Google Plus Communities

Are you on Google Plus?

If you are, I have started a community called ‘on3legs’ – we have nearly 100 members already and hopefully it will keep growing steadily. You can chat, post pictures, ask for a critique or participate in the monthly photo comp… Why not come on over and check it out for yourself…

visit the google plus on3legs community

Today’s iCandy – Ruined

This is from a series of shots I took a while back, sometimes I go through my old files and find something I missed or maybe it didn’s appeal to me then… anyway… here it is!

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Photography Gadgets

My Little Green Cube

Some gadgets are so simple, yet make a big difference. My little green cube is one of these gadgets, in fact, when I have it on my camera it gets more attention than my D800! Everyone wants to know what the little green cube is… Even though the D800 has a virtual Horizon, and leveling indicators in the viewfinder, I find the little green cube the easiest thing to use to ensure my camera is level. It’s very frustrating when the horizon is not level so I tend to rely on my little green cube!

the daily pic – ruined

As I jumped around I was making sure I watched where I put my feet, there were holes and bits of metal sticking out… It was raining and I had to work hard to keep the rain drops off the lens, in the end it was worth the effort, I really think the grey misty weather adds to the mood of this image… enjoy!

(Click on the photo to order yourself a print or to download (please see licensing for the rules!)

The Pixel RW-221 wireless Remote Review

Going Wireless on a budget!

As a photographer there are times when you do not want to touch the camera as you take a shot, touching the camera to activate the shutter adds a risk of shaking the camera, whilst not an issue in situations when you’re using a fast shutter speed, if you’re doing a long exposure then you want to reduce the risks by as much as possible.

One of the best ways to reduce the risk of camera shake is use a remote. I have owned the Nikon MC-30 remote for years, and it is great, you obviously pay a little extra to have Nikon stamped onto it, but I know it will do the job as advertised and should last the distance, the only challenge with the Nikon MC-30 it is wired… being attached to the camera has it’s good points and it’s bad points… I wanted something that I could activate wirelessly.

After some research and looking at the options, there are some high end units, that unless you’re working as a professional is difficult to justify the cost. I wanted something cheap that would do the job… one word came to mind… eBay!

I looked through the listings on eBay and decided on one main thing… I didn’t want it to have a telescopic antenna. There were a lot on eBay with these antennas and I am sure it wouldn’t take long for them to break. The Pixell RW-221 looked the goods! It was 2.4ghz and had no antenna protruding from it.

The Pixel remote will take a single shot, do continuous shooting, bulb and 4 second delay, so you can change how your camera shoots from the remote. If you have more than one camera (and receiver) you can set it up to activate more than one camera at a time, I only have the one Pixel remote so I haven’t tested this. The unit itself has 16 different channels, I haven’t changed it from the factory default. The transmitter and receiver, although made from plastic, feels quite well built for the price, powered by 4 x AAA batteries I am lead to believe that this will give you about 400 hours standby time.

Since getting the remote I have used it for about 400 shots, and it works flawlessly, It is great if you as the photographer want to be included in the pic… something new for you!

I recently set up my own ‘funny photo booth’ at my daughters 12th birthday party, I set up the camera on a tripod and set the focus manually, then used double sided tape to attach the remote to the wall, they had to press the button and then they had 4 seconds to get ready, it was a lot of fun for them and I got some great shots…

So no matter what you’re wanting a remote for, the Pixel RW-221 is a great solution, it gets my vote!

the daily pic – the little church

I enjoy riding my motorbike, I get to see things and places I wouldn’t go in my car… I stumbled across this little church on a ride last Friday, after a couple of hours I just have to get off the bike and stretch the legs and have a drink of water. The architecture in a church is nothing like anything else, the angles, the detail it all makes them have their own personality… this one had cool sculptures scattered in the garden… enjoy!

(Click on the photo to order yourself a print or to download (please see licensing for the rules!)

The on3legs Sydney Photowalk

Put Saturday 1st of September in your diary

it’s official… I have organised a photowalk for Saturday the 1st of September in Sydney. We will be kicking off at Blues Point Reserve at 3pm for a meet and greet, of course it is a good vantage point to grab a shot or two of Iconic Sydney Harbour, we will then wander to McMahons Point Wharf where we will board the ferry over to Circular Quay, from here we will slowly make our way around to Mrs Macquaries Chair to watch the sun set over Sydney… anyone, with any camera is welcome! you can register your interest HERE or just turn up on the day.

the daily pic – Framed Ruins

Here’s another one from the Blast Furnace Ruins at Lithgow. I think it is great that they have kept this open. A lot of councils would close an area like this off, as it is dangerous. There were all sorts of shafts and hazards all over the site… it was great to be able to wander around it and take photos.

(Click on the photo to order yourself a print or to download (please see licensing for the rules!)

 

Really Right Stuff TVC-33 review

updated my gear page

I get a lot of questions about what gear I use and I have been slowly writing about it. Today I wrote about my new Really Right Stuff TVC-33 carbon fibre tripod. you can read about it HERE.

the daily pic – Bricked

There were so many great angles and perspectives, and I have many out of the series that I like… the most demanding part was keeping the rain off the lens… this shot suffers from one drop of rain… I wonder if you can see it? I would wipe off the lens and then by the time I hit the shutter button another rain drop would appear on the lens…

(Click on the photo to order yourself a print or to download (please see licensing for the rules!)

Light Metering Explained

Understanding Exposure Part 6

phew… we are getting close to the end of this multi-part series on understanding exposures, if you missed the first 5 parts then head back and read part 1 to part 5 first… of course, if you have a solid understanding of how to use Shutter Speed, Aperture, ISO and read Histograms and all you want to know about is light metering… you can stick around! Oh, and by the way, if you find any spelling or grammatical errors, great work… I put them in to give people like you something extra to do!

In part 5 we discussed using the histogram to know whether or not we had a perfect exposure. In theory, this is a good way to tell if your image is exposed properly, what a histogram cannot do, is know what exactly you wanted to give priority, that is, what is the most important part of your image to have exposed correctly.

Inside your camera, you have a metering system, that whilst not perfect, is pretty good at working out how much light is available for you. Rarely will it get it wrong. The light metering system gathers information based on what metering mode you have set. Your camera will probably have 3 available settings for light metering. Matrix Metering (evaluative on some cameras), this metering mode is great for things like landscapes, it takes an average of the entire image area , Centre Weighted will take an average of the Centre of the image and is good for things where the most important part of your image is towards the centre, good for things like taking a pic of a building or car, and Spot Metering will take a reading of a single spot, great for portraits as you can use the subjects face for your light metering.

It is possible to have a histogram that is not perfect, that is, will be bunched to the left or right of the graph, and still have your subject exposed correctly, often you will have this happen if you’re taking a landscape shot and the sky is bright, you may have to meter off the ground and let the sky overexpose, looking at your histogram it will look like it isn’t exposed correctly, but if you exposed for the sky the ground would be underexposed, you need to decide what you want to give priority to. This is why in landscape photography you may use a graduated ND Filter on your lens to darken the sky area.

The good news is you don’t need to buy a separate light meter, your camera has one built in and usually you will have a digital meter/graph inside your viewfinder and sometimes on your LCD that tells you if you’re likely to over or under expose an image with the available light. If you have selected Aperture Priority (AV) your camera will decide on the appropriate shutter speed for you, or if you have selected Shutter Priority (TV) the camera will choose the best aperture for you, and it makes these decisions based on how much light is available.

The best way to learn is to get our and shoot some pics… grab your camera and play with your buttons… oh, and have FUN!

the daily pic – Blasted Ruins

I went for a drive out to Lithgow Blast Furnace Ruins. The forecast was for scattered showers so I thought it was a good time to head out, clouds are great for adding some drama to the shot… about 20mins out of lithgow, it was clear it was overcast, foggy and pouring! I suggested to my wife we should just turn back, and she said… “you may as well keep going… you’ve come this far” I am glad I listened to her… the fog and rain, whilst challenging to shoot in, gave me the perfect atmosphere for this series… enjoy!

(Click on the photo to order yourself a print or to download (please see licensing for the rules!)