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.