What’s the point of having a Point and shoot or a DSLR camera?

I’ve been thinking about the state of photography over the past decade. How things have changed in the last 10 years.  I’ve been shooting for stock photography for the past 5 years.  That’s how I make a part of my yearly income.  I’ve noticed over the past three years, while my portfolio on Shutterstock has gone up five fold, income has gone done by at least thirty to forty percent.  I’m still shooting with a Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I shot with a Sony a7II and Canon EOS 6D camera bodies with various professional f2.8 lenses costing thousands of dollars.  The return on investment has not materialized over the past several years.  I don’t shoot weddings, portraits, school kids.  I do mainly landscape and wild life stock photography.  I haven’t printed my photos in about 4 years or so as ink costs about $240.  That’s $240 for 8 cartridges to fit into my printer which lasts maybe 15-20 prints.  I don’t shoot do art shows.  Just shoot for stock.  

I’ve been thinking of getting rid of the Sony RX100 Mark VII and just shooting with the Apple iPhone 8 Plus for now.  I’m probably going to upgrade my phone to the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max in early 2020 when my contract with Freedom Mobile is up.  From what I see, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max is an excellent phone with a fantastic camera setup.  I hardly go to Parc Omega to do wildlife photography as the park no longer offers viable spots to photograph the animals without getting some fencing or glass in the shot.  Particularly,  it’s difficult, if not impossible to photograph the Arctic or Timber wolves as there is either high fencing or glass in between my camera and the animal. 

I’d be crazy to get rid of the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  It’s a very convenient, portable Point and Shoot camera.  I can fit it into the same case as my iPad Pro and not have to worry about braking it or losing it somewhere.  I find the iPhone to be more convenient but the Sony RX100 Mark VII a far more professional camera especially for travel.

I think my next photographic purchase will be a better drone.  I don’t typically fly a drone in the winter since, by the time I get home, it’s pitch black outside.  I’m saving up my photography money for a better drone than the DJI Spark.  I don’t know what kind of drone I’ll get since I have a huge hate on for DJI and the way they treat customers.  Plus, DJI being a Chinese company does not help.  I’d rather support a Canadian or American drone company.

Shoot. Edit. Upload. Repeat.

Basically what I have been doing the past couple of weeks is shooting, editing and uploading over and over and over.  Spring finally made it into Ottawa.  Sort of.  Plenty of warmer temps and a bit of sunshine.  Got the cameras and camcorder out to shoot and video the spring in Ottawa.  Tulips are out and the trees are finally greening up from a long and cold winter.  

Hibernation is finished I think.  Finally!

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.

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????