Amazon sucks

Ok, so last year, I ordered this studio umbrella set for about $80.  That was last November.  Today is July and it has not been shipped yet!

I thought I would try to wait longer and see how this story unfolds but it's been long enough and I will be moving soon, so in case the order actually goes through and I won't be at my current place, I decided to cancel the order, eight months after placing the order.

Pathetic, Amazon!  The couple of times I contacted Amazon, they say they will try to fulfill the order as soon as possible.  Well, I don't know which earth they live on but on this earth, that means a few weeks at most, not months!

Geez.

Reality check

Every now and then, I have the urge to buy a professional lens because my compromise lens works up an itch hard to get rid of.  I actually went on Kijiji and Craigslist to find a used Nikon 17-55mm f/.8.  A used copy could go for about $800 or a bit less if one is lucky.  Anyways, at the Henry's Exposure show this weekend, I had  the opportunity to test out a Nikon 17-55mm and as I feared, I could not make the best use of it.  Hand-held, it's not too easy to get a nice, sharp picture, and when I managed to get a sharp picture at f/2.8 there were some purple fringing (see below).  It's not too much but there is definitely purple fringing.  The Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens gets me a sharper picture, but not the image effects of an f/2.8 aperture.

Nikkor 17-55mm at f/2.8, centre crop

Nikkor 18-200mm at f/6.3, centre crop

Nature in the backyard

Sharing a meal?  Not so quick!

Quite rare of a sight of two birds taking care of their nest.  I thought the male bird was going to share his grub, but no, it ended up having it all for himself.  Such is nature.

I realized this weekend that the Tokina 80-400mm is darn sharp at f/14 with manual focus!

Maybe I will get to use my 500mm lens when the eggs start to hatch.

Let nature come to you

Turquoise eggs

Ok, it's not often that one gets to enjoy nature right in your backyard, but every now and then, luck strikes.  I have always wanted to see a hummingbird in my backyard, but short of that, a nest is equally as fun to observe as a hummingbird.  So, I've got a nest on the trellis in our backyard.  I had to remove the window screen on my second floor window to have a clear view of the eggs.  I tore the window screen in the process but it is worth it, I guess.

Mommy bird:  a blackbird?

For these shots, I used my Tokina 80-400mm lens.  It was a bit hard to shoot hand-held in the late afternoon light as the Tokina does not have VR, but it turned out not too bad.

I cannot wait for the eggs to hatch!

BlackBerry Z10's camera

Well, I have been taking the subway to go to work over the last two weeks, ever since the parking lot I used to park decided to hike up their fees.  It already did not make much sense for me to drive into work over the last couple of years but because the parking lot was a lot cheaper than many others, I decided for convenience sake to drive the 30km everyday.

Anyhow, since I have been taking the subway, I had more opportunities to use my BlackBerry Z10 and its crappy camera.  I have to say crappy since I have yet to see any photo with good IQ.  The best so far could be this photo here:

New Toronto TTC Subway Cars.

Here I was standing still while taking this photo.  Colour reproduction is not bad.  I thought it was sharp at first.  It looked quite fine on the small screen of the Z10 but displayed on a notebook screen, it was clear my hands were shaking.  I had taken some other photos inside a subway car while it was moving and I wish BlackBerry invested in some vibration reduction technology in the Z10 camera!

Well, the best camera is the one you have with you.  So, the best camera was my Z10, but that won't stop me from complaining about it. :-)

Flash gels

Until yesterday, I never thought of using flash gels.  All I cared was the colour temperature on my subjects and not so much the background.  When shooting indoors with incandescent lights, I never saw a problem with the background being a little orange.  It adds some warmth to the picture.  However, after chatting with a work colleague, I think I will give gels a try now.

The idea with the gels is to make the effective flash light output (which is daylight balanced, naked) similar to the ambient light and with the camera's white balance set to match the ambient light, everything (and not just the subject) would be well balanced.  The next time I do indoor shooting, I will remember to bring the gels with me.

D7000 mode dial, again and again

I complained about the shooting mode dial before and I cannot stop complaining about it.  Just yesterday, I was at a gathering and a number of shots were underexposed.  The mode dial got changed to the "M" position by accident.  I guess on my way from one location to another, I must have scraped the dial against my hip where the camera dangled to.  It was a good thing I checked the LCD from time to time or I would have walked out with dark pictures only

D7100 mode dial.  Image from Nikon's website.

Nikon has heard enough from their customers.  The Nikon D7100 was released recently with a brand new mode dial lock button!  This is absolutely one of the best designs I have seen since the days of the D80, when I started complaining about the dial.  Seven years late but at least it is available now.  I so want to upgrade just because of this button but I just cannot really justify it.  So, I will keep on complaining about the dial until my D7000 dies or until I sell it.

Maybe I could use gaffe tape around the dial to smoothe out the side.  The tape will not last but should be good enough for one setting.