B&W or Color?

When I photograph, I look for landscapes that can be converted to black and white. I find that images with a lot of texture that can go black versus white work well for conversion. There are others, but I'm just getting started with landscapes. I look for textures and a background that can work with the image. Above all, I'm looking for opportunities that work well in different lighting. I went to Bear Creek Park on a cloudy morning early around 7AM when there were very few people in the park. Bear Creek Park is usually packed. I had one location in the park that I was wanting to shoot and I headed directly there with no detours. I will eventually go there with a Little Stopper and soft graduated filters. This hopefully will get me the image that I want. But since this little pond is in a rather sheltered location, I'm not too sure if I can get the mist on the water effect with the Little Stopper that I would get at the sea-side or a creek with some water-flow.

I'm tending to lean towards the black and white versus the color in this image. Partly because there's a lot of texture, but the main focus still is the bridge.

Feline Pics: (snapshots)

I am now the shocked owner of a grey tabby.

Well, life is going to be interesting from here on in...

Landscape Photography...

Landscape photography is an interesting genre. For most the word landscape prompts mental imagery of scenic wilderness with a lake or two thrown in and a magnificent sunset. However, for the most part, landscapes are just a combination of either cityscapes or wilderness with some sky thrown in. That’s the composition part of the equation. The other part of the equation is to elicit an emotive reaction. That’s where the photographer usually runs into problems. The woah factor is the emotional response to an image that is pictorially striking. I usually call it the hit the viewer in the face with a visual sledgehammer. That is what grabs the viewer and holds his attention so that it provokes an emotive response.

Unfortunately, most of the images without filters have resulted in this:

...which is less than dynamically striking.

But how does one create the image that captivates the viewer? That’s the elusive answer that photographers have been seeking for as long as photography has been around. Ansel Adams’ black and white landscapes had striking dynamic contrast visually as well as compositionally. His images would be composed in such a way that a viewer’s attention would be dragged around the visual cues in the composition. His composition would be such that it would pull your attention to what the key point of his image was. And that’s the key to creating a visually striking image.

For me, landscape has been a kind of a side venture until now. The prices of wildlife lenses is too much. I don’t have $10K to spend on a 600/4 lens to get the wildlife images that I want. So I’m looking at landscapes as a way of getting my photography out there. It, like wildlife photography, is compelling and visually interesting to me. And…it does strike a chord in me; the same chord that I have when I attempt to do wildlife photography. What’s more is that I can do it with only a few additions to the gear that I already have. Mostly those would be filters and a intervalometer/remote. These are what I intend to get over the next two years. In the meantime, I’ll be practicing, with what I have.

In the past, I’ve managed only to get landscape silhouettes.

>

But in the future, I will be obtaining the gear (the filters) necessary to produce the images that I have in my mind’s eye rather than be limited to the equipment that I currently own.

Photo/Video Editing Rig.

One of the critical pieces of equipment if you are planning to make money from photography is to invest in a reliable computer. I'm a PC guy so I'm not going to go into PC vs Mac and I'm not going to debate the merits of one versus the other. Lets face it; I'm three years and 363 days away from 50, so to learn a whole new system is not going to happen. I’m a PC guy to stay.

Now I have had the benefit of having three computer systems crap out on me from which I lost thousands of photos which has set me back quite considerably. None of which were the fancy customized computers but were straight out of the box systems which I highly recommend that you not do. These systems may be fine if you are a hobbyist photographer who maybe shoots just for the fun of it but when you're working through 200-300 plus shots per shoot and editing in batch or are editing a 50 minute video heading for YouTube; you just will not have the time for a pokey machine that takes 3 hrs to blend a 25 shot image stack for a high resolution final image in Photoshop or 18 hrs to render a 50 min video in Premiere Elements or Sony Vegas Pro. As the saying goes in professional photography; time is money. Your best bet if you're at the stage where you're starting to amass a suitable portfolio of images and are planning on making money from photography: invest in a custom computer suitable to your photography needs. Personally, I will be going to NCIX for my system when I build it.

In this post I'm going to go into the breakdown of what kind of system that you should seriously consider getting to give you the biggest bang. Let's just say that you are going to easily be looking at near four grand (that’s nearly $4,000.00) for a suitable computer. Don't skimp. You'll need that horsepower. I'm breaking down my dream high performance system to give you guys an idea of what sort of performance is necessary for photo/video editing. And again the high horsepower your system has the faster your turn-around is. And you need that in a high turnover of product business like photography. I live with two gamers (my wife and my other son – they both are into computer games. But I’m focusing on photo/video editing) so these systems will also do well for gaming if you are into that sort of thing. The benefit of a good customizable computer is the upgrade factor. If you pick out your components well, all you will have to do to upgrade down the road is to purchase three things; a CPU, a motherboard and compatible RAM and you will be able to transfer all your other components into the next system.

So welcome to my dream hi-power photo/video editing rig:

CPU: the CPU is the one of the two most important processing components of your whole system. The CPU is the beast that turns around and crunches your data that you put into it when you shove that memory card into the memory card reader. You want it to be fast the higher GHz the better; the more cores the better. In the high-end CPUs you got the Skylake processors then you got the even more powerful Xeon processors which will not only break speed limits but will break your pocketbook unless you're stinking rich (In that case can I get your support on a Kickstarter campaign I have planned called "buy me a 600/4 for wildlife? just kidding). My choice for a CPU is the Intel Core i7-6700K: this beast of a processor runs at 4.0 GHz (Turbo-boosted to 4.2 GHz); the CPU has 4 cores, an 8MB cache and benchmarks run on Photoshop and Premiere beat out almost every other CPU on the market with the exception of the i5-6600K. But that may get into the build characteristics of that particular processor and not so much that it may seem better. There are a lot of factors that can go into performance of a CPU and I'm suspecting that Creative Cloud has a lot to do with it. I am old school and prefer my programs kept on my computer and a CD for backup but that's another argument for another day.

CPU pick: INTEL CORE i7-6700K

Motherboard: the motherboard is the part that ties all the internal components of your computer together and you are able to add in storage as necessary. Also, the motherboard is where your slots are for your memory. You need to make sure that your motherboard can support at least four slots for memory to give you the most flexibility – in computer lay-terms – the more the better which also goes for the other components on this selection. You also need to have as many PCI slots as you possibly can – Peripheral Component Interconnect slots or otherwise known as PCI slots enable you to attach video cards, sound cards and other components of your computer system and frankly, you don’t know just how many different things are going to come down the turnpike as far as storage or processing information is concerned. Different means of storage may mean different types of connection to the motherboard and some could potentially utilize PCI connections. The motherboard is the base of your flexibility for attaching external components to your computer for storage as well, so you need to have as many USB 3.0 slots as you possibly can. Also there are HDMI connections and Lightning (an Apple creation, but also now available on PC as well). I’m picking the Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 5 because of the fact that if it’s meant for gaming it’ll have more than enough power to tackle video editing which will be the most CPU/MB taxing thing that this system will do. I have no interest in playing Fallout 4 which is one of gaming system’s benchmarks.

Motherboard Pick: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 5

Memory: You want memory. Memory is the second component that is going to make your system purr like a kitten and do the things you want it to do. (Yes, I know, there’s a dirty joke in there somewhere). You want at least 16GB of memory; I’d go for 32GB of DDR4-2400 288 pin memory. You want memory to spare because when you’re trying to compile a video of your latest and greatest successful tracking of the golden-eyed teal bunting (or whatever bloody I don’t know what the hell songbird) that you went to some out of the way bird sanctuary in Eastern Malaysia dodging Malaysian kraits and electric eels to find; you don’t want the computer to hang and freeze on you. And on top of that you don’t want it to take eighteen hours to compile either. So the more memory the better.

Memory Pick: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series DDR4-2400 288-pin DIMM 4x8GB for 32GB

CPU Cooling System: With all that horsepower running through your computer, like a car engine, that CPU and case will run temperatures worse than the tropics. And when that system gets hot, meltdowns will occur. If your system overheats, you run the risk of seriously damaging your computer’s CPU and then you’re going to end up having to replace it if lucky; if not, you may even need to replace your whole motherboard and CPU. So if you don’t want that, invest in a cooling system; you want your CPU running cool while processing video in Premiere or Vegas Pro and extremely large focus or image stacks in Photoshop. People either talk running massive amounts of air with a lot of fans through the case but that restricts your amount of storage – fans take massive amounts of space. So the next best way to go is liquid-cooled. All that runs into problems. If you’re talking liquid cooled, you’re also talking potential leaks because no liquid cooled system isn’t prone to punctures. Which ultimately means that you’re going to have to have as stable a platform as possible. In other-words no stampeding cattle herds through the room where your computer is located – that means children and pets. My pick is the top rated Deepcool CAPTAIN 360 273.4 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing Liquid CPU Cooler which pumps 2200 RPM through the case and practically deepfreezes the CPU to a tolerable operating temperature level in any weather. The main control unit has three fans that will pump air through the case to keep the rest of the case at a cool internal temperature.

My Pick: Deepcool CAPTAIN 360 273.4 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing Liquid CPU Cooler

Storage: If you are shooting every few days, I would say for a storage drive, your best bet would be at least 2-3 TB of storage with additional storage by means of an external hard drive. The more storage that you have, the better, but all that costs money. For economy and speed, choose 7200 rpm. That will be your main internal storage drive on which you will put your week’s shooting RAW files with which you process. From there after the week is done, you will transfer your RAW files to an external storage drive, which you will label as your storage drive. Your main 7200 drive and an SSD working file drive will be your two main drives on which you will do most of your work. Externals should be your storage drives. Trust me, if you shoot prolifically, you will probably end up having to have a server with multiple removable internal docks eventually and a climate controlled drive storage room (scare you yet?) For your working drive (the drive in which you do most of your editing on), you should invest the money in a solid state drive (SSD – which contains no moving parts). Solid State Drives are faster on boot-up and boast at least a 40% speed increase in processing. For this drive you need at minimum a 1TB drive which will cost you, but well worth the added expenditure in time saved while working on photos and video.

Storage Drive Picks: Samsung MZ-7KE1T0BW 850 Pro Series 1TB SSD (main operating drive internal)

Western Digital Red Pro 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (main storage drive internal)

Video Card: When you are photo/video-editing, you need to have at least two monitors, one for the compiling and editing video/photos; the other for a display of the video or editing in full-size. Hence the reason why I am considering a video card with at least three display ports; because I will be doing editing on one display and viewing the end result of that edit on the other so that I know that there are no defects when viewed at full-size. The view sized monitor will be a 32” TV; I’d like to get myself a full-size 32” 4K monitor, but I don’t have that kind of $$$ lying around. So for my video card, I’ve selected the MSI GTX 980 4GD5 OCV1 GeForce GTX 980 4GB – this will allow me to attach three monitors as well as having a processing cache of 4GB exclusively on the card itself to prevent hang-ups while compiling video.

Video Card Pick: MSI GTX 980 4GD5 OCV1 GeForce GTX 980 4GB cache.

Uninterruptible Power Supply: (UPS) When your power cuts out, what are you going to do if you’re currently working on an important file. At least a UPS allows your computer enough power to keep it running while it gives you enough time to save your work and power the computer down. So in my books, it’s important for someone to have one of these. Get one…it will save your hard work.

UPS Pick: CyberPower CP1350AVRLCD UPS

Internal Power Supply: Like Home Improvement’s Tim “The Toolman” Taylor’s “More Power!!!!” grunt; I like power. The more the better. And the less likely it is for you to end up with a over-drawn power supply than if you stuck in an anemic 750W power supply. I’m going for 1500W – this is what’s known as server power supply territory. And you want plenty of power with a photo/video editing rig. ~grunt~ More power!

Internal Power Supply Pick: Corsair AX1500i 1500W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Case: For your case, you don’t want to try to jam all this into a piddly mid-tower case. You want the genuine article. A monster that will sit on your floor and take up plenty of real estate. Lots of space means lots of air circulating through the innards allowing all your components to stay cool (provided you have enough fans in the case or you've liquid-cooled the CPU). And the Corsair 900D ATX Full Tower Case has that in spades in a layout that won't make your system anemic in data storage. Your CPU and motherboard do not need to get overheated. So with plenty of air-circulation, that a full-tower has, your system won’t over-heat even if you overclock your CPU to holy-hell light speed.

Case Pick: Corsair 900D ATX Full Tower Case

Other essentials that you can’t do without: Go Blu-Ray writer – spend the extra money and get a Blu-Ray writer because those Blu-Ray discs will damned near write your whole OS drive onto one disc. Get one that can actually write BD-R XH. Also a memory card reader is essential: With Nikon introducing a new memory card format: XQD, in nearly all of its new professional grade cameras; it’s essential to have the three main memory card formats in a card reader on your computer. CF (CompactFlash), SD (Secure Digital) and XQD (don’t ask me what XQD stands for; I’m clueless).

Now with all this technical information, you’ll probably be surprised that I consider myself a techno-troglodyte. When I get told to boot the computer; my response is usually, “with which leg?” Put it simply, I hate change, especially in the tech world. My wife usually says that any sort of tech-change usually results in a lot of grumbling, screaming, tantrum-throwing and finally giving in and buying the damned thing that I was so adamant against in the first place.

But one caveat: They’ll never get me used to downloading software!!! Adobe…YOU HEAR ME?!!!

10 Places I'd Photograph (If Money Were No Obstacle).

There are many places that a photographer would like to photograph, but for me, if money were no obstacle, I’ve managed to narrow down the top ten locations that I would like to go to in order to photograph subjects. Since my main photographic interests lie in landscapes and wildlife; the interesting subjects and landscape features of each of these locations provides a reason for me to pick up my camera and take a journey to a place which would have been on my bucket-list to go to and most definitely will be on my list of places to go…if I win the lottery.

1. Iceland:a land shaped by plate tectonics; it is dotted by volcanoes, waterfalls, glaciers, ice caverns and geothermic geysers; all of which contribute to a surreal landscape that makes it a beautiful region to photograph. There is something about Iceland’s geography that contributes to lenticular cloud formation; a surreal atmospheric phenomenon which makes clouds appear to be shaped like an alien spacecraft. Puffins also frequent this island. There are Icelandic reindeer and arctic fox to be photographed. I’ve often marvelled at the photos that other photographers who have been lucky enough to visit this enchanting country and would love to be able to go visit this place myself.

2. Sierra de Culebra, Spain: this place offers an opportunity in Northwest Zamora to view the Iberian wolf in the wild. Not to mention; the area also with it’s rocky terrain offers plenty of opportunity for landscape photography. I’ve always been interested in the lupine species; wanting to go out into the wilds in Canada to photograph wolves, but the Iberian wolf, a subspecies of the grey wolf, inhabits the forests and plains of Northern Portugal and NorthWestern Spain; and all in all a fascinating species to photograph.

3. Woraksan National Park, South Korea:With the various monuments, mountains and waterfalls in this park, the landscape photographer will have an absolute field-day there…and I have a weakness for mountains and waterfalls.

4. Shaanxi Province, China:Foping Nature Reserve: one word: Pandas! ‘nuff said.

5. The Scottish Highlands: the Scottish Highlands are dotted with castles from Scotland’s feudal ages and the opportunity to get in some landscapes with castles in them as well as other landscape photos. Eilean Donan castle is one place that ranks high on my list of photographs that I want to put into my portfolio.

6. Japan: There are four locations that I want to photograph in Japan. Man-made structures are not so much of interest to me, however, I figure that I would like to photograph some, like Kyoto’s Buddhist temples. But for me, it’s the different wildlife that is located in Japan. The Snow Monkeys of Nagano Prefecture which absolutely love the onsen (hot springs). The Deer at Nara Park, the red foxes of Zao Fox Village in Miyagi Prefecture and the Wild Horses of Yonaguni-Jima. Japan will more than likely be a heritage trip for me, as my family comes from Kyoto.

7. Snowdonia, Wales:This mountainous region of Wales is usually one of the most beautiful especially when capped with snow. There’s mountains, rivers, lakes and forests. And occasionally if you venture into the area bordering the RAF LFAs (low flying areas) you might see a Eurofighter Typhoon come screaming down the Mach Loop. Which is nice because as a wildlife photographer, I occasionally like photographing big loud metal birds.

8. Saskatchewan and Alberta: (Summer): During the summer in Alberta and Saskatchewan there are burrowing owls; their quaint little behavior of tilting their heads at onlookers has always captured my attention and I’ve always wanted to capture them on image. Their anthropomorphic behavior such as making faces at their fellow owls makes them absolutely hilarious to watch. But since their habitat is in roughly the same area as those of rattlesnakes, I’d rather be wearing snake-bite resistant pants and snake-bite proof walking shoes when I go.

Saskatchewan and Alberta: (Winter): Snowy Owls tend to make more common appearances in Alberta and Saskatchewan during the winter. Ever since Harry Potter came out, everybody and their kids have held a fascination with Hagrid the Owl (now…note that I haven’t read that tripe; sorry, J.K. Rowling, it never interested me. Maybe I was just too old when the novels came out). But snowy owls have held more of a fascination with me due to their beautiful white plumage and their mesmerizing yellow eyes and like the burrowing owls, they have a captivating personality and thus I would love to get snowy owls into my portfolio of images.

…and last but not least…

Antarctica: If money were no obstacle…I would definitely do a trip to the bottom of the earth…to photograph Antarctica’s penguins as well as the beautiful barely touched landscapes of the Antarctic continent. It would probably mean taking a flight to Ushauia, Argentina, from Buenos Aires and taking a tour with Nat Geo’s Penguin Tours.

This by no means comprises all the places that I would like to visit, if we were so lucky enough to have the financial resources to do so, but it does give you an idea of what I’d like to photograph. So what’s YOUR list?

18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Version I? Any Good?

You have been looking at the 18-55mm, yeah, they have one now with VR (vibration reduction) but you've been told by someone that "Aw, kit lenses aren't any good. You need to buy yourself that Canisony 16-24 f/4 with the gold-red ring around it. That's the ticket. You'll get wayyy better pictures that way." I seem to recall Iceman from Top Gun coughing something into his hand that sounded something like "full-kit". Really, that's how I heard it; plus what I actually heard isn't printable in this blog.

But the question is: Can you get good photos with the 18-55mm. Now I have the VR-less 18-55mm V1. And it's performed just fine for me. Yes, a more expensive lens has better glass, but better glass will not help to create better pictures if you're just starting out. I used my kit lens which I got with the Nikon D50 ten years ago to learn the basics of composition and exposure. And can a kit lens produce an image just as well as a more expensive fixed aperture lens? In the hands of a knowledgeable photographer, yes. Because ultimately it is the knowledge that you learn during the course of your photography education that will allow you to use any lens that you put onto your camera to its best potential.

As a matter of fact, I went out walking today with my Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens and photographed these images.

So? Is it the lens or is it the photographer? The kit lens is a starting point from which you utilize the kit lens to progress in photography knowledge. It is an entry point into creating images and like all entry-level kit lenses, it's not the quality of the kit lens that dictates the quality of the image, but what you can create with it. It is the doorway to how you see the world. Learn to use it.

Why Post-Processing Is Important

You've often wondered how photographers come up with such eye-catching photos; the colors are intense and the scene just pops with dynamic vibrance.

Yet you wonder why, when you upload your shot you took that you thought was awesome; your photographs look flat, compared to the images that other landscape photographers create.

No, it's not the fault of your camera. The image that comes out of your camera can only be perfected to a certain point. You can get the exposure right, you can get the composition (the way you see the image) in camera but everything else has to come from what's termed as Post. From there the camera produces a digital negative. This is known as your RAW file or if you shoot a Nikon, it is called an NEF file. That's the extension that is on your camera image file (for example DSC_0591.NEF). This NEF or RAW file captures all the dynamic light in the image, but it leaves the image flat so that you can go into an editing program such as Adobe Lightroom in order to do the post-processing/editing to create a final image; essentially create the image that you see in your mind's eye. That's right, in the film days, this was known as taking the image to the dark-room. We in this age use the computer as a digital darkroom.

Make no mistake, post-processing will not correct the problems associated with exposure or bad composition. Those two key things are the things that you have to get "right in camera." The more correct terminology is to "get it correct in camera."

In a later blogpost I will go through the steps that I use to post-process my images before I post them onto social media sites such as Facebook, Google+ or Instagram. I also will show the work I put into an image before I put it into an image portfolio site such as 500px.

But here is a before and after shot of an image that I have edited.

What originally comes out of your camera if you have the exposure and composition right is this...barring the limitations of your lens you have on your camera.

After Post-Processing/Noise reduction - Shooting in ISO 1250 on a D300s produces a lot of image noise.

The image now has a lot more punch and has more dynamic range of color. And shooting at ISO 1250 automatically means that you do have to do post in order to have a usable image. And in order to be able to shoot at the high shutter speeds necessary to capture a hummingbird in mid-hover, the way I pictured it, I had to shoot at that ISO. Also the image has been cropped to an 8x10 to get rid of certain artifacts in the image that result from the limitations of not having the time to compose the image to the way that I wanted it entirely due to the subject matter. And because I'm currently limited to Nikon View; I do not have a healing tool to be able to get rid of artifacts such as dust-motes on the sensor. I will eventually have to get my D300s into Nikon to get the sensor cleaned (yeah, I'm too chicken to do it myself for fear of damaging the sensor).

Photographers tend to be a touchy lot and love to say things like "I get things right in camera"...but do they really? Even from film days, they were in the dark-room applying their own personal touch. So if photographers back in the 35mm and 4x5 format days were still having to use a darkroom to perfect their images, what makes them think that digital is any different?

Tiffen Vs. Hoya Polarizers (Circ and Regular) Head-to-head.

I’ve always wanted to do a head to head comparison of Hoya and Tiffen to see exactly how well they perform. I’ve never really liked my Tiffen, whether it’s green casts on cloudy days or the blues not being as intense as I want them to be. So I’m going to put the three polarizers (my 62mm Hoya polarizer, my wife’s 62mm Hoya circular polarizer and my Tiffen circular polarizer) to the test and see just how close or far they are from each other. It’s a nice sunny day today and I am sure that I can get some intense blues with them.

The first up is the Tiffen Circular Polarizer; 1. With the white background test, you can see that it filters out to complete black which is what a polarizer is supposed to do. That’s a promising start. You should not be able to see anything on your computer screen through the polarizer if the polarizer is doing its job as advertised, because what it does is that it blocks out all polarized light reflected or emitted. The sky is an deep blue, however, you will see that in comparison to Hoya, the blue is not as intense (despite the introduction of the fingers reflecting in the background; but that has no effect on what is produced from the other end of the lens)

2. I opted to do a Hoya 62mm circular polarizer test as my wife owns one. This polarizer also when subjected to the white background test also comes up as not emitting any polarized light. And when you see the sky photographed through this polarizer it is an intense blue; a deeper blue than the Tiffen.

3. And this is my regular Hoya 62mm which I used to use on my entry level Nikkor AF 70-300mm G. This (if you will excuse my fingers)

When it comes down to a straight shootout between all three exposed at centered meter; Hoya beats Tiffen in intensity hands down. The first picture is one that is completely unfiltered - bare lens, no polarizer

Tiffen 67mm (exposed for center-meter) (in order for me to even come close to matching the Hoya texture, I had to increase shutterspeed to underexpose the image and that would have to be done for each and every photo ever taken.)
Tiffen underexposed (by increasing shutterspeed)

Hoya Circular Polarizer 62mm

Hoya Regular Polarizer (used with film cameras usually)

All in all, the Hoya cuts out more light during the White Background Test (pitchblack as opposed to somewhat black which means that it cuts out the majority of the polarized light) and it tends to do a deeper more intense blue than the Tiffen; which marks it as the winner in my books. I tend to prefer the intensely deep blue of the Hoya, than the somewhat blue of the Tiffen as it makes for a more striking sky.

Now polarizers and their resultant effects are subject to personal opinion. Some may not like an intense blue whereas other will prefer the Hoya. I tend to lean towards the latter. The only advice that I can give, is to learn how to use the polarizer to its best effect. You will get the best effect by utilizing it at a 90 degree angle away from the sun. If the sun is to your side, you will get the best results from a polarizer.

The only recommendation that I can give, is do not skimp when it comes to buying a cheap polarizer filter. The cheap ones that are made aren’t worth the money and don’t do anything for you in terms of filtering out. The decent polarizers range from $65.00 up and stick with either Hoya or Tiffen depending on your preference. If it’s possible to test one out before buying, do so.

…and I personally will be buying myself a 67mm Hoya Pro-1 circular polarizer as soon as I possibly can.

Edit: May, 5, 2016: I will be trying a Kenko brand 67mm - from what I've been told Kenko and Hoya were made by the same factory, with the only difference being labeling - We'll see...

Here are some of my shots with the Tiffen 67mm on a sky with clouds and seeing how much definition I can get with the clouds thanks to the polarizer.

Tiffen 67mm at 18mm
Hoya Circular Polarizer at 70mm
Hoya Linear (regular) polarizer at 70mm

I had to shoot the 62mm Hoya polarizers at 70mm since I can only shoot them on a 70-300mm G without throwing on a 52mm step-up ring to shoot it on the 18-55mm lens.

So in order to keep the photos similar, I opted to shoot the clouds with an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 with the two Hoyas.

Hoya Circular Polarizer with 52-62mm step-up ring at 18mm.
Hoya Linear Polarizer with 52-62mm step-up ring at 18mm.

The color definition may be muted on the 18-55mm but I kind of figure that it's not the fault of the Hoya filter as it is more with the Nikon 18-55mm in terms of glass. But make no mistake, the 18-55mm (iteration 1 is no slouch of a lens; even though it is a kit lens - it will take great pictures provided you correctly handle the lens).

First Commercial Flight Airbus A380 to YVR - British Airways

On May 1st, 2016, British Airways started flying their Airbus A380 super-jumbo into YVR (Vancouver International Airport). Unfortunately, I was unable to be down at the airport to greet this enormous aircraft personally as the condition of my car is less than optimal (battery has a parasitic energy bleed and is sufficiently dead enough that if I were to drive it, it could potentially damage the engine; also doesn't help that the rad is toast and the engine overheats.)

So even though I was unable to make it down to the south terminal of YVR to see the Airbus fly in for its inaugural flight, I still managed to catch the bird in the air before anyone else: How? Because I sat out in my backyard and waited for the Airbus to fly overhead. The Airbus A380 is only scheduled during the summer however, with winter months, I presume being covered by the TripleSeven or the 747-400 (a rather higher gas mileage expenditure) but that will remain to be seen. But hopefully, I will be able to get down to YVR Airport South Terminal and be able to see the aircraft do its thing.

Why I'm Not Going To Get The D500.

Yeah, I titled this “Why I’m Not Going To Get The D500”…weird for this gear-head, huh?

Nikon has finally put out the true D300s successor…and really, I should be chomping at the bit to try and get my hands on one. And yeah, normally, I would be…but I’m not.

First of all:

1. Money Factor: Unless you got the simoleons (insert SimCity credit here) to play the Gear Game (not to be confused with Game Gear (a gamer’s website); you gotta be satisfied with previous generation gear. Otherwise, you’d be upgrading every single time that the camera company put out a new camera.

2. New Gear Growing Pains: Every time a camera comes out there are growing pains. Things don’t work right or there is some technical problem that requires a firmware fix or a recall. It takes about a year for bugs to be worked out of the camera system. If you really need a camera that badly; then go for it, but most wait to upgrade until they’re sure the camera works as advertised.

I have a D300s, bought in 2010 and six years later, it still has only 33,000 actuations of the shutter. That’s low usage for a D300s which is rated for 150,000 shutter actuations. And I use it often. When I shoot a minor hockey game, I can usually get almost 600 shots per game when I shoot and usually that’s at Continuous High (CH on the dial) and even so, my shutter actuation count is only at 33,000 and that’s in six years of relatively constant use. But that is usually due to the fact that the D300s, is considered a professional DX camera. The shutters are made to take the abuse. Consumer grade cameras average around 50-60,000 actuations. And rarely does a shutter fail. In fact, I’m so confident of that fact that for my second camera, I’m trying to find a used D300s with around the same number of actuations as well as a D700 FX (full-frame), since my pocketbook isn’t going to allow me to grab a D500. I don’t have a spare three grand lying around the house.

3. Camera Compatibility.: The Nikon D300s and Nikon D700 have the same battery, the EN-EL3e. I can take a carry bag of charged spare batteries and fit them to either one and be able to use them in a pinch. The same battery offers convenience. Whereas if I bought the D500. I’d have to buy a whole new set of batteries (it takes the EN-EL15) and frustratingly have to bring two different chargers with me every where I go (especially annoying when you have to go on a trip somewhere). Whereas I can toss in my MH-18a battery charger with both the D300s DX and D700 FX and I’m good to go. And THAT is critical when you’re short on cash to deal with equipment.

Sure, it’s all good feels when you have a brand-new D500 strapped to your neck and you’re walking around getting all the jealous looks from people who have older equipment, but the simple fact of the matter is that for a working photographer, gear simplicity is the key and battery compatibility between DX and FX cameras is a critical factor in reduced weight in the camera bag (after all, the more space you have in your camera bag, the more lenses you can cram in: choices - either one helps you, but the lens helps you get the image. I'd rather cram three more batteries and a lens in the extra space that it takes to have a second charger for a second camera). If I were to get a D500, I would have to get myself a Nikon D810 FX to get the same battery compatibility and if I don’t have an extra three grand lying around the house, where do you think I have an extra four and a half grand on top of that…plus battery costs?

So in summation. There are really only three key reasons why I’m not getting the D500 right now. Financially, it doesn’t make sense for me; as a working photographer, to upgrade at this point in time. Where as for half the cost of a new D500, I can pick up a second D300s body and a D700 body and still be able to do what I need to do as a photographer. Probably a lot farther down the road, I will be making the jump to DXXX-DX and DXXX-FX purchase, but that won’t be now or in the near future.