Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder

I never liked the form factor of a DSLR or a bridge camera to shoot video.  I've always like a real camcorder feel to shoot video.  I bought the Canon Vixia HF G40 about 2 years ago because it's a prosumer camcorder for a really good price.  I bought it for $1249 Canadian.  3 years ago I never shot video for my stock business.  I was actually at Parc Omega one day and I had my Canon EOS 6D and a Sigma f5-6.3 150-500MM lens attached.  The light that day was simply amazing.  I decided to shoot a video of a coyote on a hill thinking "Hey that would make a cool video."  Shot a 30 second clip and a few days later it sold on Shutterstock for $120US.  That got me hooked on shooting footage.  Currently I have 1495 footage clips on my Shutterstock portfolio.  I've shot video with my DSLR cameras like the Canon EOS 6D, a Canon Vixia HF R82, my Sony RX100 Mark II, IV and V.  I've shot with my Sony RX10 Mark II.  I've shot with a Sony FDR ax33 (4K) and a Sony FDR ax100/b (4K) camcorder and my Apple iPhone 8 Plus.  I also have a drone that I've shot video with (DJI Spark).  Out of all those cameras, I've always enjoyed the Canon Vixia HF G40.  I think the Canon lines of cameras and camcorders reproduce colour the best.

Yesterday I sold a 4k video for $1.80US which is insulting.  Today I sold a video for $17.29 which is still pretty low.  I wish Shutterstock would let us price our videos the way we want like Pond5.

Still adding photos

Still going thru my photos from my trip to Arizona and I keep finding more and more photos that I like.  I'm of course adding them to my Shutterstock portfolio and my own personal website.  Arizona is certainly a beautiful state with extremely nice people.

Holy exhausted Batman!

No new photos or videos today as I was swamped at work.  Plus I didn't get a chance to edit photos that I took yesterday.  I took a lot of panorama photos and some wide field like the one above taken with the Canon EOS 6D and the Canon EF f2.8 16-35MM L series lens.  I think I will do some photography tomorrow.  I haven't been sleeping well in the past week or so.  I'm really exhausted.

Shooting panoramas

Did another walk around from where I work to the Museum of Canadian History.  This walk takes me about 90 to 120 minutes to complete as I stop along the way to take photos.  Today I decided to shoot some panoramas with my Canon EOS 6D and the Canon EF f2.8 70-200M L series lens.  I gripped the camera vertically and started shooting at 70MM.  I stitched about 8-10 vertical shots in Adobe Lightroom CC and colour corrected, removed sensor noise, corrected white balance and then posted on this blog.

I didn't get to edit many more shots as I had a few errands to run after work.  Tomorrow will be the day for editing.  Actually maybe next week as we're supposed to get sunshine till sometime next week.  I want to be outside and use my camera.  Editing is for those rainy, miserable days.

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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.

Alamy?

So I upload to several micro stock agencies such as Bigstock, Istock, Fotolia, pond5 and shutterstock.  All get regular sales and on most of them I have 2200+ images.  On Alamy, I only have about 400 or so images.  Granted I only started uploading within the last two months yet I've not made a sale whatsoever on the site.  I'm just wondering if I should continue to upload.  Let me know in the comments below.  

Mr. Grumpy

Today's blog is going to be short and sweet.  Warm temperatures.  Blue skies.  And finally photography after work.  

I went to Mud lake today which is located just off of the Ottawa river in Ottawa's west end.  I just needed some fresh air and clear my mind.  I always like going to Mud lake as there are plenty of varied wild life to watch and photograph from small birds to big birds, turtles, and small woodland animals to deer.

Since my longest lens is the Canon EF f2.8 L 70-200MM, I will be doing a lot of cropping of some of my photography since I got rid of the Sigma f5-6.3 150-500MM lens to get another Canon EOS 6D body.

On my way around the lake on the walking path I met a friend and fellow photographer.  He will remain nameless as he shoots on a competing camera line which will also remain nameless.  Now, I met my friend on a bridge which crosses some water.  From this vantage point you can shoot a lot of water fowl such as geese, ducks, musk rats, beaver and very friendly turtles who will gladly pose for you for a small fee.

I spent about two and a half hours shooting the sh*t just talking photography and various other topics.  For not being a people person that is pretty good.  As I am a solitary photographer meaning that I love going to do photography by myself most of the time so I can stop, think, take pictures as I please without any interruption.  I also like doing photography in small groups with other photographers.

Yes, this is a convoluted blog post as it's late on a Thursday night and I work early tomorrow morning.  Plus I wanted to do some astrophotography tomorrow night since I don't have to get up any time soon on Saturday and I could actually sleep in.  

By the way, have I mentioned recently that Canon rocks?

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????