I picked up a Seculine ProDisk Mini White balance/ Grey Card/Color balance card combo in Bangkok. Apart from the usual white balance calibration filter, grey card and color card. This one also comes with a mirror on the back. Now this is a complete mystery to me.
Wonder what's the purpose of a mirror? I hope it's not for checking my nose hair or something.
Three weeks into my photographic assignment. My teammate accidentally knocks the laptop running the backups, the laptop and the connected external drives crash to the floor.
Fortunately my LaCie rugged drive survives and lives to fight another day. The laptop and the other external hard drive took lot of damage. The moral of the story, mistakes happens especially when you are on the road and exhausted. Make sure you invest in good gear.
If you are ever flying through Tokyo and have few hours to spare. Head into town on the airport bus to Shinjuiku's Yodobashi Camera. The store is situated few hundred feet from the Shinjiku station airport bus stop. The Yodobashi camera store is photographers delight. The staff speak good English and are very helpful. It might be a good idea to first check the Yodobashi website to see they have the products you want in stock.
Photo credit Daisuke Matsumura
The store offers VAT discount for foreign travelers and further discount on purchases using Visa cards. The only downside is that the warranty on the products tends to be limited for Japan only.
Enjoy! And don't forget to share your Japan camera shopping experiences in the comments below.
"All the technology in the world can't help you see a good picture" - John Greengo
For many years I traveled without a camera. Looking at the world, observing the people and the events. Becoming more aware of my surroundings and training my eye to see a good picture. The lack of camera removed the need to look through the lens or worry about the technicalities of photography.
Michael Freeman's The Photographers Eye is great way to continuing my training. The book teaches the fundamentals of design, composition, light and process of photography. The book is written in a simple jargon free language with some beautiful pictures. If you want to become a good photographer, do read and assimilate this book. It is *must* read for every aspiring photographer.
Few people asked for information about the time-lapse photography in my last blog post about 3D printing hamster castle. In this blog post, I'll share how to do time-lapse photography with Sony RX100 II camera.
The Sony RX100 MKII doesn't have a built-in intervalometer. So we'll use an Android device with Timelapse app to take photographs at regular intervals. Also we'll power the the camera and the Android device with a wall charger so that they don't run out of battery during the long time-lapse recording. The Sony RX100 MKII can be charged directly using a standard mini-USB power adapter. That means I don't have to replace the batteries during the long time-lapse.
First, let's turn off the power saving mode on the camera. This prevents the camera from going into sleep mode. To control the camera using a Android device, navigate to your cameras 'Control with Smartphone' menu option. Once selected, the screen will display camera's Wi-Fi SSID and password (Read the Sony documentation about Wi-Fi Direct here). Now go the WiFi settings on your Android device and connect to 'Direct-XXXXX' WiFi access point with the password displayed on your camera. Once connected, Open 'Timelapse' app and select 'RX100 mk2' from the camera model drop down menu. Next you can select the interval for your time-lapse (I used 10 secs for this time-lapse) and start your recording. Please make sure that the Android device is near to the camera to avoid losing the WiFi connection. The camera takes the pictures and saves them to SDCard. What's next? You can now use a video program of your choice to turn this time-lapse photographs into a video on your computer.
Please don't forget to share your experiences doing time-lapse photography.
Continuing my blog series about interesting accessories for your smartphone. Did you ever want to make shake-free photographs and videos with your smartphone. The $20 Joby GripTight Mount connects your smartphone onto any tripod to provide a stable shooting platform. You can also use the smartphone headphone button as cable release. This gadget is great for smartphone photographers and video bloggers. To learn more watch GripTight mount videos on YouTube.
If don't own a tripod, then try to buy GripTight Gorillapod Stand. They make wonderful Christmas gifts too.
Summer sun shines on the green meadow full of dandelions and the huge Djangocon circus tent. The fantastic setting of this conference had one flaw. The roar of airplanes from the nearby airport overhead.
The ever creative conference organizers announced a photography contest dubbed 'Djangojet'. The contest required us to capture the picture of Jet planes and share it on instagram with #djangojet hashtag. My photograph bagged the prize.
I took this picture with Samsung Galaxy S2 smart phone while waiting in line for lunch. It captures the people enjoying the sunny day around the Django circus and the airplane in the bright blue sky.
You don't need fancy camera to take a good picture, your smart camera phone can do the job well. The composition and the story makes a good photograph.
Thorsten, Jessica and me at the photo session on Vellayani lake near the campus.
First Dunk! Come back we have left Thorsten behind
Second Dunk! There goes my glasses! Ah found them. Arr that looks too big for me.
