Fly Tying?
I bought a close-up lens that attaches to my 50mm Canon Lens earlier this year in order to take some macro shots of some of the trout flies I planned to tie (It was a lot cheaper than buying a separate macro lens). Been pretty busy lately and haven’t really had time to tie any flies, nor use the lens…until today.
I noticed a spider in our backyard was busy “tying” his very own fly, so I jumped on the opportunity. Would’ve come out clearer with a tripod, especially at these distances, but cool none the less.
Canon Vixia HFS100
I finally got a chance to play with my new toy. I brought it to my Godson’s birthday party to test it out. It was a cold and cloudy day in SF. The Camera was set to Program Mode with Auto White Balance.
Outdoor Test:
Canon Vixia HFS100 Outdoor Test from Gabe Lopez on Vimeo.
Indoor Test:
Canon Vixia HFS100 Indoor Test from Gabe Lopez on Vimeo.
I’m looking forward to filming our next outing and playing around with the settings some more.
Photoshop CS4 – Content Aware Scale
I discovered a very cool new feature in Photoshop CS4 called Content Aware Scaling. It basically allows you to resize an image without distorting it. It’s magic! It’s extremely easy to do and very useful. Check it out…
YouTube Tutorial
Instructions from the Adobe Website
Monterey, CA
Day 1 – Monterey Bay Aquarium
The sea otters never disappoint…
At the petting tank, I stuck my camera underwater and got this shot of a leopard shark.
Carrie and I had actually been to the Aquarium a few times already. We decided to go again because of a new Sea Horse exhibit they opened up this spring. It was well worth the price of admission.
Day 2 – Scuba Diving
(That’s Pebble Beach in the background)
Despite the nice weather, the water was freezing cold. Between 44-47 degrees Fahrenheit to be exact. We had 7mm wet suits with hoodies, gloves, and booties. Still not enough to keep us warm. After our first dive, we all came back to the boat and decided we didn’t have another one in us. So did the rest of the gang. Only 2 out of the 10 divers actually jumped back in at the second location. The expression on Carrie’s face says it all.
As cool as it was to swim thru a Kelp Forest, I don’t think I will be going back there again! I’ve decided that I am a warm water tropical diver!
On the way out, there were a few tiny jelly fish hanging out by the doc. I dunked my camera underwater and took a shot of one of them.
Alpine Lake
I came home for lunch today and decided it was too beautiful a day to go back to the office. It’s been raining the past 5 days in the Bay Area. I drove north 45 minutes to explore a lake in Marin County a friend had recommended for Bass Fishing. Here’s a nice view on the way down from the windy road that led to the damn.
I parked next to the damn and hiked down to the bottom to check it out.
On the way, I ran into this little fella. A juvenile garden snake.
And then an alligator lizard who didn’t think I could see him.
After checking out the damn, I climbed back up the stairs (instead of taking the same trail I went down), jumped back in the car and headed to the fishing holes my friend had suggested. After hiking on the trail for about a mile, I found this snail slowly making his way across the steps.
And finally, on my way back to the car, just before dark, this orange bellied newt decided to say hi.
It wasn’t until I picked him up to take a closer look that I realized he only had one eye. Must have been a birth defect. He seemed to be getting along just fine. A bit slow, but healthy looking otherwise.
I didn’t get a single bite all afternoon, but I enjoyed hiking thru the area and taking some more shots with my new Lumix.
Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card
I decided to try out the new Eye-Fi SD card with my Lumix Camera. I went with the 4GB Explore Video. This particular model lets you upload photos & video wirelessly to your computer, upload them to webshare sites like Flickr and Facebook, and gives you unlimited Geotagging. The two features I am interested in are wireless transfers and the geotagging.
Setup was a breeze, both at work and on my home wireless network. You need to install the included software and create an account which is managed via your web browser. Once logged in you can configure the settings and choose which photo sharing site you wish to upload to. All the major ones are covered including Smug Mug. It also asks you to choose a folder on your local hard drives to save files to. Pretty basic setup with minimal options. One thing that is lacking is the ability to select which files to upload. Instead it automatically starts the transfer and uploads all of the content on the card. Kind of annoying. But the major downside is the speed. It is sloooow. It took so long the first time I was transferring my files, that I actually stopped the process half way thru and slid the card into my SD reader instead so I could see the pictures from my fishing trip. I tried again later only to find the same results. Transfer rates are too slow in my opinion. In fact, you have to change your camera’s power save mode settings to keep it from self-powering off during the long wait.
The geotagging worked well when I was shooting at home or throughout the city. However, since I was no where near a WiFi spot when fishing on the river, it was not able to pickup my location. Still a neat feature for those of us using the latest version of iPhoto or any program that supports geotagging.
In conclusion, I would suggest waiting before purchasing one of these.
Panasonic Lumix TS1
I sold my Olympus Stylus 850SW over the weekend and bought the new Panasonic Lumix TS1. I’ve been looking for an upgrade Point & Shoot camera for a while now and it seems like more and more durable/waterproof cameras are hitting the market. Canon has finally entered the game with the Powershot D10. I was planning to buy that one but I just don’t like the design. The body is oddly shaped and seems like it would be uncomfortable in my shirt pocket. It’ll be interesting to see how the picture quality compares to that of the Lumix TS1. I’m guessing it will be slightly better but I’ll have to wait and see. Besides the preferred design, I chose the Lumix for its ability to shoot HD Video in 720p and its wide angle 28mm Lens. The Canon can shoot video as well but in VGA.
I’m going fishing this weekend and plan to put it to the test. I’ll upload some shots when I get back.
Here’s a review for the Lumix. And another comparing it with the Canon at Gizmodo.
Update: It also includes an HDMI port for direct connection to my HDTV. Plus since my TV is also made by Panasonic, I can use my TV Remote to control slide shows and video playback via the “VIERA link” system.
Two negatives I’ve discovered so far:
1. It has a proprietary USB cable connection
2. The HD Video is recorded in a format that Mac’s cannot read.
More Updates: Turns out you can import your HD movies into iMovie on the Mac. Although there’s a bug that plays them a double speed. Hopefully a fix will be out soon.
I took some shots over the weekend and the results were mixed. Most shots taken outside on a sunny day came out nice. Others were mediocre at best. The underwater shots were impressive. Indoor shots were poor, as expected. I only intend to use it outdoors, so that’s not an issue for me and I would suspect most people would buy a durable camera for the same reason.
these are unedited…
