I am saving up

We are currently moving this week and moving is a pain in the ass.  I hate it.  I hate it so much we'll be moving in the end of March again.  But I think that time it'll be much easier as most of our stuff will be in storage and already packed.  In the meantime, we'll be able to save for rent and other stuff while we look for another place to live.  The girlfriend wants to move to Kingston, Ontario and I want to move to Calgary, Alberta.  So we shall see what happens at the end of March.

I'm currently saving up all my photography income for a new Sony RX100 Mark VI and a DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone.  I currently use a Sony RX10 Mark II along with a Sony RX100 Mark V.  I honestly want to go down to just one camera and I feel like the Sony RX100 Mark VI would be the perfect camera for me as I want to travel more next year.  Back in 2016 I was in Arizona for a a week and I fell in love with the state because of the scenery and the landscape.

I am trying to minimize the amount of equipment I try to bring on my photography expeditions.  I'm down to the Sony RX10 Mark II, the Sony RX100 Mark V and a Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder.  I want to get rid of at least the Sony RX10 Mark II.  I still find the Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder extremely useful.  I like the camcorder form factor for shooting video.  I can hook up an external mic to the Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder.  I don't have to have a separate mic for the Sony RX100 Mark V as I shoot mainly stills with it.  I do some time-lapse with it as well.  With the Sony RX100 Mark VI you cannot install any apps from the Sony play store anymore like you can with the Sony RX100 Mark V.  I will be keeping the Sony RX100 Mark V when I buy the Sony RX100 Mark VI in March or April or whenever I make enough money for it from my photography sales.

If you would like to help reach my goal of buying a Sony RX100 Mark VI, please purchase some of my photography or videos at Shutterstock, Pond5 or Storyblocks.  There is also a donate button on my site.  You can also go to my other site here.

It's been a while

Well 2017 is here and what a year.  Got a new girl in my life, work is going well and finally doing more photography.  Finally.  Busy, busy, busy.

It's been a while

Sometime, life gets in the way.  I've been doing a lot of photography but haven't been posting to the blog.  I wish I could post daily but I've been uploading my fall photos to Shutterstock, Bigstock etc.  Just trying to get more money.  I recently booked a vacation to Arizona.  I'm going to the Grand Canyon, the horse shoe bend near Bend and Monument Valley.  

The above picture is from Mud Lake located here in Ottawa.  I've been there a lot this fall doing video work.  I was able to get a juvenile egret up close which is awesome.  

Noiseless Pro

Noiseless Pro is a noise reduction plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom which reduces the noise or grain in your night or indoor photography.  Currently it only runs on Apple Mac computers.

As someone who shoots outdoors in low light or in night time, there is a lot of noise and grain in my photography.  Even using the latest camera bodies and lenses, you will get noise and grain.  Noiseless Pro gets rid of the noise and grain artifact in the photos quite easily.  You can check my night photography on my website or my microstock portfolio here and here.

I have been using Noiseless Pro for about 9 months now and have been going thru my previous shots and running them thru Noiseless Pro.  Everything is being accepted for sale whereas before it was not accepted because of high noise values.  The software is on the pricey side but you do get what you pay for.  The noise reduction in Photoshop and Lightroom CC is good, but not as good as Noiseless Pro.  That is why I would ask you to try and buy it here.  Purchasing the product also helps me out as I am an affiliate of MacPhun.

Shooting editorial photography and videos

I've been shooting a lot of editorial photography and video.  A lot more video than photography.  It's a lot of fun.  I'm selling the photography as well.  Shutterstock is a great platform to sell your photography and videography along with Bigstockphoto.

Unofficial start to the long weekend in Canada

The May two four weekend is the unofficial start to the Canadian summer as it's the first long weekend in a while.  I spent the day in Algonquin Park yesterday and today I just went to Jack Pine Trail and a bit of the Tulip festival.  

Warm weather and a nice sunny day.  I really wanted to do some night photography at Algonquin Park yesterday but I left the park at around 6:30pm as I was running low on fuel and if I left at 11 or midnight last night, I figured I'd miss all the gas stations on the way him since they all would have been closed.  I made it back to Ottawa with enough gas that I could have gotten some today.  I averaged 5.7L/100km in my 2015 Hayandai Elantra.  This was the first time I put over 700km on a tank of gas.  Now I know how far I can go on a tank of gas.

Anyways, back to photography and my plans.  I think, depending on weather, I may go back again next Saturday and might stay the night or stay much later.  I found a place where I can get decent horizons for astrophotography which is great.  A nice quiet place just off of the main highway.  So if the weather cooperates that will be my plan for next weekend.  

International Astronomy Day 2016

The event held every year by the OAOG at the Gloucester Shopping Centre has been cancelled due to weather being bad.  Clouds and rain all day.  I was going to go to the event and photograph it but with the weather cancelling the event, I will have to make other plans.  

I will now get to catch up on stuff that I couldn't do during the week.  I have to go buy a power cord for my telescope mount and buy a book on Photoshop.  I want to get my Adobe Certified Expert certification in the next couple of months.  Although I use Lightroom for all my photo editing, Adobe has not offered the Lightroom CC certification yet.  So Photoshop CC certification here I come.

Back to Astronomy Day.  If your city has nice weather and an Astronomy event going on today, I highly suggest you go as you will learn a few things about the universe you live in.  Astronomy got me into photography.  Astronomy and photography are two amazing and amazingly expensive hobbies.  But as I always say, at least I don't spend my money and time on foolish things like alcohol and drugs.  

Time to go and enjoy the day.