Listening to the Voices in My Head

Attended the #PhotoLiveExpo2017 at Novatel, in Perth, yesterday. Bought a new lens at a discounted price. Wing had a bit of a snit about it until I told him I was selling my Tamron 24-70 to fund the purchase.

Went to #CameraElectronic to pick up the new camera batteries we bought at the event discount prices. Got a small bag to carry a 50mm lens that's large enough to hold the 24-105mkII when I want to swap. Told Sam I was selling the Tamron (which I just picked up after a scheduled thorough cleaning). I had a price in mind, and Sam's offer was right in that ballpark. So, instead of the hassle and problems of having to deal with idiots trying to lowball me on the price, or mansplain as to why I should sell it to them for less, I got a CE store credit.

Problem solved.

My knee has been bothering me almost a week. Regardless, I went for a walk, albeit slightly slower than usual trying to make sure I didn't limp, and kept my steps even. I still lurch a bit, because of the leg bit lazy.

As usual, I brought camera with me to take photos of birds, flowers, things of interest to me.

I had just gotten to the turn to back onto my street, and I hear a voice behind me.

"Can I help you?

I look around, and spot a young man, tradesman by the look of his vehicle, in front of the house that has two beautiful German Shepherds.

"Oh, hello there!"

He repeated "Can I help you?" very polite.

I replied "Oh, I live here. Just taking a walk, getting photos of birds, flowers and other odds and ends, but thank you for asking." and continued on my way.

He waited until I was at the 2nd left turn, or as I call it "into the homestretch" because I can see my house, and followed me. I walked up my driveway, up to front door, inserted key and opened the door. I smiled and waved at him, he smiled and toodled off.

I think he was making sure I was ok, as I was in some obvious discomfort. What a nice young man.

I have been testing the beta version of the Pulse camera remote. And with the exception of a few things, I haven't found anything not to like.

Started off rocky, as mine arrived a bit earlier than expected, and the web page for it with instructions and links to the phone app wasn't set up. A few traded messages and that was rectified.

The device: Small, compact, easily set up on the camera (I'm currently testing on a Canon 5D3). My one issue is the cord is a bit short and tight. Yes, it's wound like a spring, and if I pull it a few times, it does stretch, but before I did that the rubber port covers on the camera and the tension of the cord was pulling the plug from the remote socket. As I typed, some stretching of the cord helps.

The App: Once you get the Pulse on your camera, power up the camera then the pulse. Paired up with phone via bluetooth without incident. App found my camera set up without issue. My one complaint about the app, is that the "Back" button on the phone, instead of going to previous screen, it exits the application. So, if you are in settings, press back after you've adjusted something, it exits the program, rather than return to the previous screen.

As I typed, in beta testing, little things matter.

I got an o2 Hurricane canless air system because the cost of canned air, with 3 desktops was very expensive. Especially if you have to do sustained blasts with it. Have to admit after a few months of cleaning keyboards, desktops, my Skyrim dragon statue, it has more than paid for itself.

It's just a bonus that it works great on removing dust motes and cat fur from lens filters and from the front elements. Don't have to brush or use a cloth.

The last few days have been interesting with the purr kids. We have installed 'knife proof/cat proof' screen doors in place of the hollow wooden ones. There have been very umm 'vocal' arguments between Ziggy and Trance with each on one side of the door. The good news is that since Ziggy knows Trance can't just attack her, she doesn't back down... and she can outshout Trance. And afterward, Trance heads to her private sulking corner. :)

Groceries ordered, will arrive tomorrow before noon. Now, I just have to figure out what to cook for dinner tonight. :)

First off, the update opened up a bunch of new things, like focus bracketing, and focus stacking (*a few addendums with focus stacking, but that will be later). Both are designed to allow you to use your macro lens, camera and tripod, taking multiple exposures at different parts of a subject, and then with software (Photoshop, Helicon) stack the images (hence the word focus stack) to make one clear sharp image from front to back.

I set my EM1 up to take some shots. I noticed that the Focus Stacking option was greyed out. A bit of research, and I discovered you can only use focus stacking in camera if you use the *Pro lenses, or the 60mm macro (I have the 50mm macro), and that you're limited to 8 shots. To me, that leaves too much of your subject not in focus.

Moving on:

Focus Bracketing: Allows you to take as many photos as you want (don't go nuts, or you will fill your card), but you will have to stack them in your software of choice. You can pick how far back you want the camera to focus (for this, I picked 20 images, 4mm).

What I found out, though, it doesn't work very well with a subject that is vertical with the camera/lens, that the subject has to be laying flat(ish) so the focus starts at the front of the object, and goes to the back, unlike manual focus stacking where you can pick different parts of the subject regardless if it's laying flat down, or standing up in front of your lens.

Keeping that in mind, leaving your subject flat(ish), the results are pretty damned impressive!