My only setup for now

2018 Apple iPad Pro.  Check.  Apple Magic Keyboard.  Check.  Apple Magic Mouse.  Check.  Sony a7R Mark II.  Check.  Canon Vixia HF G50.  Check.  Canon G7X Mark III.  Check.  Joby Tripod.  Check.  Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max (64GB model).  Check.  Apple EarPods (v. 2).  Check.  Best photography setup.  Check.  Apple SD Card to USB C adapter.  Check.

The 2018 Apple iPad Pro is an amazing device.  Edits my Sony a7R Mark II 85 megabyte files with ease.  Edits the Canon Vixia HF G50 4K 30fps files easily.  I do not have one complaint about this setup at all.  Extremely portable.  Once we’re allowed to travel, the iPad Pro and the Canon G7X Mark III will be my go to devices.    Just the iPad Pro and the small and powerful Canon camera.  Dream devices.

Oh how you disappoint me Shutterstock

Shutterstock!!!!!!  What did you do????  And why did you do it????  I think I known what the answer is.  Greed.  Pure greed.  Lowered our licenses to 10 cents a photo.  You have become the iStock of the micro stock world.  Shutterstock, I will no longer upload any photos or any footage.  I will go exclusively with Adobe Stock and Pond5.  I will be disabling my portfolio as soon as I can on Shutterstock.  $0.10 a photo download is insulting.  Apparently I made it to level 3 today where I get 25% of the download which works out to about $0.12 a photo download.  Considering I was making $0.36 a download before this hair brained scheme, this new scheme is a kick in the ass.

For any new contributor, do not even upload to Shutterstock.  It is not worth it.  Even living in a third world country, $0.10 a photo download is an insult.  Hardware, software, travel, editing, time.  Not worth the measly and paltry $0.10 a photo download.  I haven’t sold any footage yet under this new payment scheme and I hope I don’t.  All contributors should disable their portfolios immediately to send Shutterstock a message.

Photography in the time of COVID-19

Photography, especially, landscape, nature, wildlife, astrophotography is probably the best type of photography to learn and do while social distancing in the time of COVID-19.  You are surrounded by nature socially distancing from everyone.  No one is around you.  You’re out in the fresh air.  It’s fantastic.  

These four photos were taken in Moosecreek, Ontario which is situated roughly halfway between Ottawa and Montreal.  The sky glow in the bottom picture is actually sky glow from Montreal which is about 45 minutes east of the location.  It’s almost like photographing the night sky in daylight which is not good.

The shots were taken with the Sony a7R Mark II with the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM lens.  Pretty good ISO at 1600.  Hardly any noise.  All photos were edited on the 2018 Apple iPad Pro with the 12.9” screen and the 512GB hard drive.  All pictures were edited on the 2018 Apple iPad Pro in Affinity Photo. I am using the Apple Magic keyboard to type this and it’s actually an amazing typing experience this blog.  My configuration consists of the 2018 Apple iPad Pro 12.9” using the Magic Keyboard to type and the Magic Mouse as my primary pointing device.  I am using the USB-C card reader made by Apple to get all my photography.  I also have the second version of the Apple Pencil for very specific editing.

I’ve gone out twice to do astrophotography in the last 2 months which is twice more than I’ve done in the last several years.  It took me a while to find focus since I’ve never used this camera for astrophotography before but I think the pictures came out very well.

I think this summer, the fiancée and I will head up to the Algonquin Radio Telescope for night and do some photography from there.  I haven’t been there in a few years and I need to revisit the place with my new photography setup.  

New Apple keyboard for the 2018 Apple iPad Pro 12.9”

I received my the new 2020 Apple Keyboard for my 2018 Apple iPad Pro 12.9” iPad Pro.  I have to say that the 2018 Apple iPad Pro 12.9” with the 512GB hard drive IS a laptop replacement.  Typing is simply incredible on the keyboard.  It is more tactile with the key travel being a lot better than with the keyboard folio made by Apple.  I’ve had the 2018 Apple iPad Pro for over a year now and I can now say, with the new keyboard, I am never going back to a Windows or Mac OS X based laptop or desktop.  As a photographer, this iPad Pro is a beast.  There is not much difference as far as horsepower goes between the 2018 and 2020 iPad Pros.  From what I hear, the 2020 iPad Pro is only 1% faster than the 2018 iPad Pro.  The only reasons I’d upgrade to the 2020 iPad Pro is if I bought the 1TB version for the extra 500GB of space and the extra 2GB in memory.  But with the iPadOS being so efficient with the memory use, there is no point in having 6GB of RAM.

If the next iPad Pro has 8GB of RAM and larger SSDs like a 2TB or a 4TB model with a better GPU, then yes I would upgrade.  But the 2018 Apple iPad Pro handles my 85MB RAW files from my Sony a7RII like a champ.  There is absolutely no lag in processing the Sony RAW files.

The only thing I miss on the new version of the Apple keyboard are the function keys.  Actually the only function keys I miss are the ESC key and the volume Up/Down keys.  Other than that, that is all I miss.  By the way, if you go to https://www.josefpittner.photos, you can purchase my photography from the St. Lawrence Seaway.  The border between Canada and the U.S.A is unfortunately still closed which isn’t cool.  Maybe next time we go down there, the border will be open and we can actually cross into upstate New York and do some photography there.

New website to purchase photos from

Opened up a new website hosted by Smugmug.  You can go to josefpittner.smugmug.com to purchase just photography at better prices I think.  If you’re a photographer needing a new place to sell your photos, Smugmug is great.  Here is a 20% discount code: https://secure.smugmug.com/signup?Coupon=R256Bb

Algonquin Park - Landscapes

It is 23:15 on Saturday night.  Just got home from Algonquin Park maybe half an hour ago.  I transferred all my photography and videos from my various SD cards and here are the first two shots that I edited from our day at Algonquin Park along the Highway 60 corridor.  Quite the successful afternoon from the park.  3 moose and lots of lakes that were photographed.

From looking at most of the photography today, it looks amazing.  Tomorrow will be more video stuff from the Tulip Festival here in Ottawa.  Thankfully they opened up the city parks this past week.  Most people are social distancing thankfully.  I still think this whole corona virus is way overblown as pretty much all the deaths are in long term care facilities which everyone knew was going to happen.  But that's just my opinion.

Shooting with the Sony a7R Mark II and the Sony f3.5-63 24MM-200MM

Went out again with the Sony a7R Mark II and the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM lens today  I am really impressed with this camera and lens combination.  I went to Dows Lake which is centrally located in Ottawa, Ontario - Canada.  It's where the tulip festival is held every year.  Luckily this year, there aren't hoards of tourists from Toronto.  Typically there are 3-10 bus loads of Asian tourists and it's impossible to move.  Luckily this year the park is clean due to the lack of people.  Typically tourists just throw garbage everywhere and spit all over the place.

The Sony a7R Mark II comes with a 42.4 megapixel full frame sensor.  It outputs roughly 85 megabyte uncompressed RAW files.  So a lot of information to pay with.  I edited the above photos in Affinity Photo 1.8.3 on a Windows 10 based laptop.  The Apple iPad Pro 12.9" with the 512GB hard drive running iPadOS 13.3.1 has been acting funny the last two days.  I've reinstalled iPadOS once already and I'll give it another day or two to settle down.  The two images above are available for sale on my website. 

I really enjoy using the camera to take the photos.  I will post more photos once I am done editing them in Affinity Photo.

Mating Canadian Geese

Couldn’t set up my 4K camera in time.  Shot this on my Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max.

I’ve had enough with laptops/desktops

So I do my photography with a Sony a7R II, a 42.4 megapixel beast.  I shoot my footage with a Canon Vixia HF G50, a 4K/30fps camcorder and I edit everything on a 2018 Apple iPad Pro with the 512GB hard drive, the 12.9” screen and 4GB of memory.  I was thinking of upgrading the iPad Pro to the 2020 iPad Pro with the 1TB hard drive and 6GB of RAM.  From what I have read, the new 2020 Apple iPad Pro is only 1% faster than the 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  Is it worth upgrading?  Hell no.  Not for $1949 plus tax.  I did get the new Apple keyboard though for the iPad.  It should be here in a few weeks.  I have absolutely no need for a laptop or a desktop to edit my photography or my footage.  The iPad Pro is just a beast of a powerhouse.  Maybe I will upgrade in 2021 when they bring out the A14X chip.  The 12.9” screen is just fine.  I can edit fine detail in my photography in Affinity Photo or Pixelmator Photo.  Apple Photos is just fine for my video editing I believe.  I don’t do heavy edits in any app.  I just shoot in RAW for photography.  File sizes are about 85 megabytes and the iPad Pro has no problem handling these types of file sizes.  The Canon Vixia HF G50 outputs 500-600 megabyte files for a minute of 4K footage which is all I use to upload to Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Pond5 and Storyblocks.

The only problem I can foresee for myself is file storage.  I may need to upgrade in a year or two for the 1TB hard drive.  If Apple puts a 2TB, 4TB or an 8TB hard drive into future iPads, there will be no reason to buy a laptop or a desktop.  Apple will just need to upgrade their online storage.  With the current 2TB cap for $12 a month is just not enough.  I’d probably need 4-8TB of online storage.  I would be willing to pay $20-25 a month for 4-8TB of online storage.

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.

A social distancing drive to a small Canadian town on the border

Plus 13 degrees Celsius with a blue sky and some white, puffy clouds in it and they want people to stay at home.  I don't think so.  This coronavirus pandemic is a total farce.  How many people die from cancer, lung disease, HIV, AIDS, old age?  There is no cure for death.  Death has a 100% success rate.  No one and I mean no one has come back from the dead.  Well, except maybe one guy.  But that was over 2000 years ago now.

The fiancee and I decided to goer a drive to Cornwall, Ontario today.  Cornwall sits on the Canadian, US border.  Not surprised that the border was still open.  We saw a lot of people with New York State license plates in Cornwall.  We saw a few cars with Ontario and Quebec plates heading towards the border.  I am pretty sure 99% of these border crossers were unnecessary.  This pandemic was created in a lab in Vuhan, China.  The Chinese of course have a cure for it but are not releasing it or are asking an exorbitant amount for it.  On the world scale, more than a few trillion dollars.  Would not put it the Chinese Communist Party to do this.  Anyone believing that the Chinese Communist Party is a benevolent government has their head so far up their ass, they'll eating Coronavirus for breakfast.

It's time to open up the economy in North America and bomb the shit out of Beijing.

Today's social distancing walk around Ottawa

Went out for my social distancing walk this afternoon in downtown Ottawa.  Ottawa is currently empty of government employees, locals and tourists.  Everything is being cancelled.  All the festivals and concerts are no more.  All the museums are closed.  Seems like the summer is cancelled in Ottawa.  The good thing is there are no people or cars in my shots.  If there are cars or people in my photos, I can remove them using Affinity Photo.  Today, I just had to remove some cars.  Some of these shots are available on http://josefpittner.photos/.  I know times are tough right now for everyone.  I was laid off from my job 3 weeks ago now because of this Covid19 virus.

Some Things You Might Not Know ...

My favourite camera. And why.

As a photographer, I've gone through a myriad of camera bodies and lenses.  Point and shoot cameras, cropped sensor cameras and full frame cameras.  Then there are the lenses.  Zoom and fixed focal lengths,  I can't count the number of bodies I've gone through in the past 15 years or so.  But the Sony a7R II body with its 42.4 megapixel full frame sensor has to be the best camera I've ever used.  The Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM lens is the most versatile lens I've ever owned.  It's no f2.8 70-200MM lens but I don't need the 16-35 or the 70-200 and another body to carry around.  

As I get progressively older, I do not want to carry around multiple bodies and lenses.  Like I've stated in the past, when I was in the Rockies, I carried around 3 lens, 3 bodies and a camcorder.  That was a pain the butt I can tell you.   I also switched to the Sony RX100 Mark VII which was an amazingly fantastic little pocket camera.  But I needed something a bit more versatile.  The Sony a7R II combined with the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM is just the right combination for a one man run and gun setup.

I was hoping I'd be moving out west to Calgary in the next couple of weeks but it looks like that is going to be put on hold.  With the corona virus, SSC is not bringing us on past March 31st of this year which sucks.  Photo sales are not picking up and I think things will get only worse before they get any better.

I am hoping at some point this year, we will make out west.  I want to do a lot more landscape photography with the Sony a7R II and the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM lens.  On a side note, iPad OS 13.4 came out today and it has made the iPad a little worse for wear.  The Files app is a huge disappointment   It now crashes whenever I try to copy over the 85 megabyte files from the Sony a7R II.  I am stuck using my Windows 10 laptop.  I'm thinking that I will try the 2018 Apple iPad Pro tomorrow again after the system settles down a bit.  In the meantime, I'll be using the Windows 10 laptop and Affinity Photo 1.8.2 to edit the photos.

My photography setup

During this self isolation period, I managed to clean up my desk and clean up my photography setup.  My setup includes the 2018 Apple iPad Pro with the 12.9” screen and the 512GB hard drive.  I have an external 2TB hard drive attached via USB hub and the Yeti Blue Mic.  I also have the Apple Keyboard Folio and the Bluetooth Apple mouse which will be connected via Bluetooth tomorrow whenever iPadOS 13.4 comes out.  The camera is the Sony a7R II which has the 42.4 megapixel sensor.  I am using the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM lens which is a great all in one lens.  Yes, it’s a little slower compared to the f2.8 lenses but it’s also a lot cheaper in price.  

The 2018 Apple iPad Pro is great for editing photos coming from the Sony a7R II camera.  It has more then enough power to edit the 85 megabyte files coming out of the Sony a7R II.  There are minuscule problems with the operating system of the iPad Pro which I hope will be fixed in iPadOS 13.4.  I am hoping iPadOS 14 brings in more features like a better and more stable File system.  The File App has crashed my iPad Pro twice so far when transferring files from the 128GB SD card onto the external hard drive.  Also missing for me is the copy status when transferring files between the SD Card and the external hard drive.  Once those two features are baked into iPadOS, I’d be really happy with the 2018 iPad Pro.  With the 2020 Apple iPad Pro, the GPU is only about 10% faster which is not a reason for me to upgrade.  I also don’t use the 2018 Apple iPad Pro as my primary camera so the new camera system on the 2020 Apple iPad Pro is totally meaningless.  Although the new keyboard folio looks interesting with the track pad, I was never a huge fan of the track pads on any device.  As long as the iPad Pro gets the Bluetooth mouse support tomorrow, I’ll be really happy.

I have noticed an uptick on visits to the site.  With everyone staying home and self isolating, if you are reading this and you see the ads running on this blog, I would appreciate if you would peruse the ads by placing your mouse over them and hitting the left mouse button or using your finger on your iPhone or iPad.  It would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks very much and be safe out there.