Category: tutorial

In lieu of an actual post, I am writing this in advance and taking the time to answer some email and comment questions that have built up over the past few weeks.  My apologies to those that have not had their questions answered yet. but here we go:

• First up is Joel.  Joel asked if there is a way to attach a set of binoculars or some other device t your camera for increased magnification without having to buy the expensive zoom lenses.  The answer is a partial yes.  You can do such a thing, but your image quality will drop accordingly.  You may want to do some Google research (or just hit Wikipedia like I did) to read up on the practice, called digiscoping

• Next up is Amy.  Amy wrote in to ask what the best lens would be to get to expand her range of shooting capabilities.  She is shooting with an XTi and is using the kit 18-55 lens.  Here, it really depends on your needs and budget.  The kit 18-55 is actually a pretty good wide angle lens for the price.  Granted it’s no “L” lens, and the angle of view is not as wide as some true wide-angle lenses, but it gets close.  When you look at the lenses available, and see that the widest goes to a 12m before getting into fisheyes, this is fairly good.  Granted, it’s limited by the 1.6 crop factor, but still a good lens.  So, having the wide to medium range covered, my suggestion would be a zom lens.  The 70-200 is a good lens, and if you want speed and or quality, you can upgrade to the 70-200 2.8 and the 70-200 2.8 IS respectively.  Fair warning, the prices increase exponentially.

• Lastly, Captain Obvious asked in the comments if I could change the page title for Canon Blogger.  Since I am not sure where that is, I deferred back to him for an answer and have not heard yet.  I did find one area in the WordPress admin panel where there was a space, and have now removed that.

Anyway, that’s it for this “robot post” on Monday.  I am arriving in Longmont today, so should be back online tomorrow, but just in case, a Tuesda Tutorial is scheduled.  Until next time, happy shooting and watch those apertures.

Hey all, it’s Friday night, nearing on midnight Eastern time, and our “D-Day” is about 9 hours away.  As the immortal words of John Denver “My bags are packed and I’m ready to go…”  Well, not really, as I still have the computer stuff, photo stuff, and food stuff to pack in the cars, but that should take a mere 30 minutes or so, perhaps an hour, and then we’re off into the wild blue yonder.

Since I am not sure if I will have internet access initially, and being that this is Friday, I’ve planned ahead and taken care of a few days of material in advance.  They are set to auto-post around 6am of every day for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  If I have an internet connection anywhere while en route, I will check in on the comments and email so keep ’em coming!  (For those of you that wonder if there is ever any email or stuff I get from people that doesn’t make it to the blog – check back in Monday for a special treat!)

Here’s what’s up ahead next week:

Monday:  Canon Blogger Mailbag

Tuesday:  Two-minute tip

Wednesday:  Roll out the welcome wagon

So, keep clicking those cameras, happy shooting!  We’ll catch back up on the tail end of our journey!  Until next week (from the Wild West!)

As I have been packing for the eventual move which I am sure all of you are sick of hearing about by now, I have also been finishing up a few photo-related projects while in the process of packing all our earthly posessions.  That mountainous task is almost done, and a few good things have come about as a result of it.

You may or may not recall a project I began a while ago where I was collecting only the articles of personal interest I find in my magazine subscriptions.  I clipped these out, and would save them in a binder.  The rest of the magazine I threw away.  Well, as we have been packing, these magazines have no longer been thrown away as they now represented “packing material!”  That’s right, I’ve been using the other pages of magazines as packing material.  Granted, they’ve been through a cross-cut shredder, so are now totally illegible, but as you may recall from Week 5 of the “What’s This?”, it makes for a cool picture.

The other piece of good news that’s come from all this is that the Magazine Reduction Project is now almost complete.  I have about 6-10 magazines left to tear through, and the resulting kept articles will extend passed the reach of a single 1-inch binder (2.54cm for those of you on the other side of the pond)…the articles are filling the side pockets of each cover to the binder, so when I get to Colorado, a new binder will be in order.

The last piece of good news about this is that I have one subject that is always timely for photography that came from one of my more recent “shredding sessions”.  Naturally, alliteration is involved, as it’s a Top Ten Camera Tips!

These came from the March/April 2006 issue of PCPhoto.  The funny thing is that the more things change, the more they stay the same…as Joe McNally says at his Google Talk session, “Some of this stuff, you just gotta know it…”

Top Ten Camera Tips

1. Be Wary of Underexposure
2. You get what you pay for (most of the time)
3. Raw is no substitute for shooting it right
4. Avoid Increasing noise
5. Minimize banding
6. Overexposure can be a bad thing too
7. Exposre to use the whole tonal range of your sensor
8. Sharpness comes from shooting sharp
9. Think ahead as you shoot
10. Compose to get the best shot from the Start

As you can tell – not much has changed in the principles of shooting photography since 2006.  Gear sure has changed, but this just goes to show you that the fundamentals never go away.  Always take the time to learn the fundamentals and in the long haul, you will be both a better person and a better photographer for it.

Okay, that’s it for toda, I’ve rambed on long enough.  Happy Thursday all, keep on shooting, watch those apertures, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Here’s a few tidbits for you this Friday – I am literally running out the door for a “last supper” with some famiyl friends before we leave for Colorado next week.  So, the post today is expectedly short.  Call it the “Fantastic Four for Friday!”

1. Don’t forget, the Canonblogger Photo Contest.  Join the Flickr group, share a shot and win a $25 gift card to B&H!
2. Shoot the Day! is this Sunday!  Register at Photoshelter and share pics there to win prizes too!
3. For the latest in photo news, and to bring yourself up to speed with copyright law, head over Scott Kelby’s blog, he’s had a few people sharing their wisdom and experience (the guest writers are attornies) here and here.
4. Last but not least, special thanks go out to Scott Eggleston from Weekly Photo Tips.  A photo I shared with him over at his blog won and I received a battery storage compartment and a book on travel photography.

That’s it for this week.  Happy shooting, watch those apertures and se you next week.

It’s been rather draining this week, so in keeping with The Online Photographer, PhotowalkPro, and others like them – I am taking the day off to recharge and re-energize.  Be back tomorrow for a new day of photography fun and information.  Happy shooting, and as always, watch those apertures!

Happy Fourth of July to everyone!  Don’t forget – the contest starts today, so get out there, take pictures and win!  Happy shooting and watch those apertures!