My Switch To Mirrorless Wasn’t Planned, But It Is Complete!

I bought my first “serious” Mirrorless camera three years ago when the Nikon Z6 came out. I bought it mainly because I like new tech and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Back then the mere mention of Mirrorless brought Sony to mind. Sony got a big jump on the industry. However, the handwriting was on the wall. Soon all manufacturers began their transition from DSLR to Mirrorless.

My former camera was the legendary Nikon D850. An amazing camera body and in my opinion one of the best cameras Nikon ever produced. Since I already had a D850 I chose to get the Z6 over the Z7. Again, I wasn’t planning on switching at the time. Nikon made it really easy to start using their Mirrorless cameras because they included an (FTZ) adapter that made it possible to use your existing F-Mount Nikon lenses with no loss in quality. This was probably the biggest thing they needed to do if they ever hoped to get people to consider or move to mirrorless. Bodies come and go, but people hold on to good glass (lenses) for years and years.

I started using the Nikon Z6 Mirrorless and I never stopped!

June 15, 2021June 15, 2021

Why I Switched from Elinchrom to Westcott for Flash

Model Christa posing for my astronaut them with two Westcott FJ-400s

I usually pride myself on making tech purchase decisions that will serve me for years. This is no different. I started with Elinchrom strobes for flash photography. It was February 28, 2008 that I placed an order for a two strobe setup with soft boxes and triggers. Looking at the price of what I paid back then boggles my mind, but it was an investment that lasted me for 13 years. Well worth the investment as they performed flawlessly over the years and still work fine to this day.

So why switch now?

March 29, 2021March 29, 2021

Arkon’s NEW Clamp Stand for DSLR Cameras

Tech Image Shot with the Arkon Clamp Stand

Photographing a subject straight down from the camera’s point of view can be harder than it sounds. Tripods and ballheads are designed to allow you a capture nice steady shot in either portrait or landscape view. With a ballhead you can easily swivel the attached camera 360° while tilting it up, down and sideways. Even if your ballhead allows you to point the camera straight down you’re likely to see the legs of the tripod in your shot.

Arkon solved this problem for DSLRs, Mirrorless, Smartphones and Tablets

My Nikon D850 is the heaviest body I own. I have my 28-70mm f/2.8 lens attached with an optional Oden Ballhead

The NEW Clamp Stand for DSLR Camera, Tablet, or Phone is an arm that attaches to a table or desk and let’s you shoot straight down without the actual stand being in your shot. Arkon has several mounts and arms for smartphones and tablets, but most of those aren’t suitable for bigger cameras due to the weight of a DSLR/Mirrorless and the attached lenses.

This new Clamp Stand for DSLRs is designed from the ground up to hold bigger devices. It extends up to 29.5″ tall (from the clamp on the table) and extends out to 27.75″. This gives you plenty of clearance to photograph your subject without the stand being in the way.

On the end of the arm there is a standard 1/4-20 screw/mount which is found on the bottom of just about all cameras. They also include a phone holder and tablet holder for mobile applications.

How well does it work?

February 15, 2021February 15, 2021

Nikon’s Epic Fail on the Little Things!

One of my hobbies is critiquing and redoing user interfaces in my head. I have been slowly making a transition from my Nikon DSLRs cameras to Nikon Mirrorless cameras. I started with a Nikon Z6 and now use the Nikon Z6 II pretty much as my primary camera. I’m not quite ready to sell my Nikon D850 because it’s just so good! However, I can see the day in the future where I just shoot with mirrorless bodies.

I’ve never been a big fan of Nikon’s menu system

Although I have enjoyed shooting Nikon since 2007, If you were to ask me to name the things that are my least favorite, the menu system would certainly be high on the list. At least the new Z mirrorless models do have a touch screen. This makes moving through the menus a little faster as you can just tap on the option you want instead of having to arrow up, down, left, and right all the time. I have a suggestion I’ll share at the end that would make all the difference in the world, but that’s not why I’m writing this post. I’m here today to point out something that really pisses me off. I noticed it first with the Z6 and have run into it on the Z6 II as well.

You can’t use that feature and I’m not going to tell you why!

December 9, 2020December 9, 2020

The Ultimate 2020 Stocking Stuffer

2020 has sucked for the most part. There’s no other way to say it. However, I feel that better days are on the horizon. With that said, people look to me for holiday gadget recommendations, and quite frankly I haven’t really been in the mood to flaunt gear with so many people out of work and struggling due to the pandemic. So this year, I’m going to keep the list short and relatively low cost.

March 11, 2020March 7, 2020

My NEW Photography Master Class is off to a GREAT Start

First off I want to thank you all for the overwhelming support of my NEW Photography Master Class on Fridays. The viewership has been amazing and I’m really enjoying the dialog. I’m excited to have a dedicated timeslot to talk about all things photography.

The first five episodes are available for replay

Here’s a playlist that you can subscribe to watch the first 5 episodes and all new episodes going forward. Click the Playlist button in the upper right corner to jump to a specific episode.

October 9, 2019October 8, 2019

The Best Wacom Intuos Pro Small to Date!

Wacom Intuos Pro Small

I’ve had several Wacom tablets over the years. I use them almost exclusively when I retouch photos and if I ever dabble in creating art. I love my 27″ Cintiq QHD display tablet. However, when I need to take a tablet with me on the go I’ve always preferred carrying a Wacom Intuos Pro Small. With that said, I stopped carrying my previous version. While it was “small” it was still bulky enough to take up more space and weight in my bag than I wanted. My backpack is always heavy. I decided to remove some things to lighten the load. Every ounce matters. I figured I could just use my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil as a tablet if I really needed to. While this solution did work, it just wasn’t the same as a Wacom graphics tablet. Wacom has been refining their pen/tablet technology for years! The newer tablets have a pen that offers 8,192 levels of pressure. This level of precision is amazing. The pen also has configurable buttons on the side and the top can be used as an eraser. Apple Pencil is great, but it just can’t do as many things as you can with a Wacom pen.

The NEW Wacom Intuos Pro Small makes its way back into my life and my backpack!

Continue reading “The Best Wacom Intuos Pro Small to Date!”

July 30, 2018July 29, 2018

How to Backup and Edit Your Photos in the Field WITHOUT a Computer

I’ve been carrying a laptop Mac pretty much since the category was created. Although they have become thinner, lighter and much more powerful than the early days, mobile devices are just easier to bring along. I always have my iPhone with me and in most cases I have my iPad Pro 10.5” with me. The iPad is becoming more and more useful as a potential MacBook Pro replacement. As a matter of fact I’m on a plane as I write this post on my iPad Pro.

When I do a photo shoot on location I either shoot with my Nikon D850 DSLR or my iPhone X. When shooting with the D850 I’m usually anxious to see what I got and share a couple on social media. I rarely share an image right out of the camera. This means that I usually apply a few edits in Lightroom CC on mobile first. While there is a mobile app for Nikon that allows me to wirelessly transfer images to my iOS devices right from the camera, as it stands today it can only transfer JPEGs. This means that I would either need to shoot RAW+JPG or convert individual images into JPG and then transfer them.

There’s a better, safer way

Continue reading “How to Backup and Edit Your Photos in the Field WITHOUT a Computer”

March 7, 2018March 4, 2018

TetherBlock Can Save You From an Expensive DSLR Repair

TetherBlock

As a portrait photographer I shoot in studio most of the time. One of the side benefits of shooting in a controlled environment like a studio is that you can also shoot tethered to your computer. I’ve been shooting tethered into Lightroom Classic CC for years. While every DSLR out there has a USB port (usually on the side) for image transfer, they are rarely designed for having the cable attached 100% of the time. This is to say that when you’re moving around the cable itself can get pulled and stress the port that it’s plugged into. Unfortunately that stress over time can actually break the connection inside the camera resulting in an expensive repair. Back when I was shooting a D700 I had to have it repaired twice. Just recently I had to have my Nikon D810 repaired. That repair was the most expensive to the tune of a few hundred dollars because it involves having to replace the logic board in the camera.

Reduce the stress and save the port with a TetherBlock

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March 5, 2018March 4, 2018

I Did the World’s First Nikon D850 Review in 360° 4K

Nikon D850

I got the opportunity to review the 2017 DSLR of the Year. It’s the Nikon D850. This camera is so hot that it’s still in short supply several months after it’s release. When Nikon offered to send me one for review (full disclosure, it was a loaner and has been returned. This was NOT a paid review. P.S. I don’t do paid reviews), I jumped at the chance. I wanted to do something beyond just listing specs and showing sample photos. I wanted to do a LIVE shoot, but let YOU the user experience the entire video in 360°. Here’s how it came out:

If you watch the above video you should be able to pan around in a 360° space and watch anything you want when you want. As far as I can tell, this is the first review of the D850 of this kind. If I’m not the first to do it, it’s still a first for me 😀

A few things that are not in the video

Continue reading “I Did the World’s First Nikon D850 Review in 360° 4K”

Category: Digital Photography