IOS 14.5 on an Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max

channel

So I haven’t posted in a while.  A few weeks at least.  A lot has changed since the last time I posted.  I am no long with Shared Service Canada.  On my own doing a YouTube channel.  Personal debt is all cleared up except for the vehicle.  Credit score has vastly improved to the positive.  A new Apple iPad Pro is on the horizon and will be purchased this week on April 30, 2021.  IOS 14.5 came out today and all the current devices are updated.  The plan to move out west is in the works.  Most of the jobs I am being offered now are all remote or work from home.  No point in staying in Ottawa if all the jobs are work from home.  I can work from home from anywhere.  

I don’t know why I purchased the Dell XPS 17” 9700 laptop.  Well, I didn’t really know that Apple would be upgrading the 2021 Apple iPad Pro so dramatically.  I guess the reason I got the Dell XPS is to use it as a device for work.  So it will remain a device for work.

I’ve been using the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max and the 2018 iPad Pro as my daily drivers for a while now.  With the new iPad Pro coming out later this week, it’ll be more of a reason to use the new iPad Pro and iPad OS as my daily driver for my own personal work.  I started a YouTube channel earlier this month.  Please check it out and if you can, subscribe and hit the notification icon.

I’ve been getting a lot of job offers.  A lot of them are remote, work from home types of jobs.  I think this is more proof I can get a job anywhere and work from home.  Time to move out Calgary.

Comet NEOWise

Got this photo last week off my 9th floor balcony looking northwards over Gatineau, Quebec.  Hopefully this Saturday it will be nice and clear so I can go out of town to get a better photo.  I want to go to Moosecreek and get better photos and videos of the comet.  The photos are available for sale on my own website.  It’s also available for sale on my Adobe stock portfolio.  Since this is my only form of income right now, please consider purchasing something from either site.  Thank you and I appreciate it.

Algonquin Park - Landscapes

It is 23:15 on Saturday night.  Just got home from Algonquin Park maybe half an hour ago.  I transferred all my photography and videos from my various SD cards and here are the first two shots that I edited from our day at Algonquin Park along the Highway 60 corridor.  Quite the successful afternoon from the park.  3 moose and lots of lakes that were photographed.

From looking at most of the photography today, it looks amazing.  Tomorrow will be more video stuff from the Tulip Festival here in Ottawa.  Thankfully they opened up the city parks this past week.  Most people are social distancing thankfully.  I still think this whole corona virus is way overblown as pretty much all the deaths are in long term care facilities which everyone knew was going to happen.  But that's just my opinion.

Today's social distancing walk around Ottawa

Went out for my social distancing walk this afternoon in downtown Ottawa.  Ottawa is currently empty of government employees, locals and tourists.  Everything is being cancelled.  All the festivals and concerts are no more.  All the museums are closed.  Seems like the summer is cancelled in Ottawa.  The good thing is there are no people or cars in my shots.  If there are cars or people in my photos, I can remove them using Affinity Photo.  Today, I just had to remove some cars.  Some of these shots are available on http://josefpittner.photos/.  I know times are tough right now for everyone.  I was laid off from my job 3 weeks ago now because of this Covid19 virus.

My favourite camera. And why.

As a photographer, I've gone through a myriad of camera bodies and lenses.  Point and shoot cameras, cropped sensor cameras and full frame cameras.  Then there are the lenses.  Zoom and fixed focal lengths,  I can't count the number of bodies I've gone through in the past 15 years or so.  But the Sony a7R II body with its 42.4 megapixel full frame sensor has to be the best camera I've ever used.  The Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM lens is the most versatile lens I've ever owned.  It's no f2.8 70-200MM lens but I don't need the 16-35 or the 70-200 and another body to carry around.  

As I get progressively older, I do not want to carry around multiple bodies and lenses.  Like I've stated in the past, when I was in the Rockies, I carried around 3 lens, 3 bodies and a camcorder.  That was a pain the butt I can tell you.   I also switched to the Sony RX100 Mark VII which was an amazingly fantastic little pocket camera.  But I needed something a bit more versatile.  The Sony a7R II combined with the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM is just the right combination for a one man run and gun setup.

I was hoping I'd be moving out west to Calgary in the next couple of weeks but it looks like that is going to be put on hold.  With the corona virus, SSC is not bringing us on past March 31st of this year which sucks.  Photo sales are not picking up and I think things will get only worse before they get any better.

I am hoping at some point this year, we will make out west.  I want to do a lot more landscape photography with the Sony a7R II and the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM lens.  On a side note, iPad OS 13.4 came out today and it has made the iPad a little worse for wear.  The Files app is a huge disappointment   It now crashes whenever I try to copy over the 85 megabyte files from the Sony a7R II.  I am stuck using my Windows 10 laptop.  I'm thinking that I will try the 2018 Apple iPad Pro tomorrow again after the system settles down a bit.  In the meantime, I'll be using the Windows 10 laptop and Affinity Photo 1.8.2 to edit the photos.

My photography setup

During this self isolation period, I managed to clean up my desk and clean up my photography setup.  My setup includes the 2018 Apple iPad Pro with the 12.9” screen and the 512GB hard drive.  I have an external 2TB hard drive attached via USB hub and the Yeti Blue Mic.  I also have the Apple Keyboard Folio and the Bluetooth Apple mouse which will be connected via Bluetooth tomorrow whenever iPadOS 13.4 comes out.  The camera is the Sony a7R II which has the 42.4 megapixel sensor.  I am using the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM lens which is a great all in one lens.  Yes, it’s a little slower compared to the f2.8 lenses but it’s also a lot cheaper in price.  

The 2018 Apple iPad Pro is great for editing photos coming from the Sony a7R II camera.  It has more then enough power to edit the 85 megabyte files coming out of the Sony a7R II.  There are minuscule problems with the operating system of the iPad Pro which I hope will be fixed in iPadOS 13.4.  I am hoping iPadOS 14 brings in more features like a better and more stable File system.  The File App has crashed my iPad Pro twice so far when transferring files from the 128GB SD card onto the external hard drive.  Also missing for me is the copy status when transferring files between the SD Card and the external hard drive.  Once those two features are baked into iPadOS, I’d be really happy with the 2018 iPad Pro.  With the 2020 Apple iPad Pro, the GPU is only about 10% faster which is not a reason for me to upgrade.  I also don’t use the 2018 Apple iPad Pro as my primary camera so the new camera system on the 2020 Apple iPad Pro is totally meaningless.  Although the new keyboard folio looks interesting with the track pad, I was never a huge fan of the track pads on any device.  As long as the iPad Pro gets the Bluetooth mouse support tomorrow, I’ll be really happy.

I have noticed an uptick on visits to the site.  With everyone staying home and self isolating, if you are reading this and you see the ads running on this blog, I would appreciate if you would peruse the ads by placing your mouse over them and hitting the left mouse button or using your finger on your iPhone or iPad.  It would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks very much and be safe out there.