Picking the right time

There is nothing new here but how often does one actually make an effort to hike out there for the perfect time for photography?  That's the early morning and late night outings.

On my last camping trip on the Flowerpot Island in Tobermory, Ontario, I forced myself out of my cozy sleeping bag and hiked perhaps 20 minutes to the flowerpots to take pictures of the landscape.  I really liked the colours of the morning.  The yellow and blue and green came out really well.

Here are some photos I took that morning (most shots were exposed for the sky):

The two flowerpots together.

Top of a flowerpot (left) and part of a cliff (right).

Too bad my flash was not strong enough to light up the backside of the flowerpot.

Basking in the early sun.

Graduated filters, part 2

Last year, I bought these cheap (about $6 a piece?) six graduated filters from an eBay seller from China or Malaysia (see:  http://photonfarmers.blogspot.ca/2011/07/graduated-filters.html.)

With all the small gadgets I bought, I tend to forget to carry the filters along on my trips.  The other day though, when my younger brother was here, we went down to a park to take some pictures of Toronto.  Cheap as they were, these filters worked quite well!  They can be used to bring the contrast between the sky and the land down a bit or to simply change the mood of the scene.

Here was a shot using an orange filter:

Not bad IMHO. :)

Vibration Compensation on a tripod

It is popular knowledge that if you are shooting with a tripod, you should turn off VR on your Nikkor lens.  I have shot on tripods with my Nikkor lenses and even if I forget to turn VR off, the result is not bad--perhaps a slight blur that I don't really notice.  However, if you use a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 VC lens, beware of the VC on a tripod!  You must turn it off.

Here is a crop of a photo of the skyline of Toronto on a hazy night.  Except for the crop, the photo is unaltered in any way.  You can see these diagonal streaks of light and ghost images.  Well, that was VC at work.

I believe I wrote about this a long while ago but it was obvious I forgot about VC's issue on a tripod.

Manfrotto MKC3-P01 tripod

So, my trip to Nova Scotia is over and I had a chance to take the Manfrotto MKC3-P01 tripod along.  I have to say I like this tripod a lot.  It is definitely not as sturdy as my Opus tripod but it is hiking-friendly.  I did a number of hikes in a couple of national parks and roamed around towns and cities carrying the tripod on my bag or holding it in my left hand.  I'd give it a good plus for being lightweight.  Because it was light, it was more likely that I would take it along on a long hike and it was worth it.  It got me some pictures I wanted.

The tripod is simple.  It has a ball head and four leg segments.  The ball head was useful to have.  I can make minor correction to the camera angle for composition.  However, I found it hard to adjust the camera for portrait shots.  The camera was heavy and would sag quite a bit after I locked down the tripod.  I would then have to compensate by either adjusting the tripod legs or readjust the camera on the ball head.

Notwithstanding these above issues, I give this tripod two thumbs up!

Water in your lens?

I was on my fifth day of a nine-day trip in Nova Scotia when I found out in the morning that water had condensed on the inside of my Nikkor 18-200mm lens.  The condensation sat on the glass elements as tiny water droplets.  Through the viewfinder, it was like looking through thick fog.  There was no way to shoot through it!

That was totally my fault.  The day before, rain was pouring down like cats and dogs and knowing my lens was not water resistant, I still went out and took pictures in the rain.  The air was moist and rain was beating on my camera body and lens.  I did not care so much about the camera as the D7000 is supposed to be somewhat weather sealed.  However, I did not take the same precautions I used to take with my lens.  Before, I would shoot in the rain but would always have a plastic cover to protect the lens.  I did not have anything this time around.  So, what happened?  Slowly, water got it into two chambers of the lens barrel!

I was quite mad when I realized I could no longer use the lens.  I brought two others lenses along but this 18-200mm was my primary, all-purpose lens.  On my drive from the Fundy National Park (in New Brunswick) to the Confederation Bridge, I started to think how I could get the moisture inside the lens out.  It would be nice to have a vacuum cleaner of some sort and suck all the moisture out, but it would not be that easy anyway.  Well, as luck would have it, the sky had cleared up, the sun was out, and the air was dry.  Inside my car, without air circulation, it would take a minute or so to feel the temperature rise.  I had an idea.

The lens can zoom in and out, so it has to draw air in and out.  When the lens zooms in, the barrel extends out, air is pulled in.  When the lens zooms out, the barrel retracts, and air is pushed out.  I let the temperature in my car rise.  It became warm and dry, perfect for drying out the inside of the lens!  I simply ran the lens through a couple of dozen zooming motions.  As I retracted and extended the lens barrel, I could feel and actually see moisture collecting on the outside of the barrel, drawn from inside lens.  I could clearly see the condensation inside the lens thinning out slowly, so I kept on zooming in and out until the inside lens elements were clear again..

I was so relieved the lens became usable once again.  A lesson learned.

Trackitback

A local Zellers store is having liquidation sales of everything in the store.  I was browsing through some electronics the other day--not planning to buy anything--when I came across this "trackitback" package.  It's just a sticker you are buying, physically, but the sticker allows someone who found your lost camera to return it back to you.  Each package costed $9.97 but as Zellers is closing this store, they reduced the price down to $5.00.  On the day I was there, they further reduced it down to $1.  I picked up all three that remained.  I don't hope my $3 investment will pay off big time but just in case .... :-)

BUT ... I was just checking out trackitback.com this morning.  Their website was down.  Does that mean they are out of business or the website is just down?  I hope for the latter.  Trackitback is a good concept, assuming everyone is honest.

Addendum:  Uhh ... it looks like the company got disbanded earlier this year--why the heck was Zellers still be carrying their product!!??  See it for yourself:  http://www.wbrettwilson.ca/dragons-den-deals/trackitbackcom-inc/#/dragons-den-deals/trackitbackcom-inc/

Practice makes perfect

This old adage ... why is it that people don't follow it?  I talk the talk but don't walk the walk.  Just the other day, I was shooting a graduation event outdoors.  I did not think much about the event, only knowing that it would be outdoors.  I should have given it some more thoughts and prepare myself through the process, thinking of the different scenarios I might face and know how to dial my camera settings for the respective scenes.  Well, I did not, and so, I was shooting and thinking at the same time, how do I set the camera on high-speed sync with the flash gun!  I know there is a setting but as I scrolled through the menus, I realized I should have practiced the shots beforehand.  I gave up the search for the setting because I just did not have enough time.  It was hours after the event had concluded I started the remember--right, high-speed FP sync is not available in aperture-priority mode (which I was using)!  I had to switch to manual or shutter-priority mode.  Well, I will try to remember to practice before an event next time.