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.

Finally

Finally got my domain name pointed to Blogger.  Finally got Adsense to work with Blogger and my own domain.  I've had so much trouble with setting this up.  So many errors.  So many issues.  I haven't posted here in over a year because I've been so busy with work.  My girlfriend has had both her knees replaced in the past year so I've been helping her a lot this past year.  Driving her to physiotherapy, doctor's appointment etc.  But I am back and I'm looking to do more blogging and more photography.  I've wanted to have my own domain name pointed to the site for so long and have Adwords run on my site.  I finally had the time to sit down and do this.  

I am finally back.  Now I wish it would stop raining so I can fly my new drone.

July is the slow time!

The summer months are the slowest times for photo sales.  At least from my experience.  As people take vacations, they purchase less from micro stocks where I do pretty much all of my business.  I travel as well to various parks to do my photography.  The above shot is from Barron Canyon in Algonquin Park, Ontario.  Took it just before I got to the Algonquin Radio Observatory.  I'm thinking next weekend going to Algonquin Park again.  But this time to the southern Highway 60 corridor.  There are a lot of moose sightings.  I also want to do some astrophotography imaging.  Hopefully the weather will co-operate.  If not Algonquin Park, maybe one of the other parks which are located 2-3 hours just west of Ottawa.  Weekends in Canada are just amazing with the weather and scenery.  

I typically go to Parc Omega in the fall and winter seasons as the landscapes are amazing as the tree leaves turn colours.  I hope to make it to Tremblant as well for a day or two.  It's a good time to be living and doing photography.  The technology is just amazing.

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.

Baby woodpeckers!

Just got home from taking some videos and am editing them now.  Got some cute, little Pileated Woodpeckers being fed by both parents.  Videos to follow.

Algonquin Park

Heading up to Algonquin Park today.  Hope I see some nice wildlife.  Probably not, but it'll be a nice drive up and time time spending it in one of the most amazing parks in the world. And, best of all, the cameras are coming with me.  :)

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.

Another beautiful Saturday

It's another beautiful, sunny day here in Ottawa with warm temperatures as well.  Packing up the cameras for another fun day of photography.  Today on the agenda will be the tulips followed by some city scape photography.  Hope you all have fun with whatever you're doing today.

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!

Shooting Editorial

I haven't been shooting many editorial shots for fear of them being rejected on sites like Shutterstock and Fotolia.  What if they're rejected or they don't sell?  Well, they haven't sold anywhere yet but they are being accepted.  Which is a good thing of course.  I'm not one for photographing people much just because there are so many photographers that do people photography.  I would rather shoot inanimate objects such as the kayaks above.  

Plus if I put the shots onto micro stocks like Shutterstock, Bigstockphoto or my own site and people find themselves in my shot which is for sale, they'll probably come after me for money or some other reason.  Could it just be paranoia?  I don't know.  I just know I hate having my picture taken.

Back to shooting editorial.  I've been shooting it for a while now but just haven't posted them to the micro stock sites and if I did they were rejected for some reason.  That all changed in the last month or so when practically every editorial shot has been accepted which is a feat in itself.  Now I wish they would just sell.  Considering they're on micro stock agencies, I'll probably sell them for pennies on the dollar.  But if people would just buy off of my site where I get a higher percentage of the sale, that would just be awesome.  I host my photos on FAA (Fine Art America) because it only costs $30 a year and you can upload as many photos as you want and they take care of all the printing, framing and shipping to your client.  Less administrative head ache for moi. 

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.