Hey Ya'll! How's everything going? Me? Pretty good but it's been hot. I mean hot! Africa Hot! So there has been a lot of inside stuff going on. Outside stuff has been curtailed to mornings only. With temps pushing 100 and heat indexes well over 100 going outside is not only uncomfortable but dangerous. My daughter gave me a puzzle for Father's Day and it took a couple weeks to finish. While I was struggling over the puzzle I listened to some food pod cast from Great Britain . I'm not a big foodie but I do love to listen to the English speak and the food podcast was very interesting to me for some reason. One of the guest was a comedian that was talking about a fad that he said he had started a "Mousie" Now it's not a real mouse or even a toy mouse. It's a selfie taken from the perspective of a mouse. I don't think he started it but I thought it was interesting. I'm not much on selfies but I was intrigued with the notion on what a Mouse sees. Now mice
usually scurry on the ground along the edges of walls or on countertops or in cabinets. They have a unique view of the of the world. Now I haven't seen any mice in my house now but when I lived in Illinois we had lots of them at work around the corn fields of the area.  They can be fast and sneaky. During the same time frame I became an Apple watch user. One of the cool functions of the Apple watch is that you can trigger and control your iPhone camera from your wrist.  This was something I really wanted to try out and the Mousie gave me an excuse . So I took a couple of them and I really liked the perspective or POV (Point of View). I don't really know why. Maybe just because it was different.  I posted a couple of these "Mousies" on my photography clubs facebook page and got a few people to make some "Mousies" of their own. And they were great. I plan to make Monday  Mousie day. Like Taco's are on Tuesday. So Mousie Monday!

What equipment do you need to take a Mousie? Really you can get as elaborate as you want to but all you really need is some sort of camera set on the ground pointed to you to take the photo. I like using my phone. Phones now are really great and take great photo's. You can use wide angel lenses on them that can catch everything and in focus. But you could use your big camera and use your phone as a trigger. Most camera companies have programs or Apps that go to your phone and you can control your camera from them. If you use a big camera you need a small tripod that is low to the ground. If you're using a phone you can prop it up on a shoe or the side of the wall almost anything can stand up a phone. They do make
little phone stands that can work also. If you can tell I like the phone for the Mousie.  I always have it with me and I can control it with my watch. But with a regular smart phone or Android phone you can use a self timer to trigger your phone. So that's the equipment for a Mousie.

What types of things to photograph with a Mousie. Everyday things I would say. Opening a cabinet, making coffee, sitting in a chair at work, on trips around town almost anything. Like a day in the life type photo. Try to make them unique and funny. Remember the from the perspective of a mouse. Maybe get your pets involved your spouse too. Post your Mousies. People will love them. They will laugh and see what you do day to day or when on vacation. Its a cool way to keep cool in the hot summer heat and still have fun with photography.

Well that's it for this week. Until next week "Get out and Shoot!" If it's not too hot. LOL 

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

What's up Everyone? I hope that you have had a great week! Me? Not too bad . Thanks for asking. This week's topic is Back to the Future. No not the movie with the flux capacitor. It's about photography. My photography to be more exact. I have gone through many camera's in my photography journey. Now I have preached buying used and stick to your budget .  I have also been looking for a new set up for quite a while. I have thought about Fujifilm cameras, Olympus cameras and all sorts. I have been looking at smaller setups. Especially for travel. I really like my Full Frame set up but carrying around big bulky lenses and camera bodies has worn me down and I have been yearning for my smaller crop sensor set ups that I used to have with all of my small Sony cameras that I've used in the past. Especially while traveling in the MAV (Max's Adventure Van) where space is priority having a small capable kit is what I'm looking for again. I initially went to the Sony A6000 series camera's many years ago because I was doing a lot of backpacking and luging a full frame camera and lenses was not an option. I fell in love with the little camera's and got rid of my Nikon Full frame setup and went full on Sony. I started with the Sony A6000 and after a while upgraded to the Sony A6300 and finally went to the Sony A6500 which I shot for many years. I really love the size of these cameras and they much reminds me of the film cameras of years past , size wise. The Sony A6700 came out a few years ago and I really had my eye on it but opted for the Full Frame Sony A7III. A full frame used powerhouse that I have been using for a while. So after going back and forth after getting my van finished I decided to make the move and get the Sony A6700. It is a much more modern camera than the A7III with modern menu, touch screen, and AI focusing . It has a 26 megapixel sensor just a little bit bigger than my full frame and it has a much updated processor. It is Sony's flagship crop sensor camera. If that's a thing and it has lots of high quality video specs that I'm really not going to use but can do all of that too.  It has been out for a couple of years so I did have the choice to buy used but after researching it was only about 100 dollars difference so I decided to buy new. Yes I bought a new camera. Not used!. So I've gone back to crop sensor with futuristic specs. So Back to the Future.

One reason I went with Sony instead of Fuji the next contender was the lenses. All of my current lenses that I own for my full frame will work with this camera. So my Sony Zeiss lens will work with the new crop sensor body. You do have to add the crop factor of 1.5 and the 35mm will be a 50mm. So I had lots of lenses. The other reason is that I'm used to the ergonomics of the Sony crop sensor cameras. They are designed much like a range finder type of camera but are not rangefinders. The viewfinder is on the left side of the camera and not the middle of the camera. This model has a rear wheel and a front wheel to adjust different things like aperture and shutter speed. So I really like the ergonomics of the camera. I really like the size of the small size of the crop sensor lenses. I have purchased 2 crop sensor lenses which I will talk about in another blog post but the size of these lenses are tiny compared to full frame lenses of the same effective focal length. My new kit lens set up consist of a 10-18mm zoom , a 18-50mm zoom and a 70-300mm. Which will give me a full frame equivalent reach of 15mm to 450mm in a small kit I can carry in a small sling bag. I am really pleased with this new kit and am roaring to get out and shoot. So "hold on Marty" as the Doc would say "it's going to be a wild ride. Back to the Future" 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 week! Me? Pretty good . I just got back from a trip to West Virginia with my wife and Forrest the Wonder Dog in the MAV.  If you haven't been to West Virginia you should put it on your places to go. There is lots to see especially in the New River Gorge area. That was our focus while on this trip. I have been to this area a couple of times in the past but in the fall when the leaves were changing I had never been in the Springtime. My wife had never been in this area before and of course Forrest the Wonder Dog was just wondering why we took him away from his home.  I decided to make a stop in Virginia on the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way there then we were scheduled to stay at a campground on the Parkway. We stopped at Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. We took some photo's and enjoyed our stop. Then we went to Rocky Knob campground only about 15 mile away and had a great stay at this beautiful campground. The next morning we headed out to West Virginia.

In West Virginia Babcock State Park was going to be our basecamp. We would stay here and travel to all of the destinations around the New River Gorge National Park. Babcock state park has lots of trails , a lake, cabins, camping and of course maybe one of the most photogenic Grist Mill in America . Especially in the Fall. I have been here a few times before but only in the Autumn. This would be my first Springtime shoot of the mill. The mill didn't disappoint and it was as beautiful as always. 

The New River Gorge National park is a rather large park being 53 mile in length. It is the Newest National park. It boast all kinds of activities from white water rafting, hiking, rock climbing. It has waterfalls , abandoned mill towns and of course the New River Gorge Bridge. The building of this bridge saved commuters 45 minuets of travel just to get across the New River Gorge. You now can travel that Gorge in about a minute .

Bridge Day. This day was concentrated pretty close to the New River Gorge Bridge. This is a big bridge sitting over 800 feet above the New River. One of the largest Arched Bridges in the world. They have a festival each year Bridge day and people bungie off of the bridge and base jump off of the bridge. First we went to the Grandview overlook. This over look is over a horse shoe bend in the New River. It is very spectacular view one that my photography club has done sunrise shots over the horse shoe turn in the river. We did not do a sunrise shot as we slept late and didn't get to the overlook until after 10 in the morning. We then went to Turkey Spur over look. We did not climb all the way to the top of the lookout but did get some shots at the base of it. We then headed to the Canyon Rim Visitors center near Fayetteville to see the bridge up close.  We arrived and I got my stamp in my National Park Passport. The Passport is a book that you can get a stamp at each of the 63 national parks. I've only got a few but hope to get many more. Just outside the visitors center is one of the best places to view the bridge. A short walk to an overlook gets you the first good view of the bridge. If you would like to have a different view you can go down the 150 steps to another view. But just remember you have to climb up those 150 steps.  We did both views and decided to have some lunch. What's nice about having the van is that i've got all the stuff for a good lunch right there and we made some sandwiches and were planning our next move. We had a hike planned but we saw that some weather was coming in and decided against it. Good thing we did it started to rain.

This is the wet part of our trip. We had rain and storms for almost 24 hours. The MAV worked great for this time in the rain. We were comfortable, dry had food and I had the Starlink set up and we had internet so we could watch movies, youtube , Facebook or whatever else we could do with the internet. If it got hot we could crank up the AC for a little bit to knock the temp down. So a big win for the MAV. We had to move our itinerary around and decided that we decided to go to Hawks Nest State park in the afternoon. So we went there and had a good time at the overlook and the gift shop there. By the time we were done there we really didn't have much time left so we headed back to the campsite. 

All in all we had a good time in West Virginia . Although we didn't get to do all of the things that we had planned it was still a successful trip and am looking forward to our next trip. So until the next trip. Get out and Shoot!  Here is a link to a short video I made of our trip. Wet and Wild West Virginia

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