well, time has flown by an all the work i’ve been doing and money i’ve been saving is about to payoff, and be spent
In the morning, i’m off to Nepal, with a nice stop-over in Thailand first. I shall be giving my camera and equipment a serious workout while i’m away, snapping pics of anything and everything!
When i get back, i plan to do several reviews of various bits and pieces, including my Lowepro Daypack 250 backpack, Canon 50mm 1.8, Vosonic and Nexto storage devices and possibly various other bits and pieces that i’ve put through field tests while i’m away.
So i’ll be back in a few weeks.. It should be awesome, but no doubt, it will fly by!! seeya all soon!
In preparation for my upcoming trip to Nepal and Thailand in about a week’s time, i needed to get LOTS of storage space for photos. There’s a lot of different options out there, and i think i looked at them all. Options including Compact Flash Cards, Portable Storage Devices, External Hard Drives and USB bridges. Also, to make things more difficult, i wanted to be able to have not just 1 backup, but 2 for peace of mind.. And, no, i didn’t want to lug a laptop with me.
I ended up getting the Vosonic 8860 and the Nexto 2700 Portable Storage Devices.
Nexto 2700 and Vosonic 8860
Vosonic 8860 and Nexto 2700
If you want to know why i got these particular models, and how i came to that decision, then keep on reading!!
I’ve finally gotten around to sorting some of my images and uploading them to my gallery.
These were from a visit to Lone Pine Koala (and other wildlife) Sanctuary. Not too much processing was done before upload. Basic cropping if needed, sharpening and resizing generally. A fantastic place to visit for a day if you’ve never been and are around the Brisbane area.
You can see more in the full post or check out the Photo Gallery.
Being the avid video-gamer that I am, I am signed up for the Playstation newsletter. In a recent email, was a quick competition in promotion of the new Buzz trivia game that was being released on PSP. It involved a few AFL related questions, of which good old Google and Wiki quickly solved for me. I ran through the quiz, pressed submit and forgot about it as always.
A month or so later, i get a phonecall from a lovely lady named Leah from Sony to let me know that i’ve been chosen as 1 of 5 runner up’s in this competition i’d entered, and therefore, had won a Sony PSP and Buzz game pack! I couldn’t believe it, and almost didn’t until this week, when in the mail i recieved..
PSP, Buzz and Win Letter
I’ve always been one of those people that think ‘i never win anything’ but that’s stopped this week. I won a PSP! I do actually have one already, so this new one will most likely end up Ebay to pay for more photography stuff.
So big thanks to Sony.. i was already a fan of their games consoles and this will certainly reinforce that!
Well i’ve decided to do a quick write-up for one of the new toys for my camera i recently bought. It’s the Phottix dSLR Timer Remote.
The Phottix Timer Remote
This remote control allows you to do time-lapse photography, and also allows you easier and more precise control with long exposures (bulb). It also functions as a basic remote if you want to keep your hands off the camera while shooting from a tripod.
There is an official Canon Timer Remote, the TC-80N3, however it costs a lot more and the input plug would need to be modified to fit with my EOS 400d/Rebel XTi, so i decided to try this 3rd party one out. I scored it from Ebay for about $55AU including postage. I’m pretty sure there are versions available for other non-Canon users too.
My initial impressions out of the box were that it was quite large, larger than i expected (see photo with it in hand further in post), however this really doesn’t bother me as it’s a comfortable size to hold, and not easy to lose. It’s made out of plastic but seems to be quite well built and solid, but not overly heavy, even with batteries inside. Also, it wasn’t long before i realised there’s no way to turn off the device! A strange feature exclusion i thought, but ah well, not a major hassle by any means.
But enough about how it looks, how does it work and how does it perform i hear you asking.. Well keep reading..
just a quick note about an upcoming game that i heard about a little while back.
It’s called Afrika and is a safari game where you are a photographer and are given various missions to go and capture specific shots throughout the wide open land of ‘Afrika’. It will take advantage of the PS3’s sixaxis motion controlled controller, where if you aren’t holding it steady, it will show in the photo results, just like in real life. Better photo’s will earn better cash, allowing you to upgrade your camera equipment.
Sony’s camera division have worked closely with Rhino Studios (the makers of the game) to incorporate the Sony Alpha series of dSLR cameras into the game in detail, down to shutter sound and lens operation.
National Geographic have also been involved in the project, with editors of the magazine supervising the in-game animal antics such as behavior and animations, and also allowing use of their videos and photos for the in-game animal encyclopedia.
This is one game I’m definitely looking forward to checking out.. Should be great for those video gaming photographers stuck indoors when the weathers bad.. and who hasn’t wanted to go on an African safari!
it’s released on the 28th of this month (August) in Japan, not sure about when for the rest of the world. here’s a video with the trailers.
been busy with workin to save money for my upcoming trip to Nepal in a little over a months time and so haven’t had much time to dedicate to photography.. however, in saying that, i have taken quite a few photo’s and have some to upload to the gallery, im sure, but i haven’t had time to sort through them yet!
also, got my first trojan/virus in quite some time.. somethin called Virtumonde or Vundo. It took a few days to figure out what it was as the only thing it was doing was not allowing me to access certain websites, mainly those requiring cookies such as ebay and facebook and most forums i use, and also not allowing me access to my own websites! crazy virus but its all sorted now.
So i’ll try get onto sorting through these photos so i can post some new stuff up in the gallery. Also, i have recently aquired some new camera/photography accessories so i plan to start reviewing some of the equipment I own.. I know that i personally like to research things before spending hard earnt money on them, and for some pieces of equipment there’s very little information out there to be found so I figure i’ll do it and hopefully someone out there may find it useful one day. So keep your eyes out for that..
Last Friday night, the 17th of July was the annual Battle City break battles, held in Brisvegas. The talent on display from the b-boy’s and b-girl’s was out of this world. My mind was blown..
It was a fantastic night of crazy dance moves, in ya face attitudes, and a lot of fun!! These guys and girls are amazing athletes.
I took this display of awesome moves as an opportunity to attempt some low light action photography and see if i could capture any of the impressive dance moves. Unfortunately, my current equipment struggles under these difficult conditions, but i did what i could, eventually needing to work my way through to the front to get some decent shots.
Before next years Battle City, i’ll definately be purchasing a better lens for these types of conditions.. most likely the Canon 50mm f1.8 mkII which is one of the cheaper priced Canon lenses available. Tip: The key to photography in these kinds of conditions is being able to let as much ambient light into the lens quickly as possible so you can use a faster shutter speed to freeze the action. A couple of ways to do this is by using a low aperture, ie f1.8 or by raising the ISO, ie ISO 800 or so.)
I experimented with various setting until i found some that seemed to be working as well as my equipment allowed. I ended up with ISO 800, daylight white balance, and using shutter priority of about 1/50th of a second to allow me to hopefully freeze the action and get a clear, relatively non-blurry shot while still letting in enough light to show up in these dark conditions. Read the rest of this entry »
Just a quick update for today.. I’ve finally upgraded my internet connection to ADSL2 and i can definitely tell the difference. This will help in the uploading and maintenance and updating of my websites so stay tuned!
Also, i decided to sign up online for the Playstation Network to get the multiplayer thing going with my PS3. My ID is “inked3D” for anyone that wants to add me.
i haven’t had much time to post this week, but i’ll add a new post ASAP.
I went for a walk one early morning during the week, with camera ready, to see what was out and about to photograph. I walked along the bike-track near where i live, one of my favorite local spots to walk and photograph birds.. conveniently close is always nice. Tip: Always try and find time to explore your local area.. you might be suprised at what you find to photograph, and may not need to venture too far for good photo subjects.
This particular area near me is a mix of grasslands and wetlands, with a creek/inlet/outlet running out to the sea (Moreton Bay).. this makes for an interesting mix of birds from all sorts of different habitats to be seen, and if i’m lucky, photograph. See attached photo below for a pic of the landscape.
(Post-process method - photoshopped out a couple of annoying lamp posts using healing brush, slight saturation adjustment, slight blue gradient to sky, sharpened, resized)
I saw several species of birds while walking… this is usually the case at this location, especially if you have some patience and hang around long enough. Tip: If theres not a lot of wildlife action around to photograph, sometimes being patient and waiting for the wildlife to come to you can be just as rewarding as walking in search, not to mention a lot less tiring.
Some i managed to photograph are attached in the rest of the post. Keep reading if you want to see them.. Read the rest of this entry »
