The perfect setup. For me.

So I’m sitting here at work waiting for my computer to get setup and finally getting my access to the network.  I brought by 2018 Apple iPad Pro with me today to watch some videos and do some light reading.  I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my computer setup and my photography setup.  I have the 2 terabyte backup plan with Apple.  I’ve had it for several months now.  I think I’m currently using about 270GB worth of data.  Most of that is my photography backup.  I am really happy with the Apple ecosystem.  How simple and easy it is to access pretty much everything.  

My current photography setup consists of a Sony RX100 Mark VII, a Canon Vixia HF R80 camcorder and an Apple iPhone 8 Plus.  My contract with Freedom Mobile is almost up.  Actually May 2020, I’ll be free of Freedom Mobile.  I am not entirely happy with Freedom Mobile.  Their network coverage is absolute garbage.  I could be right down town here in Ottawa and be on some other company’ network or I could have 1 or 2 bars.  The reception is absolutely horrible.  I honestly don’t like Bell or Rogers.  They’re overpriced and their customer service is atrocious.  Mind you Rogers’ network is pretty good.  They’ve had to up their game with the amount of data they give to customers having gone from 4GB a month to 10GB a month. They are about $20 more expensive a month.

What I’m trying to say is that I’m looking into the idea of just using my 2018 Apple iPad Pro and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max (256GB) model to do all of my photography and all of my computing needs.  I don’t use Photoshop or Lightroom on my iPad Pro.  Just use Pixelmator Photo on my iPad Pro to edit all of my photography.  I could use the iPhone as well to shoot all of my footage.  The iPhone has excellent video quality and it takes excellent photos.  All of this with a phone.  All my stuff would be backed up to the cloud and be accessible via WiFi with my Apple iPad Pro.  Something definitely to look into.

HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub — for iPad Pro 2018

So the HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub — for iPad Pro 2018 came in today. It’s a pretty snazzy little device.  I wish it just had another USB-C type connector so you can hook up two USB-A devices like a hard drive and Blue Yeti microphone.  Now to make the 2018 Apple iPad Pro an almost perfect device, I need for the iPadOS to come out.  I cannot wait for September when the operating system comes out.  I am missing external hard drive support so I can import my photos and videos to an external hard drive via the HyperDrive 6 in 1 USB-C hub.  I guess one USB-A port is ok.  I don’t think I’ll have my hard drive attached to the iPad on a constant basis.  I want to start podcasting with the iPad Pro and the Blue Yeti Mic.  I have the silver Blue Yeti Mic that I’ve had for years.  I think it goes well with the iPad Pro.

I got the HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C hub for the 2018 Apple iPad Pro today.  I rearranged my desk today and put the Canon printer on the ground.  I can connect to it wirelessly whenever I need to print or scan something.  I am amazed by this 12.9” iPad.  It is so fast.  And the new OS is supposed to be even faster.  I think once every 3-4 years I will buy a new iPad.  Once iPadOS comes out and we get mouse support, external drive support and dark mode, I will be very happy.  I will have no need for a Mac, Windows or a Linux based computer or laptop.

I just wish there were two pieces of software that will be ported to the iPad.  Final Cut Pro X and Audacity Audio Editor.  Audacity is already available for Windows, Mac and Linux.  I wish they would port it over to the iPad.  I can stick with LumaFusion for video editing.  It seems feature rich enough for what I do with video.

So in summary, I wish September was here tomorrow and iPadOS was being released today.  Now I wonder if I can do all my photography and shoot video with just my Apple iPhone 8 Plus and edit everything thru the cloud?  

The new Apple iPadOS

I honestly cannot wait until Apple releases Apple iPadOS.  It’s honestly the updated every iPad owner has been waiting for.  So far my four favourite things about the operating system are dark mode, mouse support, external hard drive support and the ability to import files from an SD card directly onto the iPad or an external hard drive.  I just have to buy an external USB-C hub and I can attach my earphones, a hard drive, an external mic and an SD card  with the SD card slot.  This OS is why I bought the 2018 Apple iPad Pro in the first place.  With the exhorbitant prices Apple is asking for their laptops, the iPad was a better choice.  The keys actually function properly and the iPad doesn’t underclock the CPU when it’s put into heavy use.  I just hope that my apps will be updated to use the new iPadOS functionality.  I only use LumaFusion for video editing, Pixelmator Pro, Affinity Photo  and  Darkroom to edit my photos.  I also use the iPad as a media consumption device.

I can finally get rid of my late 2013 MacBook Pro and the Asia Windows laptop I got last year.  I won’t need the laptops anymore.  The 2018 Apple iPad Pro will be able to do everything I want.  

The list of software I currently use is Affinity Photo, PixelMator Pro, Darkroom and LumaFusion for my microstock agency business.  I of course use iTunes for music and AppleTV and YouTube for videos.  When the Apple TV service is started in September I will of course subscribe to it.  I already subscribe to Apple Music and Netflix.  I’ll probably end up killing of Netflix when the Apple TV subscription starts.  Netflix sucks right now and has been sucking for a while now.

I’m just thinking about what Apple announced at WWDC2019 and I have to laugh at their arrogance charging $999US for a damn monitor stand.  It’s a monitor stand!!!!!!!!  With what they’re charging for a monitor, they should have included the damn monitor stand.  It’s unreal what they’re charging for the new Mac Pro, the new monitors and the stand that they just announced.  I get it.  It’s high end and it’s for companies that make a killing in movies, commercials and that stuff.  But for me, it’s far overprice.  In the end, I’ll probably just end up buying an iPad every three to four years and spend $2000 on it.  I already have the needed accessories like the keyboard and Apple Pencil.  Now that the iPad is going to have mouse support, I probably won’t even need the Apple Pencil.  I can’t draw worth a damn.  I might just use it to write notes to myself.  But that’s about it.

The 2018 Apple iPad Pro is a computer replacement

I abosulutely love it.  It is truly an amazing device.  I have not needed to get onto a laptop since I purchased the 2018 Apple iPad Pro with the 512GB hard drive.  My only regret is not getting the 1TB hard drive with the 1GB of RAM version of the iPad Pro.  Over the past weeks I’ve purchased 4 dongles for my iPad Pro.  I’ve purchased the USB-C to USB-A dongle.  I actually bought two.  I bought the USB-C to headphone adapter so I can listen to music and I bought the USB-C to SD card adapter.  I also bought the Apple Pencil 2 along with the Apple Keyboard Folio which by the way is awesome.  It’s not back lit like other keyboards and it doesn’t have the function keys which I really don’t miss.  I thought Face-ID was a gimmick but once it’s setup it works flawlessly for all my apps and websites that I visit that have passwords.  I don’t even need to type in my passwords after the first time.  I like how Apple thought that out.

I have purchased apps for photo and footage editing.  Affinity Photo and LumaFusion are both amazing apps.  The rest of the apps were either free or or costing less than $6.00.  I can attach my Yeti mic to do podcasts.  Found a free podcast app today thanks to the Apple website.  Yes I am going to do podcasts.  I hate being in front of a camera so podcasts will do.  They will be short and will deal mainly with photography.   

I honestly don’t need a mouse.  I have eight fingers and two thumbs that I can use to write and touch the amazing screen on the iPad Pro.  For finer detail work in my photography of when editing my footage, I can use the Apple Pencil 2.  I don’t think I even need an external hard drive as I pay Apple $12.99 a month for 2TB of storage.  If need be I can always purchase a wireless 4TB hard drive from Western Digital

For my photography, I use a Sony RX100 Mark VI which I can attach through the supplied Sony USB cable and and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.  I can use the Apple USB-C to SD card for my footage shot with the Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder.  There is absolutely nothing else that I need.  No laptop, no desktop.  The iPad Pro comes with me everywhere along with my Sony RX100 Mark VI.  I tell ya it’s a great combination for a single shooter type photographer.  The less I have to carry, the better.

I am one happy guy with the 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  I purchased the PaperLike screen protector which is in the mail and should be here soon.  Once that is applied to the iPad Pro, I will be secure in knowing that the iPad Pro is secured in practically every way.  I am so happy with this device.  

The 2018 Apple iPad Pro - Total computer replacement

I got the 2018 Apple iPad Pro about two and a half weeks ago now and I have not touched my early 2013 Apple MacBook Pro or my Microsoft Windows 10 gaming laptop since.  The iPad Pro does everything I need and faster.  Today after going to morning service with my girlfriend we decided to have lunch and go for an afternoon drive in the country since we haven’t done that in months.  I took my Sony RX100 Mark VI with me to do some quick side of the road photography.  

After coming home and changing I took out the SD card reader USB-C dongle I bought from Apple and inserted the SD card into the reader.  I plugged it into the iPad Pro via the USB connection.  And nothing.   No application opened up and nothing happened.  I unplugged the card reader from the iPad Pro and took out the SD card.  I replugged in the SD card reader and re-installed the SD card.  And nothing.  A quick online YouTube search and I have to plug the Sony RX100 Mark VI directly into the camera.  When I got the iPad Pro, I purchased a USB-A to USB-C converter.  I plugged my USB-A cable into the camera and into the USB-C to USB-A converter and voila.  On the Sony  line of cameras, you have to set the camera to be a mass storage device for the Apple iPad Pro to recognize the camera and SD card where the pictures are stored..

I have yet to try using my Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder with the 2018 Apple iPad Pro but I am assuming that it’ll just as easy if not easier to import video files.  Yesterday I purchased 2TB of online storage with Apple as I plan to only use the iPad Pro for the foreseeable future.  I am hoping that iOS 13 will support external hard drives.  I a m so hoping for that.  I can actually do with out a mouse for the Apple iPad Pro.  The Apple Pencil 2 does the job of a mouse just fine.

The apps I use mostly are LumaFusion for video editing which I haven’t used yet.  I of course use Apple Photos to manage my photos along with Pixelmator, Affinity Photo and Google Snapseed to edit my photography.  To upload photos to Shutterstock I use Shutterstocks own app or if I have more than 100 photos to upload at one time I use FTP Client Pro to upload photos and footage to Shutterstock, Pond5 and Storyblocks.  For writing the blog I use BigTouch Pro.  For other documents like my resume I use Apples own Apple Pages.  For spreadsheets it’s Apple Numbers.  For music, it’s Apple iTuens of course.  Yes iTunes needs a rework but it suits my needs just fine so far.

The only downsides of the 2018 Apple iPad Pro are all the dongles and support for an external hard drive.  In hind sight I should have probably purchased the 1TB Apple iPad Pro.  I know there are other options out there for external storage like wireless hard drives and I probably will look into that at some point.  But right now storage is not an issue.

In conclusion, the 2018 Apple iPad Pro is just an amazing device.  It is not perfect but it’s close to being a full computer replacement for most people who just consume media, surf the net and check emails.  There are pretty much apps for everything.  For the every day mom and pop photographer, an iPhone and an iPad are pretty much all you will need.  Maybe some storage with Apple, Google, Dropbox, Amazon or another provider and you’re pretty much set.  The girlfriend and I are planning on traveling a lot this year so it’s much better for me to just carry around an iPad and one or two cameras.  Currently I am shooting with a Sony RX100 Mark VI, a Sony RX10 Mark II and a Canon Vixia HF G40.  For most photography I will be using the Sony RX100 Mark VI.  For time lapse, I can use the Sony RX10 Mark II.  For sit down stuff I can use either the Sony RX10 Mark II or the Canon Vixia HF G40.  All will work wonderfully with the 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  I cannot wait for the spring, summer and fall to come.

The perfect computer that really isn’t

The perfect computer that really isn’t a physical style like computer but is a computing device.  Of course I am talking about the 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  I’ve been using the 2018 Apple iPad for a week now as my daily driver to check and reply to emails, media consumption and photo and footage editing device.  I have not even touched my Windows 10 based PC or my early 2013 Apple MacBook Pro.

What I love about the iPad is the portability and accessabitilty.  It is always on and always with me.  I can be setup in less than 15 seconds.  Just pull it out of my carrying case and plop it onto a table.  I have all the apps that I could possibly want.  And the apps are totally inexpensive.  I think I pad $20 Canadian for Luma Fusion to edit footage.  I bought Affinity Photo for $29 for the iPad Pro.  Those are the most expensive apps that I’ve purshased for the iPad and they are all that I really need.  I bought some blogging software for $7.  I’ll have to buy an FTP app to upload footage to Shutterstock, Pond5 and Storyblocks.  The Apple Pencil 2 is now my mouse.  It’s exactly like a mouse except in a different form factor.   I can take my iPad Pro along with my Sony RX100 Mark VI with me anywhere and I can just blend in without carrying a huge DSLR and laptop with me.  Just my iPad and my pocket camera.

The downsides of the iPad is the dongle life and no support for external hard drives connected via USB-C.  Hopefully iOS 13 will at least fix the external hard drive problem.  You can already connect a 4K monitor to the iPad Pro   I really don’t want to connect to a WI-FI external hard drive.  While working with the iPad, I’ve found workarounds and solutions to the iOS 12 file system.  I haven’t tested my SD card holding my Sony RX100 Mark VI shots yet.  I plan to do that this weekend.  I’ve read somewhere Sony and the iPad file systems are incompatible but that’s just a rumour so far.  I want to test it out for myself.

Now time to go do some photography.

I am finally doing it.

I've got my big 2015 Apple iMac formatted and at some point later this week, I'll format my early 2013 MacBook Pro and bring both to the Bayshore Apple store and get some credit for both computers to get my 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  I'm only going to get the 512GB model as I have two external hard drives that I can use to back up my photos and footage.  There is a small device you can buy online that can be used with the iPad to attach external hard drives to backup my photos and footage.  

I am so excited.  I need to upgrade my computer equipment.  When I get my tax return in March I will buy my Sony RX100 Mark VI.  My Sony RX10 Mark II is a fantastic camera that I am using right now.  I just want the Sony RX100 Mark VI as a backup camera or main camera when I'm going downtown to photograph street life.

I cannot wait for 2019 to come.  I think there will be a lot of new and exciting changes next year.

Who needs a plane when you have a drone

I'm in love with the DJI Spark drone.  One little hick up from today' flights.  Lost connection again for less than 10 seconds today.  The only thing I can think of is there were some power lines between myself and the drone.  That is the only constant from the last two flight sessions.

I'm also thinking of at some point upgrading to a DJI Mavic Pro or a higher end drone as I need a drone that can fly longer.  I'm limited to about 15 minutes with the DJI Spark.  The video also looks good but only shoots at 1080p/30fps.  I'd love to have a drone that shoots 1080p/60fps.  I really don't shoot in 4k as I find it totally unnecessary.   The DJI Spark only shoots in the JPEG format and not RAW so editing is somewhat limiting.

I bought the DJI Spark to learn how to operate a drone.  It's been a great teacher so far.  Right now I have other priorities like getting back to work.  With fall and winter coming up quick, I think my drone use will be dead in the winter with the short, cold days and the long, cold nights.  I'm trying to get as much drone footage in as I can.

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.

Shooting video for stock.

I've started to shoot video for uploads to the various micro stock agencies that I deal with.  If you asked me 2 years ago or even 18 months ago, I'd say you'd be crazy saying I'd be shooting video as well.  I was all photography, all the time.  I knew Photoshop and Apple Aperture 3.0 inside out.  That's all I wanted to know and do.  Now I just use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC to edit my photos and Apple Final Cut Pro X to edit my videos.  I am learning Photoshop CC again to get my certification.

As far as shooting video I just use a Canon Vixia HF R62 to shoot 1080p 60fps video that I upload to sites like Pond5, Videoblocks, Fotolia and Shutterstock.  I mostly edit the video on my early 2013 Macbook Pro which has enough horse power to edit 1080p video.  Last year I bought a 2015 iMac with a 27" 5k monitor to do 4k videos.  After shooting with the Sony FDR AX33 4k camera and uploading to the various websites, I only sold 1080p video.  Nothing 4k.  So I sold the Sony FDR AX33 4k camcorder earlier this year.  Since my early 2013 Macbook Pro has the horsepower to edit 1080p 60fps video, I'm looking to trade or sell my 2015 iMac for a Canon Vixia HF G40 video camera which is more of a prosumer camcorder than the Canon Vixia HF R62.  Mind you the R62 is a great little camera which does what I want.  Another reason I want to sell the iMac is that I want to be portable.  My 2013 Macbook Pro allows me to do that.  I just add an external hard drive to my laptop for off line storage and I'm ready to go anywhere at anytime.  

So if you're looking to buy a mint 2015 iMac with a 27" 5k monitor with upgraded RAM, let me know.

Shooting for microstock

Shooting for stock agencies

I shoot mainly nature, wildlife and landscape photography which I sell on my own site and on a few micro stock agencies such as shutterstock.com, fotolia.com, bigstockphoto.com, istockphoto.com.  I also shoot video for shutterstock.com, fotolia.com, videoblocks.com and pond5.com.  I have attached the links below to my portfolios on each site.  For some reason, video is easier to get accepted on each site rather photography.

The equipment I use is pretty standard.  I use two Canon EOS 6D camera bodies with extra battery grips.  With those I use 64GB cards which aren’t all that fast (30MB/s and 400MB/s).  I get up to 4.5 frames in continuous shooting out of this entry level full frame Canon camera.  For lenses I use the Canon f2.8 16-35MM, f2.8 24-70MM, f2.8 70-200MM, f1.8 50MM prime focus, f2.8 100MM Macro prime focus and a Sigma f5.0-6.3 150-500MM.  These are all tact sharp lenses.  I am a huge fan of the 16-35MM and the 70-200MM.  Those two are my two favourite lenses.  I also started doing video with the Canon EOS 6D’s but I found that for wild life videography, I found DSLR cameras to be lacking.  I don’t like the layout and I find that DSLR’s are lacking in video.  So at first I bought the Canon Vixia HFR62 digital camcorder which can shoot up to 1080p at 60fps which is outstanding.  I really love this little camcorder.  It’s really compact and the video that comes out of it is really outstanding.  I also bought a Sony FDR AX33 4k camcorder.  I bought that to future proof myself as 4k is really coming into the mainstream in 2016.  For the Sony FDR-AX33 4k digital camera you will need a faster card.  I currently use a 128GB 633x card.

As far as computer equipment and software goes, you can edit your photos and videos on any decent computer.  Laptop or desktop.  For editing 4k video I’d suggest a computer made in the last 2-3 years.  And I’d go for a desktop to edit your 4k footage just for the screen size and horse power of a desktop over a laptop.  If I’m on the road somewhere and I won’t be near my Apple iMac I can still edit my photography on the go.  I can edit my video as well but I’d shoot with the Canon Vixia HFR62 which shoots 1080p 60fps.  My early 2013 Macbook Pro can’t handle the 4k footage of the Sony FDR-AX33 4k digital camcorder.  Right now shooting 1080p video is still the mainstream thing to shoot with.  Most DSLR’s still shoot 1080p at either 30fps or 60fps.  Some newer camera’s shoot 4k but they have limitations.

As far as video and photo editing software, I run on the Apple platform.  You can use either Apple or a Windows based PC.  There’s plenty of cross platform software to edit video and photography.  For video editing I use Final Cut Pro X 10.2.3 to edit my clips.  For photography, I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC (Creative Cloud).  I hardly use Adobe Photoshop CC but it comes in the Creative Cloud for Photographers package that I subscribe to for $10 a month from Adobe.  You may have a different opinion on Adobe’s subscription based model.  I was using Apple’s Aperture 3 until Apple decided to abandon semi-pro and pro photographers by killing off Aperture and replacing it with Apple Photos which I believe is geared toward iPhone “photographers”.

There are plenty of application you can use to edit your photos and videos that you upload to the various micro stock sites and to your personal website.  Unfortunately you will not get rich by selling your videos and photos but if you work hard and specialize in a niche, you will make some good passive income.  As you build your portfolio on each site, you will see your sales increase.  I think in the past year, I’ve gone one day without making a sale on at least one site that I upload to.  For this reason I am not exclusive with any site.  Some sites, such as Shutterstock and Bigstockphoto do not offer exclusivity.  Fotolia and iStockphoto do offer exclusivity.  Exclusivity is great if you have a high acceptance rate and you sell a lot of photos with that one agency.  Personally, I sell more with more agencies.  If one photo doesn’t get accepted on, let’s say Shutterstock, but gets accepted on Fotolia and sells there, more money for me.

Diversification is key.  Mind you, I shoot mainly wildlife, landscape and nature photography.  I’ve recently entered the videography field as well capturing mainly wildlife, landscape and nature videos.  I’ve been only doing it for maybe three to four months and have made a few sales on the various micro stock agencies.  Depending on if you’re going to shoot in 1080p @ 60fps or at 4k, a fast computer is key.  For 1080p, a reasonably new laptop with an SSD drive and lots of RAM will do.  I work on an early 2013 Macbook Pro using Final Cut Pro X.  If I’m shooting 4k footage, I edit on my late 2015 iMac with a 5k display with 32GB of RAM.  I should upgrade the RAM to 64GB as 4k footage is a resource hog.  Extremely large files do to it being 4k which is 4 times the size of 1080p.

If you asked me when I was going to school for photography if I would end up shooting photography and video footage, I’d call you a crazy loon.  I did not like shooting video footage.  To this day I still hate being “on camera” as they say.  I prefer being behind the camera and camcorder to this day.

There are at least two tiers of micro stock agencies.  Agencies such as Fotolia, Getty Images, Shutterstock, Pond5 are the top tier.  At least for me as far as sales go.  Agencies such as 123RF.com, dreamstime.com and canstockphoto.com are the bottom rung agencies.  You may sell better on the bottom rung agencies but may do better with the top tier agencies.  That being said, it’s difficult to get onto Getty Images, Shutterstock and Fotolia.  I’ve had pretty good success with Shutterstock and Fotolia as far as sales go.  Bigstockphoto and iStockphoto are pretty good and consistent as well.  You will need a larger portfolio on Bigstockphoto and iStockphoto to get consistent sales.  Like I stated earlier, I’ve only started doing video footage so my choice of footage is small.  Pond5 seems to be the place to go to sell your footage.  Currently, there is a huge waiting period for your footage to be curated.  Meaning someone taking a look at your footage and accepting it onto the Pond5 platform.  I’ve also been submitting my footage to videoblocks.com with a small portfolio there as well.

I have been thinking a lot lately about shooting 4k video and 1080p video.  Currently I have only sold 1080p video shot with either my 1080p or 4k camcorder.  Since 99.9999% of the people on the internet still use 1080p monitors or slightly above like the Apple monitors, is shooting 4k video worth it.  One hundred percent of my stock footage is being seen on the internet.  So the question is: Do I or you need a 4k camcorder?  Currently I am thinking the prevailing answer is no.  My current Macbook Pro display is 2880 by 1800 which is better than 1080p.  1080p video appears fine on my display.  Processing 1080p video on my early 2013 Macbook Pro is good.  The laptop does generate some heat when first processing video in Final Cut Pro X but only for a short period of time.  One minute clips are processed quickly and easily.  

So if you know of someone who wants to buy a late 2015 5k iMac upgraded to 32GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, 2GB video card or a Sony FDR-AX33 4k camcorder, let me know.  We can work out a deal.