Going Full

I made that great leap to a full frame camera this week with the purchase of a Nikon D600. Combining that with a Tokina 17-35mm F/4 has been a great mixture for landscape work.

With the jump from the D5100 to D600 I was a little worried that the larger RAW file sizes would slow down my post processing workflow, but my iMac has handled things really well. I don't think I have noticed any difference in file load times or the time it takes to apply file changes.

Overall I was really impressed with how much faster the camera is and how much more detail comes out of each image I was taking.

I haven't had a lot of time to shoot, but I pulled together a few shots with the Tokina and a Nikon 70-300mm.

One of my fav. images of the day. Love the water reflections

Wide Angle Circular Polarizers

I have been doing some research info Circular Polarizers for an 82mm filter thread. I have been trying to decide between a B+W XS-Pro Kaesemann at over $250 and the Marumi DHG at under $100.

I have been using a 77mm Marumi with my Tamron lens for over a year and I have always been happy with the results. The build quality is great and at only 5mm thick it is thinner then the B+W, it has been great at wide angles.

At this point I do not see any advantage to spending the extra money on a B+W when Marumi has great reviews, is reliable and produces great quality images.

Time for an upgrade

I think I have finally made the decision. Time to upgrade to a Nikon D600.  I don't see a D7100 coming any time soon and I don't want to wait. 

One of my challenges was how to deal with a full frame camera and an Ultra Wide Angle lens on a budget. With some more research I found the Tokina 17-35MM F4 FX AF for Nikon which appears to really well liked.

So for now I am looking for a buyer for my D5100 and waiting to see if any special deals come along for the Xmas holiday which could give me a lower D600 price or some type of bundle. 

Why Flickr?

I have seen a few stories over the last few days about how the CEO of Yahoo is not really showing much interest in Flickr. It seems that even the Yahoo homepage redesign may be missing a Flickr button.

I keep using flickr mostly because of the existing community of not only photographers but local groups in my Area. As an example, the East Bay Regional Park District uses Flickr as a way for park visitors to share images. My local city has a flickr group as well.

I find it to be an easy place to share images with the non-photography world in a way that is recognized by many as a "safe" photo site. Name recognition goes a long way. Flickr really has helped me to get exposure as I build my photography portfolio. I also like the basic stats they provide to help me track views.

I have thought about opening an account at smugmug.com but I do not see a "community" the way I do on Flickr to help get exposure for my images.

Do I think Flickr is going to go away? No I don't, but I also don't see it changing any time soon.

For now I will keep using Flickr and 500px.

My new HF Triple Unboxing

I have always been a big fan of the products over at Holdfast Gear. They are hand made in America using some of the best quality materials available.  I previously bought the Ruck Strap and I have loved using it every day.  Today my "Triple in Kodiak Leather" arrived. The size is a little smaller then a typical shoebox.

As always the packing shouts quality.

The straps are well made and the rope is a very nice touch. Fully loaded I have packed it with 9 filters (some 77mm), Nikon charger, 18-55 Nikon lens, air blower and I have room for some more odds and ends.

Overall I love this little bag. Honestly I would love it if Holdfast offered the same bag in an even larger size so I could also fit my Macro tripod slide. Maybe Matthew will offer one in the future (hint). Two of these would fit well on my shelf.

Vanguard Monopod Roundup

I was getting pretty tired of dragging around a bulky tripod or skipping the tripod all together, so I ordered a new monopod and head from Vanguard.

The ballhead comes with 2 quick release mounts and the movement is smooth and responsive. It was an  outstanding purchase.

The foot of the monopod includes a rotating bottom that exposes a spike for stability in soil.  The overall size is pretty manageable and easy to hold while hiking.

Canvas Prints gone wrong

Just over a week ago I ordered 2 canvas prints as a gift for my wife from http://adoramapix.com. I have never ordered a canvas print before. I had heard they do good work, so I figured they would be a good choice.

Today she opened the prints only to be disappointed with the results. On the outside everything seemed really well wrapped and protected. On the inside the brown wrapping paper was stuck to BOTH  prints.

Paper stuck to print on left edge

From what I can tell, it looks like the print was still wet when it was wrapped up for shipping.  I have contacted AdromaPix customer service and I am waiting for a response.  I will update this post when I learn how they will handle the problem.

I was planning to have some images printed for a public showing of some photos, and now I will pick a different photo lab. Any recommendations?

UPDATE: Within an hour AdromaPix replied that they will re-ship my order ASAP. Pretty good response from them.

Trying out DxO ViewPoint

I do a lot of shooting with a Tamron 10-24 Ultra Wide angle lens. I love the wide angle, but it causes a lot of buildings to tilt backwards.

A new program was released this month from DxO labs called ViewPoint and it is designed to help users adjust photos that have an odd tilt to them.

I downloaded the trial on my Mac and in about 5 minutes I was able to make some pretty major adjustments to one of my images. I have to say I am impressed.

I used the "Standalone" version on the Mac since they have not yet released an Aperture Plugin.

Controls are easy to use but I found them pretty slow to respond, even on my Mac with over 12GB of RAM. But still it was very usable.

I tried to do a quick edit on a few other images but the POV resulted in too much cropping in order to fix the tilt in the building, which was not going to leave me with the image I wanted.

I will probably buy a copy of program next time I am in the middle of editing an image that just looks a little off. http://www.dxo.com/intl/photo/dxo_viewpoint/introduction

D600 or no D600?

The news has been buzzing about the new D600 from Nikon. You probably already know this is the latest feature rich full frame DSLR from Nikon, at a "reasonable" price. Even Ken Rockwell pre-ordered one for himself.

I have been dreaming of this camera all summer, really wanting to upgrade from my D5100, but now that it is officially available I am probably going to pass....  The reason? The cost. Below is a breakdown of what it would cost for me to have a configuration equal to my D5100 setup.

Lets break it down:

1) Camera Body: $2,100
2) Battery grip: $322
3) 3 additional batteries @ $62 each
4) Nikon 16-35mm FX Ultra Wide angle lens to replace my 10-35mm DX lens: $1199
(Lens needs to support a 77mm filter for my current filter collection)

Total: $3,807

So now the cheap D600 is no longer a cheap upgrade for someone moving up to a full frame camera.

The logical next upgrade would be the D7000, but it isn't a big enough difference from the D5100 to make the leap. So for now I am going to wait for a few things before I upgrade:

1) I want to see what Nikon releases as the next generation of D7000 level cameras (released 2 years ago)
2) Wait to see if the D600 drops in price AND if a new selection of cheaper Ultra Wide angle lenses hit the market. Yes, I know cheaper does not mean better.

Next you may ask, why do you want to upgrade? These are a few of the reasons...

1) I want more controls at my fingertips and not hidden in menus
2) I want a histogram to view prior to shooting
3) Hoping for an onscreen level
4) Additional bracketing options
5) More autofocus points
6) Custom pre-sets
7) Better weather proofing.

Lowe Pro vs. Thinktank

Yesterday I was lucky enough to win a Retrospective 20 shoulder bag from ThinkTank Photo.  I have been using a Lowe Pro Messenger 200 AW bag for about 6 months so far, but I was still really excited to get the ThinkTank Photo bag. I have heard a lot of great things about ThinkTank, and I can see why they have such a good reputation.

I was very impressed with how many internal pockets I found inside the ThinkTank bag. Seriously, I never expected to find a pocket for just about everything you would need to stash. It had room for a flash, room for filters, lens cleaning supplies plus a camera with a tall lens attached.  I was also pretty impressed that it had multiple zipper compartments, including room for an iPad.  The bag was a great color and the material was really pretty thick and well padded. Also included was a rain cover in a small pouch. The shoulder strap was also really well padded.

My Lowe Pro bag is longer, but not as tall. It also would not hold the iPad very easily. When I need a smaller bag for a short trip, I will be using the ThinkTank Retrospective 20 bag. When I want to take just about everything, I will use the Lowe Pro.

Train Interior Series Continued

I had a chance to return to the Western Railway Museum today for a special membership day, which allowed access to some "new" trains. While I didn't get to use a tripod, I was still able to sneak in a few decent interior images.

I was able to capture a few of the interior features in more detail....

It's in the Signs

I know, I haven't posted anything to this blog in a while. I really haven't taken very many photos over the last month or so, mostly because of the very hot 95+ degree temps almost every day since early July. My last two photo walks took place in over 100 degree heat.  The heat makes me extra lazy. Basically I am looking forward to fall. Cooler temps and clouds in the sky.

Anyway, I thought I would post a few of the wonderful signs I have found while taking photos. I love the age and history that comes from each sign. I am always on the lookout for interesting signs in my area.

Love the giant crawdad!

Abandoned Dairy Farm in Oakley/Brentwood CA.

From the historic town of Locke

Mountain Lion Upgrade Tips

Before I give my basic impression, you should know I have not only been using the Macintosh for about 18 years but I have worked as a tech support manager for over 17 years with a Macintosh based software company.

First, BACKUP your computer before you upgrade. It is always smart. Yes I work for a backup software company, but I want to keep the blog objective, so I won't mention the company name.

Overall I think Mountain Lion is a nice upgrade from Lion, but a couple of changes in the system may be confusing to users or make you unhappy overall.

1) Safari no longer supports RSS feeds. If you are like me, I check RSS feeds for about 100 websites every single day, multiple times per day. Seeing the RSS feeds stop working suddenly was a shock. I had a little bit of a panic attach because it would totally change my web browsing experience.

I have come up with my own workaround, that seems to be doing a decent job.

• Setup a Google Reader account
• Copy all of your RSS feeds into the Google Reader account
• Download a program like "Caffeinated" from the OS X App store. You can search on "google reader" to find free and paid RSS feed programs. Caffeinated seems to be working really well for me
• Login to your Google Reader account within your RSS Reader and all of your feeds will show up.

2) Gatekeeper: Apple has added a new security feature that blocks programs that do not have an official Digital Signature for Mountain Lion.

If you have a program downloaded from someplace other then the App Store, that program may not launch until you make a System Preference change. In my case, non of my Safari Extensions would work.

• Security & Privacy inside System Preferences and change your settings to match this screenshot:

The above change will allow all programs to run, like they did before the upgrade. All developers will eventually release updates with a correct signature to avoid this issue.

3) Messages. If you want to see your buddy lists, so you know who is online, you must use "command-1" on the keyboard to display the list of online users.

4) The Google search field in Safari is now gone. It has been combined with the address bar.  Many of us are not happy about this, but you will get used to the change.

5) Safari started opening all Windows in a new tab and not a new Window. I prefer new windows.  You can go to the Safari Preferences>Tabs and change the drop down menu to "never" as a fix.

For me, these were the biggest issues I experienced on 3 different computers. I hope it helps you.

The Club!

Got a chance to attend the first meeting of the Delta Digital Camera Club.  Really a great group of people of all skill level. Very much looking forward to learning how to be a better photographer from the wealth of knowledge the group has to offer.

If you are in the area, come join the fun.

Taking a photo at the mall is against the rules....

On July 4th around 8am I was walking through the outdoor mall in my city with my Nikon D5100 when I was stopped by the shopping mall facilities manager who informed me that taking photos in the outdoor shopping center was not allowed. At the time I was stopped, I had the camera around my neck with the lens cap on. My LowePro camera bag was around my shoulder.  No photos were being taken at that moment.

That same day would be a parade and other holiday activities.  My plan was to take a few photos before the event and return later in the day to take more photos. Clearly this was not a welcome activity.

Below is an edited version of my email to the mall property manager and the reply they sent me regarding the photography policy. I removed the city name and the name of the shopping center:

I wanted to follow-up and find out if you are able to provide me with any more specific details about your photography policy. The shopping center has developed into a social hub within the City, almost like a 2nd downtown within the city. While I do understand the shopping center is private property, I would hope that the outdoor "community" spaces would be open to the same rules as you might find in any city center.

I had been a city home owner for over 10 years. I am not a professional photographer and I have never sold a photo but I do consider myself an advanced amateur photographer. I would hope noncommercial photography that highlights some of the park features or even the fountain would be encouraged and not discouraged. What better advertising can you have then members of the community wanting to share photos of your shopping center with friends or even other photographers? What I do is not much different from someone taking a photo with a camera phone and posting the picture to Facebook or Flickr.

My original plan on the 4th was to take photos of the play structures and maybe some of the "setup" for the big event and then return for the parade and take photos of the event itself. I was pretty disappointed that taking photos was against policy and decided not to return later in the day. 

If you can shed some light on what is allowed and not allowed, I would appreciate it. I would like to return again with my camera for future Shopping Mall community events, but not without a better understanding of your facility rules.

The official response:

John is correct telling you that we have a policy regarding photography on property without prior approval from Mall Management.  This is private property and we just ask people to let us know when they want to take pictures and for what purpose.  We typically never deny anyone but we just like to know in advance.

I am a little jaded over the entire thing, mostly because I was singled out at a time I wasn't even taking a photo. I was simply walking through the facility at the time I was stopped.

Going forward, I will be keeping my camera at home next time they hold a big BBQ contest or parade at the shopping center.

Sure I can get permission to take a photo before the event, but I am sure lots of people will show up with cameras phones and be left alone.

I suppose the right thing to do is always get a signed property release document, but honestly I wasn't planning to take photos I would post on anything outside of flickr.

What type of things have you experienced in situations like this?

Preston Castle

I went on a visit to Preston Castle in Lion CA today.  I went on the guided tour which lasted about an hour, leaving not much time to compose photos in this 40,000 SQ foot building.

Below are some of my favorite shots.

These fire hose wheels can be found all over the castle.

Not really sure about the royal history

I believe this is an old X-Ray machine

A lot of texture in one place

Showers

Basement

Need some new places to shoot

I feel like I have pretty much exhausted all of the interesting buildings and landscapes in my area (that don't involve really long hikes).  You can only take photos of so many barns and store fronts before you run out of local options.  Although the recent suggestion to visit Fremont was pretty good.

I posted a few photos to 500px this week from my archive and didn't feel very confident with the quality, and just deleted the post.

To help keep my camera busy, I am working to photographing each of the 65 parks in my town. Some of them have some pretty interesting play equipment and some are just very basic and don't excite me.

On Saturday I am taking a road trip to Ione California to visit a haunted house that is supposed to be pretty camera friendly. I will be on the tour. I am hoping it is "self guided" so I can take my time. Otherwise I think the town itself will have a lot of interesting buildings and landscapes.

As a side note, I have started going on walks every day to get myself back into shape. A 3 mile hike used to be no big deal to me, but these days a mile is far from easy.

I also went to the eye doctor today for a checkup. Good news, the eye I use to look through my camera is in good shape for long distances. On the downside I need reading glasses.

Abstract in the Park

Decided to explore a local park with some free time today.

I took this shot in Tilden Park last year.

Color or black and white

Sometimes during the editing process I wonder if an image is better in color or B&W. This is a prime example:

At times the idea of using B&W is because I can't seem to get the colors to look right or I was unhappy with the original lighting and B&W is a way to salvage a photo.  In this case, I think the black and white has a nice feel for the old barn.  What do you think?

What method does everyone else use with B&W editing? Do you have a specific process you use for the B&W workflow?

As a side note about this photo. I love this barn, but I am not super happy with the photo itself, The sharpness isn't what I really wanted. Mostly I think it was the lack of a tripod.