Black Friday Special: dltphoto

Just wanted to point out a nice sale at Lens & Shutter for the next 5 days... Lots of good deals to be had especially the Canon Powershot 520HS which was featured by me in a previous blog post. Perfect for an Android phone user or someone who wants a super small compact with great zoom.
The other one I thought I would suggest  as a good deal is the Panasonic TS20 ( Shock proof and Waterproof), great kids gift for the budding photographer

Check out the Full Special list at Lens and Shutter

Photoclub Submissions APAC: November 2011: dltphoto

So I recently signed up for the local Photoclub (APAC) to try my hand at some competitions, see how other people would judge my images. Clearly most professionals think their images are wonderful and perfect, obviously others have different opinions. Judging someone elses images is incredibly awkward. Everyone has there own tastes, some people like landscapes, some like portraits and some like experimental. So I submit my images fully expecting to get scores/ results that I don't expect would be favourable, but some other days who knows what they might score....
Here are the first images I submitted and here are the surprising results, at least surprising to me!
My best score this month was a 9/10 for a images shot right out of an Olympus E-PL2 with the 14-42 lens. I used the fun ART filters ( dramatic tone) they have built in to the camera for easy effect. I was able to shoot this shot with the original Raw file and the edited Jpeg at the same time. Here are the two images below so you can see how effective the filter really was.

"weathered"

Here is the un-edited " as Shot" version which has a terribly uneven exposure due to the dark land and bright clouds... a graduated neutral density filter here would have been ideal....

Score #1 for the $699 mirrorless Pen Camera with no editing or computer ability needed!!

The second image was a sweet little Mushroom shot I found whilst on my last camping trip in the mossy, damp low-light confines of Alouette Lake, BC. The little guy was perched all alone on the side of a fallen tree. I was on all fours in the wet moss with a couple of wireless flashes set off by my Nikon D200 with Nikon AF-S 60mm 2.8 Macro. After experimenting with the flashes and using different flash location I ended up with this result straight out of the camera, again no editing required.

"on the edge"

This image scored a lowly 7/10. Hard work and effort didnt pay off this particular time!!.. A loss for the digital SLR... boooo! However, after talking to others I may have  put it into the wrong category, I assumed it would have been deemed a macro shot but the rules for macro suggest I would have to have filled the frame with the mushroom a lot more, but for this shot had I have cropped it down to the mushroom you wouldn't have seen the mushrooms situation.... you live and learn!

Lastly for the assigned category for that month was "glass". I happened to shoot a little glass scene in a junk store with my little Sigma DP-1s, it was low light and tough lighting I nailed a decent shot with those tough circumstances with only the fixed 28mm f4 and lousy high ISO but the detail of the shot was pretty magnificent due to the wonderful Foveon Sensor. Minimal editing was done and I was really pleased with the final outcome.

"Empties"

I believe it scored a combined aggregate of 19 which means three people scored it 6.3-ish each.... Not very good, but they are not notified what camera was used, etc... and its also competing against other peoples images...But try, try again... don't ever be discouraged about when someone else judges your own art, art is subjective. As long as you are happy with your product and that you fulfilled your creative expression within your chosen media, sleep well!

Overall I am enjoying the process and I look forward to my next batch of images to be uploaded.

Ah.... I'm Back! Sort of...

As I posted in one of my last posts I have been working on a Camera Blog for my Day Job at Lens & Shutter Camera's, I have also been promoted to the Store Manager which has not allowed me anytime to be thinking about poor DLT... anyways, its time to rectify that a little. I have just gathered up a bunch of images from this year for you guys to enjoy. I am working on new posts so please be patient!

Camera Blog for Lens & Shutter: dltphoto

From now on I am going to be adding alot of Camera style content to a New Blog I have started for Lens & Shutter Cameras, reviews news etc will be posted as often as time permits!! Eventually it will be intergrated into the Lens & Shutter main site as well... but for the meantime I'll post content here!!!

Seattle Seahawks Trip, Canon Canada: Lens and Shutter

I had an amazing NFL trip courtesy of Canon Canada, through Lens and Shutter a while ago. Not only did I get to see my first American Football Game in the US, but I also got to play with there New ( at the time) Canon EOS 60D for the entire day! Sadly, I wasn't going to Watch the Redskins in Seattle, but I have now adopted Seattle as my secondary team as they are clearly the closer team to me!!!
Anyways here are some of the shots I got finally from that day. I messed around with it a bunch and I really liked it, I couldn't really find any fault with it. Nice feel, Fast, easy navigation... all around a pretty spectacular camera. A great Serious enthusiast camera and definitely a Camera someone wont necessarily out-grow! The only part I wasn't thrilled with was the fact they gave me the Canon EFS 18-135IS.... Not the best lens in there range for sure, my preference for anyone getting this camera would be with the Canon EFS 15-85 IS. fantastically sharp and nice build. A real decent lens you wont out-grow and hate the performance of!!!!
You can find all the specs on it on the Canon Canada Link posted above....

 

These two were both shot with different cameras.... one with the 60D and the other my Fuji F200EXR

This one also.. one shot with Fuji F200EXR and the other the Canon 60D....
Well hopefully this will entice some people into the 60D... like I said.. great performance and actually not a bad price....

Fuji Finepix F200 EXR Review: Lens and Shutter

Here are some Random shots from my new Fuji Finepix F200 EXR camera. Possibly the best Point & Shoot style camera I have seen to date and now with more EXR models coming Fuji is going to be quite successful.... Here are some shots from my camera!

Using the DR mode i was able to catch tremendous Dynamic Range... the Sun is directly behind Lucy making here face and body in shade.. see how it captured wonderful detail!!!
A self portrait with Lucy....on the Auto EXR mode.
Mr Beattie's cat, "Jasper". Such fine detail on the fur. Sorry these low rez images dont let you see what i see!!

A sweet shot at a recent wedding!!
Walking through Willband Creek! Impressive wide angle for creativity


High Dynamic range

An Interesting skyline....

So overall this Camera has tremendous features for a little compact. My highlights are the quick response time, the ease of use in the EXR Auto mode and the nifty 5x optical zoom (28mm-140mm) starting at the creative wide angle end! Also i havent tapped into the HD stills yet.. still i have so much to explore with it... It has a surprising amounts of features!!! I imagine most wont get into the different metering systems and custom white balances but i have touched on them and when used correctly can improve ones images greatly... All these images on this review were unedited, shot mostly on the Auto EXR, but only resized for my blog and my logo added of course!!!

Canon Powershot S960is Review

Recently I was handed one of the new Canon Powershot S960is models to play with. Overall a very pleasing little camera to use. Very simple Menu system and a surprising amount of settings available for the enthusiast or for someone a little more technical. It shows good speed and great colour right out of the camera. The rep was nice enough to loan me the HDMI chord( not supplied with camera at point of sale) to so I could playback the HD (720p) Video back on my HDTV. Wow!! Impressive good Video quality... I wont lie but video is not my thing but I am Mighty impressed...
Possibly one of the best features of thes new Canon Powershots is the AUTO scene modes.. It picks up and astonishing 18 different scene modes without the touch of a button... Point it at the subject and within no time its evaluated the scene and chosen the particular Scenario it feels is best for the shot your about to take... It is surprisingly accurate too!!!

Overall I give this camera a must Look for people who are needing an updated camera with a big heart and nice image quality with the added bonus of brilliant HD video. All images are as shot as normal just re-sized for the Blog for quicker Viewing.
The camera is available from Lens & Shutter as always in a few different colours. For full camera Specs click here. And if you need more info come visit me at the Abbotsford Shop for a quick run down on it and the few other models they have just released.

Very clean image, under lower light circumstances without flash and nice optical stabilizer too!

Superb Contrast Range for a little camera. It kept all the detail from the Exploded Daisies( i don't know there real flower name, sorry) and even left the detail in the dark soil

Crazy Macro ability

Great Wide Angle Viewing

Varying Metering Systems from Full evaluative to Spot Metering ( as this was shot)



More from the nice wide angle and great all round colour ( macro focusing on the Daisies)

The Classic Self portrait using the Auto Mode ( which is a very smart feature)