No Social Media

I finally shut off my Facebook account today.  Instagram and Twitter were completely useless as far as marketing my services go.  Never ever made money with social media.  All I got was trolls and spam email and requests to send money to someone in Nigeria.  

Those platforms never really did work as I only upload my photography and footage to sites like Shutterstock, Pond5 and Videoblocks.  I've recently started to blog in the hopes people find my photos and footage appealing.  I think it also helps people to know me a little better.  

Facebook and Twitter for me were very polarizing.  Especially over the past decade or so with what's come out about Facebook and Twitter, with what they've being doing and trying to do in recent elections.  There is a lot of fake news and a lot of propaganda which is dividing people against each other which does not help.  I don't want my blog to be about politics, censorship or anything of that nature.  I want my followers to be constructive when criticizing my photographs or videos.  Don't make hateful or offensive comments.  It does not add to the discussion but rather detracts.  I am open to ideas.  Good and bad.  I am willing to help and learn.  I want to teach what I know.  I want to learn from other people.

I find social media makes people very anti-social.  Smart phones are making people not so smart.  Growing up, we did our own research.  We did not have Google.  We actually read books.  That's where we learned from.  Now you can find everything on Google or YouTube.  Well almost everything.  I hope that people actually use less and less social media.  I hope people instead go for walks and drives out into the country.  Take their cameras and camcorders with them.  You actually have a device that fits in your pocket that does both.  Actually talk to each other.  More importantly listen to one another. 

I have to go back

This place is just so amazing.  The American Southwest is completely mesmerizing.  I went there 2 and a half years ago.  It was about 10 months after my divorce.  I was not in a good place emotionally and I just needed a break from work and everything.  I've never been on a vacation by myself to anywhere.  I just needed a place to relax.  I had two choices at the time as I remember.  Either go to Arizona or California.  

In California, I wanted to go on the Pacific Coast highway for a few days and I wanted to go see a couple of the national parks.  I remember watching several YouTube videos and seeing all the homeless in San Fransisco and Los Angeles.  That alone swayed me to go to Arizona.  One of my profs in college went there and I remember seeing his pictures of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley.

Needless to say I made the right decision.  I instantly fell in love with the state when I landed in Phoenix.  I've always wanted to see the Grand Canyon.

Lets just say even with the louse cold weather I had an amazing time.  It's an amazing wonder to see in person.  Never seeing it before and walking up to the cliff to see the majesty of the Grand Canyon is a once in a life time experience.  I only spent about 6 hours at the Grand Canyon but what six hours those were.  I am hoping to go back very soon to try and recreate the experience.  I would suggest that you go there as well as it should be on anyone' bucket list.

Fort Henry, Ontario - Arial view

Just one of the videos I took over Fort Henry when we were in Kingston, ON over the August long weekend.  The drones are a lot of fun to fly but I fear losing it.  I try and keep it in visual site.  I think next year I will upgrade from the DJI Spark to the DJI Mavic Pro just so I can take better video with the drone.  The DJI Spark takes really good videos but I want something better.

Fort Henry, ON - Canada

So we were in Sandbanks Provincial Park, Ontario yesterday which was fantastic.  Weather was sunny and hot.  And I mean real hot.  We went back today only to find out that the wait to get in was about a two hour wait just to pay to get into the park.  My girlfriend and I decided it wasn't worth the two hour wait as they already closed the big beach there as it reached capacity.  We decided to head to Kingston, ON as my girlfriend has never been to Fort Henry.  

I took the opportunity to fly my DJI Spark.  Take some pictures and some video.  I'm learning on how to fly the drone as it's a bit scary the first few times.  On occasion, I would lose sight of it in the sun.  I keep forgetting to look at my Apple iPhone 8+ to see what I'm actually photography and taping.  I've just finished uploading to my Shutterstock, Pond5 and Videoblocks portfolios.  Hopefully they will be accepted and available for sale soon

On a side not, I got a nickname of Red Lobster because of the sunburn.  

This is way too...

...early to be up n a Saturday morning.  I've been up since 5am.  That is all.

Will be heading to...

...Sandbanks Provincial Park near Kingston, Ontario this weekend.  I will be taking the drone and cameras.  Hopefully the weather will co-operate and my back will be ok.  The last time we went, my back pretty much spasmed out and we had to go to the hospital for the back pain.  I could not sleep on my back and it was really uncomfortable.  Luckily we went to the chiropractor and my back seems to be ok.

On a side note, Google in its infinite wisdom does not support the blogger app in the Apple app store.  So I'm looking for a blogging IOS app which is cheap and good.  Let me know in the comments section please.   Thanks everyone and have a good weekend.  Especially the long weekend here in Ontario.

Review of the Sony RX10 Mark II

This bridge style camera is a really good travel camera that produces excellent pictures and 4k video. It uses the same chip as the RX100 line and the Sony FDR AX100 B 4k camcorder.  Being a bridge style camera the 24mm-200mm f2.8 is non removable.  

Yes there are two new models, the III and IV with longer lenses but they are also slower at the long end capturing less light than the f2.8 Carl Zeiss lens.  You can look at my Shutterstock profile here to see the capability of this fantastic little camera.  It's quite a bit bigger than the RX100 line of cameras but way smaller and lighter than a regular DSLR camera.  It also does not over heat when shooting in 4k mode.  It has the same 1" sensor as the RX100 line of pocket cameras.

It shoots 4k video at only 24fps or 30fps.  But at 1080p you can shoot all the way up to 960fps slow motion.  With the 20 megapixel sensor, this bridge camera takes great photos and videos.  Sony is really known for their sensors supplying other camera manufacturers.

Some pros of the camera are:

1. Great photo quality
2. Great video quality
3. Shoots 4k video
4. Shoots slow motion video
5. Light in weight
6. Very portable
7. Picture profiles for both still and videos

Some cons of the camera

1. No inter changeable lens
2. Battery life
3. Feels small in the hand

In the near future I will be upgrading to the Sony RX10 Mark IV just for the reach of the lens being a 24MM to 600MM.  Really great for those nature shots.

The best camcorder ever!!!!!

Yes.  It's the best prosumer camcorder ever built.  It shoots 1080p/60fps.  No it does not shoot 4k.  I'm glad it doesn't.  Yes 4k televisions are falling in price.  In Canada, the major cable providers only have 1 or 2 4k channels.  With dwindling cable subscribers  I don't see the major providers upgrading their equipment to fully support 4k in the near future.  I have a 4k television at home with an Apple 4k TV set top box which we, being my girlfriend and I don't hardly watch.  We don't watch a whole lot of television rather looking at our phones or iPads or computers which only support 1080p or 1440p.  But on a phone, you cannot differentiate between 1080p and 1440p.  There are a few phones that have 4k displays but again, they're a small screen factor.  That is why I'm still shooting 1080p.

Lets get back to the Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder available for purchase here.  Like I've written previously it does shoot at 1080p/60fps.  What Canon does right with this camcorder is colour reproduction.  It does come with 20x optical zoom and 300x digital zoom.  Thanks to the sensors enhanced sensitivity, the Vixia HF G40 provides vivid, accurate recording through an improved signal to noise ratio.  The camera shoots in both MP4 and AVCHD with MP4 being web ready.  The camera provides dual SD card slots for never ending storage.  I have 2 64GB cards in the camera and I can shoot the whole weekend and not fill up both cards.  You can record to both cards at the same time just in case one fails.  I did buy an extra battery for longer shooting.  I can shoot about 90 minutes with the battery that comes with the camera and with my larger battery I can shoot over 220 minutes on a single charge.

The OLD screen is big and bright even during sunny days.  The electronic viewfinder shifts to 45 degrees and is easy to use and see thru.  For a guy with glasses, it's a big help.  The optical image stabilization is great when you want to shoot that is far away from you.  The lens is great on this camera being a f1.8 to f2.8 which means it's great in low light and is extremely sharp.  

Here are some of the pros of the camera:

1. Great price
2. Great lens
3. Portable
4. 1080p/60fps
5. Focal lenght
6. Multiple hot shoes to attach accessories
7. OLED screen
8. Viewfinder
9. Comes with remote control and lens cap
10. Weight of 1.7 pounds
11. Reach of 26.7MM to 576MM (35MM equivalent)
12. Wide angle and zoom lenses available
13. Has Wifi and FTP 
14. Superb video
15. Superb colour reproduction

Here are some of the negatives:

1. Does not shoot 4k (is that a negative?)

You can buy two teleconvertors.  One wide and one a telephoto.  I currently have the wide lens and it's amazingly sharp.  The camera does have audio in which unfortunately doesn't provide phantom power.  I currently use the Rode Video Mic Pro+ available here.

When I was in Calgary last year for work I brought this camera with me.  I decided to buy a Sony 4k camcorder thinking 4k is the future.  Let's just say I sold the 4k camcorder and I kept the Canon.  With the Canon I don't need that many hard drives as the files are smaller and I don't need as much processing power.  If I wanted I could use my iPhone 8 Plus running iMovie to edit my Canon clips for my portfolios.  You can check my portfolio links on my blog to see what the camera is capable of.

Best pocket camera in the world

The Sony RX100 Mark V is possibly the best pocket camera in the world.  Currently you can buy the Sony RX100 Mark VI as well but the Mark V is a bit cheaper.  The Mark VI has a 24-200MM lens compared to the 24-70MM on the RX100 Mark V.  The Mark V takes amazing photos and videos and I'm guessing the Mark VI is slightly better.

The Sony RX100 Mark V has a one inch type Exmor RS CMOS sensor with a 21 megapixel sensor (20.1MP effective) which shoots great photos and even better videos up to 4k.  It can shoot up to 4K UHD video and regular video at 1080P.  It can even shoot slow video up to 980fps.  I've had the camera for over a year now and it is very reliable.  I take it everywhere with me since it does fit into my pocket.  You don't feel like a paparazzi with the camera.  You will not get stares as you would with a gigantic DSLR and a 70-200 lens.

The Sony RX100 Mark VI does have a 24-200MM lens which is awesome and is the only reason I would ever upgrade to the Mark VI.  The Mark V is very versatile little camera.  It's pretty much travelled with me every where I go.  From Calgary to Vancouver to Ottawa and down south to Florida.

The pros of the camera are:

1. Pocket size
2. Shoots awesome video
3. Shoots awesome photos
4. Easy to setup and use
5. Great for vlogging
6. 24 photo burst rate (Raw images)
7. Non-invasive 
8. Descent audio capture for such a small camera

The cons of the camera are:

1. It overheats when shooting 4K video 
2. 5 minutes limitations on 4k video
3. Battery life.  Buy lots and lots of batteries.  At least 2-3
4. Menu system is atrocious.  But once you learn it, it's ok.
5. No input jack for better audio

For me, I shoot mainly stock photos and videos so I don't really need audio recording for my needs.  This little camera does pretty much everything.  I actually sold all my Canon gear and bought the Sony RX100 Mark V and a Sony RX10 Mark II when I was out in Calgary for work.  I took it to the mountains whenever I was out there on weekends.  

If you would like to purchase it, please click here and help me out a little.  I do get a little back from Amazon when you purchase something.  It helps me buy new equipment and software and helps me travel to new places to take better pictures and videos.

FInally, I see ads!!!!

Well it took forever but I got all my Google accounts cleaned up.  Closed a myriad of accounts and services.  Forwarding my domain to the blogger site.  Correctly setup Google Adsense on the blog.  Correctly set up Google Adsense account, Google Analytics etc and for the first time, the website is able to display ads on my own, personal website.

From now on I hope to post daily or every other day and raise traffic to the site and all my various photo and video portfolios so that I can expand my photography business.  I live and breathe photography.  I am constantly thinking of what I want to photograph next.  It's an amazing hobby that gets you out into your city and local nature around the area you live in.  It's a great experience to explore and capture memories.

Cleaning up my Google services

Over the past week or so, I've been cleaning up my Google services and accounts.  Closing old blogs, pages and other websites I haven't been using for ages.  I was planning on just streaming all my content onto one site, one blog and one Youtube account.  I've finally gotten Google to provide grant me Adsense to my current website.  It took a few business days and I'm hoping that in the next few months, I can actually start making some money on my blog.  I've added shortcuts on this blog to all my micro stock accounts so you may visit those at your convenience.  

Things at home are finally settling down so now I have more time to devote more time to my photography and to blogging about my photography and photography experiences.  I hope you will follow me thru my adventures.  

Finally

Finally got my domain name pointed to Blogger.  Finally got Adsense to work with Blogger and my own domain.  I've had so much trouble with setting this up.  So many errors.  So many issues.  I haven't posted here in over a year because I've been so busy with work.  My girlfriend has had both her knees replaced in the past year so I've been helping her a lot this past year.  Driving her to physiotherapy, doctor's appointment etc.  But I am back and I'm looking to do more blogging and more photography.  I've wanted to have my own domain name pointed to the site for so long and have Adwords run on my site.  I finally had the time to sit down and do this.  

I am finally back.  Now I wish it would stop raining so I can fly my new drone.

Been away for a while

The Rockies in B/W

I have not posted in a while.  I have been extremely busy since March.  Also, a lot has changed in my personal life.  First off, back in March 2017, I left for Calgary for what I thought was a three month contract with the National Energy Board.  Turned into a four month contract.  I also started dating a wonderful woman back in January 2017.  I am still with her and we actually moved in after I came back from Calgary.

I spent a lot of time in the rocky mountains on my weekends when I was out in Calgary and I have to say I fell in love with the environment when I was out there.  I took roughly ten thousand photographs while in Calgary.  I traveled to Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma and back to Calgary while out in the wild, wild west of Canada.

A lot has changed in the past 8 months.  All for the better I think.  Got a new girl.  Got some new digs.  Got some new photography and video equipment which I will talk about in a later blog.  Needless to say, I am back in Ottawa looking for a job.  I am still doing a lot of photography.

I will be updating the blog more often now.  Stay tuned!

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.

It's been a while

Well 2017 is here and what a year.  Got a new girl in my life, work is going well and finally doing more photography.  Finally.  Busy, busy, busy.