The year is coming to a close...

And at last, it's snowing outside! The forecast for Thursday night (it's now Saturday) was for up to 11" of snow here: I think we got 11mm! I could still see my grass. But it's snowing right now and the guy across the road is plowing his parking lot. Guess that means I get to take my ATV out and do my driveway! I think I'll let the township pass down the road first so I can clear the "cone" they make at the head of my driveway. Anyway, "Yahoo!" Winter.

(PS: it's later in the day. I went out and plowed with the ATV, the whole 2" of snow that we got! Having some issues with the switch that controls the winch (and the plow blade), I hope that's all it is. Up works, down doesn't always.)

Need I remind you that making quality winter pictures requires some forethought? Look over on the right to see my Guide to winter photography, and download it!

People try to take advantage

I read an ad in the local paper this morning calling for entries to the Haliburton Tourism photo contest. I'm not entering. I went to their website and discovered

1. You have to be on FaceBook or Twitter to submit images. 
2. It wants to install an app on your computer and you have to give it permission to "post on your behalf" which to me means I would allow them to pretend they're me and post on facebook as if it was me doing so. I'm not paranoid, that's what it says on the subtext.
3. No manipulation, no composites. I get it, but that means you can't even clone out a power line or do an HDR.
4. Here's the biggie. They ask for "a royalty-free, world-wide, perpetual, non-exclusive license to display, distribute, reproduce, and create derivative works of the entries, in whole or in part, in any media now existing or subsequently developed, for any County of Haliburton purpose, including, but not limited to advertising and promotional materials, its website, exhibition, and commercial products, including but not limited to County of Haliburton publications. The County of Haliburton will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such uses".

It's the 'commercial products, the "derivative works" and the "not limited to.." aspects that bother me.

I wrote them an email saying I'd be delighted to contribute to Tourism Haliburton, and I have some worthwhile images for them, but under my terms. I said, instead of the fancy legal terms, why not say something like, "we have the right to use your pictures on our website and even on our printed advertising, but if there's going to be any other use made of it, we will ask your permission first."

I'm sure it will fall on deaf ears but it was cathartic to write it.

Moving forward in 2013

There are some things I want to do with my life going forward. I'm going to be 67 this year. It's now or never! This isn't a New Year's Resolution, simply a goal to make some of the things I've been considering and preparing turn into concrete actions. They include:

• Consider where I am as an artist. I had a great conversation with Rosa yesterday in which I tried to convince her that by practicing and studying and reading and learning what the rules are (whether you follow them or not) you gain technical expertise and can therefore devote more attention to your art. She responded that all of that was horse manure, just go out and do what your passion tells you. I still think I'm right, in the sense that you can't do that if the technical stuff isn't instinctive but I do get what she's saying.
• Commercialize or monetize. Don't get me wrong, I hate blogs that are constantly and transparently trying to sell you something (the ones written by NAPP staffers come to mind), but at this point I do need some income from this stuff. Again I don't mean the blog... I mean training courses and materials, marketing some photographs, teaching.
• Explore other media. Writing: there's that novel that really wants to come out of me. Painting: despite my best intentions, I haven't tried it yet. Music: I'll never be any good (not in this life, anyway!) but I get passionate listening to great musicians. 
• Travel. I want to go places I can experience some of these things before it's too late. I haven't travelled in a long time. I need to.
• Relationships. I don't want to talk about that here, but it's something I need to address.

It's going to be a busy year.

February is already a busy month: there's an art show I plan to attend (The Artist Project 2013), I'm doing a presentation to the Richmond Hill Camera Club on HDR techniques, and I'm judging a competition at Toronto Camera Club. More to come!

Killer deal from B&H

If you're reading this before the end of 2012, you have to go to the B&H site and see this offer for a Nikon D600 outfit at an $850 discount. I wish it had been there when I bought mine, but then I wouldn't have 3 months of pictures with it under my belt, would I?

There's also my D300 outfit for sale:

If you're interested, I shot this in the light tent with one single off-camera Speedlight (SB600) pointing up. I overexposed it on purpose to blow out the background and I enhanced the detail in Photoshop using Topaz Adjust.

Everything you see here. What a great Christmas gift! Now in my Kijiji ad, I say $1200 (someone else is offering just the camera and lens for $1350 firm! Look at all my goodies!) but if you're reading it here, let's talk. Check out the Kijiji ad for more details or contact me directly!

Images

The world out there hasn't inspired me to shoot much in the past weeks. Maybe with snow on the ground, I'll feel more like getting out there. But in the meantime...

Winter's on its way! But it's not here yet... the lake isn't hard! Here's an unusual shot, you can only get at this time of year (actually you can see this in the dead of winter in fast water).

Iced Cap

The water washing over the rock froze in place. But the lake is still liquid! 

I went back and got my 10x ND filter so I could shoot this 15 second time exposure. The red colour snuck in there: I think it was the sun reflecting off the ND filter. So I emphasized it. Again, the rocks have a cap of ice. 

This ATV was sitting in the parking lot next door. HDR + Oil Paint filter makes it surreal.

This guy was working in the parking lot. He works at the Inn and I don't think I've ever seen him without a cigarette hanging from his mouth. This a really tight crop out of a long telephoto shot.. I just liked the character study. 

I drive past this sculpture all the time: it's on Water Street, one of the main roads into Minden. It's very 'kitch' but I thought it was quite cool in the snow. I fixed the eyes in Photoshop because they were covered with snow, but they realistically match the eyes the sculptor put in there, you can see it in a bear further down.

That's it for this weekend: it's more interesting out there now, let's see what I can come up with for next time!

— 30 —

What's goin' on?

Not much, you?

Fall is drawing to a close here, what leaves are still on the trees have faded to dull gold and browns. Although there are still lots of great photos to be had. Here's one I took of my car on a rainy Sunday, driving into Toronto.

I needed a "car" picture taken this week for the monthly Rally on the TIF site. (log in to view. Just keeping the spammers and riff-raff away from our forum). The rain increased the saturation of the colours and gave the car some texture in this HDR shot.

Speaking of "cars", the parking lot at the Foodmart in Minden looks a little different from its counterpart in urban (or even suburban) Toronto.

Don't see too many of these on the street in the city, do you? I chatted with the owner: he's a Torontonian (well, Richmond Hill-ite) up here moose hunting. Sure makes life a lot easier than we had it back in the 'day', carrying 300 pound moose quarters over our shoulders across a 1 mile portage! Uphill both ways, if I recall. Carlo's also a photographer, with a D90. I gave him a card, hope he gets in touch.  

So that's a Polaris 500 ATV. I think it's reasonably new. I'm still waiting for mine: I exchanged my motorcycle for this guy's bigger, older brother, a Polaris Sportsman 700, vintage 2003, with a snow plow. It's just being mechanically tweaked before we actually exchange the hardware. You can drive these things on all the roads around here except the highway that you see in the picture! He came in the back way, through town. Oh by the way, it's a handheld 3-shot HDR (ya think?) bracket. Selective color with a masked Silver Efex Pro layer. Can't wait to get mine. I bought it just to do HDR pictures of it! OK, and clear the snow, and...

Last weekend, George, a friend of mine from Humber College, visited for the day and we went on a mini-tour. The weather wasn't great, we retreated to here at the computer when the rain started coming down (I didn't mind getting my D600 wet, but George is a wimp about his D800. Just kidding... sort of!). Anyway, I took him to the Minden Wildwater Preserve where we were lucky enough to see a couple of brave fall-weather kayakers practicing their flips and skills in Earl's Hole.

Now if I did this right, here's a video clip I recorded with the D600 the week before, same spot, one of the same paddlers My first or second attempt at shooting video. Looks like something it'll be fun to learn to do. (shooting video, not whitewater kayaking! You think I'm nuts?)




On Saturday, George got a better shot than I did (whine). Here's his picture (with permission)

© George Reichert 2012. Shot with his D800 and 70-200 VR lens 

...and here's my shot

D600, same lens, slightly different POV.  

Shooting at the White Water is fun, I do it a lot. As you may have noticed.

You can't take a bad picture of your kids.

Well yeah, you can but you're more likely to get some good ones. There are a few reasons for that, which I discuss in my basic photography courses:

• You've shot 6000 pictures of your kids and only a few of other peoples' kids
• You have an emotional connection with your subject
• They're no longer intimidated by mom or dad or grandpa with the camera pointed at them and are generally ignoring you
• They're YOUR kids and by definition the most beautiful, smartest, greatest kids in the world.

The lesson is, if you want to take great shots of other peoples' kids, shoot lots, until they ignore you and pretend they're as wonderful as your own kids. If you want to take great shots of other things (like a cow, for instance), you need to get up close and personal and make a sympatico connection with the animal or the rock or tree. Seriously. 

So last week, my son and his family were up from New York, and we all hung out at my daughter's place in Uxbridge. I got a bunch of shots of the kids playing on the trampoline, and if you're willing to wait for those great facial expressions, you'll get great shots too. Of course they won't be as pretty or handsome as mine...

Leah is 3 

Kelly's 9. Hope I'm still around and able to take her high school graduation pictures! 

Ryan just turned 13. He needs a haircut (heard he finally got one this week!). Trampolines are great, this was right up at the peak! 

I'll leave you this week with the texture of the underside of a fall-reddened burning bush leaf at maximum magnification with my bellows.

Nothing done to it. Right out of the camera. Since I don't have Exif data, I'm guessing it was at f/11 or f/16, 1/200 sec at ISO 400, obliquely lit by my flash, off-camera at upper right. 

My D300 and 12-24 wide angle DX lens are still for sale. I'll put them up on eBay next week if there are no takers. It's a great deal...

Update: I just posted this, then went to look at it so I could come back to edit typos, etc and I noticed that someone from Berlin, Germany was already reading this blog post! How cool is that???

— 30 —

It's all about Vision

Continuing the theme from last week, photography is all about vision. Oh sure, great hardware helps to 'render' your vision, but do you really need it?

Here's a photo of the much-photographed Empire State Building in New York City:

It is, of course, located at 34th Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan. I was in New York visiting my brand new granddaughter (oh yeah, and my son and daughter-in-law, and my sister and her husband, but the baby was the real reason!) and I took half a day to go into Manhattan specifically to visit B&H Photo. More on that later.

I bought a little point-and-shoot camera at B&H — not state-of-the-art, just something to kick around with. It's a Nikon (of course!) Coolpix S560. I threw in the battery and an SD-card and tried it. This is probably the 4th frame I shot with it (the first three being, "oh THAT's how that works"). Wasn't the lighting great?

About an hour later, I came back and shot this picture from exactly the same spot.

I had lost the light — the sun went behind some clouds, but this was shot with my D300 and my 12-24mm lens. Both shots were at the 35mm equivalent of 36mm. I was trying for the same picture.

Which one is better? The first one, because of the lighting.

I was interested in the comparison, so I cropped both shots in tight and converted them to monochrome. Except for the obvious lighting difference, which one is better (click the image to blow it up)?

The $2500 camera/lens combination on the left is contrastier and does have an edge in pixel sharpness but the $100 point-and-shoot isn't bad! It wasn't really a fair test because they were shot under different conditions, so it will be interesting to repeat the experiment under controlled conditions some time.

Does the equipment really make a difference? Sometimes. This picture was captured using the "C" (continuous) focus mode on the D300, relying on the high speed Silent Wave Autofocus motor in the Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 lens. I shot at high repetition rate, about 6 frames/second. Blow it up and check out the tack-sharp focus. I did basically nothing to this shot in Photoshop, other than to rotate it for better framing.

This beast is a "turkey vulture", hanging around the dump in Minden.

Ugly, but majestic in flight.

...and sometimes not. This was done with the little Coolpix (by the way it's time to start thinking about getting ready for winter!).

 

It's all in your vision. Don't be afraid to get out and shoot no matter what kind of equipment you have. There is one caveat, though: be familiar with your camera. Know how to adapt to different lighting situations. Know how to use the tools you're using so that your mind can be focused on the image you're trying to create, not the hardware.

Here's one more image taken with the Coolpix. I went for a bicycle ride and couldn't have carried the big SLR with me. That's what I bought the little guy for!

I did create the clouds and sky in Photoshop. Much better than the featureless sky that was there. It was easy to do using the "Magic Wand" tool to select the bright sky then "Select Similar" and "Render Clouds" after choosing the blue and the white colours.

B&H Photo

I said I'd comment more about B&H Photo in New York. The place is overwhelming. I had only 2 hours but wish I had had the whole day to spend there. It's located at 34th St. and 9th Ave. in Manhattan and the best way to get there is by subway (take the "A" Train: I feel a song coming on!). They do have a parking lot, but I think you'd be nuts to try to drive into the city.

The store is the size of a typical department store. But it's just cameras! When I came in, I told the 'greeter' that I wanted to talk to someone about a technical issue with my D300, and I wanted to look for a point-and-shoot. He asked me what brand, and I said I didn't know, I was hoping for some advice. They have kiosks set up for each brand. One for Nikon. One for Canon. One for Sony. One for Panasonic. etc. You get the picture. At each kiosk they have EVERY CAMERA that maker has to offer on the market: set up so you can pick it up, play with it, shoot some pictures, and talk to an expert in that brand. You see why I said I needed more than two hours?

There were at least 80 cameras in the price range I wanted to spend ($200: I told you, I just wanted a little backup camera, not a fancy beast). I tried most of them. I couldn't decide — people told me to go for a Canon but I didn't like it as much as the Nikon (I'm biased, but the image looked better on the LCD. That said, it's not about what it looks like on the LCD but what it's like on the computer!). There was a Kodak camera with better features, but more than one person told me to stay away from that brand. So here I am, waffling back and forth, and completely out of time. I was supposed to meet my sister at 42nd & 5th in 5 minutes (I was late). I gave up. I decided I would order something online another day. On the way to the exit, there was a big sign: "Used Equipment". I wanted to look for a TC-17e teleconverter for my 70-200, so I stopped to ask. Nothing. "Do you happen to have any used Point-and-Shoot cameras?" Yep. The S560 came with everything, including a 2Gb SD-card and case, for $120. How could I NOT buy it?

So here's how it works: you agree to buy it. They throw it in a bin that looks like a typical blue box and put it on a conveyor belt. You go down to the central cashier, pay, then walk to the pickup counter where, as if by magic, your camera is already bagged and ready to go. What a system!

I know I'm going on and on, but it's an incredible place. If you're into photography, you HAVE TO go there, just to see it. I talked to a Nikon expert about my D300 issue: You stand in line (for a second, I was next!) for the "next available tech support person" who sits at a station behind a counter. The guy I talked to was very knowledgeable. I wanted to know about the micro focus adjustment function and he explained it to me in detail. Yes, you may need to create more than one preset for multiple focal lengths on a zoom lens, and no, it's not unusual that a given lens/camera combination might benefit by doing so. He dismounted my lens and commented on how dirty it was in the camera, told me to buy a blower brush and cleaned it for me while we were talking. He recommended a different brand of teleconverter which was less than half the price of the Nikkor TC-17e, but I think I'll stick with Nikon product.

Oh, if you want Canon advice, it's not the same guy. These people are dedicated to the brands they're assigned to and they all shoot those brands themselves. This guy had a D700 and much the same lenses I do. By the way, I played with a D3 at the Nikon kiosk. I want one! Only $5000...

PS: Check their hours of operation before you go. They're a bit unusual  since they're closed on any Jewish holiday and of course on the Sabbath. http://www.bhphoto.com/

As I said, I met my sister and brother-in-law. As we were walking past Macy's again, they had a string of "Santa Clauses in training". I handed my sister the Coolpix and she took this shot of me:

One more picture. This is what I went to New York to see:

---

This is the first time that I've put anyone else's pictures on my Blog. The following two images were made by Shannon Lafferty last weekend and they are superb. She gave me permission to post them here. No words are necessary. Click to blow them up as usual.

Shannon, I adore your work.

Cleanliness is next to...

Well you know. Today's tip is about cleanliness. It's about cleaning your DSLR's sensor. Specifically, the D70, but the technique applies to pretty well any DSLR.

(OK, that's frustrating. I just wrote the entire article, clicked "Publish" and it wasn't there. Grrr.)
So here goes (again):

FacZen Photography Tips Clean your DSLR Sensor Unless you're really new to the DSLR world, you know what this is all about. If you do know this stuff, you may want to skip the following couple of paragraphs, or read them then post a comment criticizing all my little inaccuracies! Here's the deal. Every time you change lenses, you open the camera body to the air. The air, which is full of gunk like dust bunnies, pollen, sand, greasy smoke, pollutants, and well-meaning camera owners' spit. In fact, unless you have one of those high-end lenses (you know, the Canon "white L-glass" ones or the Nikon lenses that cost you over $1000), every time you zoom or focus your lens, you're sucking dust inside. Now that doesn't get directly on your sensor. See, unless you’re taking a picture, the mirror is down, covering the sensor, airtight. Anyway, the sensor itself (which is a really, really precise Integrated Circuit which costs more to replace than you paid for your camera), is covered with a protective glass or mineral crystal cover, so dust and gunk gets on THAT, not on the sensor itself. Still, even the old D-70 has 6 million little points on it that detects light, so a flake of dust smaller than you can imagine can cover a bunch of them. No, it doesn’t get on the sensor protector when you change lenses, it gets on it when you take a picture and the mirror, moving in that compartment, moves the air around inside and the dust floats everywhere. The newer generation cameras, like the D300, have built-in automatic sensor cleaners which essentially vibrate the sensor assembly and shake the dust off. Still, it’s in there, and eventually you’ll be bitten by the dust bunny. You can’t send your camera in to Nikon every time you get a fleck of dust. First of all, there’s shipping costs and time, and Nikon charges about $80 to clean it for you. But Nikon (and Canon) say in no uncertain terms, DON’T TRY TO CLEAN THE SENSOR YOURSELF. So you’re standing there in Africa, and that lion is charging that herd of wildebeest, so you’re going to tell him, “hold it right there – I have to mail my camera back to Toronto for cleaning. Don’t move, I’ll be right back”. Or it’s your sister’s wedding and you say the same thing to the reluctant groom… nah. I don’t think so. You’ve got to do it regardless of what Nikon says. So it’s time for me to say this: If you do anything as a result of this article and you damage your camera, IT’S YOUR FAULT. It’s not my fault. I told you not to do it. I told you to send your camera in. Don’t come crying to me. That said, it ain’t Rocket Science. That sensor protector is HARD stuff. It ain’t diamond, so you CAN scratch it or damage it, but it isn’t that easy to do. Still, if you’re going to do anything, be gentle. Be careful. I do want to caution you, though. • DO NOT take the lens off, flip the mirror up and blow on the sensor. Spit makes it worse. • DO NOT use a Kleenex or Q-tip or even a lens tissue to clean your sensor. You’ll scratch it. • DO NOT be afraid. A proper, clean PecPad and soft brush or swab won’t hurt your sensor (see disclaimer above!). How often do you have to clean it? When I first got my camera, it was very dusty. I did take it to Nikon, they gave me the first cleaning free then said it would cost the next time. That’s when I decided to find a method to do it myself, and searched on the Internet for a solution. I cleaned the camera again about 2 months later, and I figured cleaning it frequently was a chore I would have to live with. Believe it or not, I’ve hardly cleaned it since. I noticed a couple of spots on an image the other day, and since I had some time, I decided to do it. This after many outings, lots of images, in rain, snow, on sandy beaches, in blowing fields and stormy days. It’s been about a year and a half.... That said, I’m using only Nikon, high-end glass, lenses that focus internally so they don’t suck dust in. I’m not particularly careful about where and when I change lenses and usually my lenses are in my Lowenpro backpack, NOT CAPPED (well, always back-capped). It’s not as much of an issue as I first feared. How do you know if you need to clean your sensor? • If you see dark spots on your pictures, it might be dust on the sensor. They will appear as darker, transparent spots. You can also check by doing the following: • Put your camera on manual focus and move the focus ring to the closest setting • Find a blank area to point the camera at – sky, or snow will do • Shoot a picture at nominal exposure. • Open it in PhotoShop and use the levels control to make the histogram cover the whole black-to-white area, then move the middle slider to emphasize the midtones. Spots will be obvious. You will also need this technique to see how you’re doing in the cleaning process. Where do you get a sensor cleaning kit? I started with some research on the Internet and learned that I should use a nylon brush, and blow air through it to statically charge it, then cautiously swipe the sensor. However I looked further and found what I think is an easier and a better method. I found “Copper Hill Images” at http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning (that’s an underscore between “ccd” and “cleaning”). I bought their “Basic” kit which cost me about $35 including shipping. You get a “SensorSwab”, a package of PecPads, some Eclipse liquid and lots of instructions. Preparing to clean your sensor • You’re going to need to lock up your mirror. Learn how. On the Nikon, it’s in the menu and the instruction book cautions you to us an AC power source so it doesn’t snap down in the middle of the procedure. I think that’s overkill – but I do make sure I have a fresh battery in the camera when I’m working on it. • Follow their instructions about mounting a clean PecPad on the SensorSwab. You don’t want to add or just move the dust around, and you certainly don’t want to scratch the sensor. • When I cleaned the sensor today, I opened the bottle of Eclipse, only to discover that it was empty. It had all evaporated, even though it was in a closed bottle in a sealed ziplock bag. So I cleaned it with a dry swab. It worked anyway! • Get some powder-free medical examining gloves. You won’t leave oily fingerprints on things if you use them. They’re good to have around anyway – see me if you want to buy some (we sell them in my First Aid company). • Find a nice clean, bright place to work. Best if there are no fans blowing air and dust around while you’re working. Actually cleaning it Follow the instructions they give you. Basically, you want to lock the mirror up, then swipe the swab across the sensor once, then back the other way (using the other side of the tip). Don’t give into any temptation to scrub things. Swipe with about the same amount of pressure you would put on a felt pen. Put the lens back on, shoot another test picture, and see how you did. If there’s still objectionable dust there (there will always be some...) do it again. If you’re really cautious, change the PecPad. The bottom line It’s not difficult, you just have to be careful. You don’t have to do it as often as you think, but it is a necessary task from time-to-time. As I said, it “ain’t rocket science”. There are some pretty good articles on the Internet about this. One of the better ones is by Thom Hogue and you can find it here. So have fun, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

Resistance is Futile

I’m like a kid in a candy store. No really, I’m JUST like a kid in a candy store. And I’m not even talking about chocolate which has been and will be my downfall and will definitely contribute to my demise, although I’ll enjoy every bite along the way.

No, I’m talking about taking pictures of the fall colours up here in the Haliburton Highlands. How can I NOT take pictures of the colours when they’re so spectacular? So forgive me for posting a bunch of postcard type pictures, I couldn’t help myself.

What’s different about these shots, compared with most of my previous work, is that there is virtually NO PHOTOSHOPPING done to these images. I may have cropped the odd one a little, but I didn’t push the colours, didn’t clone anything out (well I think there was one where I didn’t like the green bush in the lower corner so I did). No Hue/saturation layers, no meddling with curves. I will admit to a few adjustments in Camera Raw – for instance, I increased the saturation of the blue sky in a few images, but I never touched the leaves.

Anyway, enjoy the images. If you want to see them full-sized, go to my gallery, click on monthly photos and then on October 2008.

Did I tell you I LOVE my 12mm wideangle lens? I LOVE my 12mm wideangle lens. Sometimes I point it straight up…
Straight up! That's what a super wide angle lens is for!

This is the same image, but I did a little "perspective cropping" to straighten the trees, just like you would in an architectural shot. Boring, isn't it? I like the first one much better.

This is right behind my house. Two doors away. I always loved old barns, the texture of rotting wood.

Here's today's photo tip. Thanks to Bob Fowler for the idea (he presented a similar one at the camera club a while ago).

FacZen Photography Tips Reset to Square 1 Right after I got my D300, I started having some problems. I experimented with all kinds of things (as well you should with a new camera – learn how it works!), and then I wanted to shoot some pictures and they came out lousy. Exposure was off, focus sucked, even the colour balance was off. I couldn’t understand why for a normal daylight shot the camera chose 1/8000 sec at f/8. Then it dawned on me. I had played with the ISO setting and it was at 3200. Want to see colour noise? Try shooting at that kind of sensitivity level. I was demonstrating the Gary Fong Lightsphere to a fellow photographer, and the exposures were all off. Well not all, about 1 in 3 were OK. What was the problem? I had been trying out “bracketing” and I still had it on. Every time I pressed the shutter release, I got a different setting. So here’s what to do. Make a mental (or even a written!) checklist and reset your camera to the defaults at the end of every shoot. ISO back to normal (for me that’s 200). Metering back to matrix mode. Autofocus set to “single exposure” (not continuous), focus mode back to weighted average or whatever it’s called in your camera. Bracketing off. Exposure compensation back to zero. White balance to Auto (for me). Shooting mode to aperture priority. VR on. Quality back to RAW. Put in a fresh battery and reformat the memory card. ANY ONE OF THESE SETTINGS CAN SCREW UP YOUR NEXT SHOOT. Tell me you’ve never come back from a shoot and said, “damn, that didn’t work the way I thought it would”. So reset all your camera controls to default as soon as you finish a shoot. That way you’ll know where you are when you have a chance for that magic picture.

Busy Days

I'm moving tomorrow... well technically I'm only 1/4 moving. See I have two residences, one up in Minden where, I like to say, it's nice all the time regardless of the weather... and one here in Toronto where I spend half my time because I have to be here for business.

I'm moving the Toronto home -- but not all in one day -- hence the "1/4" thing. The new place is technically not IN Toronto, I'm going up to the North end of Richmond Hill, around Lake Wilcox. Hopefully my internet access won't be interrupted too badly.

Actually I won't have access until they give me the codes for the WEP encryption on the network. Hopefully that'll happen tomorrow night. So no pictures for a few days. I'll try to get some shots of the new place soon.

By the way, I decided to hang on to my D70. Everyone needs a spare body, right? Anyway I can hang a lens on it so I can react quickly if the glass on the D300 isn't right for the shot. I have to send it to Nikon for a cleaning, though. There's some stuff on the sensor I can't easily remove and I don't want to do anything silly. We'll see how that goes, and I'll report back here in due course.

Later, folks!