New place

Street corner at dusk

So, it only took 3 weeks to fully move in and get everything setup.  Finally pulled out the Sony A7ii camera with the 24-200MM lens.  We live on the night floor facing north ward towards the Gatineau Hills.  We had a really nice sunset tonight.  I wanted to do some long exposures tonight of the cars passing by.  This is probably the best shot I got tonight.  I really miss using the camera.

Living large off of Google Ad Sense

Nope.  Not really.  Can't even buy a coffee for what I earn with Google Ad Sense.  I earn maybe $0.01 to $0.10 a day depending on if I get a click on one of the ads that are featured on my site.  I wish I was running a bigger site but it's been up only a few months.  I'm just a one man band that runs the site and I blog a few times a week.  I work full time and do this part time with my photography.  I wanted to run this focusing more on photography.  I think in the future when I move to Calgary later this year, I will focus this more on photography.  I'm not a gear reviewer or a travel photographer.  I just do this for fun as an amateur photographer.  I photograph landscapes and wildlife and sell my stuff on sites like Shutterstock, Pond5 and Storyblocks.  I've shot about a half a dozen weddings in my lifetime but they are a pain in the back.  I don't have the space to do headshots so I stay away from them.

I enjoy being outside and being with animals.  They are way more relaxing than being stuck inside with a camera.  Anyways, Google Ad Words.  I'm glad I'm getting some money from it but it's not a get rich quick scheme.  Hopefully in a few months, while I work on the site and do more blog entries, my income will grow.  I don't know about doing YouTube with YouTube demonetizing people for using the "wrong" words and thoughts in their videos.

Some good news. Some bad news.

So I have a friend from high school who works as the finance manager at a local Jeep dealership here in Ottawa.  Hopefully on Monday before three in the afternoon I will get a good news phone call from him telling me I got the 2018 2 door Jeep Wrangler.  The only thing that's not good news is this past year I co-signed a loan for my girlfriend for a 2015 Jeep Patriot.  Her ex really did a number on her credit and now it affects me.  Maybe I shouldn't have signed it but I thought it would be better for her to not pay 20% interest on a loan.  Instead we cut it down to 8% I think.  Now it affects me which totally sucks.

I do hope I get the Jeep Wrangler.  I totally hate the Hyundai Elantra.  It's not good for my body anymore.  I find it difficult to get in and out of the vehicle.  After driving my girlfriend' Jeep Patriot I enjoy the SUV much more.  We shall see on Monday.

I was hoping to do some photography today but it's just so cold out.  It was -14 degrees celsius this morning and now it's -7 degrees celsius.  I think I need to do more photography at Parc Omega which I can do from the warmth of my car.  I haven't been to Parc Omega in a month.  The girlfriend doesn't like doing the photography thing.  That is not good for the relationship as I love photography and shooting footage of nature, landscape and animals.

My most popular image

My most popular image so far has only been online for just over a year.  I shot it in Banff, Alberta while on a weekend.  I've been doing micro stock for about 4 years now and this image just keeps selling on average every 3 days.  At first I thought it would be a throw away image when I shot it and looked at it on the computer.  Then I had the bright idea of turning it into a black and white image.  It got accepted and I keep selling it.  You can find the image here.

Review of the Sony RX10 Mark II

This bridge style camera is a really good travel camera that produces excellent pictures and 4k video. It uses the same chip as the RX100 line and the Sony FDR AX100 B 4k camcorder.  Being a bridge style camera the 24mm-200mm f2.8 is non removable.  

Yes there are two new models, the III and IV with longer lenses but they are also slower at the long end capturing less light than the f2.8 Carl Zeiss lens.  You can look at my Shutterstock profile here to see the capability of this fantastic little camera.  It's quite a bit bigger than the RX100 line of cameras but way smaller and lighter than a regular DSLR camera.  It also does not over heat when shooting in 4k mode.  It has the same 1" sensor as the RX100 line of pocket cameras.

It shoots 4k video at only 24fps or 30fps.  But at 1080p you can shoot all the way up to 960fps slow motion.  With the 20 megapixel sensor, this bridge camera takes great photos and videos.  Sony is really known for their sensors supplying other camera manufacturers.

Some pros of the camera are:

1. Great photo quality
2. Great video quality
3. Shoots 4k video
4. Shoots slow motion video
5. Light in weight
6. Very portable
7. Picture profiles for both still and videos

Some cons of the camera

1. No inter changeable lens
2. Battery life
3. Feels small in the hand

In the near future I will be upgrading to the Sony RX10 Mark IV just for the reach of the lens being a 24MM to 600MM.  Really great for those nature shots.

Best pocket camera in the world

The Sony RX100 Mark V is possibly the best pocket camera in the world.  Currently you can buy the Sony RX100 Mark VI as well but the Mark V is a bit cheaper.  The Mark VI has a 24-200MM lens compared to the 24-70MM on the RX100 Mark V.  The Mark V takes amazing photos and videos and I'm guessing the Mark VI is slightly better.

The Sony RX100 Mark V has a one inch type Exmor RS CMOS sensor with a 21 megapixel sensor (20.1MP effective) which shoots great photos and even better videos up to 4k.  It can shoot up to 4K UHD video and regular video at 1080P.  It can even shoot slow video up to 980fps.  I've had the camera for over a year now and it is very reliable.  I take it everywhere with me since it does fit into my pocket.  You don't feel like a paparazzi with the camera.  You will not get stares as you would with a gigantic DSLR and a 70-200 lens.

The Sony RX100 Mark VI does have a 24-200MM lens which is awesome and is the only reason I would ever upgrade to the Mark VI.  The Mark V is very versatile little camera.  It's pretty much travelled with me every where I go.  From Calgary to Vancouver to Ottawa and down south to Florida.

The pros of the camera are:

1. Pocket size
2. Shoots awesome video
3. Shoots awesome photos
4. Easy to setup and use
5. Great for vlogging
6. 24 photo burst rate (Raw images)
7. Non-invasive 
8. Descent audio capture for such a small camera

The cons of the camera are:

1. It overheats when shooting 4K video 
2. 5 minutes limitations on 4k video
3. Battery life.  Buy lots and lots of batteries.  At least 2-3
4. Menu system is atrocious.  But once you learn it, it's ok.
5. No input jack for better audio

For me, I shoot mainly stock photos and videos so I don't really need audio recording for my needs.  This little camera does pretty much everything.  I actually sold all my Canon gear and bought the Sony RX100 Mark V and a Sony RX10 Mark II when I was out in Calgary for work.  I took it to the mountains whenever I was out there on weekends.  

If you would like to purchase it, please click here and help me out a little.  I do get a little back from Amazon when you purchase something.  It helps me buy new equipment and software and helps me travel to new places to take better pictures and videos.

The sink hole

Finally made it to the sink hole in downtown Ottawa.  Pretty funny to see it in person.  A lot of people just watching the workers and equipment fill in the hole.  What a mess!

Noiseless Pro

Noiseless Pro is a noise reduction plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom which reduces the noise or grain in your night or indoor photography.  Currently it only runs on Apple Mac computers.

As someone who shoots outdoors in low light or in night time, there is a lot of noise and grain in my photography.  Even using the latest camera bodies and lenses, you will get noise and grain.  Noiseless Pro gets rid of the noise and grain artifact in the photos quite easily.  You can check my night photography on my website or my microstock portfolio here and here.

I have been using Noiseless Pro for about 9 months now and have been going thru my previous shots and running them thru Noiseless Pro.  Everything is being accepted for sale whereas before it was not accepted because of high noise values.  The software is on the pricey side but you do get what you pay for.  The noise reduction in Photoshop and Lightroom CC is good, but not as good as Noiseless Pro.  That is why I would ask you to try and buy it here.  Purchasing the product also helps me out as I am an affiliate of MacPhun.

Shot this in July 2015 with the Canon EOS 6D and the Canon EF f2.8 17-35MM L series lens.  I think I had the lens about a month and I was still testing the lens out.  It's a great Canon lens.  

I'm editing a few photos from the past couple of years as it's raining pretty much the whole weekend. Trying a new technique in editing and re uploading the files to Shutterstock, Bigstockphoto, Alamy and Fotolia.  Most have already been accepted on Bigstockphoto so I'm just waiting for the others to catch up.  Hopefully they'll be accepted soon.

Shooting editorial photography and videos

I've been shooting a lot of editorial photography and video.  A lot more video than photography.  It's a lot of fun.  I'm selling the photography as well.  Shutterstock is a great platform to sell your photography and videography along with Bigstockphoto.

Unofficial start to the long weekend in Canada

The May two four weekend is the unofficial start to the Canadian summer as it's the first long weekend in a while.  I spent the day in Algonquin Park yesterday and today I just went to Jack Pine Trail and a bit of the Tulip festival.  

Warm weather and a nice sunny day.  I really wanted to do some night photography at Algonquin Park yesterday but I left the park at around 6:30pm as I was running low on fuel and if I left at 11 or midnight last night, I figured I'd miss all the gas stations on the way him since they all would have been closed.  I made it back to Ottawa with enough gas that I could have gotten some today.  I averaged 5.7L/100km in my 2015 Hayandai Elantra.  This was the first time I put over 700km on a tank of gas.  Now I know how far I can go on a tank of gas.

Anyways, back to photography and my plans.  I think, depending on weather, I may go back again next Saturday and might stay the night or stay much later.  I found a place where I can get decent horizons for astrophotography which is great.  A nice quiet place just off of the main highway.  So if the weather cooperates that will be my plan for next weekend.  

International Astronomy Day 2016

The event held every year by the OAOG at the Gloucester Shopping Centre has been cancelled due to weather being bad.  Clouds and rain all day.  I was going to go to the event and photograph it but with the weather cancelling the event, I will have to make other plans.  

I will now get to catch up on stuff that I couldn't do during the week.  I have to go buy a power cord for my telescope mount and buy a book on Photoshop.  I want to get my Adobe Certified Expert certification in the next couple of months.  Although I use Lightroom for all my photo editing, Adobe has not offered the Lightroom CC certification yet.  So Photoshop CC certification here I come.

Back to Astronomy Day.  If your city has nice weather and an Astronomy event going on today, I highly suggest you go as you will learn a few things about the universe you live in.  Astronomy got me into photography.  Astronomy and photography are two amazing and amazingly expensive hobbies.  But as I always say, at least I don't spend my money and time on foolish things like alcohol and drugs.  

Time to go and enjoy the day.

Selfie rant

Descent sales seem hard to come by.  $0.33 here and $0.33 there but where are the sales for $20 or more?  Or larger sales like $120 per file?  Or $500 for a sole picture or video?  In a tough economy where people are working 2 or more minimum part time jobs to make ends meet is a tough market to try and sell your photography in.  

With people using iPhones and Android devices to take pictures, it's harder and harder to sell quality photography.  People think they take quality photos with their phones not realizing they're using tiny sensors with tiny pixels to take their photos.  People store their photos on their devices not ever printing them.  Just share them on Facebook or Pintrest.  The online world is killing photography.  Specifically social media is killing photography.  Instant selfies.  Instant gratification.  As a society, we have devalued quality with quantity.  How many bathroom selfies can you only take?  Narcissism at its best I suppose.

People spend $200-$500 on an iPhone or an Android phone every two years to take selfies that they shoot and forget but bitch when they go to a photographer to have a proper photo taken.  Photographers spend literally thousands of dollars on equipment alone.  My Canon EOS 6D, battery grip, SD card and Canon EF 70-200MM L series lens cost roughly $5000 Canadian.  That's one camera, battery, lens and SD card.  Then there's the computer and software which cost me roughly $3000.  Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom cost roughly $14 monthly for me to run.  Then there's the education which cost me roughly $4000.  Upgrading my education costs even more.  Learning online costs money.  Watching YouTube videos costs me time and money in a sense instead of watching a Youtube video using a different technique I could be marketing my skills and photography.  And yet people wonder why photographers charge $100 an hour or more.  You're asking a professional to make a memory for you.  Clients just tell you, you're just pressing a button and the camera does the rest.  I'm here to tell you the rest costs money.  

If you want a selfie, use an iPhone.  If you want a real photo, a real memory, something that looks professional, use a real photographer with a real camera.  Hire a real photographer!

Daffodils

The Tulip festival begins in about a week and a half here in Ottawa, Canada so I thought that I could go do some macro photography practice.  I was joined by a friend after work today and we shot some flowers.

The tulips are not in full bloom yet as we've had a very cold spring with seasonally low temperatures.  But it's been warming up and the flowers are coming out.

I'm just glad I got out today again.  Will have to go out after work again tomorrow.  I do enjoy my photography.  So glad this hobby found me.

Surfing the waves to catching the night sky

I spent the whole day yesterday (4/23/2016) doing photography.  Woke up really early Saturday morning at 4:30am and didn't get to bed till past midnight after shooting the stars.  We started early at 8:30am to go see some kayakers surfing the waves at Bates Island in Ottawa.  Considering the amount of water rushing on the Ottawa river this spring, I'd say all had a good time.  It was a very chilly morning with just above zero degrees celsius feeling like a negative five celsius.  It actually felt colder with the wind.

This is how I ended my day under the starts till the full moon came out at about 10:30ish.  It was time to pack up and head home.  Got home just past midnight and it was really hard to wake up this morning.  But I'm glad I spent the whole day doing what I love and spending  time with good friends who enjoy the same things as I do.

Yes today is kind of a short blog but it's nice and sunny outside again.  So off for other adventures with the Canon EOS 6D's and the Canon L series lenses.  Have a great day everyone.  :)

Night fall.

I was supposed to meet up a with a fellow photographer friend to do some astrophotography today as we got clear skies and warm weather.  But alas, she had exams and bailed out on me.  Now, I was not going to have a few thousand dollars worth of astronomy and photography equipment with me alone in the middle of no where at night.

So at the last minute, I decided to go down to Nepean Point in downtown Ottawa to do some night photography instead.  I only stayed for about an hour and half since I had to walk back to my car which was a good half hour walk for me lugging 3 camera bodies, 3 lenses and a pretty solid tripod and head.  

In this shot I managed to get the constellation of Orion above the city of Hull, Quebec.  This shot I think worked out pretty well.  Seems I got the exposure right and managed to get a nice sky behind the bridge and city.

All images can be purchased at my website by clicking on the following link.

Night fall over the gulf

So I love shooting wide field landscape shots with my Canon EOS 6D and the Canon EF f2.8 L 16-35MM lens.

If you seriously want to get into photography, buy a decent body like the Canon EOS 80D, the 7D Mark II and buy the L series lenses.  Yes they're expensive but you get what you pay for.  You can see the quality of a good camera, a good lens and a half decent photographer here:  http://goo.gl/cdNR63

The 3rd Canon EOS 6D body and the moose

So I've been doing a lot of thinking the past couple of weeks with what I wanted to do with my photography and videography.  More specifically, what kind of photography and videography I wanted to do and what my current equipment was capable of.  Also in my thought process was what do I sell via the micro stock agencies I deal with.

Some time ago I bought a Sigma f5.0-6.3 150-500MM lens that I used to get various shots with for my wildlife photography.  I also use a Canon EF 70-200MM f2.8L II USM lens a lot as well.  I've been finding that the Canon 70-200MM far more often than any other lens just because of the build quality of said lens.  If you shoot on the Canon platform and do not use this lens because of the price, I suggest you start saving up to get this lens.  Simply the best lens out there.  Sharp, crystal clear and the colours are consistently amazing with no chromatic aberration at all or at least very, very little.  For my landscape photography I use the Canon EF 16-35MM II L USM lens along with the Canon EF L 24-70MM II USM lens.  For macro photography, I use the Canon f2.8 100MM L USM lens.  I also use the nifty fifty (Canon EF f1.8 STM).

I also shoot video for my stock agencies.  Currently I use the Canon Vixia HF R62 HD camcorder.  I had the Sony FDR AX33 4k HD camcorder.  Now, both shoot amazing video.  World class.  As much as I wanted to keep the Sony FDR AX33 4k HD camcorder, I could not sell 4k video at all.  1080p, plenty.   But of course not as many as I would like.  Sales are always good.

Today at lunch I went to my local camera shop that I always use to buy my equipment to sell some stuff and perhaps buy a new body.  A new body for me anyways.  A camera body that is.  So today at lunch I went and sold some equipment.  I sold the Sigma f5.0-6.3 150-500MM, the Sony FDR AX33 4k HD camcorder and the Sony RX100 Mark IV which by the way is an excellent pocket point and shoot camera which also shoots 4k video along with taking great pictures.  Plus it fits perfectly in the front jean pocket.

Depending on what I was going to get back for the equipment I was going to buy a cropped sensor body like the Canon EOS T6i or the Canon EOS 70D.  I was kind of hoping to get enough money back to get the Canon EOS 70D which is a steadier body with a few more features than the T6i.  Plus the T6i is an entry level camera.  Don't get me wrong, I think the Rebel series of cameras are great.  That's how I started in the photography business.  Actually I upgraded to the Canon EOS 350D from the Canon A95 which was a cool little point and shoot camera that, if I remember correctly required four double a batteries and shot at a maximum of 5MP.

Back on topic.  I had more than enough to buy the Canon EOS 70D body and battery grip.  But I was a bit short for the Canon EOS 6D.  I did a bit of budgeting for the next couple of weeks and figured, why not?  Spend less than $500 to get a full frame body.  My third Canon EOS 6D.  I got the Canon EOS 6D because I was so happy with the other two Canon EOS 6D cameras that I still use to this day to do my landscape and nature photography.

The only thing that bugs me about the Canon EOS 6D is the lack of focus points using only 11 and only 1 is cross type.  Otherwise it's an excellent camera body which works well in low light and other photographic situations.  So now I have three Canon EOS 6D bodies attached to Canon L series lenses except for the Macro and nifty fifty which are waiting for their own bodies.  Eventually I think I may get two mored bodies to finish off the set.  I also need to get a battery grip for the new addition to the Canon family as I find the body to be just a tad bit small for my hands.  The battery grip also helps when you're shooting vertical. I wonder if I can get Canon Canada to send me one for review.  Eh, Canon????