. And that's just what bokeh refers to. It's the quality of the blurry parts of a photograph. So why would we want part of the photograph blurry when we spent all this money on sharp lenses? LOL  Bokeh and the use of it can make a photograph visually pleasing. Everyone has scene this in portraits where the subject is in focus but the background is blurred out. But it can be used in other types of photography also. In landscape the main subject maybe a tree or a brook is in focus but the forest behind it is blurred. We can use this technique to isolate the subject in a busy scene. Maybe isolate a single sunflower out of a field of sunflowers .  So we have "making the photo more visually pleasing" and " isolate the subject" and there is one more use and that is to use Bokeh as a artistic aspect of the photo. I'm sure you have seen Christmas lights all blurred out making a artistic glow or water on a glass blurred out . So there are three reasons to use Bokeh as I see it. #1 visually pleasing, #2 isolate the subject #3 Used as an artistic item.

So how do we create Bokeh when we are out and about taking photo's? There are a few things that can control Bokeh and they can be used by themselves or in combination to create this effect. One way to control Bokeh is with Aperture .  The smaller "F" stop number the smaller the depth of field and the greater the Bokeh. Depth of field is the amount of the photo that is in focus. So the part that isn't in focus is the Bokeh. By using a fast lens one that has an maximum aperture of f2.8 or smaller can create great Bokeh. You can take a photo of a person and only the tip of their nose is in focus and everything else be out of focus. So the opposite can also be said the larger the f-stop number the more of the photo will be in focus. So f22 more of the photo will be in focus than f2.8. So Aperture is one thing that can control Bokeh. The next thing that can control bokeh is the type of lens used. The Leaf longer the lens the easier it will be able to create bokeh. For example a wide angel lens say 14mm is almost built to make everything in focus and it is difficult to make things within the photo blur. On the other hand a telephoto lens say 200mm is built to isolate things and Zoom into something. These lenses are much more easier to make things blur in the photograph. Combining a low aperture with a longer lens makes it easer to make parts of the photo blur. The final thing that can help is being close to the subject will make it easier to blur everything else. So there are the three ways to create Bokeh. Aperture, type of lens, and proximity to the subject. By using these three things together and adjusting them you can control the Bokeh in your photo to make it more pleasing to look at , to isolate the subject or to use Bokeh as an artistic subject. 

Using Bokeh as a creative technique can make your photo's stand out of the crowd. Until next week Get out and Shoot!
 

Hey Everyone! How's it going this week? Me? Not bad thanks for asking. This week I wanted to talk about improving your photography. But how do we improve? Well there are lots of ways to improve but what if we looked at our photography skills like a sport? If we wanted to get better at a sport what would we do? We would 

Photographers seem to search for improvements in equipment much like in golf that new Driver or Putter will improve my game. The answer is Lightbulb Water Lighthouse the same for both golf and Photography. It's probably not the equipment. If your camera was purchased in the last 8-10 years and working properly its not the camera. It may be in the skills we use when we use the camera. Maybe we are only taking advantage of 10% of what the camera can do. Learning how to use our gear will make us better photographers. Read the manual or watch a video of how to do things on your brand/model of camera. Modern cameras are amazing and many of us will become better just by learning our camera.

Maybe the technical aspect of your Photography game are solid. You know your camera and how it works but you're not creative with it. Much like in golf. You can hit your clubs well on the practice range but getting good results on the course isn't happening. Photography like golf is more than just pushing the shutter button, creativity needs to be more focused on to be creative. In golf being able to curve the ball at will and making creative shots will save a round. In photography different Points of View, Perspective will create more story telling photo's .  So try shooting from a worms view, around a corner, through something to make more interesting photographs.

EYES The act of taking the photograph may not be your weak point. Maybe its the editing the photograph that you are weak at. I think that editing is at least 50% of the end result of a great photograph. I don't have a good golf analogy for this one creative scoring is just a fancy way of cheating. LOL To improve this part of the Photography game you might need to take a workshop, watch tutorial videos and practice . Maybe get with someone that is good at editing to help you along. Which brings me to my next point.

When you go out and shoot with others you will learn a lot. Just by watching and observing others you can learn a lot. Photography with others will help your Photography game. Like in golf playing with a group even folks you don't know will make you play or photograph better. I encourage all of you to join some sort of camera club. I have improved so much after joining the camera club that I belong to now. We have monthly meetings with presentations, printed contest, monthly challenges. We also have monthly outings and workshops where we travel around and try different types of photography. You get to shoot and learn with people with the same interest in _DSC4702 photography and make friends that you can go out and shoot with. 

So my advice is to treat your photography like a sport. Practicing what your weak at will bring your whole game up and you will make fantastic photographs. Trying to improve and try new things in photography is not only fun but will make you better. Getting out of your comfort zone will also help. So until next week analyze your Photography Game and get outside and shoot!

Hey Everyone! How's it going this week? This week I want to talk about my Fall Colors workshop and what worked and what didn't. Last week I went over the events of the workshop and where and when we went to them. First I want to say that the workshop was a big 

Camera Gear. The camera gear that I brought with me worked well and had no problems. The choice of lenses and camera body worked flawlessly and am very happy with the outcome. Just for a overview I took a crop sensor camera and 3 lenses that ranged in full frame equivalent from 15mm to 525mm in focal length.  I also had all the correct filters and accessories with me and did't want or need anything else to document the trip. So this was a win!

Video Recording. This was a fail. I brought a GoPro and some accessories to document the trip and make a video at the end of the trip. For me trying to photograph and do video at the same time is very hard to do and you end up not doing any of them well. This was the case with me. I started out trying to video everything we did for the first couple of days but my photography suffered and I slowly quit using the GoPro at all. So for the first couple of days I can make a video but for the second half of the trip nothing.  I have asked for video clips from my fellow photogs that went with me but have not got much .  Robert my normal wingman couldn't come to this workshop and he is a great videographer and usually documents our trips but I failed. Big Fail on my part .

Weather. We had mixed weather while on our trip. When we left it was raining and it rained off and on during our trip. The temps were cooler than we are used to at home but it really didn't get cold as we have had in the past even though we did see snow. So the weather not perfect but it wasn't a fail.

Mobile Photography Editing. This may be where I struggled the most on this trip. When I go on a trip instead of a laptop I use a iPad pro for my Cades Cove mobile editing and backing up. The edits will sync up with my home laptop and when I get home they are there. This didn't work this year. It has in the past and the reason. (which I didn't figure out until I got home) was that my main computer is a 2015 iMac and is so old that the operating system can't be upgraded which is fine but the new Adobe Lightroom Classic will not load onto it because of the operating system is too old. Now my iPad pro is newer and has the newest version of Lightroom. These two versions seem to clash and the system did not work. I could edit a few photo's on the road but the big sync stuff didn't work. And also the backing up of my SD cards to the SSD drive I have didn't work 100 percent for some reason. It may have been me and I may have interrupted the transfer while in the mountains . But I still had my daily SD cards so I didn't loose any info and that's how I got all of my photo's downloaded to my old computer at home. The fix? I need to upgrade my old computer and this should correct all of the mistakes and allow the new versions of Adobe for years to come. I am currently researching upgrading my main computer. I'll keep you updated.

Accommodations (House). The house that we rented from VRBO was fantastic! Kudo's to our Club President Caitlin on choosing this one. It was kind of perched on a ridge and could have views all around the house of the valley below. Some of my best views could be seen from the window of our house. Everyone had a bed ( no sleeping on the floor or couch) and some even had their own bathrooms. The house had balconies on the bottom and second floors to enjoy the views. A ample kitchen and open common area gave plenty of room for lounging and editing photo's. Even though I shared a bunk room with 3 other snoring guys it was quite comfortable and I've been in a lot worse places. Big Win!

Itinerary .  We took a lot of time and refinement to come up with our schedule of events for the trip.  We wanted to go to some of the old spots Mingus Mill from trips gone by to some new ones that we haven't been before. We wanted everyone to have something that they were used to shooting in the itinerary. We wanted wildlife shooters to get to shoot some wildlife. We wanted landscape folks to shoot some landscapes. After all it is Fall colors . And we wanted to do some travel type shooting by exploring some towns. Mission accomplished.  We did go to some new places some I don't need to see again and others can't wait to go back to. And I'm sure that is true for all of the participants of the workshop. I did enjoy some days over other ones as I'm sure others did also. Over all a big win!

To me the trip was a big win! Not only for me but the whole club! I would like to see more of these trips happen! As a matter of fact we are planning on taking a trip this spring that we are just starting to plan. We had one planned the year Covid happened and didn't get to go but we are planning for this spring. So I'm excited about future trips and will try to correct my fails to be better for the next trip. Until Next week get outside and keep shooting!

Hey 

experiences like food and gas for the cars we use to go place to place.  We plan our itinerary well in advance with a group of people that includes the officers of the club and senior members that have lots of experience in where to go. These houses that we rent are reserved well in advance and choosing a week to go is usually the 3rd week in October that is when the colors are usually popping in the North Carolina mountains but Mother Nature does have the final say. So some years we have less color than others. But one thing is for certain we always have a great time. I like to call it Summer Camp for old folks!  There is lots of laughter in the house and special nicknames are given to everyone that attends. It can get quite goofy. Now these trips are no vacation! Its called a workshop for a reason. We work, and are on the go the whole trip. We usually leave before the sun comes up and arrive back to the house well after dark. Driving and going to different spots to shoot the whole time. When we are at the house its backing up the days shoot and maybe edit a shot or two before it's time to get ready for the next day's activities. Early to bed and early rise is the routine that is followed. We usually eat out once or twice a day and either bring something to eat with us or eat at the house. Depending on the days activities. New attendees are surprised on how much we just keep going and are usually the first to say that this workshop isn't a vacation. We try to capture and do different kinds of photography from landscapes with beautiful colors to wildlife and some street/travel photography. This year was no exception as we did Landscape, Wildlife, Travel/Street, and even some night time light painting. So here goes a day to day rundown of how this years trip went. 

Linville Falls Day 1- Travel and Linville Falls.  We had a big countdown to this day on a group Facebook Messenger thread Linville Falls and it finally came. We left early for a 5ish hour drive to get to Linville Falls just off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. When we arrived to Linville Falls early afternoon and I have never seen so many people. The parking lots were full and people were parking on the access road to the parking area as we did. I have visited these falls many times and even camped near by and have never seen so many people. We trudged on and hiked the trail to the falls and the falls overlooks. I couldn't get a photo of the falls because of the people but I did get some shots of the gorge and the surrounding areas. We then drove to our house. What a house and a location! Kudo's to our President Caitlin for finding this gem. We had views all around a great house to spend the week.

Day 2- Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. This is the first time that we have done this while in the mountains and we were all excited about the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad trip through the mountains during Fall. It was very chilly and we had open air cars so we could get good photo's. It was a fun trip and I got a few photo's although to me the photographic opportunities were not as much as I had thought. Our plans were to walk the town of Bryson City but the weather started getting bad (rain) so we went back to the house . Later on in the day we drove to Great Smoky Mountains National Park Cherokee Visitor Center in Cherokee to view the Elk. Again Lots of people there and we spent some time there and then back to the cabin which was only 20ish minutes away.

Cades Cove Day 3-Cades Cove day. Cades Cove Tennessee is part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). There is about a 12 mile loop that you can drive and see wildlife and Landscapes. They also have a Mill there that you can visit and see.  The gates open at sunrise and if you want the early morning light you need to get in line before the sun comes up. I think we had about an hour and a half drive to get there and we sat in line. We had to leave at 4:45 in the morning!  We got on the loop early and got to see all kinds of wildlife Turkey, Cades Cove from bear, deer, turkeys, horses and a hawk. And the landscapes did not disappoint either. We had the wildlife guys in the lead car to spot the wildlife because they have the eye to do so. We took two laps of the loop and on the second lap it started to rain. We went to Pigeon Forge where we had lunch at the Mill a country style meal restaurant  and there were lots of people. For our trip back we had a list of places to go to with over looks and waterfalls on the way to Clingmans Dome to shoot a sunset. Clingmans Dome road was closed for some reason. We soon found out why .  It was still raining so we decided to head to the house and if the weather permitted we would stop at one of the spots. But the rain kept coming and as we climbed up to Newfound Gap the rain turned to SNOW! Yes SNOW! Now that's a scene to see snow coming down on Fall Colored trees! We never did stop because it kept raining/Snowing and we made it to the house. And we found out that the road to Clingmans Dome was closed because of road conditions.

Dry Falls Day 4- Helen Georgia and Falls day. Finally the weather had cleared and we had blue skies. We left and first stop was Cullasaja Falls a road side fall that slithers down the side of the mountain. Next stop was Dry falls Cherokee that gets it's name by being able to walk behind the falls. What was great about this place is that there was no one there. After having wall to wall people in other places it was great to go somewhere that we had it to ourselves. The colors were popping and I had a great time photographing them. Next spot was Helen Georgia. We as a group have never been to this spot before I had been earlier in the year. This town is all decked out as a Bavarian-style town. Piped in music and restaurants and shops galore. This made for some interesting photography and it was a unique stop on our trip. We also had a great lunch there.  The next stop was Tallulah Gorge Rim Trail where there were waterfalls. There is a deep gorge at this Georgia State park which was neat to see.

Living Waters Day 5- Waterfall Palooza! This is waterfall day one of my favorite days . First on the list is Sunburst Falls. This was one that we haven't been before and when we got there there was a couple getting engagement photo's done with pumpkins on their heads! It was very cool to watch and we got some snapshots of them. The next big falls was Living Waters Retreat .  There is about a 1/2 mile trail that has about 5 or 6 falls surrounded by beautiful trees with all of the colors. One of my favorite places. We spent a couple of hours there. We then went to eat in Brevard a beautiful town with a BBQ place that we have been to before and wanted to return. We had a great lunch before the next set of Falls. The next set was High Falls, Hooker Falls and Triple Falls. These three falls are located in Dupont State Forrest. The last falls was Looking Glass Falls. We as a group have been there many times before but usually in the morning. This was the first time in the afternoon. I like the afternoon better not as many people or as cold. So the day was full of Waterfalls and Hiking and Landscapes. A great day.

Elk, Cherokee Day 6- Elk Day! Even though we have seen the Elk one day before we really wanted to do the Elk again  Elk , Cherokee especially the Wildlife guys. We arrived early at Cherokee Visitors Center and shot some of the Elk (not really) in the fields and then worked our way to a stream that they cross a couple of times a day and really makes for a great photo's. I actually got a few really good shots and for me that's surprising I'm not really a wildlife photographer and really don't have all of the big lenses like the Wildlife guys do. I also got some good photo's of the little village that they have set up at the visitors center. After that the main group of us left and the hard core Wildlife guys stayed behind to get more shots. The rest of us went out to eat and then back to the house for some down time to do laundry or take a nap. That afternoon when the rest had joined us we went out to do light painting on Mingus Mill which is an old mill in the park. So we went out and worked the scene in the dark with big lamps to get our shot. Real fun! And it started to sprinkle as we were finishing up.

Sylva, Courthouse Day 7-Cataloochee Valley Day. We were scheduled to go to Cataloochee Valley and shoot Elk and Landscapes but the rain came back. We decided to go out and have a good sit down breakfast. We drove to Sylva North Carolina and Man in Sylva NC small outdoorsy town with hiking and fly fishing as major interest. We had a great breakfast and the rain looked like it was going to let up so we decided to shoot the city but as we started the rain came back. I got a little wet. So we went to the cabin to relax while waiting for the rain to subside. It did subside and we were itching to get out and shoot so we decided to go shoot Sylva again and then we went to Dillsboro, North Carolina to shoot the towns.  While shooting Dillsboro it started to rain and we came back to the cabin. We relaxed in the house for the rest of the day and got our things together for the ride home. The last day was just a travel day as we were out of the house by 8:30 in the morning for the ride home.

Despite the rain interfering with our trip we had a ball.  The colors were popping and we got to go to some great places for the Fall Colors! Its hard to explain the beauty that is in the mountains in the Fall.  The color of Autumn the crispness of the weather and the company of like minded photographers out having fun and learning. I love these trips and they are the highlight of my year.  If you get a chance to take a photography workshop trip somewhere Go! You will have a ball and learn a lot! So until next week get out and Shoot!
 

Hey Everyone! Hope you have had a great week! I have been on a blog writing blitz this week making many blogs for future publication. It comes in waves (the writing that is) and I just take advantage of rainy days to get and stay ahead .  One of my favorite things to do to pass the time is watch YouTube.  It is probably where I get most of my on screen content from.  I do watch some TV but mostly News and the Golf Channel LOL. And of course Netflix and Amazon Prime. But most of my on time screen watching is YouTube. I am a visual person and love to watch and learn how to do stuff on YouTube. You can learn how to take photo's to how to change brake pads on your car. It is a great platform to enjoy and watch and learn. This weeks blog is my Favorite photography YouTube channels. Now there are Thousands and Thousands of Channels on YouTube about photography and I know I haven't even come close to seeing all of them but here are a few of my favorites in no  Spring Fall Falls particular order. It depends on my mood and what I'm interested in shooting at the time.

James Popsy- His channel is based in the UK and he does mostly Landscapes but does go into street every now and then. He is funny and informative on his channel and answers questions like is JPEGs any good anymore? He of course tries out different camera's and accessories. To me its not so much the content but he is a joy to listen to .

Bull ElkThis Bull Elk was at Cherokee North Carolina. Tony and Chelsea Northrup- This husband and wife couple give reviews of camera gear and go over different aspects of photography. They have the most popular printed photo photography lesson book in the world that is constantly being updated with video's incorporated into the printed book. They started out in stock photography and do portraits and Wildlife a little of everything. They even have a podcast that I listen to that is very enjoyable. They have loads of content on YouTube.

Mark Denny- Mark Denny is a local North Carolina guy that quit corporate America to be a full time Raven's Roost Va. Landscape photographer/Instructor. He has great tutorials on Lightroom and his in the field work is great to watch and he goes into great detail. He has become one of the ones I really like to watch and learn from.

Thomas Heaton- Thomas Heaton is a Landscape photographer based out of the UK and has an enormous following of landscape photographers. He has worked as a Studio Assistant before going out on his own. He combines camping or RVing from his Van into his Photography. He teams up with well known photographers here in the US on great road trips. Lots of content on his channel and well worth the watch.

Road to the TempleGoblin Valley State Park Utah Nick Page- A former golf Greens Keeper turned photographer . Is a self taught landscape photographer that runs workshops and has fantastic photo's. He takes you through the shoot and the post processing of his great landscapes. He also loves to shoot storms with lightning which looks cool but may be a little to dangerous for me. He is based out of the Pacific Northwest of the US.

Adorama TV- This is a great channel with loads of reviews of equipment but also instruction and how to with famous photographers/instructors like Mark Wallace, Pam Gaven Hoey, Lindsey Atler and On Set with Daniel Norton. And many more. You can watch a live stream event where the photographer takes you through a whole photoshoot from start to finish explaining everything as they go. A great channel with lots of content to watch.

Pierre T Lambert- A street photographer that travels the world taking photo's and brings you along for the shoot. During the recent (in the last couple of years) race riots in Chicago he was there shooting the whole thing and it was very interesting to watch. There are loads of street photographers to follow and watch on YouTube he was just one that popped up in my mind first.

To find any of these folks just bring up YouTube and put their name in the search block and it will show many videos of these people. Subscribe to them and you will always have their latest and greatest videos and it doesn't cost a penny just your time which you would be wasting watching the Big Bang Theory or something similar . So learn something. Until next week check theses out and let me know what your favorite channels are and Get out and Shoot!
 

Hey Y’all! Hope you are doing great this week! Me? Pretty well. This week I want to talk about taking small photo walks of a nearby town or city. For the last two weekends me and my photo wingman Robert , have been taking photo walks in Raleigh NC a nearby city. It is much larger than the town we live in which is a rural town. Raleigh is a bigger city with lots of neat stuff to see and do that is different than our town. So for the last two Sundays we’ve been traveling the hour or so to Raleigh to photograph the town. The first time we went we went as if we were tourist although we had both been there many times .  And the second time it was street photography that was our main goal. I love both types of photography it lets me take photo’s of all kinds of things that I normally don’t. 

First day as a Tourist. First stop after an enjoyable ride to Raleigh was the Arboretum . I have driven past this place many times but have never gone in.  I was pleasantly surprised . It was awesome. It had all kinds of plants and flowers and interesting stuff to see.  We spent over an hour roaming the grounds taking photo’s and having fun. Our next stop was to the NC Museum of Art. Outside they had a mirror maze that was pretty cool and when you got inside you got disoriented because of all of the mirrors. They created cool shapes and shadows to photograph. The next stop was downtown Raleigh to visit Museums and walk the town. It was very hot and we walked a lot .  We went to the food mall on Morgan street and the food was excellent. We walked quite a bit and I would suggest to wear comfortable shoes when doing this kind of photography.  After the museums we decided to go to Durham to the Tobacco Campus. These are old cigerett plant buildings that have been converted into shops and restaurants. This is a very cool place but we didn't figure that most of the shops and stores would be closed on Sunday but it gave us a chance to photograph the buildings without all of the people. What was cool is that the Durham Bulls were having a ball game and the stadium was just next door and we did some people watching as they were going into the stadium for the game. All in all a very good day of shooting.

Second day Street Photography. this day was not as structured as the first day we actually decided on the drive up where to start. We started at Raleigh Union Station the Amtrak station in Raleigh. This is a very cool structure to shoot and the people are a plus while they are waiting for their train to arrive. After the train station we started walking. The area around the train station is very cool with unique shops and restaurants and just cool places to visit. This part of downtown has a very cool vibe to it and although we were there on a Sunday morning with hardly any people we still got some people shots. For lunch we went back to the Morgan Street Food Mall and ate and it was a good place to eat and take a bathroom break. After lunch we slowly made our way back to the car at the train station and after we arrived we decided to check out the observation deck at the airport. This has been on Roberts List of places to visit for a while and we had some extra time so we went. The deck was a neat place to visit. The had the aircraft Radio traffic piped into the observation deck and you had a neat place to watch the planes take off. What was really cool is seeing the families sprawled out with little kids watching the planes take off. After the observation deck we decided to head home. This was another scorcher of a day we didn't walk as much as the first day of shooting in Raleigh. 

The two days were a great break to summer heat and super photo opportunities.  Make sure that you go somewhere and have a photo walk with a buddy. You'll get some shots and have a ball. Remember having fun is the best part of Photography. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey Everybody! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Pretty good. Last night my Photography Club had it's monthly meeting and I really love these meetings. Have you ever been to a photography club meeting? They are pretty fantastic for 

photography minded people to gather and talk nothing but photography. When I'm at home and try to talk to my wife about photography (when she can stay awake) she just doesn't get it. But when you talk to photography crazies like us its fantastic because they are as interested as you are! I have wrote about my photography club in the past but have never explained how a typical monthly meeting goes. I have been a member of this club for a dozen years or so and have acted as one of its officers a couple of times and am currently a Vice President.  We have between 35 and 40 active members and usually 20 or so show up for meetings and then we have the Zoom participants.  During the Covid crisis we had Zoom meetings which worked out pretty well. But now that the crisis is over we mainly meet in person with just a few via Zoom.  We meet at the local community college but have met in our local arts council in years past.   We hold our meetings on the 4th Monday of the month at 6:30pm and the meetings last about 2 hours. We have a very diversified group of members aging from 17yrs old to 82 and about a 50/50 male/female split maybe a little more males than females but its close. So here goes a rundown of a typical club meeting.

-We usually start with welcoming new visitors to the club. We ask them what they like to shoot and what camera system they shoot which always comes with ooh's and aah's from other camera system owners trying to make the newcomer feel at home with laughter. We explain the advantages of becoming a member and the price of dues. The price of dues have not changed while I've been a member.

-The next 10 or so minutes are taken up by announcements and going over our schedule for the rest of the year and any changes that may come. We are a very active club we have some sort of workshop every month on all kinds of topics and we go out and shoot that theme. Maybe its wildlife we go shoot wildlife or portraits and so on.

-Gear talk or Lightroom/Photoshop tips. A short talk about gear or editing is handled here by some of our more experienced photographers in the club. We try to keep this part of the meeting about 5 min or so. So it's just for quick tips or small pieces of gear that can be helpful to our members.

-Main Topic . The main topics are chosen by our officers early in the year . Then we find people to give presentations on these topics. These can be power point presentations to video inspired talks. We have people volunteering to do these presentations. We have the wildlife experts talk on wildlife, Landscape talk on Landscape stuff and so on. We try to cover all types of photography from street, portrait , macro, food, landscape, travel and wildlife. We may also have a presentation on workflow or composition. We sometimes get guest speakers to come and talk to our club or zoom in from across the country on certain topics. All of this is planned out by our officers at the beginning of the year and a schedule is posted of meeting topics and workshops prior to the start of the year so people can plan their schedules to attend workshops or meetings. We recently went to shoot milky way and meteor showers at a lighthouse 3 hours away so some people planned and stayed at hotels to avoid the drive home in the dark. Planning is Key for our club.

-Photo Contest. We have quarterly printed photo contest. The officers pick the topics. Say portraits, Travel, Faces, Landscape, Macro.  The members rate the photographs on 5 categories during a break on forms provided by the club. They are turned in and tallied up by one of the officers. The entries are anonymous so you can't just choose your buddy you have to rate the photo on a form that we provide. We rate all of the photo's not just the one that you like. We give ribbons for 1st , 2nd and 3rd place and give Amazon gift cards for them also. If you win one of the contest you cannot enter the other contest that remain. This is so one person doesn't win all of  the prizes. At the end of the year we pick the winner from the 4 and they have the photo of the year. We print photo's for those that want their photo's entered if they don't have the means to print.

-Photo Critiques and Member Spotlight. These are alternated each month. Photo Critiques, These are photo's that are taken by our members we put them up on the big screen and say what we like and what we don't like about each photo. Guided by one of our senior members to make sure it doesn't get crazy and keep the pace up. This is a great help to all of our members to have eyes on your photo's and see things that you don't notice as the photographer making you a better photographer. Member spotlight is a small presentation of one of the members of the club. We like to have new members do this so we can see what they shoot and get them more comfortable showing their work.

-Ending comments. This is where we discuss the details of the next workshop which is usually the Saturday following the Meeting unless there is a holiday that interferes .  We discuss meetup times duration what you need and such. We then thank the club for a great meeting and wish them safe travels home.

So there you have it a typical photography club meeting. So if your interested go to your local photography/camera club and join. You will meet new friends who love to talk about photography and you will learn and have a ball. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Max Stansell Photography Hey 

Preparing for fall colors is the key. Its more mental than gear related. Planning where fall foliage will be the _MSP2491Max Stansell Photography best .  My camera club does a Fall Colors trip each year which is usually a week long trip to the mountains to witness the fall colors. Sometimes we get great colors and sometimes not so much. Its hard to tell when the leaves are going to change. There are prediction maps that will show what they think the leaves will do in certain areas of the country and I guess it's a real science to figure out when and where the leaves are really going to Pop each year is different depending on weather of the summer before and the temps.  Even the elevation matters.  All you can do is research all you can and plan Fall Colors House with the best info you can get and hope for the best when you're taking long trips to see leaves.  In your local area scout out places nearby that have lots of leaves. I live in the south and there are lots of pine trees which do nothing in the fall you have to really look more leafy trees which in my case its go west. Softer leafy trees turn first like maple, apple, fruit trees. Then the Harder trees like oak turn later.  Sometimes in the south the just turn brown and fall with no color. Thats mostly what happens near my house but just a few hours drive away there are lots of colors to be had. Just plan and Leaf hunt for the colors. 

Fall colors aren't just in the leaves of the trees but in decorations and festivals that happen this time of the year. I love me some fall colored decorations. With dried corn stalks and Pumpkins! I love me some pumpkins and of course orange is my favorite color. Fall is also in the clothing that is warn when the temps get cooler the sweaters come out with all of the colors of fall. Shooting festivals is one of my favorite Maple Leaves things to do with lots of people watching and colorful decorations. When I think of fall I think Football, Pumpkins, Thanksgiving, Halloween and all of the colors that go with it. You can look up on the internet when festivals happen where you live and visit them with camera in hand and shoot ,shoot, shoot!  Did I mention Octoberfest? There are many beer enthusiasts that love this and they are always colorful.

So while you're in your house avoiding the heat of the dog day's of summer start planning your fall _DSC8464 trip/shooting season. My camera club has already started on our weekly itinerary on our fall colors trip. As you can see I'm a fanatic for fall colors. Especially Pumpkins! LOL As you can see I really didn't talk about gear because I think fall colors is more of a vibe than what gear you use. So until next week get out and shoot! Pumpkins! Pumpkins! Pumpkins! LOL

Hey 

Y'all! Hope you're doing well this week. Its almost fall and that means Fall Colors! Leaves changing and the temps dropping making it great to get out and shoot! My Photography club has an annual trip that goes to the mountains for a week of shooting fall colors , waterfalls and wildlife with a background of the leaves changing colors. Hopefully the leaves will cooperate this year but I know wether they are in full Fall Color or not there will be great photo's and good times to be had. I thought I would take the time this week to go over the things that I will be taking with me to capture this event. I am very lucky that I own a few different camera kits and must choose when going to a trip. For this trip which is mostly landscape photography with some other styles thrown in I want to be as versatile as I can be. For me that means Zoom lenses and being quick and nimble. I have both a full frame kit and a crop sensor kit.  Each kit has specific purposes. I also want to think about all of the accessories that I'm going to take with me and a backup camera if something should go crazy with my main camera that I choose for the trip. Its a lot to think about and you want to make sure you have your kit all figured out in advance and don't just grab stuff off the shelf at the last minute as your walking out the door because you don't want to forget anything and you may have to purchase something prior to your trip that you will need. So here goes the list of what I'll be taking camera gear wise for our Fall Colors trip.

Camera Body- I'll be taking my trusty crop sensor camera a Sony A6500. It is an older model and this may be a final farewell before I upgrade the body next year. This model came out in 2015 so its got some age on it.  I bought this body used from a camera club member and it has been great! It is small and versatile and gives me great images.

Lenses-I'll be taking 3 lenses with me. Three zooms. A 10-18 f4 , 16-55 f2.8 and a 70-350 f4.5-6.3. The full frame equivalent will be 15-27mm, 24-82mm and 105-525mm respectively. That gives me quite the range. All of these lenses are fantastic glass especially the middle zoom which will be on the camera 90% of the time. That's just my range that I shoot most of the time.

Phone- Yes my phone is the iPhone 14pro. I will be using this for making pantographs and macro shots . This phone does great work and I actually took a macro lens out of my bag and will use this instead. 

Backup Camera- My backup camera will be the Canon G7XII that is my EDC (Every Day Carry) camera. It comes with ND filter and a polarizer filter if needed. It can do the job if need be. I have used it as my main camera on trips to DC and Greenville SC and it performed great. Here is the link to a blog I wrote on my EDC Camera. My EDC Camera

Video Camera- I have a GoPro 9 that I will be taking with me to film the different spots along the way. Maybe a shot or two of something unique like under water at a water fall. I will be making a video of our trip after we return from all of the video clips of the places we travel to.

Filters- I have two filter kits that I will be taking with me. One filter kit by Breakthrough Photography has a Polarizer and a 3,6,10 stop ND filters. I also have another kit of Polarizers 67 and 62mm and a Variable ND filter that goes between a 1/2 to 8 stop. I've used the Variable ND the last trip we went on and it worked great so don't know how much I'll use the Breakthrough Photography one unless I need a 10 stop for anything. But I'll be taking both sets.

Tripod- I'll be taking my trusty ProMaster 525C Carbon fiber travel tripod. This thing has been with me all over and is stickered-up with all kinds of stickers from different places it has been. I simply love this tripod it is big enough to carry twice the weight of anything I own and its small and lightweight .  This tripod is simply fantastic and won't go anywhere without it. Except for our last outing I forgot it and had to borrow a big tripod and I really missed this one. LOL Thanks again Anita.

Bag and Accessories- The bag is a Shimoda Explore Version 1. I bought it off of Kickstarter campaign. I simply love this 30 liter travel bag. Its just the right size for my landscaping kit with the capability to get even larger with the roll top. Of course I'll have all of the batteries with all of the camera's mentioned above. I'll have a shutter release cable and head lamp for nighttime stuff. And plenty of SD cards so I can have a different one each day for photo and video. A "L" bracket will be attached to my camera for easy horizontal and vertical positioning on the tripod. Cleaning Supplies like , blower, sensor swabs, lens brush and plenty of micro fiber cloths. I will have rain protection for me and also for the camera and lenses.

Computer and Editing- I will be using my trusty iPad Pro with iPencil for all of my editing and backup while on the road. I'll be using a Scandisc solid state external drive to hold all of my backups. And iPod pro's ear buds for when I get up early and watch something on the internet and don't want to wake anyone. I'm a early riser. Of course I'll have all of the charging stuff for all of my gadgets and a small surge suppressor to use so I don't use too many outlets. Typical travel stuff.

Clothes- The biggest thing to remember in clothes is to layer your clothes. The weather can change from very cool in the morning to very warm during the day and being able to peal clothes of and put on is a big advantage as the weather changes. Stocking caps, neck covering and warm gloves are also on the list to bring. I also like to bring some hand warmers. These are little pouches that when you take out of the package and shake they get warm. They are great to have in your pockets while your waiting for the light to get just right keeping your hands nice and toasty on those chilly mornings by a waterfall. Here is a link to a blog I did on dressing in the winter. Winter Dressing the Part

Well I think that's about it for gear. I think its good to plan this stuff well in advance and get use to using whatever you're taking before you get there so when you get there you can concentrate on the photo's and not the gear.  This setup had worked well for me in the past and I have no worries about it this year. I am already excited about this trip and its less than a month away! Love the colors and all of the decorations that are up in the North Carolina mountains. I love to see me some pumpkins! Pumpkins! Pumpkins! Pumpkins! LOL Until next week start planning your next adventure and get out and shoot!

Hey Y'all! How's your week going? This week I want to talk about Custom Camera Modes/Settings. Do you even know what they are? We have the modes that are standard with our Camera's. M, S, A, P, (Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Program Mode. )  But the custom ones are the modes that you create. They are usually on the same dial as the MSAP settings and usually are designated as simple as 1 and 2. They are not the scene modes that some camera's have for different types of scenes that are shot in JPEG. These are custom settings or modes that you set up for different types of photography. These can come in very handy when your out and about shooting. Have you ever been out shooting and a special situation comes up and you miss the shot because you were fumbling with the settings on your camera and missed the shot? Say your out on a landscape shoot and all of the sudden a bear shows up in your scene and you want to get some great shot of that bear. If you have one of these modes set up for wildlife photography all you have to do is click to the correct number and bam you have all of the settings 22814418_10210727646164222_1824769434837060805_n you use in wildlife like maybe a higher shutter speed , continuous auto focusing or whatever you want. This is a fantastic way to travel knowing that your camera is set up for anything that comes up in a hurry. 

I have two main cameras. I have a full frame and a crop sensor and I use one camera for certain things and the other for other stuff. I use the custom settings to quickly go into a different style of photography without trying to find all of the settings in a menu. For example I have one of the custom settings on my full frame camera set up for Night Sky Photography.  I have a the camera in Manual exposure mode. I have the shutter set to 20 sec. I have the shutter on a 2 sec delay to eliminate shake. I have the ISO set to 2000 to start with. I have all of these things preset so I don't have to fight to find all of those little settings that take forever to find in the menus when we look for them. On my crop sensor camera I have set up for street photography. I have it set to Aperture Priority, Raw + JPEG set on Monochrome. That way the back screen is in monochrome like I like when I'm shooting street. I have it in Auto ISO.  All the settings I like for street photography and I just have to make one click to get them. So now you know what custom Mode/Settings are how do you set them?

I shoot a Sony and I'm sure its different for other types of camera's you just have to look at your manual or look at a Video on how to do it. For me I set my camera up the way I want it for the custom setting. Like for street I'm in Aperture Priority, Raw + Jpeg, Auto ISO all of the settings I like. Then I go in the menu and _MSP3848 find Memory (this will differ with your camera I'm sure) and set the memory 1 to my settings by pushing the "set"  button and Everything is put to the 1 on my Mode dial. On my camera there is also ways you can save settings to the SD card so if you use the same SD card you could have up to 8 different modes. The problem with these SD card modes is that when you format your card they are gone. So for me they are useless. So I just stick with the two main ones on the Mode Dial of my Cameras. It is just that simple. So you can simply switch from one mode to the other mode without changing  or hunting for all of the different types of menus items.

Custom Settings/Modes can come in very handy and you don't have to buy anything,  its already in your camera you just have to learn how to use it and use the full extent of your camera. So until next week get your camera out and set up those modes so you'll be ready for that next shot. Get outside and shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a Fantastic week. This week I want to talk about the firestorm of discussion that the new Photoshop AI Generative fill has brought to the photography community. Let me start out as saying I respect everyones opinion and I am no expert on the subject and these are just my thoughts. During a monthly meeting at my photography club the subject of using Photoshop in our quarterly photo contest or not. When I say Photoshop its not the software but the verb that has been associated with the Editing Software. Which means major editing and manipulation of the photo. And the discussion started. First there was one person that simply asked the question about using photoshop to enhance their photo to make it look like a painting in photoshop. Then the firestorm started. People got very defensive about how altering a photo in photoshop wasn't photography anymore. But then it was okay to take something out of the photo using photoshop but putting something in (Generative AI Fill) was wrong. I was sitting to the side listening to all of this and I was keeping my mouth shut because I really didn't care if someone used the new tool or not and didn't want to add fire to the flame. But I was kind of surprised at the reaction of my fellow photogs. I could understand if its journalism not wanting to alter the photograph. But this isn't journalism its art. Everyone always fights for photography to be classified as an art but then when you try to create something new its bad its not photography anymore.  Now everyone has their own opinion and I respect that but the main reason that people were arguing about the new AI was not because of the technique used with it but because they didn't know what was real or not anymore. They feel as they have been tricked by the photographer or photograph. Someone did something on the computer that tricked them and they can't trust photography anymore. That is what really what got them so on negitive side of the issue. There were even post on our Facebook members page showing photo's that were clearly not real but people were mad because they were tricked into believing something on Facebook. Yea I know believing something on Facebook. LOL There was even one post that showed a lady going on and on about a website that has gotten 100000 likes and shares for photo's that weren't real and she was mad and jealous of all the attention and she said so. So why didn't she just not go to that page anymore? Thats the real strength in all of this. If you don't like it don't use it. Some of the arguments were that is was okay to take things out with this new tool but not too much. It was very entertaining to listen to.  And this was just in my small little club meeting. 

So here's my opinion of this situation. It's just another photography tool that the computer has brought to our fingertips. There have been many. HDR for example . Remember when that became a big thing and everyone was using it. You could clearly tell that it was HDR and everyone overused it. Then the fad was over and we only merge photo's to increase the range of light in harsh conditions. There have been similar discussions when the healing brush, layers, crop tool, Content aware fill... came out. Content aware fill is just the weak sibling of Generative Fill. It matches the scenery and and fills in the scene. Sometimes it works and sometime it doesn't . The same with Generative fill. Or sky replacement.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When Sky Replacement it first came out in Luminar people went crazy using it. Now not so much and Photoshop has even incorporated it into its editing tool because it was so popular. So how is this new tool (Generative fill ) so offensive ?  Because it works well and you can't tell if the photo has been altered.  And that is what is causing the uproar.  I believe that if it's NOT meant to be journalism you can alter the photograph because it's Art. Whether I like it or not. Art is Art. Now I don't get or understand a lot of Art to tell you the truth but its someones else's interpretation of something. All photographs , paintings, sculptures or any form of art should be thought of this way. Its an interpretation of something .  Wether its on the internet , TV or print. Even if they haven't altered the photograph the way they took the photograph the perspective of how they shot it can show their interpretation of what they saw and not what is real. If you shoot in low perspective things look larger and taller than they really are. Things that are shot closer are bigger than they really are. Like that fish you caught and held close to the lens to make it look bigger than it actually was. Even the Cypress Trees IR lens we choose alters what is real. If we use a telephoto we compress the scene bring things in the background closer. Like mountains in the far distance that look like they are right behind the subject you are shooting. If we use a fisheye lens we distort the whole scene. If we want photography to be thought of as art we have to let people express theirselves however they can. We don't have to like it or believe that if it's a photograph it's real. It's an expression of someones thoughts. Always has been.

It has been said that the new AI is the biggest change in Photography since the invention of digital. Remember the big uproar about what was photography and what it wasn't back then? We survived that and for my money came out ahead of the game in the long run. I am a much better photographer now than I was in the film days when I began as a photographer. I think we can survive an editing software advancement. There are those that say that I don't care if it used if they put a statement on the photograph saying it was altered.  Every photo you see in print or on the internet that is not journalism has been altered in some way or another. Thats a lot of statements. It would be easier to put a statement on a photograph that hasn't been altered. Ansel Adams was famous for altering what came out of the camera by dodging and burning and all kinds of darkroom techniques that he used and invented. He would spend hours in the darkroom getting his photographs just the way he interpreted them to be not on how real they looked.  Now for a photography contest? Contest have rules and if its in the rules that you can't use then you can't use. I have no problem with that. But we should just think about what rules we want to put on art. Thats all I'm saying. So until next week Get Outside and Shoot and Express Yourself.

Neuse River Tone Mapped Hey Y’all ! Hope you’ve had a great week! Me pretty good, thanks for asking. This week I have another challenge to help improve your photography. We all get in ruts shooting the same thing every time we go out to shoot. It may be a different scene but it’s the same photograph, you know what I mean. With this challenge I want to get you out of the normal and get you into the uncomfortable to get those creative juices flowing. My camera club has monthly challenges and the winner of the challenge gets to pick the new challenge for the month. This month's challenge by Mike our winner was post one photo a day and make a comment or critique on someone else’s. This has been a big success and we have people posting that don’t normally post on our facebook members page. During this challenge I decided to challenge myself and only post photographs that were taken with my phone or my EDC camera that is a point and shoot.  I also wanted my photo’s to be resent not ones from my archive of photo’s that some of my camera club buddies were doing. It has been fun and challenging for me but that’s not the challenge that I want you to take.  No I want to push it a little bit more.

So here’s the Challenge. Since most of my viewers are from my camera club my challenge is to take and post a photograph each day of month. It doesn't have to be to Facebook it can be to whatever you want. Instagram, Flicker, or any other site.  This can be a “day in the life” photo. It might seem boring to you taking a photograph of your farm if you live on a farm but to someone that doesn’t it can be very interesting. But that’s not the end of it . I want you to use a camera that you don’t normally use. For example if you use your main camera to shoot everything maybe you can use your phone or an old point and shoot that is in a drawer somewhere just wanting to to be used. I came up with this part of the challenge today while hiking with Forrest the Wonder Dog. I had a GoPro mounted on my hiking stick and I wanted to just take a photo and I couldn’t for the life of me get it out of the video mode to the photo mode. It took me 10 minutes to figure it out. And it’s just because I don’t do it enough. So when I do this challenge I’ll be using my GoPro everyday for this challenge. Now if you’ve just got a new camera by all means use that one. Or if your phone is your main camera use something else. Take a photo and post and try to be creative when you do it. Change point of view or change lenses to something you don’t normally use. I bet after a month of doing this one photo a day that when you pick up your main camera you will be more creative in how you take photographs.  

Take the camera that you’ve chosen , (me my GoPro) with you everywhere you go if you can . Be on the lookout for photographs and take out that camera and snap. The more you do it the more you will be accustomed to the camera and the more fun you will have. You’ll get in the groove. Remember just take a photo on your daily activities. Going to the grocery store, taking a walk, out on the farm, commuting to work. Remember what is boring to you may be very interesting to someone else.  If I win this months challenge with my camera club this is the challenge that I will make to my club.  Try this challenge and let me know what you think?  How did it work for you? Did you get some great photo’s? Until next week get out and shoot!

Hey Y'all! How's your week going? This week I want to work on your Focus! This topic I came about while listening to my favorite Podcast the Digital Story by Derick 

Focus Area, This is where in the frame do you want to focus. In the old days it was the middle of the frame you had a split focusing ring that you got sharp to do this with. But now with the modern technology you can put that spot anywhere. Depending on the make and model of your camera you have focusing spots that your camera looks at to focus . You can choose one spot or many or groups of spots to focus on. You can even move that spot around in the frame as you shoot by moving a joy stick or some sort or pad. On some camera's you can move just by touching the back screen where you want to focus and it does it for you. This is great technology and can be much more complicated than I just explained. But Focus area is basically where do you want to focus.

Focus Mode, This is how do you want to focus on the area that you picked. Most of us have this set to Single Ava focus mode just because its easier than trying to figure out how to change to another mode. LOL When you depress the button (Shutter or Back button) your camera focuses one time you may hear a beep and done. Usually its shown on your camera as AF-S for auto focus single mode. This mode is great for stationary subjects and usually produces the sharpest shot. Or at least it use too. The newer camera's now focus so well it really doesn't matter what mode your in you will have a sharp photo. AF-C or Auto Focus Continuous Mode means that as long as you have the button depresses (shutter or back button) your camera will search for focus.  This mode is great for moving subjects as your camera will keep focusing as your subject moves. And of course there is AF-M for auto focus manual. Your camera can still focus manually if you choose to and it is best for hard to focus things like Macro or a very busy frame and you want to pick out what is in focus. Most modern cameras have a focus peaking ability that works with manual focus mode and will highlight what is in focus with a particular  color to let you know it is in focus. These are the basic modes but there is much more to Focusing.

With newer camera's there are all sorts of advanced focusing modes that you can set for your camera .  There is Face and Eye detection when turned on this will detect faces and eyes on the faces to make sure they are tack sharp.  They even have animal face and eye detection that when turned on will find the eye or _MSP2682 face of animals so when you take the photo of your pet the eyes are always tack sharp. They even have modes that you can register a face. Lets say your shooting a wedding and you want to make sure the brides face is always in focus you register her face and then any group photos that she is in the camera will find her face and make sure it is in focus. There are modes where you can lock into subjects like sports athletes and lock into them while they are running at you and you keep focus while they are coming at you shooting mutable frames. Camera's are crazy with all of the things that they can do to help us get into focus.

As you can see there is lots of choices to make when focusing and that may be part of the reason we keep our camera's on single focusing mode and one spot or center spot area. It's too hard to choose and hard to find on our cameras to make a change if we wanted too. Thats why learning your camera and what it can do and how to change quickly between settings is important when taking photo's. I would suggest practicing with your camera on changing the settings. You can do this on the couch of your living room while watching TV. Practice changing between modes and area's on your camera this will make you more proficient when out taking photo's and Dice less fumbling around trying to get the shot. For me I keep my settings pretty simple but can change quickly if I have to. I am usually in AF-C (continuous mode) and my area for my camera is Wide which means the camera picks the point of focus. But I can always over ride quickly if its choosing something that I don't want to focus on. And when I'm doing slow work like studio I put on single and move my spot around or if I'm doing portraits I have eye auto detect on. My advice is to practice with your settings and you will find the settings that you use the most and helps your photography the best. So until next week get into Focus and get outside and shoot.

Hey 

y'all! How's everyone doing this week? Good I hope. Let me tell you I really love photography. Some parts more than others. I love taking the photo's and editing is just something I have to do. But there is one part that I really don't like and that's Keywording.  I really hate keywording. For those that don't know what keywording is its associating words with the photograph that you're working on. This is to help you find it in the future. It also helps if it's put on the internet and helps people find it. You can open up your browser in Lightroom Classic and type in a word like "dog" and if you've keyworded correctly all the photo's of dogs should show up.  But if you haven't put the keyword on the dog photo it won't show up. Now if you've been shooting for a while like me you might have 100,000 photo's in your Lightroom catalog. It would be very hard to find that dog photo that your looking for unless you can remember the date and year you took that photo. If your like me you can't remember what happened last week. LOL So keywording is important. Normally when you come back from a shoot say a city walk. When you bring your photo's into Lightroom you can put keywords that are common to all of the photo's. The name of the city, cityscape, street and maybe a few others. But if you've taken 100 photos they will all pop up if you put in the name of the city. So putting in individual keywords on each photo is the best way to keyword.  Maybe there is people in the photo. People, maybe they are wearing hats, Hats etc... But what a laborious job this is and if your like me you'll get the generic keywords in and that's it. Thats why keywording sucks! But what if AI could help?

A new keywording AI program from the company ON1. ON1 is a software editing company that has many cool products. From De-Noise and Sharpening programs that will work seamlessly with Lightroom. You use them as a plugin in Lightroom so it can easily become a part of your Workflow with not many hassles. The new Keywording AI software doesn't quite work that way. But you can open  up the program and point it at the photo's that you want to keywords to be added to and push a button and it does the work for you. In theory this is fantastic. No more keywording for me! LOL Well not quite. The Program works like this. First you open up the Program Keywording AI and find the folder that the photos are in that you want to keyword. Then you select the photos that you want keyworded. Push a scan button and the program goes to work looking at your photo's. It does take some time to analyze .  I selected 50 photo's and it took about 15 min. Now some of that slowness might be my computer. I have an old iMac a 2015 model. I know I need to update. LOL But it did find a lot of keywords. It even put the county that the photo's were taken that had GPS data associated with them. You can also put in keywords manually to add to what the AI found. Say you took a photo of Ava. The AI isn't going to know who Ava is so it won't add it. But you can easily add that keyword. Then you close the program and go to Lightroom and re-sync you folder that the photo's were in and all of the keywords that ON1 AI found will be in your photo. When you export that photo all of those keywords go with the photo. Now you can look up photo's with all of the Keywords that were added by the AI. Now is it perfect? No it isn't . It may put in some random keywords that don't match anything in your photo. I found that if I had some big billowing clouds the AI thought they were mountains. You can easily delete these. This is the first version of the program and I'm sure that with versions to come that it will be more precise and speedier.  This is a great start to solving the problem I have with keywording. 

Now I have just started using this program and don't quite know where I'm going to insert into my Photography Workflow. I will probably only keyword my winners not all of my photo's so I will put my generic keywords on import and after all of my editing is done then use ON1 Keyword AI for the winners. That's what I'm thinking now. I think that this is great software to do something that I hate doing and it will just get better with time. At the time of me writing this blog the price was 39 dollars but will probably go to 60ish soon.  Still a good deal to do a job that I don't want to .  Until next week keep shooting and get outside!

Hey Y’all!  How’s it going this week? Me ? Pretty good . Thanks for asking. This week I want to talk about a trip I took to my Sisters house in Greenville SC and the photography that followed. First of all Greenville SC is a larger town with all of the  features of a large town but it also has a neat downtown area with quaint shops and restaurants .  The first day after our travel to Greenville which is a 5 hour drive from my house in NC was a trip to the downtown area. We had lunch at a place called the Nose Dive and had a great meal. We then walked the town being guided by my sister and her husband.  We had a great walk that ended up in the Reedy River  park.  The park boast a suspension walking bridge a waterfall and many cool places to sit in the shade with the Reedy river rolling by.  We then went to visit my niece and her husband and we took a walk through Furman University that is a very pretty campus. The campus has a lake with a bell tower in the center of the lake on a little island.  They had a rose garden and a Japanese garden that was also very pretty.  

The next day of our trip was the 4th of July.  We lounged around and had a cookout and played games like corn hole. It stormed that night so no fireworks for us but there was lots to be heard.  The next day was more of a shopping day for me and my wife. While my sister and her husband went to work we explored some stores that we don’t have at home to see what we could see. My wife had a good time she is a professional shopper and is very good at it. LOL

The next day we traveled into the NC mountains to see some waterfalls. These waterfalls I have seen while taking trips with my camera club in the fall but I have never seen them in the Summer. We drove to DuPont State Recreation area where they have 3 really nice sets of Falls. The have High Falls, Triple Falls and Hooker falls. It has been quite a while since I have been there and it was nice to see the falls in the summer time with all of the leaves a green color instead of the multi colors of autumn.  But I still prefer the the autumn colors to the summer ones. We were planning to go see some other waterfalls but my planning was poor and the drive times were too long so we decided to just go back to my sisters house. But it was a good day and we got to see some waterfalls.

The next day was a trip to Helen Ga. This is a town that we saw on a YouTube video and thought it looked very cool. It is an older mining town that was transformed into a tourist spot with an Alpine or German feel to it. All of the houses look like they were from the Austrian hillside with quaint shops and restaurants. They have music piped into the whole town. They have tubing down the river that goes through the center of town and you can view via a foot bridge that goes over the river. The also have a roller coaster that is built into the side of the mountains there that you can control the speed of the trip down. We did not partake in the last two activities but the shopping and site seeing and the restaurants we enjoyed quite a bit. It was well worth the two hour drive to and from there.

The last day was spent thrifting at some thrift shops one of my wife's  favorite activities. Then it was the long drive home. It was a good week vacation and I got some photo's to boot! For you gear freaks like me I used a G7XMII Point and Shoot for my main camera and a iPhonePro 14 for all of my camera needs which worked out well not having to haul a lot of gear and annoying my family with camera gear. So until next week get out and shoot!

Hey 

How do I get the GPS data? Well with technology being what it is you would think that this is the simple part. Well not really. Although a few camera's have the ability to get the GPS data and put right on your photo most do not. I think that there are devices that you can hook up to some camera's but they are expensive. There is however a few couple of ways to put the GPS data on your images. The first one requires your camera to have bluetooth capabilities .  If it does you should be able to sync your camera to your mobile device to get these GPS coordinates added to your photo at the instant you take it. It then has this info burned into the file and follows the file where ever it goes. All you have to do is before your outing sync your camera and mobile device and you will get them the rest of the day. You may have to go through your camera's phone app to sync them together and there may be a setting on your camera to allow the information to go to your camera from your phone but it can be done and is pretty easy. Mine was a little difficult to set up at first but now that its set up , its easy all I have to do is choose which camera my Sony crops sensor camera or my Full frame Sony and sync and its done. The other way is to take a photo with your mobile device when you get to the site that you take photos at. When you get all of your photo's imported you can sync the metadata from the iPhone  to the rest of the photo's that were taken in that area and you will have the GPS data. The only problem with this is that you have to remember to take a mobile device photo at each different location that you go to in that day so you can get the GPS data for that location. Either way you have to remember to either sync your phone to your camera or sync a phone shot with the regular photo's in Lightroom.

So how do I used the GPS data now that I have it on my images metadata? If you're a Lightroom user like most of us are you just have to open up the Map Module and your photo's will be shown on the map where they were taken.  There is lots of things that you can do in the Map module but for me it's just getting the location of things. This is a neat feature that really doesn't cost you anymore money. Something new to try if you have never done it before. So until next week get out and shoot and note your location with GPS data.

Hey 

Y'all! Hope you're having a great week. Me not too bad. This week I want to tell you about a recent trip to the Appalachian Trail for an over night Backpacking/Photography trip. Me and my photography wingman Robert have been planning this trip for a year or longer. The trip has been planned and canceled at least twice before because of weather or some other reason. Robert is new to backpacking and ever since we have done a little backpacking this trip has been on his bucket list. McAfee's Knob is the most popular and most photographed overlook on the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian trail for those that don't know is a continuous foot path from Georgia to Maine. The trail is almost 2200 miles in length and takes up to 5  months to complete for those that dare to take it on. I love to hike and backpack but that's a little too much for me. What we had planned was to drive to Salem Virginia ( a 4 hour drive) spend the night and hike up the next morning. While on the way up set up camp and the next morning go to the outlook and photograph sunrise.  Then hike back down the mountain and drive back home. Keeping my pack lightweight was a concern. My photography gear was going to be simple. My EDC camera a Canon G7XII Point and shoot and my iPhone14 Pro. We both wanted that iconic photograph of the sun rising just breaking the horizon with a sunburst with the knob in the fore ground. Well that was the plan. It didn't quite go as planned. This is what happened.

We had set a date to go and Robert had made a reservation at a hotel in Salem. We have had lots of rain prior to our trip so checking the weather was something I did many  times a day to see what the percentage of rain was going to be. It was ranging 40% to 50% chance of rain but we were determined to go whatever the weather was going to be.  Robert was going to drive and had put his truck in the shop to get it serviced before we left.  We were planning to leave on a Friday and come back on a Sunday. Thursday came around and his truck was still in the shop and had to have some repairs done to it and parts were backordered. So the first change to plans has happened. I was going to drive. I usually don't drive because I have a really old truck (24 years old) and dependability is always a concern.  I recently got a newer vehicle so it would be a good test drive for my "Max mobile" to take. So I arrived at Roberts house at the specified time and we were off. We had a good drive with no problems and arrived in Salem on time.  Robert went into the hotel to check in. I waited and waited and he didn't come out. So I went in to find out that the hotel had problems with the hot water and only some of the rooms had it. It was too late in the game to find something else and we took the room. It was a nice room and Robert went to check the hot water. We had hot water! Whoop Whoop!  We had planned to just chill out and head out after breakfast in the morning. We both got up early and got ready to go but they didn't start serving breakfast until 7am and we were ready to go at 6. So we took off. We were only a few miles from the trail head so it only took a couple of minutes to get there. We got our packs and headed up. It was up hill all day and it was expected. The views on that first section of trail were not expected. They were Fantastic!  We had Fog with the sun breaking threw the trees creating sun rays. There was also wildflowers growing along the way. We took our time and took some shots. We made it to the shelter that we were going to stay at and set up camp. Shelters are 3 sided buildings built for through hikers to stay at along the AT. Robert set up his tent and I set up my hammock system. But this wasn't the shelter that we planning to stay at. We had miscalculated the shelter arrangements but we stuck with this one. This would mean that we would have a longer hike in the morning to get to the knob for sunrise. Well we headed up the trail. We made it to the shelter that we had planned to stay at and still had a mile and a half up and the climb got tougher. We finally made it to the top and I was soaked in sweat. There wasn't too many people up there and wasn't too crowded. Which it's known to be. We took our selfies and photos and really enjoyed ourselves. Then headed back down to our shelter .  Heading up was tough on the heart but going down was tough on my knees. My left knee started getting stiff with all of the pounding on it going down hill and it seemed longer to get down than it did going up. Maybe because of the discomfort of my knee. We finally made it back to the camp and we both chilled out while through hikers stopped to eat lunch on their long trek.  We got back around 12 noon and I had made up in my mind that I wasn't going to go back up in the morning. It was just too much for this old man to do. So if I wasn't going back up why would I stay overnight when I know rain was coming?  I asked Robert if he wanted to go up in the morning or just pack up and head back down the mountain before the storms come. He was ready to go! We packed up and as we were we could hear the thunder in the background. The storms were not suppose to come before 4 but it was 1:30. We headed down the mountain trying to beat the rain. We were both sore from all of the other hiking we did during the day.  We got just a little wet toward the end. But didn't get soaked. 

So out trip really didn't go as planned but still a success ! We had an adventure! And that was the whole point. We got some memorable photos too. Maybe not the ones we had pictured in our minds but still some good ones. Things don't always go as planned but don't let that get to you. We had a great trip and had lots of laughs along the way. I limped for a day or so afterwards but am fine now.  So adventures don’t always go the way you want but they are still adventures. Until next week get out and shoot and find your adventure!

Hey Y’all! Hope everyone is having a great week! Me? I have been having a good week. I’ve been traveling with my wife and Forrest the wonder dog! This week is about doing travel photography when your with your family. Doing photography while with my family has always been a challenge. You want to shoot all kinds of stuff and use all of your gear that you have to shoot it .  You are usually hauling a lot of stuff when you’re doing your photography and that doesn’t leave room for their stuff. And if you’re like us when we travel I am the pack mule carrying everything in a back pack. My water their water any gifts that are bought in a gift shop any snacks and hauling all of your camera gear too. A few years I came up with a system that works for me and my family that doesn’t cause too much anguish on their part waiting for me to set something up and on my part being the pack mule. Years ago I went on a photography trip with my camera club to Washington DC. We stayed there for a week and it was great. I wanted to do the same trip with my wife so the next year I booked an Air B&B and got train tickets to DC. The only thing that I didn’t bring was all of my photography gear like I did with the camera club.  I went out and purchased (yes another camera) a high end point and shoot and that would be my camera for the trip. It’s small and doesn’t take up too much room leaving room for all of the other gear I have to haul. It has ended up being my EDC ( Every Day Carry ) camera. The week in DC was a great success and I got some great shots.

This is my current system for traveling with my family. I have the Canon G7XMII. It’s an older version I believe they have newer versions. It will shoot in all of the modes from Manual to Program. I have an adapter on it so I can use polarizer filter or a ND filter on it. It has a focal length of 24-200mm and goes from 1.8 to 2.8 maximum aperture’s . It’s a great little travel camera. I can use this in conjunction with my iPhone 14pro and I have a pretty good system. If I know that there will be some stunning photo’s to be had like say the Grand Tetons then I will bring my Landscape kit along and try to go out and photograph those iconic scenes early in the morning where there are less people and my wife can sleep in. That way I don’t feel rushed. But other than that I use the Point and Shoot Canon that I have and I love it. I have a Peak Design clip that I can put on my backpack or if I’m not using the backpack I use a Fanny Pack that it will easily fit into and be out of the way when not using it. If I need super wide shots my iPhone works great and also does great Panno’s.  I can adjust the aperture on the fly and can do long exposures If I need by using a small tripod or a Platapod camera mount. If I feel the need to do some video I can either use my phone which is more convenient or I can use a small GoPro 9 that I take with me for hikes and such still a small package and works great.

For editing on the road I do everything on my iPad Pro with the M1 chip .  I use Lightroom and Photoshop when needed to do my editing and it syncs with my main catalog at home with all the edits on it after I turn on the computer. I have been using this system and really like it for the road. I have a cellular model so if I don’t have WI-FI and have a cell signal I can still do work. This blog is being written on the iPad as we speak. I’m sitting in my sisters house on a week long visit.  The iPad is small and convenient to use charges pretty quick and the battery last a long time. I back everything up to a SSD drive that I bring on trips.

I find that using this setup is less hassle for me with gear and for the photography that I do when traveling with my wife and dog it works out great.  My wife doesn’t have to stand around tapping her foot while I’m fumbling around with gear and I’m not rushed by an annoyed wife.  When I go hiking with my dog this is a great set up and when he’s pulling me with the leash I can use just one hand to take photo’s.  On this particular trip I brought my landscape camera but haven’t used it once I have been using my little camera for everything . All of the photos in this blog were taken with my little camera or my iPhone. With the little camera I still feel like I’m doing photography without lugging the bigger camera around.  I’m also less of a threat when doing street photography and less of a target for thieves. So set up a system that you can enjoy and not annoy them with. Until next week Get out and Shoot!

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Used to reference things. Using your phone to look things up is a great way to start to incorporate it into Tybee Island Pier Sunrise your photography. There are many apps that can be very helpful to your photography. One of them is "Photo Pills" This app is a very good app and can do lots of stuff from letting you know when and where the sun will rise. When and where the moon will rise and what position the milky way will be in the sky.  It will help you with long exposure with calculators that will help you figure out how long of a shutter speed to use when doing long exposures like when using a natural density filter. Another app that everyone uses is Google . It can tell you all sorts of information like where the nearest restaurant is or information abut where you are that could influence a photograph. Of course there are weather apps that can help with when its going to rain or if its going to be cloudy all day. So you can see that using it as a reference tool is very handy and you may be already doing that as well.

Hunting Island Beach Use as a framing tool. If you are doing landscape , architecture or any photography where you have time to really work on the framing using your cell phone to get to the right angle quickly and take test shots is a great way to use your phone. Say you went to an area that you haven't been before and you were doing a landscape. Before setting up your tripod and camera up and moving it to many places to see if the perspective is the right one use your mobile device and the camera on it and try out different places until you have found the best spot and then set up your tripod and camera. This could save time and potentially get you to a spot quicker and maybe one you haven't even thought of before.

Use as a second camera. The camera's on your mobile devices have become so good you could used them as a second camera. For example on a nature recent trip I had a long zoom hooked to my camera but I was using my phone for the wider shots. Phones take great panorama shots of scenes and can be used for wide angle shots. When doing street photography have your main lens on your camera say maybe a 50mm but when something wide comes up instead of using your main camera and changing lenses just pull your phone out and take the shot. On a recent trip to Savannah and Charleston my photo buddies were doing this and getting great shots with their phones. They got such good shots with their mobile devices when I got home I had to upgrade mine to a newer model . 

Used as a video camera .  If you're interested in video this is a great way to start. The video on these devices are fantastic. I have a small youtube channel with mainly hiking and photography videos but when I was starting out I used my cell phone as a video recorder and it worked great. So if you want to try your hand at video blogging this is a great way to start. I watch many thru-hike videos of people hiking the Appalachian trail or the Pacific Crest Trail and they use their phones and it looks really good. So if your out and about and want to take a short video of a town or park or yourself using your mobile device is a great way to go.

We all have these devices and like our cameras we don't use them to the fullest extent that we could. Listen you've already paid for the phone. Use it more than to check Facebook or your email. Incorporate it in to your photography work flow. So until next week pull out that mobile device and get outside and shoot!

Hey 

Electronics

2563e370f98e53afa59b4ddfed93f621 Computing. As photographers in the digital age we need some sort of computer to edit , manage and backup our photography. Laptops are the overwhelming choice for this but I use an iPad Pro that I can do the same thing that will do all of the tasks mentioned before and is smaller to carry. What ever you decide to take make sure you have all of the cords and cables you need to charge your device.

Storage. Extra SD cards is a must I like to have an SD card for each day of shooting. I take the spent card store it in a SD card wallet  and that's one of my backups. So if your taking a 7 day trip 7 cards. Some type of external drive to hook to your computing device. I have a 1 terabyte SSD (Solid State Drive) that I hook to my iPad and backup all of my photo's to. That makes two copies of my photo's. One on the SD Card and one on the SSD drive. I store these in separate places incase luggage is lost or stolen so I always have a copy no matter what. 

Chargers. Make sure you have a charger for all of your devices. Phone, watch, earbuds, batteries etc... A multi-port USB charger can come in very handy so you can charge more than one thing at a time. Nothing is worse than a dead battery when traveling. Another good tip is to take a small multi port surge protector with you. Hotel rooms or sharing a room with someone makes electrical outlets precious . So a 3 or 4 port surge protector allows you to charge many things at one time without hogging up the outlets in the room.

Earbuds , head phones or plugs. Having earbuds or headphones work great when your flying canceling out Podcast the noise of the plane. But they also work great to listen to music or watching movies or videos when traveling with friends. They may not
want to listen to your music . If your like me I get up way earlier than my travel companions so I use earbuds to watch the local news on my iPad  without waking others up. Ear plugs can come in handy if your sharing a room with someones that snores loud and still you can get a good night sleep.

Mobile Battery. A mobile battery charger is handy to have when you're traveling. You don't need a super large one but one big enough to recharge your phone a couple of times. Comes in handy in Airports especially. We keep everything on our phone's and nothing is worse than a dead phone when traveling. A 5000 mah or a 10000 mah will be large enough and can be had pretty cheaply.

Camera Accessories

Rain Gear. You never know what the weather is going to do. Rain gear
for your camera and you is a must when traveling. If it looks like rain take your rain gear with you. Something as simple as a disposable shower cap that you get at a hotel can save your camera gear. I always have one in my bag.

Cleaning Supplies. Keeping your camera clean while traveling is a must on getting good photo's. Taking enough microfiber cloths blowers brushes whatever you use to clean your camera stuff is a must when traveling. I always have a microfiber cloth in my pocket for quick cleaning .

Other Considerations

Clothes. Now this is one of the hardest things to do is pack for a week long trip. What I usually try to do is pack enough clothes for 4 or so days and have a way to wash clothes half way through the trip.  That will keep the bulk of your clothes down. Try to pack with layering in mind so you can peel layers off if it's too hot or add layers if too cold. I personally try not to pack cotton items because when they get wet they stay wet. I usually have polyester or blends to keep as dry as possible. A Puffy jacket almost always goes wherever I go. They are small and lightweight and can be compressed to not take up precious room in your suitcase. Comfortable shoes are more important than cute shoes. On a photography trip you may be walking for miles and miles and keeping blister free is a must. I also try to take an extra pair of shoes incase I get one pair messed up.

Toiletries. I'm not going to get into toiletries that you must take just make sure you have what you need and not any more. Use small bottles like the travel sized bottles you can get to save room and make sure you have enough medication that you will need for the duration of your trip. I also take stuff like tums  or aspirin for those upset stomachs or headaches that come from traveling.

Water Bottle. A water bottle or sealable cup is great to have traveling. If your staying at a hotel the free coffee in the lobby is much better than the coffee that is in the room and if your cup is sealable you can take it with you. Later during the day you can rinse out your cup and put water in it to make sure you don't get dehydrated which could leave you with headaches and weak.

Now is this everything you might need? Well no , everyone is different and have different needs. This is just some suggestions. I would also say sit down and think about what you might need on your trip. Make a checklist and have it handy if you think of something add it to the list. Before long you will have a good packing checklist and if you use it while you're packing you won't forget anything. Nothing is worse than being somewhere away from home and you have forgot something important because you rushed to pack and didn't take it with you. Like your Camera ! LOL Summer traveling season is coming up so get out there and travel and keep Shooting!

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Kodak Brownie. The Kodak Brownie has been around for a long time and had many variations from made from cardboard to plastic. The one I Brownie Memories got to use on family vacations or special occasions was a plastic one. Really no Focus just point shoot and advance the film until full and then rewind and then send to the drug store to get developed.  I would say the mid 1960's to early 70's is when we used this camera the most. This camera has disappeared from our family probably sold in a yard sale wish I still had it.

Poloroid camera. I do remember using this camera and was amazed that it would flash and the photo you could see right away. The photo's didn't seem to last like the film ones did as we only have one or two photo's left that were taken with the Polaroid .  Film then as now was expensive.

Pentax K1000. My first real camera that I bought was a Pentax K1000. This a totally manual SLR 35mm film camera. Back before the internet we had catalogs that you could buy things through. I bought this camera from Sears and Roebuck specialty catalog. The camera cost me 99 dollars.  It had a 50mm lens and the film I bought from a company called Clark. When you bought the film you also got an envelope to send the exposed film and in a week or so you would get your photo's back in the mail. I got this camera when I was a teenager and took it to high school with me many times and still have photo's of people and events from my high school days. I purchased a 135mm lens for this camera from a friend and still have the lens. So I had a small telephoto at 2.8 that I used. I sold this camera after I joined the military while stationed in the Philippines and hated to part with it .

Old Eyes Pentax MX. My next camera that replaced the K1000 was the Pentax MX. The only thing different from the K1000 is that this had a self timer on it so you could shoot selfies or photo's with the family. I shot a lot of color slide film with this camera and developed myself. I still have this camera and that first 135mm lens that I bought as a teenager and still shoot occasionally with it. I used it until I got my first digital and haven't looked back.

Kodak DX 4900 Digital- This first digital camera was crazy I could take photo's and put on a computer right away! I got this in early 2000's maybe 2002 or so. Before this camera I was developing and printing black and white but after this camera no more chemicals and converting my bathroom into a darkroom. This camera changed the way I took pictures .  I could see the photo's instantly!

I have had many digital camera's since that first Kodak digital camera when I went to Nikon and shot with many camera's and then I switched to Sony and have gone threw many cameras and still shoot Sony. But those first cameras when I was looking through a viewfinder for the first time and seeing the Square of what the shot would look like changed me forever and gave me this great hobby that I have now and enjoy decades later. What camera's made you? What was your first one? Let me know in the comments. Until Next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey 

Y'all ! Hope your having a great week. Me? Not too bad. Today's blog is about stepping out of your comfort zone in photography. Now I would like to take credit for coming up with this topic but really I used the Digital Story podcast my favorite photography podcast that comes out weekly and you should be listening to it also. But during this podcast Derrick Story was talking about getting out of your comfort zone and trying something new.  I know a lot of people that only shoot Landscapes or Wildlife or Natural light only. Thats the only thing that they will shoot. And if they pushed themselves they would find out that shooting stuff that your not used to will make you a better Landscape, Wildlife or any type of photography. Pushing the boundaries of what your used to will make you better.  It certainly has for me. When I got into digital Kimbrell ChristmasMax Stansell Photography photography I was mainly a Landscape photographer but then I started shooting a lot of product photography with flashes and all sorts of props and doing a lot of experimental photography.  That made my landscape photography better. It made me look at light in a different way it made me look at perspective in a different way. It made me a better photographer. And it made me smile.  The work I was doing experimenting was turning out pretty good . People actually noticed .  My landscape stuff people would look and say "pretty" but that was about it but the experimental stuff I was Raven's Roost Va. doing got them thinking and I got responses like "how'd you do that?"  Thats awesome! We should have a workshop on that. But I was selfish I was doing it to make my other photography better and I was learning new skills that would crossover to all types of photography.

Let me tell you a story of one of my friends Mike. He is a fantastic photographer. He mainly shoots Wildlife and Sports. Really anything with a big lens! He recently went on a trip with me and my photography wingman Robert to the low country of Savannah Ga and Charleston Sc. Where we mainly did street , architecture type of photography. The lens that he had on his camera 90% of the trip was a 24-70. Which was way smaller than the 800mm EagleThis Eagle was at a Photo Expo at Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. lens that he brought with him and only pulled out once. I could tell that he was a little nervous on the first day but after just a little walking I could see the smile on his face and his camera kept going up to his face. I think he carried a larger lens with him maybe a 28-300 or something but he didn't pull it out. He was shooting and having a ball.  The next day was more of the same and I think he pulled the 800 out to shoot at a distant Lighthouse but the rest of the day it was the same 24-70.  I think the whole trip and experience really changed the way he might think about photography.  Like I said before Mike was already a fantastic photographer but I think he had forgot how to shoot with just a 24-70 and have fun.  The photo's that he produced were excellent but the smile on his face while shooting was even better.

Blue Water Splash Its important not to get stuck in just one way of doing things whether it's maybe only using Photoshop or Lightroom to edit photo's and maybe using some other software maybe just on a trial run just to see how it works. For me its stepping into infrared photography and editing it in Lightroom and photoshop. At one point I was doing a lot of composite work merging two or three photo's together to make something altogether different. Sometimes Its just using one lens for a day just to get you out of that comfort zone of being able to use whatever focal length you have in your bag. If you only have a 50mm you have to figure out a way for it to work and it takes you out of that comfort zone making you think. If you think that your shooting the same thing all the time  Man Waiting for T Boston you probably are. So think outside of that box and try something completely different. If you only shoot wildlife try street photography. If you're a street photographer try Landscape. Get out of that comfortable photography zone that you've put yourself in and try something new. It will improve your photography and broaden your horizons. So until next week get out and shoot ! Something Different.

Hey Everyone! Hope you had a super week! Mine? Pretty good thanks for asking. This week I want to talk about shooting in the rain and some tips and tricks to make it easier to do so. First of all why would you ever shoot in the rain? Well sometimes it just can't be avoided. Here in North Carolina the weather pattern has been nice during the week and rain on the weekend. I think it's been 9 weekends in a row now. Now if  your retired like me you can wait and go when the weather is nice but let me tell you sometimes shooting in bad weather is the time to shoot!  You can get lots of photos that you wouldn't normally get. With all the water and puddles for reflections there are all types of opportunities to get unique images. You may have planned a trip way in advance and the weather didn't cooperate. You still want to get those memories. You might be on an outing and the bottom falls out and you get wet you should be  prepared to keep you and your gear dry. So there are many reasons to shoot in the rain or what to do to protect your gear from the rain.

Know your Gear. All camera's are not made the same. Knowing your gear and how weather proof it is , is important. Mine for example is an older Sony and not really great at being weather protected.  Usually higher ended cameras are more weather resistant than entry level cameras. And some companies just do a better job at weather proofing their cameras with gaskets and just engineering of the camera. Now I'm not afraid to take my camera out in light rain or sprinkles but when the heaver stuff comes out I need to protect my camera against water damage. Some lenses come with gaskets on the side that hooks to the camera to keep moisture and water out but some don't so even if your camera body is a good weather sealed camera but the lens is not there is a potential for water to seep in between the lens and the body. So knowing what gear you have and how protected it is against the elements is a very important part of shooting in the rain. 

Being prepared for emergencies is another thing that can save your equipment if the weather is bad. I was out shooting a waterfall one day I had hiked over a mile in to get to the waterfall. The weather was nice but out of the blue one of those afternoon thunderstorms popped up and I got drenched ! I had put my camera back in my bag but my bag wasn't weather proof either. So at first it would protect but after a while in the rain the bag would get soaked and damage my camera . Luckily for some reason I had a full sized trash bag with me that I put my camera bag into to keep it as dry as possible. What Im getting at is be prepared. Now in all of my camera bags I carry an emergency poncho. They are made out of thin plastic and are made for only one use but they can save your butt in case of a sudden downpour. Its about a 5 dollar investment to save your expensive camera gear.

Planning to shoot in the rain? There are many ways to protect your gear in the rain. First the simple stuff. Wear a rain jacket to keep you dry you can tuck you camera under your jacket when not shooting and bring it out to shoot. Using a small umbrella is another great way to shoot in the rain. They are quick and easy to deploy when it starts raining and they are great for shielding your camera from the rain .  They make rain covers to go on your camera to protect from the rain. You can get inexpensive ones for 5 bucks or so or really expensive ones.  They work great but can be cumbersome to use so bring your patients with you when shooting in the rain because it is more difficult. Another simple thing to do is carry one of those disposable shower caps like you get at a hotel. You can wrap one of these around your camera body and maybe lens depending on how large your lens is to keep it dry.  Once your gear is protected then its time to shoot. Keeping your lens clean and dry is difficult. Use a lens hood on your lens it will help keep the water droplets from getting on the front of your lens. Try to never point your lens upwards towards the rain. I know it sounds simple but I always do it. Bring lots of dry microfiber cloths with you to keep your lens free and clear of water droplets. Don't change lenses while in the rain! There are just too many chances for water to sneak into your camera body once it's wide open to the elements. Be very careful even if your inside after shooting in the rain. A wet rain jacket or hat could have water drip into your camera .  The goal here is to use common sense to protect you gear when shooting in the rain.

Try to enjoy the experience. With all of the water around look for reflections! The colors are more vibrant when they are wet. Using a polarizer filter can come in handy with all of the reflections out there. Experiment , Experiment, Experiment with your photography in the rain. Motion of water falling or running down a window, Puddles, People rushing to get out of the weather with a news paper over their heads. There are so many fun and unique possibilities when it's raining. I hope some of these tips will help you get out and shoot in the rain!

Hey 

Y'all ! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Well I came down with the Covid so I've got some time to catch up on my blogging so that's a good thing I guess. I recently took a photography trip with a couple of photo buddies down to the Low Country of Georgia and South Carolina. This was a 4 day trip with all kinds of photography to be had. Landscape, CityScape to Street Photography and even some Infrared. So there was a lot. What did I learn from this experience?  Well I learned that we did a lot of walking and being quick and nimble means that my kit needs to be that also. I thought I had it figured out. Not so much. My thoughts were that we were going to have 2 full days of shooting street photography and a full day or so of Landscape. So being me I figured that I would bring my street kit a Full frame Sony with some lenses and my trusty Landscape crop sensor kit with some zooms.  That made good sense to me at the time of packing.  My companions had it figured out more than I did they brought one camera and one maybe 2 lenses when we went into the streets of Savannah or Charleston I had my Full frame and at least three lenses with me .  I was carrying a 16-35, 28-60 and a 85 prime.  I just had too much stuff with me so I spent a lot of time changing out lenses and fumbling with equipment. Now don't get me wrong I got some good shots in but my comfort and my photography would have been better suited if I just had one lens and one body.  Maybe a 24-70 or a 24-105 would have suited me better than the combo of lenses I was taking with me. Of course my landscape stuff went with out a hitch .  So why is being a nimble photographer important?

Being quick and nimble especially in a city or urban environment is important because you are usually walking everywhere.  We were putting 10 to 12 miles in each day and lugging unnecessary equipment wears you down especially in the latter part of the day. The first day we were taking night time photo's of the fountain at Forsyth Park in Savannah and I was pooped.  It could have been a lot of factors that worked against me but one of them was the equipment that I was carrying. Having not to change lenses so often also makes you a better photographer because you can concentrate on the composition and not the focal length of the the lens that you have to change too. So even if I had made myself use just one lens like a 50 or a 35 I would have gotten better photo's .  But for me I think a 24-70 would have done the trick. Also I had two camera kits with me on the trip. I think for the next trip it will be one kit only. The reason that I took two kits is because I could. We had plenty of room in the truck we were riding in. This was the first time that I ever took two kits and may be the last.

What else did I learn? Well maybe for the street and urban stuff I don't need a super wide and if I do I can use my phone. Both of my photo buddies had iPhone 14pro and 14proMax and their shots with them were stunning. I have a iPhone 2020 SE which is an iPhone 8 hardware with iPhone 11 chipset in it. I still got some good photo's with it but am looking to upgrade to a better quality phone. For the landscape stuff I'm pretty dialed in I have three lenses that give me a range of 15mm to 525mm all I could ever want . My main lens is a 16-55mm 2.8 lens ( a 24-80 mm equivalent) that I love and 90% of my photo's are taken with. I also had a converted infrared camera with me that I got from one of my photo buddies. It’s a Canon EOS M that has been converted to Super Color IR and a 18-55 lens. I was able to switch back and forth pretty easily between my Landscape Sony and the Canon without having to unpack anything and enjoyed shooting both. Although this was the first time using the Canon and I don't quite have it all figured out yet. I do believe it will become a good addition to my Landscape kit replacing a point and shoot Lumix that I bought converted years ago.

So summary on what I would do different. Only take one kit. When shooting in an Urban environment one camera and one lens .  Use my phone more to take Wide and Panno's.  If you want to know more about being a Nimble Photographer there is a blog by Derrick Story called the Digital Story and he also has a website called the Nimble Photographer where he has many discussions and Tips on becoming a Nimble photographer.  I didn’t coin the phrase Nimble photographer but I try to live by it. Now I will always keep going out with friends to shoot new and old places. Because that's what photography to me is all about going out and having fun. So until Next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey 

Since layering came out in Photoshop you could do what the new AI is doing. It was just harder. You had to have skill to do it. Now it's just easier. Just like when the healing brush and content aware fill came out it was like magic. Or when sky replacement came out. These things were going to change photography. And they did . They just made it easier. Will it change photography as we know it? It's hard to tell. But in my opinion it will just make it easier for the everyday man to do the job instead of a specialist. You will be able to add things to the photo just by typing "add hat" or " sunglasses" but you could do those things before but it did take a while. You had to go out to the internet and find those things in a photo cut them out add them to your photo make it look real by dodging and burning to make the light look right . Sound familiar ? Kind of what Ansil Adams was doing in the early 20th century. We've always had the way to do it. The new AI just makes it easier. I think its just a progression in what skill is needed. Let's use an analogy to kind of explain what I'm talking about.

When man used to roam the earth looking for food he walked and carried everything. Then the wheel was invented and they figured out how to use a cart to put things in. Then they figured they could put an animal on that cart to pull it. Then they figured out how to make a horseless carriage with a motor. But you had to be skilled to drive it. Changing gears and all. Then they came out with Automatic transmission and everyone could drive it putting chauffeurs out of business. Now they have gotten rid of the gasoline motor and have an electric motor car that can drive itself. Almost. But it will be coming . It's evolution . You either except it or not. The same is with the new AI in photoshop. You can do it the hard way like all the composite's that I've put in this blog or you do it the easy way with the new AI. Eventually it will be the new AI. Its evolution just like taking photo's with your phone. Who would have thought that that was ever going to happen. But its really made a whole type of camera (point and shoot) disappear .  Only very few even exist and they are specialized camera's that are very expensive for what they are when you can just carry your phone with you.

The moral view. A lot of AI has come out where it does all of the thinking and grabbing info from all of the internet causing copyright issues/concerns. There is even a statement with all of the smart people in the world that AI (not photoshop AI) will be the new doom and gloom event that will end the world with machines taking over the world. But I think that's a little on the far end of the spectrum of things. With the new AI in Photoshop they have taken the high road only sampling photo's from what is in Adobe Stock photos. I think eventually they will pay the contributors to Adobe Stock if their photo is used. It may be only a fraction of a penny but it will be something. I think that in the future there will be a credit type of system for using the AI. With the new AI it is using the internet to go to a server in Adobe and all of that cost money so I'm sure there will be in the future a credit. If your a subscriber maybe you get so many credits a month for free and have to pay for extra. But either way its good that Adobe is trying to take the high road in this. And of course you must be connected to the internet and I am assuming that you should have a fairly fast computer to run this new feature.

If you think about what the new AI really is. A new way of doing something that we could already do but easier its like going from stick shift to automatic in cars. It could bring out artist that were out there that didn't have technical skills needed to do the same thing in photoshop. Maybe the next Ansil Adams is just around the corner and will use AI instead of a dark room and dodging and burning.  Anyway those are my thoughts on the subject. The according to Max side of things. Until next week please get out and shoot!
 

Hey Y'all ! Hope you had a great week! This week I want to talk about something that I just figured out. I recently went on a trip with a couple of photo buddies to the low country near Savannah Georgia and Charleston South Carolina and I found out that I'm  a Checker player not a Chess player when it comes to Photography. I always thought I was a Chess player but no.  What do I mean when I say this? A Chess player is thinking many moves in advance and a Checker player is mostly reactive. My photo buddies Mike and Robert were showing up to different sites with shots already in mind. They knew when and where the sun would come up or go down. They knew in advance what the keeper shot was going to be. Me on the other hand I was just showing up and trying to get what I could get playing it loosely and what moved me at the moment. They were playing Chess and I was playing Checkers. Now there is nothing wrong with playing Checkers and I think that most of us are playing Checkers. Being reactive instead of proactive. Lets look at some of the advantages and disadvantages to both.

Playing Chess. Being proactive. These people have shots in mind well before arriving at the location. They have the composition, what lens they will use, the camera settings and most important the patients to wait until the moment is right before pulling the trigger or shutter. They do not take as many photo's as the Checker player but the quality ratio of the ones they do take is high. Being a portrait photographer, landscape photographer or shooting architecture are all very much in their wheel house. But being spontaneous like street photography not so much. These are the thinkers of the group and usually have lots of experience shooting many different situations. They know what they like and are not willing to sacrifice.

Playing Checkers. Being Reactive. These people are a make the most out of the situation. They show up and figure on the fly how to shoot the scene .  They take many more photo's than the Chess Players with a less quality ratio photo's although they do get their keeper shots in.  They are more spontaneous and quick to the draw taking photo's of almost anything .  Sometimes they miss a shot because they didn't think ahead but they get other shots because they are thinking out of the box. Which can be a good thing. They are shooting what the situation gives them and not a pre-concieved shot that they were wanting to get. Street photographers and Sports are in their wheelhouse. We all start as snap shooters or Checker players and then either grow into the Chess player or stay the Checker player.

Photo trips with friends is a good way to see how others think when they are shooting. It always astonishes me how me and another photographer can be only a few feet away and shooting at the same thing but the photographs are totally different. Their thought process may be totally different than yours but it might be better too. The difference between Chess and Checker players can be the difference between Photographers and Snap Shooters some would say. I guess I fall under the category of Snap shooter or Checker player. Where my photo buddies fall under the title of Photographer or Chess player. In the big wonderful world of Photography I think there is room for both. Which one are you? Thats all for this week until next week get out and shoot some!

Hey Everyone! Hope you've had a great week! You know sometimes you just have to challenge yourself. Here lately I've been in a rut photography wise and I'm trying to snap out of it. Getting new equipment sometimes will snap you into a good photography groove but I don't want to spend money. I asked my photo wingman what we were going to shoot this weekend and he came up with a challenge. So here goes the challenge. A one lens Macro shoot street walk through Wilmington NC. Now Wilmington is a beautiful sea side town in North Carolina full of Azalea's in the spring. They even have a festival which is the largest festival in North Carolina every year. I've been many times but not this year. They have lots of old historic homes with trees covered in Spanish moss. The plan is to get there in the early morning and walk the city and meet up for lunch to compare photo's and establish bragging rights. We must also walk at least 3 miles during this challenge. I kind of hesitated on the one lens thing but the more I thought about it I liked it so I agreed to it. 

My kit for the challenge. The body I will be using is a Sony full frame A7III at 24 mp and then I started thinking about what lens to use and I could use a variety of lenses to accomplish this task the only parameter its that it had to focus close up.  Maybe a 16-35mm or a Prime 35mm. But what I decided on was a 50mm macro with a maximum aperture of f2.8. Nothing too fancy. I grew up shooting a 50mm back in the film days so composition will be fun and I will have to work a little bit more than I would with a zoom. I'm sure there will be some shots that I will want to get that will be too wide for this lens so I will have to do a pantograph and stitch them together in photoshop. I will also bring a small flash and diffuser if I really want to go Macro to give me enough light. I am not going to tote a tripod with me to keep me quick and nimble.

The day of the challenge Me and Robert set out from my house and drove the hour and a 45 min to Wilmington. The weather forecast had changed from the last time I looked at it which said no rain until after lunch. And of course it was raining when we got there. We made our way downtown found parking .  We then donned our raincoats and headed out into the rain. The rain was a light rain . Heaver than a  sprinkle but lighter than a downpour. Manageable. We set the time to meet at 1100 at a bar and grill to have lunch. We had more than a hour and a half to shoot before lunch time .  And off we went into different directions. My plan was to stay outside and find things to shoot and Roberts was to go to some shops and shoot things until the rain died down. I came across a few things to shoot in the rain and I came upon a outdoor market but felt odd with my camera shooting items for sale so I kept on.  Shooting in the light rain was fun! I had a blast looking for objects to shoot much like a scavenger hunt. The lens I was using was very slow at focusing and it took me a while to get used to it. As I kept going it became easer to find things to shoot. I was getting in the groove!  Before I knew it the time had passed and I ended up at the lunch spot. I still had a few min. to spare so I circled the block and took a few more. We had a nice lunch and drove home talking about our small adventure and how we were going to post our photo's to our camera club's members page and let them figure out who was the winner. No mater who actually wins I feel like a winner because I really had a good time shooting with only 1 lens.  I have never traveled over an hour and a half to shoot with only one lens. But it was fun and freeing .  I didn't have to think about what lens would make the image look better. I only had one choice and I had to figure it out. That took all the gear out of the equation and put my skills at work trying to get the best image with just the 50 for everything. I loved it .  You should give it a try. Shoot with only one lens for a day and see what you get. I did pretty well and I have a number of images to choose from. 

Who won? Well the photo I submitted to the club was not the favorite. So in technical terms I lost. But I think I really won because I challenged myself got some good photo's , Shot in the rain which I hardly ever do and most important of all I had a great time with a photo buddy exploring a pretty city. So Win, Win, Win! I know Robert will say that's what losers say! LOL

So until next week challenge yourself with something new. A new technique or shoot something different than normal and you will have a great time. Get out and shoot!

Hey Y’all ! I hope that you’ve had a great week. I certainly have. This last week I took a photo trip with a couple of Photo Buddies Mike and Robert. We have had this trip planned for quite awhile and were eager to get going. This trip was to go to the low country of Georgia and South Carolina.  We planned on driving to Savannah and working our way up the coast to North Carolina following Highway 17.  As with any trip hotel reservations and an itinerary had been made months in advance.  This means that we were at the mercy of the weather. Prior to the trip its has rained if you include Friday 19 weekends in a row. We were a little nervous but we were in luck it only rained one night and didn’t really hinder our photography at all.  This trip had two purposes in mind. First of all to have fun and shoot as much as we could and second to scout a potential Spring trip an four day trip much like we were taking. And of course food will be a main part of this trip also as the food being fantastic in this part of the country with a Southern flair. So lets get started with Savannah Ga. 

The low country is a beautiful place with live oaks and Spanish moss everywhere. Savannah does not disappoint. With 18th and 19th century architecture with beautiful houses and buildings. And of course the Forrest Gump backdrop to “Life is like a box of chocolates you never know what you’re going to get” vibe . Everywhere you turn there is a a photo to be had. But capturing this lovely place is very hard. Especially if you’re trying to take one photo that represents Savannah.  There are iconic shots to get like the fountain at Forsyth Park or the suspension bridge that we traveled over to get into the city. But I think you need a lot of photographs to tell the story of Savannah . Savannah is more of a feeling than a photo opp. After a 6 hour trip with a stop in the middle for some down home cooking at a local restaurant just off of 95 we made it into Savannah. Too early to check into the hotel but they did let us park our car right in front of where our room would be. Then the walking started. You can travel the city in many ways. Of course you can walk but you can Uber and there are busses  that can take you where you want to go with little or no fee. But we hoofed it. I think I had over 20000 steps or around 11 miles. So if your not as mobil as I am you might want to take alternative transportation. At first we made our way to Forsyth Park taking many photos’ along the way. I had been to Savannah before but Mike had not and it was nice seeing his face light up at all of the beautiful sites. After shooting Forsyth park we decided to make it back to the hotel and then find some food. We ate at a local tavern and the food was excellent. We headed back to the room just to grab some gear used the bathroom and off to Forsyth Park to capture the fountain at nighttime.  It was hard to shoot but we got some and came home went to the water front for a minute and got in well after 9 almost 10. A big first day. Our next day would start early and make our way to Beaufort SC. 

We were going to a national monument (park) and were going to hike a mile and shoot a lighthouse. When we arrived the park was closed and would not open until 9. So with quick thinking from Robert, our cruse director, we went to Tybee Island pier to shoot the sunrise. And I must say that it was one of the best sunrises that I have seen in quite a while. The colors were fantastic! We stopped on the way back and tried to shoot the lighthouse that we missed earlier from afar. I didn’t have enough lens to get there but I’m sure Mike did. As he had a 800mm lens with him. Then off to breakfast at a local restaurant the Sunrise Cafe. I highly recommend. We had a local breakfast with grits and all of the fixings . Next stop was Wormsloe Plantation. There is a 10 dollar cost to get in but being military veteran‘s we got in for 8. The plantation doesn’t open until 10 so we got there a little early so we found a local coffee shop to have a cup of coffee and relax a bit before going back to Wormsloe. Wormsloe is a beautiful plantation with live oaks on either side of the driveway creating a canapé of green. The money shot! We then headed to the visitor center and took a mile long hike through the plantation looking at ruins and old-timy settlement. After the plantation we headed to Paris Island Marine base. Robert had been stationed there and lived in Beaufort SC for a couple of years. He had lots of stories to tell and we toured the base. We did not see a lot of activity on the base but at least I can check that off of places to visit. Our next stop was Hilton Head and Harbor town golf resort. It was very nice and we had lunch at the light house restaurant overlooking all of the yachts and the 18 green. The next destination was Beaufort it self. We arrived at the hotel but it was too early to check in so we headed to eat at a local restaurant called the Dockside. Food was excellent. Then we headed downtown.  There was a small festival happening in the downtown with music and booths to shop at. It had started to sprinkle and rain a little so we cut it short. I would love to go back to this little town to explore even more.  Off to bed after 9 and up early to head to Charleston SC.

Our first stop was Hunting Island State park and of course we got there too early. They open up the gates at 0600 and we got there at 0530 but only a half hour wait. We arrived at the parking lot in the dark and headed to the beach. The goal of this shoot was to capture sunrise with driftwood in the fore ground. This took a little walking down the beach to reach the dead wood yard. The sunrise was okay but not as good as the day before but still good. We then headed to the Hunting Island Lighthouse and took lots of photo’s . I do like me a lighthouse. With no people in sight we had free rain over the shoot. We then went to a boardwalk that took us out the the marshes. I think Mike got some good shots here because he had his 800mm lens out. Me not so much. The next stop was back to Beaufort to get a late breakfast almost a brunch but it was very good. Then off to Charleston. On the way we stopped at Old Sheldon Church. This is a ruin of a church that was burnt down during the Revolutionary War rebuilt and burnt down again during the Civil War with big live oaks all around. Very cool. When we got to Charleston at about 1330 and I knew we were too early but I was trying to get a parking place like we did in Savannah but the guy at the desk went ahead and checked us in and we decided to rest for a coupe of hours before heading out. We took a Uber to the boundary (waterfront) and started walking . We walked around for a couple of hours and got us something to great at an English Pub. Food was great but the wall coverings were crazy with one dollar bills stapled to every inch of every wall and windows. It was very cool. We took an Uber back to the hotel and rested a few hours before heading out again. We then took an Uber out to the bridge and set up and waited for the sun to go down .  The bridge did not disappoint we had lovely colors and again we took an Uber back to the hotel and  again it was after 9 o’clock .  The next morning we decided to sleep late and get breakfast in the hotel before heading out.

Our last day was mainly a travel day but we did stop in Southport NC to eat at a local eatery called "Fishy, Fishy" and it was good. We sat outside and watched the pelicans fish while we were eating. We then walked the quaint little town. All in all it was a great trip and fun was had by all. Now we just got to get the camera club to go. It’s important to plan trips and ones with your friends are the best. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Cape Lookout IR 2www.MaxStansellPhotography.com Hey Everyone! Hope you're doing well this week! I'm doing pretty well. This week I want to talk to you about a type of photography that you can't see with your eyes. Thats right! You can't see. Infrared Photography. Infrared Photography has been around for decades and there is even film for just shooting infrared but we are going to talk about Digital Infrared. Now I'm not going to get into the Science of Infrared but what's cool about it is when its best to shoot it. Infrared is perfect to shoot in the middle of the day when the sun is the harshest.  Now if your like me if I go somewhere I want to shoot all day long not just in golden hour or when the light is perfect. I want to shoot all day. So infrared photography is perfect for the time of day that the light isn't great for other types of photography. What is infrared photography?

Infrared has a strong appeal for fine art photography. It looks surreal and otherworldly, with trees taking on a bright white or yellow hue and skies a red or blue hue. Leaves appear frozen over, and skies take on dramatic colors in both black and white and color photography. There is a lot to infrared and the science but really its pretty simple to shoot. You can either use a camera that has been converted to infrared or you can use a filter on your regular camera and shoot infra red. Let Somerset Plantation House 2 me go over both.

Having a camera converted. For a few hundred dollars you can send your camera into a company that specializes in converting camera into infrared only cameras. Thats right infrared only! So once you get the camera converted it can't take regular photo's anymore. So ideally it would be an older camera that your not using and have it converted and use it occasionally. After you have your camera converted you can use it like your regular camera but it will only take Infrared. This is great and its fun to shoot. If you don't have an extra camera you can buy a camera that has already been converted. Just make sure its in the same system of your Yates Mill Pond IR main camera so you can use all of the glass that you have for your main camera. Many years ago I bought a converted point and shoot camera. And I have had some success with it taking it with me on trips and shoot once or twice on a trip just to have something different.  The only problem with it is that its JPEG only and doesn't shoot in RAW which comes in handy because there are some special post processing stuff that you need to do which can strain the JPEG. Other than that it works great. I'm thinking about maybe buying another one but one that shoots RAW so I can do more with the images afterwards in post.

Using a Infrared filter on regular camera. I just bought a Hoya Infrared 72 filter. This filter make your camera an infrared for black and white. Although you can do some other edits with it. You have to buy it for the filter size of the lens your going to use so I suggest getting one that will fit the largest lens filter size you have and use step down rings to fit other lenses. Cape Lookout IRMax Stansell Photography This is the mistake I made. I had a couple of lenses that are 55mm filter size and that's what I bought so now I might have to buy a bigger one so I can use it on all my lenses. The filter looks like a ND filter very dark and you will have to do longer exposures to get the shots. A tripod will be a must and some way to trigger your shutter. And of course it there is wind you will get blurry leaves in the trees. So there are drawbacks to using this filter but it does work and you can get great shots and its a great way to see if you want to get into infrared more and maybe get a camera converted. And if you don't like it you've only spent 40 bucks on a filter. I guess the price depends on the size of the filter.

For me its something I can shoot while waiting for golden hour. Kind of like Macro photography is pretty good during harsh lighting. But the results you get can be fantastic and the responses you get from people is really mixed. Some love it some don't understand and some are wondering when did it snow by that lighthouse?  But for the price of a filter you can try your hand at shooting what others just can't see by shooting Infrared. So until next week get out and shoot!
 

Hey Everyone! Hope you had a great week! This week's topic is from a fellow camera club member. As one of the officers in our camera club one of my duties is to come up with a gear related topic each meeting to give a 5 or so min. discussion before our actual meeting starts. I put the question to our camera club membership page and got quite a few good suggestions but one of our new members suggested how to clean your camera so that's how I got this topic. First of all cleaning you camera is just part of taking care of your gear. Gear is expensive and we don't want to damage it just through neglect. Clean gear not only gets you clear photo's but also will last longer if well taken care of. So before we get into the actual cleaning lets get to how to protect and keep our camera equipment clean as possible.

Prevention. Keeping your camera from getting dirty in the first place is key to not having to clean it all of the time. The more you rub on the expensive lenses the more potential there is to damage them. First of all if your not using your equipment it should be stowed away in a clean dry place. Your camera bag will be fine unless you just got in from a rain storm.  In each of the compartments of my camera bag I have desiccant bags to absorb any moisture. You get these little bags in every thing you buy from shoes to electronics. Instead of throwing them away put them in your bag to help absorb moisture.  Keep lens caps on front and rear of your lenses when not in use. This will keep stray dirt and dust off of your expensive lenses. The same with your camera body if its stored without a lens on it put a cap on it to keep dirt and dust out. A protective  screen protector for your rear display is a must. These displays are easily scratched and the screen protector works great just like it does on your phone.

Cleaning. Cleaning your camera comes in phases. The first phase is cleaning the outside of your camera and lenses. Microfiber is your friend. I keep small microfiber clothes in each of the compartments of my camera bags. Little small squares that you get from all kinds of places work great for this. You seem to get one with electronics , from the eye doctor, and they just accumulate. I take them and put in my camera bag and always have one in my pocket for easy access. These are great for wiping down your camera's outside from dust and debris. You could also use pre-moisten cloths that you can get for cleaning electronics also they work great.

The second phase is the lens glass itself. Keeping these clean and free of debris can make post processing easier without a lot of processing to get out pesky spots. The first line of defense is blowing the debris away from the glass , not with your mouth because you'll just end up spitting on your camera. But with a blower. I keep a small one in my bag just for these purpose's. You'll find that a blower will get out most if not all of the stuff off of your lens. The second thing you can do after blowing is use a lens brush. These are inexpensive brushes that are very soft and made for lenses. These will get the stubborn debris off of your lens. 

The third phase is for stubborn smudges or water marks on your lens. A liquid lens cleaner and a microfiber work well. There are some prepackaged wipes that are made especially for lenses.  Zeiss makes the one's that I'm thinking about but I'm sure there are more. These in conjunction with a microfiber clothe will get these lenses clean as new.

Now lets talk about sensors. Our camera sensors have electricity running through them and that makes them into a dust magnet. If you're using a mirrorless camera this is even worse because the sensor is just right there when you remove your lens. Not like a DSLR that has the mirror mechanism to protect the sensor.  Most cameras have a setting on them that will de-magnetize them and shake the sensor to get the particles to fall off.  This should be your first defense for cleaning .  Second should be holding your camera upside down sensor facing the ground and using a blower to blow away the dust. If your using a DSLR you will have to lock up your mirror to get to the sensor to do this.  The third is using a sensor brush. This is not the same brush that you used to clean your lenses . It is made especially for delicate sensors .  These methods usually get all of the dust off of your sensor. But if your sensor still needs cleaning then using a sensor swab to clean them is the final step. Using the correct sensor swab with the correct solution on it for your sensor gently wipe one direction stop at the end of the sensor and go back with the other side of the swab. Throw swab away don't use it again. If you need to keep cleaning get a new swab and repeat until clean. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR CAMERA to do this. On mirrorless cameras it not to hard but on DSLR's you have to use a setting on your camera to lock up the mirror open the shutter for cleaning. I can't say it enough follow the instruction in your camera's manual on how to do this. Most of the dirt and dust that get on your sensors comes when you change out lenses so try not to change in dusty or dirty areas. I try to always blow out my camera before changing lenses but its not always practical to do when in a rush. 

Keeping your camera clean and in good working order is easy to do if you take the time to find out how. If you are not comfortable on cleaning your sensor you can take it to your local camera store and they will clean it for a small fee. Having well maintained equipment (clean) will extend the life of your equipment and make your picture taking more enjoyable. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey Everyone! I hope you had a Fantastic week! Me? Well thanks for asking it was great! This week I want to Revisit a Blog that I did in 2015 about Tripods, Tripods, Tripods! If your new to photography and you'e talked to some more experienced photographers you can find that Tripods can be a very controversial subject  Some don't even own one and others live by them and have one everywhere they go.  I guess I fall closer to the later but I don't take one everywhere.  Like all things there are pro's and con's to be considered when using tripods.  Let me go over why I like to use a tripod when I can.  When I'm doing landscape work it helps me see the scene it also slows me down and lets me work the shot and think over what Im doing without running and gunning like most of us do.  Its also a must for any type of long exposure photography whether it be astro photography , waterfalls, or time lapse.  I also use a tripod when doing portraits.  This is where I differ from a lot of portrait photographers.  I like the tripod because it is like a book mark.  Let me explain what I mean.  If I have a subject posed and I see a fly away hair that I need to take care of with my camera on a tripod I can simply walk over take care of the fly away and go back to my camera and the only thing that has changed is that the fly away is gone and SNAP I can take the photo.  Without the tripod you see a fly away you walk over with your camera fix the hair and go back to the approx place you were recompose, refocus and take the shot.  Its a lot less work with the tripod and less time spent recomposing the subject.  Well there's my spin on the controversy.  Lets talk about parts and pieces.

Tripods come in all sorts and sizes.  They are made of all kinds of materials from aluminum , plastic, carbon fiber, even wood if you can find one old enough.  Aluminum is the industry standard and there are many really good aluminum tripods.  Carbon Fiber is the new kid on the block and they are lighter in weight with the same strength as their aluminum counterparts.  I have many tripods most are aluminum and one is of carbon fiber.  Aluminum is cheaper and for my money it is the best choice for most people.  Unless you are carrying your tripod for long distances aluminum is the best choice in my opinion.  

As the saying goes "Size Matters".  I personally have had tripods that could reach as high as 7 feet and as small as 6 inches high.  Not only size should be considered, but the weight that the tripod can support also.  No matter what tripod you pick you must be able to support your most heavy camera combination. So if you just have a small point and shoot or mirrorless camera system a small tripod will do.  But if  you have a big boy combination with heavy lenses then you must go big.  Each tripod has a maximum camera weight rating and you should consider this. With your heaviest camera and heaviest lens weigh you rig. You should have a maximum rating on your tripod to handle this with ease. My main tripod will hold 17 pounds but I use a mirrorless crop sensor camera and my heaviest combo is only about 3 pounds so I'm well with in. But if I had a full frame DSLR and a big 70-200 that wouldn't work on my tripod. It would be too flimsy and shake while taking the photo.

How your camera connects to your tripod is another thing you must think about when getting a tripod.  We've talked about size, material, of the legs what about the tripod head that sit atop the legs of the tripod.  There are many types of heads but the two basic design are Pan and Tilt and Ball Head.  The pan and tilt head does exactly as it says it pans back and forth and tilts up and down.  The ball head has a more versatile system where everything sits on a ball and can be moved in any direction and angle.  I use the ball head for all of my tripods.  Atop of the tripod head is the part that hooks up the tripod to the camera.  Long time ago you just screwed the camera onto the mounting plate of the tripod head but that was a pain.  Now they have quick disconnecting mounting hardware that a plate hooks to your camera and stays on and a mounting bracket hooks to your tripod head and with a quick move of a lever the camera is secure and with another move its off.  There are a few styles of quick disconnects the industry standard is Arca Swiss but there are others like Manfrotto quick disconnects. I use a Arca Swiss type of bracket on my camera's. I also use a bracket that is called an "L" bracket on all of my cameras.  As the name suggest it is a bracket that is shaped like an "L" and fits your camera.  The beauty of this bracket is that I can be taking a photo in Landscape mode and with a flip of a lever I can turn my camera to Portrait mode with out changing my tripod position. Lets talk about how the legs extend. There are two different ways that they can work there are Screw type and clamp type of locks for you leg extensions. I use the screw type just because I've always had them. I have had the clamp ones and they seem to me to be a little finicky but people swear by them so I'm sure they are fine. Then there are the feet to consider. Many tripods come with different kinds of feet for different surfaces . Some are spikes to stick in the ground when you're doing landscape and some have rubber feet when your inside on your  nice wooden floors. Being able to change the feet are a big plus when choosing a tripod.

Believe it or not I have just skimmed the surface of the "Three Legged Monster" There are many things that we could talk about.  For me the main thing I want to convey is that if you have a tripod and don't use it you should give it a try.  Using a tripod can slow down your process and have you taking and thinking more about what your photographing instead of just the point and shoot mentality that we have gotten use to.  Tripods will also make your photo's sharper by eliminating hand shake. 

As you can see Tripods have been a part of photography from the beginning of the art and will be for a long long time. So get your tripod and lets get out and shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope everyone is have a great week!  I am.  This week I want to discuss the things that you should do after you get your new camera. We usually think that we've bought a new camera that it should be as up to date as it can be. Well that's not always the case. Your camera might be new and shiny but depending on what you got it could be years old. So one of the first things to do is check your firmware version and make sure you have the latest firmware version.

 Firmware.  Back in the film days we really didn't have to worry about firmware because everything was mechanical but now in the electronic and computer age everything seems to have some sort of program in them.  And for some reason there is always an update to be had.  Firmware ( in simple terms) is the program that electronics use to do whatever they do. When you update your firmware you are altering the program that was in the device that your updating. Usually fixing some sort of bug or adding some sort of feature.  Much like Lightroom or Windows updates they correct bugs or improve stuff. In your camera this could mean better focusing or faster focus.  Maybe they add some sort of new software to make your camera like new.  As long as the hardware can handle the upgrade the possibilities are endless.  Some company's put out lots of firmware updates and some do not.  Making sure your camera has the latest and greatest update can make the camera perform like brand new saving you from having to upgrade or buy a new one. If you haven't checked your firmware you should. If you  have never updated the firmware you may tell a big difference in the way that it works.  Installing the firmware is easy and all of the camera companies will have a step by step procedure for you to follow to make sure you have the latest and greatest.  This usually involves installing on your computer some sort of program that when your camera is connected to your computer the program updates the firmware.  On older cameras it was installing the firmware on a SD card and inserting it into your camera and going through a series of procedures to update the firmware. In any case it's fairly easy to do .

But now a days its not just camera bodies that get the firmware update its also Lenses.  Newer lenses have small computers in them also that can be tweaked to give that lens a sharper focusing and quicker focusing.  So check your lenses especially if they are fairly new.  The firmware updates that you do to them can make them really nice lenses.  If you have a new body that has super fast focusing powers but your lens is still using the old way of focusing a firmware update to that lens could make it perform just like a brand new lens. I just got through checking all of my lenses for the firmware updates and they were all up to date. Its a good feeling to know that all of your equipment is up to date and running as efficient as it can.  I think this should almost be an annual event or even a simi-annual event to check the firmware of all of your electronics.

 The next thing you should do is read the manual.  I know nobody likes to do this .  New camera's can do all sorts of things that we might not know they can do until we read the manual. Another good alternative to this is to watch a video on how to set up your camera and go through all of the settings. This is usually one of the first things I do because now a days camera's are so complicated and have so many options that Bell & Howell /CannonHere is the new addition to my film cameras . 1961 Canon Canonet 19. learning from someone that has more experience using your make and model of camera and how to set it up is a great starting point. Whats nice about a video is you can rewind as many time as you want to get all of the facts right to set up your camera. You can find these videos on youtube or on places like Creative Live. I usually use Creative Live because I buy my camera's used and they have all kinds of video's on my particular camera and can usually get a print out of all of the settings and where to set.

Accessories. Make your camera yours. Maybe a new camera strap or a fancy lens cap.  Or a new camera bag. Making your camera yours is a great way to make your camera more enjoyable to shoot. I don't do a lot but I always have a camera strap system put on my cameras . I usually use the Peak Design system that have the little buttons that you attach to your camera to put on the strap. or a plate on the bottom of the camera that will attach to a clip attached to my backpack. If your new camera that is in the same system as your old camera say your own Nikons and you buy another Nikon your accessories might work for your new camera like a remote shutter release system. Maybe an "L" bracket to put on your camera . I usually have these on all of my cameras.  Make it yours. Oh just thought of this is to get a screen protector for your display to keep it from getting scratched because believe me it will get scratched. Just like you protect your phone screen you should definitely protect your camera display.

After all of this done you should shoot, shoot, shoot! The more you shoot the more familiar you will be with your new camera. Being very comfortable with your camera and not fumbling with it only comes with hours of practice . So shoot everything and anything.  Getting used to all of the dials and buttons and knowing where they are will help you get the shot when it counts. Make photography more natural instead of a process of figuring out a new gadget. So until next week take your new camera and get out and Shoot, Shoot,Shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope everyone is healthy and safe today.  This week I want to talk about something I don't talk about a lot Table Top Photography. This type of photography can be great fun especially on the cold days of winter.  You don't really need lots of equipment but you can buy lots of gear to do this if your a gear head like I am.  But you don't need to.  You can use Sunlight through a window or many flashes.  The one thing that you will need is your imagination.  I have done everything from still life to food photography and all are great fun to do.  When I first started I went on YouTube and found channels that showed you how the shot was created and then I would try it .  I did everything from Splash photography (dropping things in water) to motion photography (dragging the shutter) .  This is a great way to start to get your Photography juices Wine glass Splash flowing.  Then you can start altering the process with using items that you have at your house. You can use almost anything from bed sheets to 

1. Table. Of course you need a table. Any table will do but a portable table that you can move and maybe set up and put away when not using could come in handy.  It doesn't have to be fancy it could be anything from a TV tray to a fancy table .  I actually use a steel table that I found in a dumpster maybe 20 years ago and its still going strong.

Dice 2. Some sort of lighting.  This could almost be anything from a table light to fancy strobes.  I have used them all .  I even have some constant LED lights that I picked up recently that I have been using that work great.  But almost anything.

3. Camera. Yep any camera will do from point and shoot to your iPhone.  But the camera that you normally use will be the best because your used to it.  Being able to shoot in manual will be a plus.

4. Tripod. A tripod comes in handy for a couple of reasons .  First it keeps your camera steady but more  Red Heart importantly it keeps the frame constant. If  you have your camera on a tripod and have the scene set up you don't have to reframe when you're adjusting the object that your shooting. You just adjust it.  You don't have to pick up your camera and put to your face and readjust .  

5. Lenses? Almost any lens will do.  I tend to use a 50mm a lot when I'm doing table top photography. But a 24-70 would work great also. Really any lens will do . Macro lenses are also nice to use to shoot small stuff. Little things. 

What about shooting fine art? You can do this on the table top also. You can take simple photo's and take them into Photoshop and add some layers of texture to them and you have some really nice pieces that you could print and hang in your house as fine art. They are really cool to do and once you get the hang of it and the photoshop skills you can just fly thru these and make many.

So as you see tabletop photography can be fun and you can really build your photography skills up by just playing with your camera at home. So until next week pull out that table and shoot some stuff.

Hey Everyone! Hope your week has been Fantastic! Mine has been pretty good. Thanks for asking! This week I want to talk about taking adventures no matter how small and how having a friend or friends with you will make the event even better. Now normally I talk about photography and this week will have a little in it but it will be mostly about "Adventure".  We all want a little adventure in our lives but its hard to get off of that couch and out the door to do them. I have found that photography has gotten me out of the house to seek more adventure but even more that that taking a friend  with me even makes it better.  Back in 2019 I started a adventure/project to visit all of the state parks in my state and even with the "TP Apocalypse" (Toilet Paper) dealing with Covid I was able to complete my goal. This was a personal goal and mainly done alone or with my companion Forrest the Wonder dog.  If you remember not too long ago I talked about having a Photography Wingman when traveling but I think for almost all of your adventures you should have a friend with you to make it just more fun! In just this last week I've had two small adventures and had friends along to make the experience even more fun even when things don't go quite as planned. Let me tell you about my two adventures.

Backpacking with a Noob. I have been an avid backpacker over the last decade or so but it's usually a solo affair or my son goes with me. I have never gone with a friend into the back country. My photography wingman Robert had not gone backpacking before. (well as a civilian) So this was a chance to make his trip as enjoyable as possible and give him a great experience. Now ruffing it to Robert is staying at a Motel 6 and not really sleeping in the woods. So I got all the gear that he would need for the backpacking trip and put in a nice pack for him to carry. I even supplied the meal that he would make for himself. The couple of weeks prior I sent him messages on Backpacking Tips and sent little videos on how to do stuff backpacking related.  I had picked an easy place to do the backpacking at. So from the time we left the truck it was a learning experience for him. We had a ball. He made a video of the experience. We set up his tent, blew up his air mattress and got him all settled in. After another small hike we took a break. He went to his tent and fell asleep. It was nice to see that he was comfortable enough to get some shut eye. That evening he cooked his meal and we did some night time photography.  I made a fire and kept it going for a few hours . It got cold at night and we left early for fear of rain. When we got to the truck it started sleeting and snowing a little mixed in with the rain. We had such a good time that next week we are going on another Backpacking/Photography adventure up in Virginia. I'll let you know how it goes.

Night time Photography in the city. During the week the next week after our backpacking trip. Robert and myself invited Caitlin to Raleigh NC (the closest big city near us) to do some night time photography.  We are all members of the local camera club and all of us have been officers of the club at one time or another. So we are pretty active and have become good friends. On the way to the shoot we stopped and got supper at the suggestion of Caitlin and it was fantastic. We talked of trips we had taken and future trips we were planning. We then traveled to a park where we could do some night time photography and also to a bridge overlooking a busy street to get some light trails. The whole night was planned by Robert and he always has interesting things to try. While messing around with flashes I had my camera on my tripod but didn't have the legs spread out like I should. I bumped into the tripod and it fell over bringing my camera and lens into a Nose Dive right into the concrete lens first and smashed up my lens. It broke it pretty good. Good thing it wasn't an expensive one. But no use in crying over spilled milk. I just grabbed another lens and kept up with the shoot. We had a ball cracking jokes and just being silly. I really enjoyed my time with my friends out on a small adventure. Did we get any great shots? No not really but we had fun.

So there you go two small adventures both taken with friends making them even better. I could have done both of these solo and I have in the past but its nowhere near as fun as with friends that share a common interest .  So if your part of a camera club you can always ask if anyone wants to go on a trip with you so you're not by yourself.  You won't be sorry. Going in small packs of friends is fun and safer than going solo. I have another trip planned with some photography friends in a couple of months and am looking forward to that trip also. Not only for the Photography but also for the experience. So until next week grab your buddy and get outside and shoot.
 

Hey Everyone!  Hope everyone is doing well and is healthy and safe.  This topic is a spur of the moment one that just occurred to me that I haven't talked about astrophotography before.  While attending a Zoom meeting with my camera club, a lady gave a great presentation on astrophotography, and I just wanted to jump in and give my 2 cents worth.  But I didn't want to be that guy, you know, Mister Know It All.  So this morning I figured I would just send a link to our group of one of my blogs about the subject and there wasn't one.  So this one is going to be it.  Now, I'm no expert on shooting at night, but I have done it a couple of times with both successes and some failures and wanted to share the little that I know with y'all.

Moon Shots.  When trying to get the exposure right on a very bright moon against a dark black sky, you just end up with a white dot if you let your camera do the work.  You need to go into manual to take this shot. Let's think a little about what shooting a full moon is anyway.  You're shooting the reflecting light of the sun.  So you can leave your white balance on "auto" if you're shooting in RAW, which you should be, or you can place it on "daylight" because that is what it is.  The best rule of thumb for me is to use the sunny 16 rule.  This is an old rule developed by Kodak when they were trying to teach people how to use a camera back in the beginning of the consumer camera photography.  The rule states "put your aperture on 16 then match your ASA(ISO) and shutter speed and the photograph will be properly exposed in sunlight." This rule works great for shooting the moon.  Now, you will need a tripod and a telephoto lens, and I would suggest using a remote trigger to keep the camera shaking down to a minimum.  This should give you a properly exposed moon. The gear I used for this shot was a Sony A6500 (a crop sensor camera) and my Sony 70-350 mm lens.  There are all kinds of moon phases, and you can just google and find out when the full moon, half moon, etc. will appear.  So good luck with shooting the moon! LOL  No, not that kind. LOL Taking a photo of the full moon can be a challenge.  

Shooting Stars. Shooting stars is a whole different thing to shooting the moon. The moon is very bright and shining, but stars are far away and have very little light.  So capturing that light is the trick.  I break shooting stars into two categories:  pinpoint stars where the stars are focused and are points of light (shooting the Milky Way also falls into this category) and star trails where the light of the stars makes a trail across the frame of your camera. 

For both types of shooting of the stars in these categories, place your camera in RAW and your white balance to AUTO, and that will take care of these settings and can be adjusted in post production very easily.  We will be shooting in manual mode and will be focusing in manual also.  Auto focusing has a hard time picking out stars to focus on, and manual will be much easier.  A large aperture wide angel lens will be needed.  Remember, we want to catch as much light as possible, so the larger aperture will come in handy.  An "F-stop" of 2.8 to 1.4 is recommended, the largest one you have; a sturdy tripod with a remote release; a head lamp or flashlight with a RED setting is best for working in the dark to preserve your night vision; and of course getting away from light pollution, sources from a town, street lights, or anything that produces light.  Really the farther away from civilization the better.  Shooting in a new moon, which means "no moon or moonlight," is better for this type of photography.  Let's start with star trail since this is the easier of the two.

Star Trails.  The example that I have put here is of what not to do.  Notice the light pollution on the right,  and the composition sucks.  But I did get some trials.  This was a single shot long exposure.  The first thing to remember when shooting stars is that they are not a stationary subject.  The stars move, or really the earth moves.  To get trails the exposures need to be 30 seconds or longer.  Now, you can take some longer exposures of
the stars and get small star trails, say a minute or so, you have to play with the times to get what you like.  Set up your scene with your camera and wide angel lens.  Put your aperture one click from wide open.  If you have it wide open, you could have trouble focusing because of diffraction.  Focusing is one of the hardest things about astro-photography.  This is what I've done.  During the day get your lens that you're going to use and focus on something at infinity and slowly get it as sharp as you can.  I mark this on my lens with a sharpie.  You'll notice that the infinity mark on your lens might not be the actual spot that it's in focus.  When you have this at night when you're back in the field, put your lens at this mark for starters.  Using live view you should be able to magnify what the screen is seeing and pinpoint one star and try to get it in focus as much as you can.  Then have your live view, go back to normal, and you'll be pretty sharp.  My starting points for star settings are aperture is one click from wide open, Shutter 25 sec ISO 3200 take a shot and see what you get.  Make adjustments and trial and error until you get what you Carolina Beach 2020 want.  If you want trails, make the shutter longer until you get the length you want.  Not too long because you'll be grabbing more light.  Then if your camera has a time lapse feature, use that so your camera will automatically take a photo just past your shutter speed time. You'll have to figure out how many shots you want to take.  Let your camera do the work.  When you get them in post production like Photoshop, you can stack the images together, and you will have very long light trails and sharp ones also.  This is something that takes lots of practice and experimenting, but don't forget the basics of photography like composing a good scene.  Try to have something in the foreground to give interest and contrast to your image. An intervalometer could be useful if your camera cannot do time lapse.  You can get these on Amazon for not too much, but make sure they are for your model of camera.  

Star scenes and the Milky Way.   Just about all of the settings are the same with this type of shooting stars as Max Stansell Photography with the star trails, except we want our shutter to be 25 seconds or shorter because we don't want the blurry stars; we want pinpoint stars.  Focusing will be the same as above, and the starting point settings are the same.  Remember, unless your are really out in the middle of nowhere, you will have trouble seeing the Milky Way with the naked eye.  Finding the Milky Way and certain stars and constellations will be the hardest part because the earth is rotating and the subjects are constantly moving.  Using an app on your phone can be very useful.  Shooting during the new moon (NO MOON)  will also be very useful.  I use the app Photo Pills, and it is a fantastic app for seeing where and when the moon, sun, and Milky Way will be moving through your scene.  It has a virtual horizon that you can use with your camera, and it will show you where the Milky Way will be while you're scouting during the day.  And then when it's the best time to shoot at night, you can go and set up and not have to struggle with location of the Milky Way or stars.  Setting up your scene is still very important with foreground interest and experimenting with shutter speeds and ISO settings.  Remember, the lower the ISO setting, the less noise.  The higher the setting, the more sensitive it is to light.  So there is a balancing act you will have to do to get this right for your camera.  Full frame sensor cameras tend to have better light gathering capabilities, but you can use smaller sensors also.  I use a crop sensor camera and do just fine.  My equipment for shooting night skies is a Sony A6300 or A6500 (Crop Sensor Camera) and a Rokinon 12mm f 2.0 manual lens.(18 mm full frame equivalent).  In lenses, use what you have, the widest aperture.  Maybe a 35 or 24 or even a 50 mm with a 1.4 to 2.8 f-stop will work fine.  Use what you have at first, but wide would be better.

This is a fun type of photography that some photographers really specialize in.  There are all types of gizmos and things you can get to help you with your star photography.  I just covered some of the basics.  You can get devices that track the stars and move while you're taking a long exposure to keep your stars sharp.  There are telescopes and all kinds of things.  You can have GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) overload or you can be like me and just dabble a bit.  Either way it's great fun.  So until next week, get outside and shoot some stars!

Hey Everyone! Hope you had a great week. This is a continuation on basic topics of Photography that I have been doing the last month or so. This is the first time that I have reposted a Blog of mine. This was originally written two years ago and posted and got a fairly good viewing with over 400 views. I recently went on a Natural Light Portrait workshop and one of the participants asked me why the instructor was  talking about hand held meter instead of using the meter in his camera. I gave her an explanation but then thought about writing a Blog on it but researched and found that I already had but thought it was worth rehashing.  So here it is.  This week I want to talk about light meters. There are basically two camps on this: those who are for light meters and those who are against them. I am for light meters in certain situations. Let's talk about light and how your camera works. First, light is the basis of all we do in photography. Without light, it's just a black square. Being able to measure light accurately is important when taking photographs. 

All modern cameras have built-in light meters that measure the light coming off of your subject. Your _MSP9577 camera sees this and makes corrections via a computer for the shot, and you have a great photo. But the reflective light can be misleading, causing your camera not to get the best exposure. When you're shooting a dark subject, the light that comes off of it will be darker than everything around it and cause your camera to lighten your photo incorrectly, creating an over-exposed shot. And if your subject is white, just the opposite will happen. Your camera can get fooled. This usually only happens in very extremes of the light spectrum, and you will have to override your camera by some sort of compensation. Your camera is set to expose all of your photos to 18% gray. So technically, if you are over or under 18% gray tones in your shot, your camera will try to get you to that 18%.  Most of the time you won't notice this except on the extremes, and you can usually fix it in post-production software. The type of metering in your camera is reflective metering, meaning it measures what is reflecting off of your subject.

A handheld light meter works in a different way. It measures what it sees. For example, if you're taking a photograph of a dark subject, you measure the light at the subject. If you measure the light before it hits and reflects off of the subject, you will get a truer reading. So if you're taking a photo of a dark subject and you set your camera manually to the readings your meter got and take the shot, you will get a perfectly metered shot. If the light stays the same, you can move a white subject into the same spot, take the shot, and the same settings will apply because the light didn't change. Take the shot and you will have a perfectly metered shot. If you're doing a landscape, measure the sun and set your camera to the meter's readings, and you will have a perfectly metered shot. Using a handheld meter is incident metering. You are measuring what hits the meter not what bounces off of the subject.

So when should you use a handheld meter? Should you use it all the time? Okay, now let's get practical.  You could use a handheld meter all the time and get great photos, but it's not practical to do so. The meter in your camera will work great for 90 percent of the photography that is done. Landscapes, sport, Portrait Workshop-6 wildlife, and street photography are things that can happen fairly quickly, and using a handheld meter would get in the way. The one type of photography that I always use a handheld meter for is when doing off-camera flash and/or portrait photography with or without strobes. I find this to be the best way to set your lights and get the metering perfect each and every time. If you have a model, go to the model's face, point the meter at the light and pop the flash, and you can set your camera to what the meter says and have a perfect exposure. If your lights and subject stay in the same place, you don't have to meter again. With your Head Shot 2 camera in manual, you just shoot and everything will be properly exposed. Others will say, "Well, I only have to take a couple of test shots and adjust my camera or lights until I get it right in camera." And that is true. But to me it's sloppy, and I can meter once and have it perfect. Then I only have to think about my subject, posing, and composition. So in my humble opinion, when doing off-camera flash/strobes, it's much easier to use a meter, put everything in manual, and shoot that way. So I am in the for meters camp of thinking. There are many ways to get a light meter. And of course, the old saying "buy nice or buy twice" applies here. I have an older meter that I have had for years and it works great but you can get apps on your phone that may also work. But I cannot recommend them because I haven't tested or used them.  Sekonic is a very popular and reliable brand name that is the industry standard for photography light meters.