I went on vacation recently to Discovery Cove in Orlando Florida. It’s a really cool, all-inclusive park where guests can swim with dolphins, snorkel with fish, play in the water, navigate the lazy river, or just lay on the beach and relax. In addition to dolphins and fish it has a full aviary as well …
Adventures in Garbage Lenses
The Canon EOS 30D I bought from eBay for $60 was a great deal not only for the camera, but because it included two lenses. They weren’t the fanciest lenses in the world, but not owning any Canon equipment, I needed them to use the camera. I knew that they weren’t in the best condition, …
Retro Review: Canon EOS 30D
I’m a nostalgia junkie. I get a high revisiting things from the past, things that I’ve owned, but also things I didn’t. I’m a technology junkie which manifests as my Mac Museum but I’m also a photography junkie, which more recently has manifested as a small camera museum. It used to consist of the first …
Adventures with Tamron 24-70 VC G2
In the world of photography there is something called the “holy trinity”, the three lenses that “every professional event photographer” uses to take the majority of their photographs. These are the 16-24mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8, and 70-200mm f/2.8. They cover a full range of 16-200mm at a constant f/2.8 aperture, providing multiple levels of framing, …
Tamron SP 35mm F1.4 USD Long Term Review
Remember when I owned a Nikon Z 24 - 70 f/2.8S for about a week last year? Also remember all that stuff I said about purchasing a used F mount lens instead of buying a native Z mount lens? Well I did it again, also a purchase from last year that I started drafting a …
Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG HSM Art Long Term Review
Last March I bought an F mount lens released in 2014. Why would I do that when I have a fancy Z mount camera, you ask? Well because it’s an Art lens with fantastic sharpness, great contrast, and only cost $365! This is a lens that still sells brand new, right now, for $950, and …
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Product Shots and Tulips
As is typical at this time of the year, I start getting the itch to photograph. By the end of the fall I’m usually exhausted from it and gravitate to video games and other indoor activities. After a few months I get the itch again. Sometimes the weather cooperates and allows me to go outside, …
Sirui Aurora 85mm f/1.4
In the SLR days (i.e the 80s and 90s) third party lenses were primarily focused on reducing cost. Lenses from Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, and others lowered the barrier to entry in exchange for a lower level of performance than Nikon, Canon, and Pentax. In recent years those Japanese third parties have significantly upped their game …
How I Came to Buy a Backpack from 2005
I bought a Nikon 180 - 600mm Z lens to replace my Sigma 150 - 600 for wildlife and sports photos recently. It’s an awesome lens, but one difference from the Sigma is that it does not extend to zoom, which makes it physically longer than the Sigma and harder to fit in a camera …
Adventures in Auto Capture
Auto Capture is a feature for the Nikon Z9 and Z8 that allows the camera to automatically capture photos based on a criteria. You can setup your camera on a tripod and configure it to take a series of photos that are triggered when movement is detected in certain areas of the frame, certain types …
Relatively Ambitious 