I have a photographic equipment conundrum

So I have a photography equipment conundrum.  I have 3 point and shoot cameras along with a full frame Leica Q2 Monochrom camera along with a Sony FDR AX700b camcorder.  I also have an 2023 iPads Pro and a Dell XPS 9700 laptop to edit my photos and videos on.  I also carry the new Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max with me whenever I’m outside.  So basically a had a severe case of GAS.  Gear acquasition syndorme.  

I am planning on moving to Calgary in March 2024 and live a nomad type life sleeping in my 2023 Jeep Wrangler 4 door.  I want to support myself by doing landscape photography while in the Rocky Mountains.  I know I’m going to have to get a full time job in the meantime while I do the YouTube and photography thing.  I’ve got pretty much everything figured out as far as living conditions and such.  I just don’t want to take so much equipment with me and have it in the Jeep while I’m away.  I want to carry just one camera and a tripod.

I would appreciate any suggestions as far as equipment goes.

Dell XPS 17" 9700 with Windows 10 Pro

 

So, I've had the Dell XPS 17" 9700 Windows 10 Pro laptop for a couple of weeks now.  The only upgrade I've done to this machine is add a second 2TB NVMe solid state drive.  I ordered the laptop with 64GB of memory which may be overkill for now but I wanted to be future proofed.

The computer runs on an Intel i7-10750H processor.  At the time of ordering, Dell did not have the i9 variant of processors available.  Also, I could have gotten the i7-10875H variant but it cost about $500 more with that processor and the upgraded video card.  I'm thinking I'll be getting a new laptop in 4-5 years.  At that point I'll max out the CPU, RAM and video card options.  Another reason why I love the Dell XPS 17" 9700 is the 17" 4k screen.  It is a touch screen but you can disable that in the BIOS which I have done.  I don't see a point of having a touch screen on a laptop.  Sure, an iPad or an iPhone type device but not on a laptop or a desktop.

My two favourite pieces of software for photo and video editing are Affinity Photo and Davinci Resolve.  Affinity Photo is really fast on this Intel based system.  Photo editing is a breeze on this system.  

Davinci Resolve runs smoothly on this system as well.  No lag or hick ups at all.  I've only edited one 75 minute video on here and it took a few hours to export the video.  It was a 4k/60 video shot on an Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max.  

Today after work I will be going to do some video work for myself.  I want to edit 4k/30fps videos shot on my Canon Vixia HF G50.  I want to see how quickly the computer edits 4k/30fps videos that are only about a minute long.  It's supposed to be nice and warm today with a lot of sunshine today.  We shall see.  I will update you at a later date as to how the computer performs. 

So just one more thing

 

So I have one more thing to pick up today at the Apple store at the Bayshore shopping centre.  It’s the Apple wireless charger for my Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max with the 512GB internal storage option.  Then off to do photography with just the iPhone 12 Pro Max.  

With the iPhone, my photography style will change I think.  I’m going to be going more stealth mode inside shopping malls and office buildings.  Hopefully, if they get approved on Adobe Stock (probably not), they’ll start selling.  Those pesky property releases are a pain in the butt.  

I am also hoping iOS 14.3 comes out soon as well.  Can’t wait for the ProRaw option on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.  Raw files allow you to better edit your photography.  Gives you more options to edit your photography.  I’m hoping Apple Photos will be updated to handle the ProRaw files on my 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  

2021 has to be much better than 2020.  2020 is total gong show.  This year has totally sucked travel wise, freedom wise and every other thing.

I really want to go shooting with the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max

really want to go do some photography and capture some footage with the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max.  I ordered the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max on November 15, 2020 and got it on November 28, 2020.  It was supposed to take 3-4 weeks to get to me.  Luckily I got it in 2 weeks as I was able to pick it up at the FedEx depot near the Ottawa International Airport.  Didn’t get a chance to go yesterday as I was at my parents place for dinner as they are flying into Florida this coming Wednesday.  Today is Monday and I’m stuck inside a boardroom all day at work.  From the looks of the weather radar, it’s raining pretty hard outside.  I usually get out of work between 2 and 4.  The weather is gonna suck for the rest of the day as it’s supposed to rain pretty much all day.  I have plans to use the iPhone 12 Pro Max as my primary device for photos and videos.

I might actually just go home and shoot a talking head type video.  I do not like doing the talking head videos.  I’d rather be behind the camera.  Actually after work, I have to go to one of the two Apple stores here in Ottawa and see what I can get for my old Apple iPhone 8+.  Probably not gonna get a whole lot for it from Apple.  Probably about $210 or so.  That should get me a few things on an Apple gift card.  I need a new case where the bezel is free so I can connect my mic properly.

More photos for sale

 

Last night, someone bought a picture of a timber wolf I took several years ago at Parc Omega.  Fine Art America just paid for itself and then some.  Thank you to the buyer in Colorado.  

 The above photos were taken in the Ottawa Valley on October 10, 2020.  No one around and it was very peaceful.  Even went out for dinner.  Considering Ottawa is in another lockdown, we had to go out of town to get something to eat.  Gotta love the draconian levels of government in Canada. 

Both pictures are available for sale here and here.  Hopefully they'll be approved on my Adobe stock portfolio and my Deposit Photos portfolio.

More social distance photography and videography

This past weekend, the fiancee and I headed out to the middle of nowhere.  Literally the middle of nowhere.  We actually headed out to a little town of Moosecreek which is situated between Ottawa and Montreal.  The site we went to was actually in the middle of a farmers field which is accessible by a public road.  This public road is known to a few astronomy clubs here in Ottawa and in Montreal.  

The above shot was taken with my Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max (64GB) Space Grey model.  I wish I bought the 512GB model but I'm not willing to pay $1999 plus tax for a phone.  

It was a beautiful night with some clouds in the sky.  You can check out my Shutterstock portfolio here to see the shots I got with the Sony a7Rii and the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM lens.  I only uploaded 5 shots and they were all accepted.  I'm still editing the footage from that night and hopefully those will be approved soon.  The above shot is of my brand new toy, the Canon Vixia HF G50 4K camcorder.  I absolutely love the Canon Vixia line of camcorders.  The only thing this model is missing is 4K/60fps as it only shoots 4K/30fps.  

My goal now is to buy an Apple Macbook Pro 16 inch that is completely or somewhat completely pimped out.  I want to buy a Macbook Pro 16 inch with at least 1TB of internal storage, 8GB video card and 64GB of RAM.  I don't want the 8TB internal storage as it is too expensive.  I'd rather get two external drives with 8TB of storage.  If you want to help me out, you can go to my site and click on one of the links on the right hand side which will take you to one of my portfolios where you can buy some of my photography or some of my footage.  You can also donate via Paypal via the Paypal button on my site.  If you donate, I will send you a jpeg file of one of my photos that you can print or use wherever you like, just as long as you don't try and sell it.

Snowy Owl

Went out today with the fiancé to go do some photography.  Found this Snowy Owl on a power pole.  It was one of two that we spotted.  We spent about half an hour waiting for it to fly with no luck.  

On a side note, I want to go do some winter camping this year.  I have the equipment to do it.  Good sleeping bag.  Air mattress.  SUV.  Maybe next weekend I’ll go up to the Algonquin Park area and stay for a weekend.  Leave Friday after work and come back on Sunday. We shall see.

I am back

Well, after a few years of being permanently banned on a particular micro stock agency, I decided to try and upload some of my photography.  I added about 10 photos and 9 of the 10 were approved.  So I started adding more.  And more.  And more.  Apparently a few years back I was spamming their agency with the same photos.  Apparently I was spamming all the agencies but I was only banned from this one.  

Well, after a few years, I guess I am able to upload again.  Which is fantastic. I sold quite a few photos and clips on there.  Hopefully I can replicate the success on this site again.  I hope I sell as many photos as I do on Shutterstock on this site.  The more photo and footage sales, the better.  I just want to buy a better drone for my Ariel photography.

Patreon

Signed up to Patreon here.

Photo sales suck

Last month I only sold two footage clips for a whopping $79.20 and photo sales were a measly $41.62.  August sucked and September is looking like it's not getting any better.  This makes me hesitant to go out full time to be a full-time photographer.  I have 15,258 photos and 1,544 footage clips on Shutterstock.  On Pond5, I have 1528 clips and 2024 photos.  On Storyblocks, I have 2,148 items from photos and video clips.

I have a really, really strong urge to do the travelling photographer bug.  I've had it since about 2014.  I really, really want to do it but I have a fear of not being able to support the travel.  I want to travel full time in my 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport AWD SUV.  I want to do it in Canada and the United States full time.  I'm going to have a hard time in the States because of not having a work visa or a green card.  I will have to do a lot of research on how people support themselves on the road while travelling.  

If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Photography equipment

Throughout the past decade or so, I’ve used various photography equipment to take various photos,  If you look at my Shutterstock portfolio, you will not be able to tell what camera body and lens took what photo or piece of footage.  Camera equipment is now ubiquitous.  I’ve been photographing the world around me for over 10 years now.  I’ve used various camera bodies and lenses from various manufacturers such as Sony and Canon.  The best camera I’ve ever used is the one I carry with me all the time.  No it’s not an Apple or a Samsung phone.  Although I’ve used them for some of my micro stock agency work and I’ve sold a few iPhone photos, the majority of my photos have come from a DSLR or the Sony RX100 line of cameras.  Back in 2017, when I was in Calgary for an I.T contract, I sold all my Canon DSLR equipment and went fully Sony Hybrid cameras. Particularly the Sony RX10 Mark II.  I did not want to lug around 25-30 pounds of equipment on my back while on a 20km hike through the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

It’s not the equipment you use.  Equipment gets upgraded by manufacturers monthly who come out with new features in their cameras.  Through out my 10 plus years of being in the industry, I’ve gone from the Canon Rebel line of cameras to full frame Canon bodies and Canon f2.8 lenses to just using a Sony RX100 Mark VI point and shoot camera.  Yes, the Sony RX100 VI and VII cost $1600 Canadian.  I fell victim to the “I have to have the latest and greatest” philosophy to compete with the neighbour.  I’ve had other photographers come up to my while I’m shooting with just the Sony RX100 Mark VI and tell me that I absolutely need this camera body with this lens combination to get the perfect shot.  They tell me the Sony RX100 VII is not a real camera because it can’t do this like their “pro” camera.  If you think you’re pro because you have this camera/lens combination, you are not a pro.  You’re just some guy or girl who has this camera/lens combination.  I’ve seen photographers run circles around other photographers with an Apple iPhone while these pro photographers use a 45 megapixel body with a 200-600MM lens that cost $14,000.  

A camera is just a tool like a hammer or saw.  It’s the person using that tool that makes the difference.  Always has been.  Always will be.  If you go to my Shutterstock portfolio, you will not be able to distinguish what camera and lens combo shot what photo.  And in the end, you won’t care.  As of right now, I have 15,255 photos and 1,544 clips on my Shutterstock portfolio.  All shot with different equipment.  If you’re looking for a photographer right now and they tell you that they have the latest and greatest equipment, tell them it doesn’t matter what they have.  Ask them if they know how to use it.  You’re hiring the photographer, not the equipment.

I finally did it

Afte Sony lifted its embargo on the Sony RX100 Mark VII sales in Canada, I was actually the first in Ottawa to get the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  At least at the Henry’s location on Bank Street.  I traded in my Sony a7ii full frame DSLR along with the f3.5-6.3 24-240MM lens, the Sony battery grip and my Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder.  I bought the necessary Sony grip for it since the Sony RX100 Mark VII is very smooth to hold onto.  The grip is very necessary.  I still want to get the Lensmate filter adapter along with the three filters.  I already bought an external mic for $28 for it.  The external mic is very compact which is very good.  Makes the whole setup compact.  This weekend I have to look for my mic bracket that I bought last year before we moved.  I think it got lost somewhere in the move.  The bracket was about $20.  I found one for $6.95 on Amazon.  I might buy two of those.  One for my Sony RX100 and one for my Canon Vixia HF R800.  I’ll have to find them again on Amazon.

I am so glad I got the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  It’s the perfect camera for me.  Shoots 20.1 megapixel still and also shoots 4K/30fps.  I wish it shot 4K/60fps but 30fps is just fine.  For my wildlife footage, I’ll more than likely be using the Canon Vixia HF R800.  If and when we decide to go on trip to Europe, I’ll just bring my Joby tripod and the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  Shoot 4K footage with that setup.  I already have a good tripod that I’ve have for about a dozen or so years.  It has worked out well for me.  I can’t wait to take the Sony RX100 Mark VII on its first photography run.  I am just so excited to go out with it and test it out.

I haven’t been to Parc Omega in about 2 months or so just because of the oppressive heat that we’ve had.  I’m pretty sure the animals would be hiding in the forest.  I’ll probably start going again in late September or October when the temperature cools down a bit and the leafs start changing colours.  We’ll have to go to Algonquin Park again as well.  Tomorrow night, the Casino Sound of Lights occurs again.   So we’ll be going.  We’ll have to go to the Parliament buildings at night as well to catch the light show which is displayed on Centre Block.  I haven’t seen that in over three years now.

Pixelmator on the 2018 Apple iPad Pro

I went to Parc Omega yesterday to test out my new Sony a7ii camera with the new lens.  Took about 1800 or so shots.  I’m just processing them right now and I cam up to this shot of an American Field Buffalo with an American Field Buffalo calf.  As you can see from the photos above, one is more pleasing than the other.  The bottom shot has the result of what appears to be a very good meal.  With Pixelmator on the 2018 Apple iPad Pro, I was able to get rid of said poop and the image is more pleasing.  

I find it incredible that in 2019, I can sit at a local Tim Horton coffee shop and edit a roughly 47MB photo on a slab of glass that is roughly 5.7MM thick.  This slab has a 12.9” screen, 4GB of memory and a 512GB hard drive.  I wonder what we’re going to be using for photography in another 10 years and what we’re going to be editing on as well.  We live in interesting times.

Darkroom App for 2018 Apple iPad Pro

It is so much better than the Apple Photos app on the 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  Apple Photos is a piece of crap basically.  It is a featureless digital asset management app.  Darkroom is feature rich, almost like Adobe Lightroom CC.  I believe it cost less than $15 Canadian.  It is such a much better deal than any Adobe product.  I honestly hate the subscription model that Adobe, Microsoft, Apple use to sell their products.  Yes Apple is turning into a service company with services like Apple Music and their online storage services.

The only thing I haven’t found in the Darkroom app is noise reduction.  I typically shoot at ISO 100 during the day and I don’t see any noise at all when using the SOny RX100 Mark VI.  I can edit pretty much everything else with the Darkroom app.  I am just in love with the Apple iPad Pro and its simplicity and ease.  I’m off for a couple of days between contracts so tomorrow I am taking out the Canon Vixia HF G40 and shoot some footage.  I don’t know where yet but somewhere.

From the best month to the worst

So sales on Shutterstock completely tanked this month.  Compared to January of this year, sales in February are abismal.  Didn’t even make payout this month.  The only thing that saved me this month were two sales on Fine Art America.  You can click visit the site here.  I sell a lot of prints and other products that you can display wherever you wish.

In other news my contract with my employer is finished today.  I have tomorrow off but I’m supposed to start a new contract with the same employer on Monday.  We shall see what happens.  Tomorrow I want to buy an air mattress, two sleeping bags and two pillows for the summer for the 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe.  This summer I want to do a lot of camping on the weekends in the vehicle.  We will just need to buy a cooler for the food and drinks.  Otherwise we really don’t need a tent.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately that I want to quit the I.T. field and just focus on the photography.  Starting a YouTube channel maybe.  Definitely do a podcast.  I have the equipment and the software to do it so I don’t see a reason I can’t.  I have to increase my photography sales.  I want to write on my blog as well.  Get the blog more focused on the photography and the business side of photography.  Thankfully I have tomorrow off so I can do some more work and actually concentrate on the photography aspect of my life.

Fourth best month ever!!! So far.

The month isn't over yet and I'm having a pretty good month so far on Shutterstock thanks to a few video sales.  One particular one for $104.70 is simply outstanding.  And the month still has just under two weeks left in it.  I know next week will be slow because of Christmas.  I figure I won't make any sales in Europe, North and South America, Australia and basically any Christian nation because everyone will be celebrating with their families.  I hardly sell anything in any Middle Eastern countries or in Asian countries.  Although I sell a few there a few times a month, it's rare that I do.

I want to upgrade a few of the internals in my Asus laptop.  I want to upgrade the hard drives to SSD drives and I want to add 16GB of RAM to get a full 32GB.  I also want to upgrade the operating system to Windows 10 Professional instead of Windows 10 Home.  I got rid of my 2015 Apple iMac and I'm thinking no one will buy the early 2013 Apple MacBook Pro so I might just keep it to run Final Cut Pro X on it.

The next big purchase will be the Apple iPad Pro.  The 512GB version with the 12.9" screen.  I already have the cameras I need.  I bought the Sony RX100 Mark V again.  I'm still wanting to get the Sony RX100 Mark VI.  I think I will get that in the new year.

My last day.

Today is my last day with an Apple computer.  I am selling my early 2013 MacBook Pro and my late 2015 Apple iMac with the 27 inch 5k monitor.  I am buying a 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  I'm going to get the 512GB storage model with 4GB of RAM.  I have external storage that I can use with the 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  I am really looking forward to my new purchase and get away from desktop and laptops.

I'm selling my iMac on Kijiji and the people trying to buy it are ridiculous.  Some people are offering me like $150 or $300 which is an insult.  I honestly hate haggling over price.  I just want to sell it so I can get my iPad.

Finally did it.

Switched to a Windows 10 laptop.  The hardware is great.  Great screen.  Fast bootup times.  No memory issues whatsover.  I will upgrade the second hard drive to a 1TB SSD instead of the 1TB 5400RMP mechanical hard drive.

So far I've noticed this laptop has a better keyboard.  Hard drive and memory are much faster and the graphics card is great.  I still haven't shot some footage to edit on this Windows 10 laptop.  I'm hoping I can do that this weekend.

The only bad thing about this laptop is the operating system.  Windows in all it's glory is a colossal failure.  Windows started sucking with Windows 8.  This is my first full day with the machine and I'm still running Windows updates on it.  It's been like this since about ten last night.  I have fast internet at home and at work and it's taking forever.  I would have been done with OS X updates already.  I am looking forward to getting the Apple iPad in the near future.

I have most of the programs I use to edit photos and footage on.  I'm just missing a video editor and Affinity Photos.  I think I'll get those this week when I get paid on Friday. 

Head west middle aged man!!!!

I have pretty much made up my mind to head out west in the spring of 2019.  I've been living in Ottawa since 1983 I absolutely despise living here.  The winters are harsh and the summers are short. I realize it's pretty much the same in Calgary weather wise.  Ottawa is located in eastern Ontario in a valley that spreads pretty far and wide.  So you get damp winters with lots of snow and a lot of rain in the summer which turn out to be hot and muggy.

When I was in Calgary last year, I loved it from the start.  I could see the mountains whenever I wanted.  They were a 45 minute drive.  I'd spend every weekend travelling the mountains exploring what I could.  Photography and shooting footage was an incredible experience.  

I did not make any friends when I was out in Calgary as I was basically working all the time and travelling on weekends.  If I was at home, I'd be FaceTiming with my girlfriend.  I wasn't going to the gym then as I am right now.

I am planning on going to Calgary in late March 2019 or early April 2019.  Hopefully I will have a job in Calgary by then.  I hope the NDP is out of power by then so the economy will pick up and people can start working again.  My plans are to work, work out and get healthy and do more photography and shoot more footage.  That would make me really happy.

Going computerless

So I just watched an interesting video on YouTube.  It's a video by Unbox Therapy about ditching your computing hardware for an Apple iPad Pro.  Granted I don't do much on my 2015 Apple iMac or my 2013 MacBook Pro that I can't do on an iPad.  I just edit my photography and footage that I shoot for my photography business.  I can write and edit any document on an iPad with Apple Pages. I can do spreadsheets with Apple Numbers.  I use Apple Safari for my blog.  I can edit my photography with Affinity Photo.  I can edit my footage with iMovie.  I honestly don't need Final Cut Pro X on my laptop.  Right now all I shoot is 5-60 second clips and edit them for stability and shakiness and a bit of noise reduction.  

All I would really need is an SD card dongle to transfer in my footage and photos.  I would probably get the maxed out Apple iPad Pro with the 1TB storage option.  I'd get the Apple Pencil 2 and the keyboard to type and to protect the screen.  I think the Apple iPad Pro would just add to my minimalist life style that I am aiming for.  One of the failures of iOS is the lack of support for external hard drives.  I'd like to export my photos and footage to an external hard drive and use an FTP client to upload my files to Shutterstock, Pond5 and Storyblocks.  But I think with the 1TB storage hard drive, it would take me a while to fill that up.  I'd eventually clean up the hard drive by getting rid of old and unnecessary footage.  I recently lost my 6TB hard drive storing my footage.  The hard drive just failed on me.  I pay about $1.50 a month for 50GB of storage with Apple so I can store unique footage and photos there.

I think the Apple iPad Pro is 90% of a laptop right now.  If I could just attach a USB-C hard drive to it and export my footage and photos to it, it would meet all of my needs.  Also, mouse support would be fantastic.  The Apple iPad Pro does have Bluetooth support so you should be able to pair if with the Apple mouse.  The file system in iOS should also be changed to support drop and drag functionality. 

The Apple iPad Pro can run Affinity Photo for my photo editing and iMovie for my footage editing.  With the recent Apple iPad, you can run Adobe Photoshop on the Apple iPad Pro.  So the software and hardware is getting there.  It's close.  It's not there yet though.