Things that Shit me in Photography

UPDATE BELOW - Sony A7III

Guess What? University went back this week! Yay and woo hoo and etc. This is the reason for my posts being all messed up again.

I’ve been doing the readings for Week One lectures and tutorials, I’ve been laying in supplies (stationery and the like) and I’ve been buying Mills & Boon romances (Don’t ask! I-I don’t want to talk about it...). With all that going on, I kinda sorta forgot about the news last week, a-and about the Monday post. Umm...

So I’m restructuring. Again. Sorry about this, but with all the work I’m doing for uni, I’m just not going to have a hell of a lot of time for photography. And what time I do have I want to use to actually take photos. So I’m back to the one post a week on Wednesdays thing. And it’s not always going to be about my photography. Today’s post is a good example of what I mean. 

This week I'm gonna have a bit of a bitch!

So, point one in the Things that Shit me in Photography – there are some fantastic photos on Instagram and facebook and Google+ that are being ruined by ‘watermarks’. Big ol’ hideous stains of text dragging the eye away from the fantastic photo and toward the photographer's name. Instead of enjoying your fantastic photo, I have to look at this jarring pile of unattractive mush that does nothing but make me not want to look at your photos anymore. I see another post from you and I ignore it!

Seriously!

I get that you want to keep your work safe, protect your intellectual property and all that, but watermarks aren't helpful, nor are they effective. A clone tool or content-aware fill in Photoshop and all your bad work is undone. Me? I just post low-res copies of the images. Yeah someone might, and I emphasise MIGHT, pinch my photo (there are billions of photos online though, so I doubt my work is priority theft material) but it is only gonna be useful online. They won’t be able to sell prints because it will come out as a pixelated mess. And if they use it commercially online and I find it, hello law suit. If I don't find it, too bad for me.

My point is STOP SCRIBBLING ON YOUR PHOTOS! It just makes them worse.

Point two in the Things that Shit me in Photography – just because Peter Lik is making mondo more bucks off his photography than we do doesn’t mean we have to shit on his efforts. Case in point; the latest Lik photo wasn’t a fake! It was a composite! Yeah, it was stupid to try and claim it was straight out of camera, but that doesn’t mean he’s a faker photographer, it just means he’s a dumb photographer. Or perhaps I should say he makes some dumb moves. He’s obviously got something going on upstairs because, while his images aren’t all that much better than other professionals (and not as good as others, face facts) he is incredibly good at marketing. He has to be to be getting $1,000,000 for a $1000 photo.

And this is just my personal opinion. That’s the point – photography like Lik’s is art photography and art is subjective. Just because I’m not captivated by Lik’s work doesn’t mean it can’t be captivating to someone else.

So get over it. Well done, Petey-Boy, for making a fortune off your photography. I wish I could do it, too!

The final point in the Things that Shit me in Photography – the prices on pro level glass. Especially when it comes to glass from the big names. I mean, A$1600 for a 24-70 from Sigma is big for those of us on a limited income, but the Nikon 24-70 is nearly A$3000! And if you check out the reviews and comparisons, the Sigma is nearly (90%) as good as the Nikon. For half the price!

And Canon is just as guilty. The Tamron 70-200 is A$800 less than the Canon 70-200 and, once again, the quality is about the same. And look at how old the latest Canon and Nikon models are compared to the Sigma and Tamron models. So where exactly does the price premium come from? The name? Then call it Rolls Royce 70-200 and charge ten grand. Or how about calling it the Faberge 24-70? Then you can charge a hundred grand!

And don’t get me started on Sony. A D750 with the holy trinity and a super-zoom from Sigma is A$9000 cheaper than the equivalent Sony Kit! Check it Out:

Sigma 12-24mm F/4 Art Lens	$1828	Sony FE-Mount 12-24mm F4	$2448
Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 Art Lens	$1599	Sony 24-70mm FE f/2.8 Lens	$2999
Sigma Lens 70-200 f2.8 Lens	$1217	Sony 70-200mm FE f/2.8	$3745
Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 Lens	$1098	Sony 100-400mm FE f/4.5-5.6	$3599
Nikon D750 DSLR	$2598	Sony A7R III	$4895
	$8340		$17686

That there is why I won’t be going for the Sony mirrorless system! Which is a shame, 'cos' I like the Sony Alpha cameras!

Ahhh! That feels better. I’m so glad I got that off my chest. What do you think?

Watermarks, yes or no?

Is all this sour grapes action directed at Peter Lik just jealousy?

Are the big three camera companies overcharging?

OR

Am I off the planet? Share your thoughts!

 Okay. Balance. Balance. Let's have some positives!

Canon has announced the new EOS M50, and it looks like being a fantastic vlogging camera. It has 4K! And it has Canon's Dual Pixel AF! Fantastic! But it doesn't have them both at the same time... Huh? Really?

And Sony has announced the new A7III! 24 mega pixels, 10 frames a second, this looks like a D500 killer. Except, if the Photogearnews video on Youtube is right and it's going to be around 2000 pounds in the UK, that means it's going to be at least A$3900 down under (after applying the 10% goods and services tax). Possibly more. So, woo hoo, new A7III. For about the same price as a D810. Remember my whinge about pricing earlier?
(Update: According to the Sony Australia website, the new A7III will be available from the end of March in Australia for A$3099) Sony Store Australia Link.

Not so much balance, huh?

I welcome any corrections to facts I may have gotten wrong, so chime in! All comments welcome! But don't try to correct my opinion, that just shows ignorance.

Anyway... Don’t forget to check out my portfolio at:

https://bobcartledgephotography.myportfolio.com/

And my other stuff at:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BobCartledge

https://www.facebook.com/bob.cartledge.758

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152458661@N05/

https://www.instagram.com/bobcartledgephoto/

And I am @BobCartPhoto on Twitter.

Sigma 10-20mm Learning Curve

So! Shooting ultra wide angle with my Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5.If you didn’t catch my post last Monday, I was talking about challenges I was facing when shooting with this ultra wide glass. Take a look at the shot to the left to see what I mean. Somehow I managed to get a shot where, as you can see, only the centre third of the centre third is really sharp. I could not for the life of me figure out why that was when I first looked at the image. I hadn’t done anything different from any other time I’d taken this sort of shot, except use the new lens.

 

But then I thought about it for a bit. In all my good (i.e. not blurred to all hell) shots with the 10-20mm I had put focus either in the middle or far distance. Like in the waterfall shot to the right; the red dot shows where I was focused and you can see how clean the image looks. With the forest picture I had placed focus, once again, on the red dot. In this case, the red dot was only about 300mm away. I started to suspect that focusing on my foreground element was somehow compressing my depth of field. I know - that doesn’t make sense, right? But I was at f/8 for both of these shots and look at the difference. 

Reinforcement for this conclusion came from examination of this shot:

 I shot this on the same day as the forest photo, and I again went for close focus (red dot). Can you see the ugly corners, particularly the top right? It’s the same effect as the first image. Less pronounced, perhaps, but still there.

So, to test my theory, I took my new lens out in the wrong kind of light again to see what sort of results I got if I stuck to longer focussing distances. Here are some examples of what I got:

What do you think? From what you’ve seen above, does my first theory hold water? Does close focus harsh the background? Let me know your thoughts. 

If you have this lens, I’d love to know your experiences, and if you know where I’m going wrong please tell me!

Another short one, gang. I think this might be the norm moving forward, especially with uni going back soon. As always, I hope you enjoyed the read and I hope you’re checking me out at:

https://bobcartledgephotography.myportfolio.com/

And:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BobCartledge

https://www.facebook.com/bob.cartledge.758

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152458661@N05/

https://www.instagram.com/bobcartledgephoto/

And I am @BobCartPhoto on Twitter.

Comment anywhere and everywhere! I am insecure and need external validation!😉👋

What's News 4

No mucking about, let’s just get straight into the news!

Sigma News

Sigma 14-24mm f/2,8

Sigma has announced their new 14-24mm f/2.8 ART lens for Sigma, Nikon and Canon mounts (anyone got a Sigma camera? If you do, or you know someone who does, let me know, I have questions!). Featuring 17 elements in 11 groups, a 9 blade rounded aperture, a max aperture of f/22 and weighing in at 1150 grams (exactly the same as their 12-24mm f/4 ART lens) this promises to bring the heat to Nikon and Canon. Neither the release date nor price for this new ART lens has been released yet, but as soon as I know, you’ll know. Watch out, Nikon and Canon, because if Sigma start doing their ART, Contemporary and Sport lines for Sony FE mount, I think you’re going to see a mass exodus! Just my opinion.

Development announcement of SIGMA 14-24mm F2.8 DG HSM | Art

DJI News

DJI have introduced their DJI Knowledge Quiz to the drones in Australia. The 9 question quiz is designed to test a pilot’s knowledge of “simple safety rules”, and each question must be answered correctly before the pilot can fly. There is no indication of how the pilot might be prevented from flying in the press release, so I’ll make contact with DJI and see what they can tell us.

New DJI Mavic Air

DJI Introduces Knowledge Quiz for Drone Pilots in Australia

Video News

Red Digital Cinema, in conjunction with Foxconn (an iPhone manufacturer) are getting set to make 8k video cameras available to the consumer market. A spokesperson for the project is quoted as saying that these new caeras will be “a third of the current prices and a third of the current size.” This has got to be big news for the budget videographer, but keep in mind that when they say “a third of the current prices”, what they mean is a third of between $29,000 and $80,000. So 'woohoo' on the 8k cameras, but take it with a grain of salt.

Red Digital Cinema & Foxconn to Produce 8k Consumer Cameras

I’m keeping it brief this week, but I’ll keep you up to date on DJI’s potential response to my enquiries, and of course on any other quick snippets of news that that I think are share-worthy! And don’t forget next Monday’s post. Or last Monday’s post! Or any of last year’s posts! And don’t forget tell your friends not to forget my posts!

And let me know what you think of this short-form news. Do you like it? Would you like this sort of quick news summary all the time? Tell me your thoughts!

 

Happy Photography, I hope you enjoyed the read!

Remember to check out my portfolio at:

https://bobcartledgephotography.myportfolio.com/

You can also find me at:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BobCartledge

https://www.facebook.com/bob.cartledge.758

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152458661@N05/

https://www.instagram.com/bobcartledgephoto/

And I am @BobCartPhoto on Twitter

My Fantastic Day!

What a great day!

Yesterday I went out to Hellyer Gorge to try out my new Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, to get a feel for ultra wide photography, and to try and duplicate one of the shots I got last time I was down there to see if I could make it better. I think this is gonna be a long post, gang, just because of everything that I experienced. So I’m going to stop writing for a minute so you can go grab a snack and something to drink, then we’ll get into it.

.........*Tick Tick Tick Tick*.........

Ready? Sitting Comfortably? Been to the loo? Good!

Gorgeous weather with warm sun and cool breezes, a new lens bought specifically for landscape shooting and a fantastic landscape location just 20 minutes’ drive away. What am I gonna do other than shoot? I formatted my cards, I cleaned my lenses, I packed my new Crumpler 7 Million Dollar Home messenger bag and I hit the road.

Crumpler 7 Million Dollar Home

A pleasant drive took me to the Hellyer Gorge rest area and put me in the right mood for landscape photography. The light wasn’t perfect for shooting (it was around 4pm and daylight savings) but I wasn’t out there to get portfolio shots so I wasn’t that concerned. I put my tripod bag on across my back, my Crumpler over my shoulder and set off on the 15 minute ‘River Walk’.

There hasn’t been a lot of rain on Tassie’s Northwest Coast lately, so the water level of the Hellyer river was low, meaning some great features of the river bed were exposed to the photographic eye. I spotted a couple of angles I thought would be great and went striding out over the rocks to take them in. This is where I learned my first lesson of the day.

Well, it wasn’t really a lesson for me, it was more of an objective reminder of something I knew but chose to ignore; DO NOT BUY CHEAP HIKING BOOTS! I won’t name manufacturers because my problems didn’t arise from faults with the boots. The boots I was wearing were fine for the marked paths, giving reasonable grip and ankle support. But as soon as I hit the rocks of the river bed I started to pay. The soles were super thin so I could feel every sharp edge, and the uppers weren’t strong enough to support me on rough terrain so I came home with aching ankles. My ankles weren’t turned but they weren’t happy with me. But it’s a testament to my great day that even the ankle pain came with great memories!

 I got out to both of the angles I wanted to shoot from and, while one was disappointing the other was great. I mean, look over to the right, there →! You can see the quality composition I had there  – a fantastic subject, and an interesting background (Now I look at it again, I need to go wider). I think it will make for an interesting image when I go back, but as you can see I messed something up. Or at least I hope it was me! Look at the corners. I’m hoping that putting focus on the foreground subject is what threw everything out of focus. That and not going high enough on the old f/stop!

As I was leaving the river to have a look at the Old Myrtle Forest Walk, I met a lovely couple named Liz and Brian (That’s them, the people in the photo there). We had a nice chat and, partly to be nice and partly for practice, I shot a couple of portraits for them. If you have read all my posts you’ll

Liz & Brian

know just how fantastic I am at portraiture, and here is an example done on the fly. So you tell me – how nice was I actually being to Liz and Brian?

Cheeky Little Miss

On my way across to the Forest walk I stopped off at the picnic area for a drink of water and a muesli bar. That’s when I met the most hilariously cheeky bird I have ever seen! This little girl here, a female Superb Fairy-wren, came bouncing up to me bold as you like and started eyeballing me. We watched each other for a long minute before she bounced down off the bench I was sitting on and, still eyeballing me, she started pecking at the muesli bar crumbs that had fallen on the toe of my boot! I tried to get a photo of it, but I was shaking too much from the gales of laughter to get a clean image. Eventually she finished her meal, gave me one last haughty look and bounced happily away.

After recovering my breath from that mirthful encounter, I set off in search of the place where I had found an excellent composition. I knew it was somewhere on the old Myrtle Forest Walk, so I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to find.

WRONG!

I know this is going to sound weird, I don’t understand it myself, but not only could I not find the place I was looking for... I couldn’t even find the walk! Seriously! I remember there being a fairly clear path the last time I was there. It wove its way down to the river bank through some beautiful woodlands. This time, though, I couldn’t even find where the damn path even began! It was like the forest had closed itself off, hiding the path from view.

Weird, right?

I did find what looked like a game trail so I followed that for 5 or 10 minutes until I came across a lovely little spot deep in the woods. There was something about that tiny glade, a certain je ne sais quoi. Seriously, I really don’t know what. I cannot find the words to describe it. It was cool and quiet. It had a stillness about it, yet I could sense the life around me. Gah! It’s so frustrating that language can’t communicate the big things, don’t you think? You’ll just have to come for a visit.

 Anyway, after absorbing atmosphere in my little glade, I broke out my new lens, spent some time setting up the shot and snapped a few images. Then I set up slightly further back (about a foot back) and got a completely different composition. As I said about the first location, I think that second location will yield some fantastic images once I get the hang of shooting an ultra wide. Having said that, I can’t help but think lens choice might have been my real issue here. I think I might have wanted to go longer. What do you think? From what you can see here do you think a slightly longer lens (say 35 or 40mm) would have given me a better composition? I’d love to hear (read) your thoughts.

I think I’ll wrap it up here with my final thoughts. I’m going to have to find somewhere closer to home and go out and really practice with the Sigma 10-20mm. I need to learn how to use this new lens, and some ultra wide photography techniques. Once I’m comfortable with the lens, and with shooting ultra wide, I’m going to chuck up a review of the lens from the perspective of a budget-restricted photographer. You know, someone who doesn’t think a $300 dollar memory card is ‘cheap’.

Oh! One last thing; folk have been giving me nice feedback through Facebook and other places where I post links to my blog, but not on the blog itself. I am really grateful for your positive support through social media, but I don’t suppose I could encourage you to leave messages on the blog itself? And maybe click the old ‘Follow’ button? Or even, maybe, sign up for email notifications? I promise I won’t spam you (but I can’t speak for ‘Blogger’, so...).

Alright! I’m outta here! My news post will be a day late this week because I'm off down to the old man's place a hand to give them a hand. So look out for me on Thursday when I'll serve up some news and my 2 bob worth on the Peter Lik story.

I hope you enjoyed the read!

Don't forget to check out my portfolio at:

https://bobcartledgephotography.myportfolio.com/

You can also find me at:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BobCartledge

https://www.facebook.com/bob.cartledge.758

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152458661@N05/

https://www.instagram.com/bobcartledgephoto/

And I am @BobCartPhoto on Twitter