Fall is here

 

I went to Mud Lake today to do some photography.  Also needed the walk.  This was the only usable photography I got today.  I was just thinking about setting goals and finishing goals.  I don't want my life to be meaningless.  Just like a leaf in the wind.  Just set one goal at a time and complete it.  Don't worry about the money.  Money will come if you enjoy what you're doing.  75% of people hate what they do for a living.  I am one of the 75%.  Photography is what I love to do.  I saw a very inspiring video today by a former California governor.  I think he's a RINO but this is not about politics.  It's about setting goals and finishing your goals.  It's a short video.  Worth your time. 

What are your Pro Photographer moves?

So what are some of your pro photographer moments?  Forgetting the lens cap on your lens?  Dead batteries in the camera? Forgotten batteries at home?  Full SD card?  You forget your SD card at home?  It’s all happened to everyone at some point.  Part of the job right.  Tell me what else has happened to you while you’re out with the camera.

The above shot was taken with the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Shot on the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max

So now that the Coronavirus panic has hit Canada at the rate of 100% paranoia, I’m off the job for three weeks and no idea if and when I’ll be back.  The government is shut down except for essential services such as police, ambulance, hospital and such, I thought I’d test out the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max along with the Sony a7R II full frame camera.

The Apple iPhone Pro Max (64GB) model cost me $1549 Canadian.  The Sony a7R II and the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM cost me a cool $3500 roughly.  Guess which device I used to capture the above photo in the comments section. The iPhone has a 12 megapixel sensor and the Sony has a 42.3 megapixel sensor.  I’d say past 12 megapixels you can not tell the difference in detail or resolution.  Once Apple figures out how to take better photos with the telephoto lens, there will be no need for a DSLR or mirrorless camera.  Rumoured to be in the Apple iPhone 12 is a 64 megapixel sensor.  It’s only rumoured right now though.  The Samsung S20 Ultra has a 108 megapixel sensor.  These sensors are extremely small compared to a full frame camera so the picture quality of these 108 megapixels is going to be crap.  The Samsung outputs the 108 megapixel photo to a 12 megapixel file anyways.  So these numbers are just propaganda to sell the phone to people who have clearly no understanding of the technology and are just using the phone as a status symbol.

If you want a high megapixel camera in your hand, buy a DSLR or a mirrorless camera with a huge physical sensor.  But like I stated before, the eye cannot see the detail past 12 megapixels.  Also, your screen on your phone, iPad or computer cannot display that much information even on a 4K screen if the image is set as the background.  8K televisions are being produced right now but even now, 4K content is just starting to come up.  Content providers like Rogers and Bell here in Canada are still using 1080i signals here.  We may have 2-3 4K channels.  So all the talk of 108 megapixels on a phone camera or 8K displays etc is just hype to get you to buy more stuff.

Back to just doing phtotography

I think it's time to go back to just doing photography.  Not just your run of the mill wildlife and animal photography but high end landscape photography.

Yesterday I went to my local photography store and I bought a Sony A7R II camera body.  Just  the body.  I have to wait a bit to buy the specific lens I want.  I'll probably get it in the next week or two.  I was thinking yesterday that Parc Omega isn't worth going to anymore as the entrance fee just keeps going up and up and up.  The fencing is higher now that it ever has been so if I want to photograph the Arctic Wolves for example, it's virtually impossible to get them without having the fence in the way.

I want to get the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM lens for the Sony A7RII body.  I  think it's wide enough and it has enough reach for me to get most things.  The Sony A7RII has 42.4 megapixels so I can crop in to whatever I want.  I think it's going to be the perfect camera/lens combination.

It's early March now and the snow is starting to melt away.  It's supposed to be above zero starting tomorrow during the day at least.  I have pretty much all the camping gear I need.  Sleeping bag, mattress, pillow to sleep in the back of the car.  All I need now is just a cooler to put my food and water into and I can now leave for the weekends to go car camping and do photography on the weekends with the new camera.

I will need to buy an extra set of batteries for this camera as the battery life sucks on this Sony camera.  I'm seeing a picture of the Sony batteries not being so good on most Sony cameras.  But if I'm just doing landscapes, I can just fire off 300-400 shots over the weekend and work with just one battery.  I just want that lens.

Canada’s Parliament Buildings

I walked up to Canada’s parliament buildings yesterday after work.  The whole place is under construction and will be for next ten years or so at rough cost of $10,000,000,000.  Knowing the Canadian government, it’ll take twenty years and cost double the estimate.  Knowing that the Parliament buildings were under construction and it being Wednesday and the start of an apparent massive snow storm, I knew there would be a limited amount of people and tourists on the Hill.   And I was right.  There were only 2 or 3 protestors on the hill.  Took the shot and got home a few hours later as I was waiting for my fiancé to pick me up.

I edited the photo on my 2018 Apple iPad Pro with the 12.9” screen and the 512GB hard drive using the Pixelmator Photo app which is perhaps the best and reasonably priced app on the Apple App Store.  I believe I only paid $5.49 for the app.  I am totally happy with this setup.  I think I’ll be using the Sony RX100 Mark VII for the photography and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max for my footage.

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.

The future of photography

I have been pondering the future of photography over the past few days.  I started photography about 15 years ago as a hobby.  I bought a basic DSLR back in 2004.  I had no understating of ISO, aperture, shutter speed etcetera.  I learned over a few years about exposure and such.  I upgraded my equipment as well as I learned more.  I shot Canon from 2004 to about 2017 when I switched to Sony cameras.  In 2015 I started doing videos as well.  I shoot for micro stock.  Primarily landscape, wildlife and such.  No weddings, portraits, or family photography.  I really enjoy the solitude of being out in the mountains with just my Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I used to have full frame cameras such as the Canon EOS 6D and the Sony A7II.  Had pro lenses as well.  They cost a pretty penny.  Now I just use a point and shoot pocket camera.  I get the same, if not better photos out of the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I find that the experience and imagination of the photographer is more important than the equipment used.

The market is also changing.  The biggest change in the photography market I find happened in 2007 when Apple released the Apple iPhone.  That put a camera in everybody’s pocket.  The iPhone has come a long way and it completely changed the photography market.  Now anyone can be a photographer.  I’d say 98% of people can’t tell the difference between a printed photo that was shot on an iPhone 8+ or a Sony A7RIV.  In the end it’s the skill of the photographer using the equipment he/she has..

In May 2020, my contract with Freedom Mobile ends.  I want to get the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max.  I’d need at least the 256GB model.  I find the 64GB doesn’t allow that much storage for shooting 4K/60fps footage.  I want to try using just the iPhone and iPad Pro for all my photography and editing needs.  The iPad Pro is a media consumption device which doubles as a laptop replacement.  Now with IpadOS 13.2.2 released, I don’t need a physical laptop running whatever flavour of the day of O/S.

If you look at my Shutterstock portfolio, you can’t tell what camera was used to take any particular photo with a particular lens.  I have sold photos shot on the iPhone, a Samsung Galaxy s7 Edge, a Canon EOS 350D, Canon EOS 6D, Canon EOS T3i, Sony RX100 Mark IV, V, VI, VII and the Sony A7II.  I bet in that 3-5 years, DSLR’s are going to be relics of a bi gone era.  Everyone, and I mean everyone will be shooting on a smart phone.  You can see the stats now.  The big camera brands such as Canon, Nikon, Sony are seeing their camera sales falling.  There will always be a need for high definition, high mega pixel cameras for scientific research.  You can’t do astrophotography with a phone yet.  There are dedicated cameras for astrophotography.  There will a need for specialized cameras for looking at cells and microbes.  Phones won’t be able to do that yet.  Who knows what the future holds for these kinds of cameras.  100 years ago, we were learning to fly.  70 years ago, we put a man on the moon.  40 years ago, a home computer was non-existent.  20 years ago, the internet was coming into its own.  Who knows what technology is going to be invented in 20, 40, 70 or a 100 years ago.  In the Back to the Future movies we were supposed to have flying cars right now.  

Technology evolves.  Attitudes change.  Tech just gets better.  Some of it for the better and most of it for the worse as it changes society for the worse.  But that’s just my opinion.

I am a stock photographer

No weddings. No portraits.  No family shots.  Only landscapes of nature and wildlife.  With my Sony RX100 Mark VII and my 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  No huge cameras.  No heavy laptops.  If I need to get closer to something, I walk towards it.  If I need to be farther away from subject, I walk away from it.  Easy as that.  I enjoy my independence.  I would rather be in my car with my camera driving to somewhere new.  Photograph something new.  Experience something new.

I honestly don’t need the latest and greatest anymore.  I am truly happy with what I have.  I have the best camera.  I have the best computer.  Why?  They are always with me.  I have decided to just do photography and shoot footage with the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  High quality photography and high quality 1080p video.  4K files are way too big and take too much time to process.  The 2018 Apple iPad Pro just flies through 1080p footage.  I keep learning about the iPadOS everyday.  Learn something new with it.

April 2020, I have decided to move to Calgary and be near the mountains.  I want to pay off my debt and just live simply.  That is my goal.

Adobe Stock

So after a few years of avoiding the website, I am on the Adobe Stock site.  My portfolio is very small as I just started uploading there this week.  I will be working over the next 2-3 months in adding more photos and videos to the site.  I’ll be going out more on weekends doing more of my photography.  I need to add more photos and videos to my Shutterstock, Pond5, Storyblocks and now Adobe Stock portfolios.  I just want to give people more options to buy my photography and my videos.  You can also go to my own personal website and buy photos there to hang on any wall at home or office.

I wanted to go do some photography after work but it looks like we’re going to get rained on starting today and ending at some point tomorrow.  This weekend, the girlfriend and I are heading down to Lake Placid, New York.  She’s never been and I haven’t been in about 3-4 years.  The fall colours are amazing this year in the north east of Canada and the United States.  Hope you will buy some of my prints.

Back to using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC

So after several months of using my 2018 Apple iPad Pro 12.9" with the 512GB hard drive, I am back to using my 2013 Apple MacBook Pro with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC.  It is totally frustrating.  I've been using my Sony RX100 Mark VII as my main photography camera.  Apple has not updated the RAW engine so my photos are incompatible with iPadOS.  They are incompatible with Windows 10 as well.  Recently Adobe released the RAW software for the Sony RX100 Mark VII and the Sony AR7 Mark IV.  I absolutely love my Sony RX100 Mark VII.  It's my go to camera/camcorder.  I know the 2013 Apple MacBook Pro can handle editing pictures and 1080 video from the Sony RX100 Mark VI and VII.  Just takes a while to edit 4K footage.  

I was at Mud Lake for a bit today and I was thinking that I really want to use the photos from the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I read somewhere online that Adobe finally updated the RAW plugins for its software suites to finally use the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I'm going to use Lightroom Classic CC on my MacBook Pro for a while.  

I really wanted to use my iPad Pro with the iPadOS but iPadOS and the photography software is just not there yet.  Maybe give it another year and it'll be there but it's not there yet unfortunately.  The apps I use have to be fully upgraded for use with iPadOS and external hard drive support.  I'm just going to use Lightroom Classic and Affinity Photo even though I do have access to Photoshop.  I like Affinity Photo much better.

Finally on Youtube

So I decided for a different format for my YouTube channel.  I hate being on camera so I will just combine all my photos and video clips and put them into a video.  I don't have any experience with film making so I will learn along the way.  I hope you join me https://bit.ly/2kGDsso.

Patreon

Signed up to Patreon here.

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.

I absolutely hate...

...moving.  We just spend the last week moving.  Boxing up our stuff.  Getting a storage unit.  Moving into a storage unit and moving the rest of our stuff that we actually need and use to our new place.  And we'll have to do this again in March.  To boot, I think we'll be moving cross country in March to Calgary, Alberta.  I moved myself to Calgary last year for a 4 month contract.  It wasn't that bad but I did get stuck in North Dakota for two days because of a 2cm snow storm with 95kh/h winds.  Visibility was non existent.

Monday is becoming exciting.  I get a new coworker tomorrow.  That means I can offload some work on a newbie finally in months.  I haven't had a chance at all to do any photography or shoot any footage.

It's Monday morning and I've done one deployment so far.  I'm trying to update the TPM settings on these Toshiba Portege Z30-B machines and it's nothing but a frustrating pain in the rear end.  From now until March 31, 2019, I am studying Affinity Photo after work.  I really, really need to switch career paths.  I am frustrated with the I.T industry.  Nothing ever works right and I feel like I'm way behind in everything.  One person tells me to do one thing and the next one tells me to do another.

I have to do what I want to do with my life.  Do whatever it takes to get my life to where I want it to be.  I have to make myself happy and not someone else.  This is probably going to be my last I.T. contract as far as I'm concerned.  

A good one has gone home

I was going to do a review of the Canon Vixia HF G40 today after work.  That is not going to happen as this morning, I woke up to find out that one of my photography friends passed away at a young age from cancer.

As a cancer survivor myself, this hit me pretty hard.  I got cancer at the age of 35 and luckily got my 5 year clearance this past December.  My friend got her cancer while in her late 20's and passing away early in her 30's.  

You don't know the unimaginable guilt I feel that I'm still here and she is gone.  It's a total shock to the system to think that someone so young and full of promise could just pass away so quickly and so quietly.  I am still in shock and it's just really upsetting that I'm still here and she's not.  This is not the first friend that I've lost in my lifetime and it won't be the last.

I'm just mad that cancer took a young and promising person and not someone who has done evil in this world.  Death always takes the good ones too early and leaves us to mourn.  

I know she is in a good place now and the pain is gone for her.  I will truly miss you my friend.

R.I.P.

Favourite duck

I go to Mud Lake often to shoot nature and wildlife photography and wildlife videos.  Mud Lake is located in Ottawa.  It's a lake surrounded by a lush green forest and is near a water filtration plant.  It's a peaceful refuge if you just want to get away.  It's got several nature trails and is really convenient as it's located within city limits.

You get a lot of turtles and various water fowl.  A lot of herons and a lot of various types of ducks such as the above Male Wood duck.  It's my favourite kind of duck.  It's not as friendly as the regular mallard duck as they don't seem to like going near humans.  But that's ok for us photographers with our lenses and large sensors.  We can crop our photographs to still get a nice image.

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!

Ottawa tired!

I've lived in Ottawa since 1983 when I was just 8 years old.  I took up photography seriously in 2008 or so.  Started taking classes in 2010 and finished in 2012.  It is now 2016 and I'm tired of photographing Ottawa and the surrounding areas.  I fee like I've done it all in this quaint town of a million plus people.  You have your typical tourist sites like Parliament Hill, the museums, galleries and such.  I've been to Parc Omega more times than I can count.

Don't get me wrong, I like living here in Canada's capital.  It's quiet, relatively cheap and there are jobs here.  I'm just tired.  Tired of the same.  Mind you, I'm not the kind to just pick up and move to a new place.  I have to have things figured out.  Need a job.  Need money to eat and put a head over my head.  I need a place where I can edit my photos and videos.

I've felt the need to move somewhere for the past several years.  I've come to realize that I've spent too much time here.  I'm still finding it hard to be alone after my divorce.  I see no future girlfriend in the near future.  I don't know if I'll get married again.  I'm scared to move to a new place.  But I'm more scared if I don't and things stay in the same place and do the same things.  I don't know if I can keep doing the same job for the next 20+ years.  A job I hardly enjoy.  A job that is just the means to an end.  I'm not overly happy doing the same thing day in day out seeing the same people, doing the same job.  

I love photography.  It's the only hobby/job that keeps me happy.  I don't think about anything else when I'm out photographing the surrounding world.  I think the only other person who would understand is a photographer.  Photography is something that lives in you.  It's more than a feeling.  It's more than a passion.  It's in my DNA.  Honestly it's what I love to do.  Just put me in a national park with a camera or two and I'd be happy as a kid in a candy store.

The Wood Duck

Taken today at Mud Lake after a long day at work.  There must have been at least 5 pairs of Wood ducks at the entrance to the path today.  When I came at about 4pm they were all diving for food.  Weather was a bit chilly with a brisk, cold wind

I honestly love shooting with my f2.8 lenses.  I don't think I could go back to a slower lens.  I may be an f2.8 snob but f2.8 lenses help out a lot.  Especially the Canon ones.

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.