bradrowley.net

Flash Faux Pas

Brad — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:19:25 +0000

Hmm… I have spent the last few days fretting over my Canon 420 EX flash. Seems it wouldn’t zoom the flash in conjunction with the lens as it is supposed to. Turns out I don’t know how to read a manual. (After 40+ years, why start now?!)

Way near the end of the manual, under the heading of Bounce Flash it states:

The flash head can be turned upward and/or sideways.

With bounce flash, the flash coverage is set automatically to 50mm, and the 50mm autozoom position blinks.

I originally thought the flash was broken. It’s a good thing I didn’t go out and by that new Nissin Di622 flash… or not.

TomTom: Ahead, Turn Right, Then, Kiss My @$$

Brad — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:15:03 +0000

I just had to send an email to TomTom after looking into buying a map update for a GPS. You see, most countries can get quarterly map updates… our American neighbors to the south can get them for $9.95 every three months. What do us Canadians get? I’ll tell you; what we usually get from international retailers… f$#%ed!

Canadians only get offered a single map update, at a cost of $89.95. Holy crap! Local stores sell TomTom navigation devices for as little as $99.95. I could just go and buy a new GPS for that kind of money. If I do go to get a new GPS, you can probably bet it won’t be a TomTom again. I’ll just have to see what answers they give me.

Why We Photograph

Brad — Mon, 03 May 2010 18:46:33 +0000

Here is a great presentation by the photo director of National Geographic, David Griffin. In this inspiring video, he speaks of bringing storytelling or narrative to your pictures. For those non-photographers out there that don’t get why we always carry a camera… this is why.

As mentioned in the video, you can submit your photos at MyShot. Two photos are picked every month for publishing in National Geographic Magazine.

Arizona Trip

Brad — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 05:33:19 +0000

Ah, finally got around to getting the blog to play nice with my picture galleries. Here’s a few pictures from my trip last February to Arizona.

Know Your Target Audience

Brad — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:02:30 +0000

Um… ok. Not really about photography or other heady subjects… just funny. The guys who put this commercial together certainly understand their target demographic! NSFW

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xq8xtRCnXY

Some Thoughts On Canon 50D Speed

Brad — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:30:23 +0000

Photo by CLF

I continue to learn all that I can about the Canon 50D. One can use the fully automatic setting, or even the creative auto setting… Yeah, that’s not really me. I need to know how to have full control over aperture, metering, flash, etc.

One of the things I have learned about the 50D is that the 6.3 frames a second is dependent on a number of things. The number of photos that can be shot in succession is a function of the speed of your compact flash card; the speed at which you can shoot is decreased if you enable:

the lighting optimizer
strong noise correction
potentially peripheral illumination; I will need to verify this

So, if you have a Canon 50D and are wondering why it seems to shoot so slow, try turning off some of the features. You can always clean your pictures up in Photoshop anyway!

Mine’s Bigger Than Yours

Brad — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:06:49 +0000

Photo by zAppledot

I am a big fan of using Kijiji to find used camera equipment… there’s the odd deal to be had on the site. For example, I recently picked up Manfrotto tripod and three-way head for a little more than $100. But….

Every once in a while, somebody sells something and has to put in the ad “I’m selling this because I’m getting that”. All I have to say is:

Don’t really care what you’re buying.
Don’t need to know you’re selling it to buy something bigger!

Really, if there is something bigger/better than what you’re selling to be had, why would I buy your piece of junk?!

(Seriously though, Kijiji is great for finding good deals!)

Canon 50D Goodies

Brad — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:00:00 +0000

I’m busy getting up to speed with the new Canon 50D, so I’ll have some pictures to post shortly. I did have a bit of a problem getting tethering of the camera to work with Windows 7. Turns out that the version of EOS Utility that ships with the 50D does not work with Windows 7. Downloading the current version (2.8.1 as of this writing) works just fine.

Once you have EOS Utility installed and working, go and download EOSInfo. This is a great little tool to quickly check the number of shutter actuations on the camera. It works with almost all Canon DSLRs with the Digic III/IV processors, with the T1i being the only exception. Knowing how many actuations your camera has recorded can allow you to plan for preventative maintenance. A big thanks to David over at astrojargon.net for this little goodie!!

New Home, The Aftermath

Brad — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 03:56:30 +0000

Well, the dust is settling after the domain move… it has been fairly painless. I’m waiting for my domain to be transferred to Bluehost, but other than that things are pretty much done. The change in response time as a result of moving to Bluehost is incredible. Now I just need to get off my ass and blog more often, eh?

New Home For bradrowley.net

Brad — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 05:49:22 +0000

I am in the middle of moving bradrowley.net from godaddy.com to bluehost.com. Godaddy is really good for low-cost domain name services; this is what they are best known for. I moved my blog to Godaddy for hosting about a year and a half ago. The site was ok speed-wise, but the performance really degraded over time. I finally figured out why.

Godaddy (and many other low cost hosting companies) host multiple sites on one server. This is referred to as multihoming. That’s usually not a problem… but it can be when over 3,800 different sites are hosted on one server! Well, that makes the decision to relocate the site very easy.

As a result, you may notice a few things that don’t work quite right… please bear with me while I clean things up.