New Venture - At The Bay - Accommodation - Coles Bay - Tasmania

Yes I've been a bit quiet on the photo front.

We've been bust working on a new project on the east coast of Tasmania.

So for any readers interested in a Tassie holiday we have a house for holiday renting in Coles Bay.

Check out these links.

Website: www.atthebay.com.au
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AtTheBayColesBay/

We are offering a 20% discount for Feb 2014 (our opening month)
We are taking bookings now.
info@atthebay.com.au

Here's a pic of the local area. A photographer's paradise.

Thanks

Top 9 from Europe / US Trip

Its taken months to work through nearly 2,500 shots from our 6 week trip to Europe and the US. To select and post process them into 5 categories.

1. Memories

2. Showable

3. Mini Card Prints

4. Large Prints

5. Best Work

From a pure photographer's point of view it was not a great trip. Out of the 6 weeks we only had a few days where the lighting was great for landscapes.

But I came away with some very nice images.

The top 9 are here: http://www.vitamirus.me/Holidays/Europe-US

This one is my favourite. This guy was begging in Paris he let me take his photo in return for a contribution.

Handheld HDR with a Canon 1D-X in Europe

I had great anticipation before our recent holiday in Europe of getting some great photos. I did get some pretty good ones (stay tuned for another blog post on that) but often because the sky was overcast the lighting wasn't great for those iconic shots of of the European landscape.

Either the sky was over blow or the subjects would be way under exposed. So time to try HDR. For those new to HDR there is plenty on the web about the what and how of HDR, this blog post is just my first experience, the tools I used and the results.

Let me say from the outset that, as with most things photographic, I'm a newbie. This was really my first crack at HDR, certainly with this body. Constructive comments are welcome.

I have the Canon 1D-X set-up to bracket -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, and 3. So a bracket of 7 shots at 1 stop intervals.

First I import into Aperture and usually do not touch the images - simply export to full sized jpegs. I used Bracketeer to combine the images into a single HDR image. I have to say that there are a lot of knobs and buttons on this software and none of them are very clear. I mainly fiddle with the "Mu" and "Sigma" sliders which change the look of the combined image - a more user friendly interface would be helpful.

What Bracketeer seems to do very well is auto-align the images. I was careful to hold as still as possible taking the shots, and the 1D-X's high ISO performance lets you use higher ISO's so faster shutter speeds but  it is impossible to keep perfect alignment during a 7 shot burst no matter who you are or what gear you have. So Bracketeer get 5 stars for this feature.

Then I import the tiff files back into Aperture. Becuase the lighting was so flat to begin with the HDR images come out pretty flat using Bracketeer. Some HDR software boost saturation as part of the process but Bracketeer doesn't seem to. So on most of the images I bumped saturation, mid-contrast and definition.

The results are pretty good for a first go.

Here's my favorite. And below is a link to all the HDR shots from the trip.

Link to Album

Tasmanian Winter - Absolutely Stunning

We were back in Tassie last weekend. Not something people often think about as a winter getaway destination but Tassie can turn on some fantastic weather in the winter months.

We had less than 24 hours in Coles Bay - But couldn't have stayed for weeks.

I wasn't expecting great photography weather so I was light on gear. Canon 1D-X and a 24-70mm L Lens.

But I managed to snap some great pics.

Here's my favorite.

... and here's a gallery link to 9 of the best.

Gallery Link

Back in business

Thanks to a strong backup regime and a good insurance policy I have a new Macbook Pro retina display fully restored and not a byte of data lost.

Now the task of reviewing 3,258 images from our trip begins. Stay tuned for the results.

Canon 1D-X Advisory

I need to check my body.

Here's a link to a post over at Canon Rumors

http://www.canonrumors.com/2013/06/product-advisory-for-the-eos-1d-x-eos-1d-c/

And the same link at Canon USA

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer?pageKeyCode=prdAdvDetail&docId=0901e024809120b7

Backup x4. You'll be glad you did.

Not long back from a 6 week around the world trip. Had a fantastic time and will post some pics here shortly.

I need to get a new Macbook Pro first, because the one I had got stolen in Paris. These guys are professionals. I literally turned my back for seconds and "poof!" gone.

I'm yet to confirm 100% but I'm confident I haven't lost one image.

1. The MBP backs up to my time capsule at home.
2. I have a separate backup of my Aperture Libraries at home and another one at work.
3. All my documents are also in cloud storage.
4. Whilst travelling I keep a copy of the pics I take on the camera (CF Cards) even if I've copied them on to the Laptop.

The only reason I didn't replace the MBP while travelling was that with WWDC next week there's a good chance of a spec update. Assume prices don't go up, insurance should be happy to pay for the updated unit.

So yes it was a major pain in the neck to be hit by these thieves. But with a strong backup regime it didn't hurt as much as it otherwise might have.

So team. Backup your images!

Oh and the added bonus of OSX? I could remote wipe the MBP from my iPhone.