Shooting with the Sony A7R II and the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM

I picked up the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-240MM lens today to complete the Sony setup.  I have the Sony a7R II body which has the 42.4 megapixel sensor.  I really didn't get to test it out today as the conditions weren't right.  High winds and hardly any light.

I have to say I am impressed with the Sony a7R II body and the 24-240MM lens combination.  The files sizes coming out the camera are spectacularly huge.  I am shooting uncompressed RAW files.  They are coming out at roughly 85.6 megabytes.  Those are huge files.  The dynamic range is just amazing.  I can hand hold the camera at 1/5 of a second and the pictures are tact sharp.  The colour science is just as good as any other camera brand although I find Canon's colour science just a tad ahead of Sony although I think Sony is catching up quickly.

I have to knock the image back a bit in jpeg format to 99% quality to get it just under 25 megabytes.  At 100% resolution, the JPEG file is about 42 megabytes in size.  

Tomorrow (March 14, 2020) is supposed to be nice and sunny with a high of 2 degrees Celsius.  I think a trip to either Algonquin Park or Parc Omega is due.  The only reason I want to go to Parc Omega is to go do some photography and got some fresh maple syrup right out of the trees.

I think I will have to take 2 128GB SD cards with me tomorrow.  I have to learn not to spray and pray  with the photography.  The early 2013 MacBook Pro can edit the photos easily.  I'm going to test editing the photos on my Windows 10 machine as well along with the 2018 Apple iPad Pro.

40+ centimetres of snow

This morning we woke up to 40+ centimetres worth of snow on the ground with a few more expected for today.  If I still had my 2015 Hyunday Elantra GLS, I’d still be digging myself out of my subdivision.  But because over a week ago, I purchased a new SUV I was able to get to work on time.  Actually I got here early.  I got the 2018 Hyunday Santa Fe Sport.  What a beast of an SUV.  Plowed through the snow with no problems.  Didn’t slide all over the place.  Just stuck to the road and the snow on it.  It just simple went and didn’t stop through a foot of snow.  It was great.

Since there is literally no one here at work, I think we’ll just go home early.  I want to go get my Sony RX100 Mark VI which I forgot at home this morning and I want to go do some photography with it.  Last night I uploaded 700+ photos to Shutterstock and I have to keyword and describe them right now.  So while I do that, you enjoy the great outdoors..  

I need to move

It's going to be Parc Omega time again on Saturday.  Whether I go alone or not is not my choice.  But I need to spend time with the animals.  Especially the wolves.  After the month I've had on Shutterstock, I need to shoot more videos of animals.  I'll take my Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder with me this time.  I've been using the Sony RX100 Mark VI for video but it doesn't have quite the reach of the Canon Vixia HF G40 as far as digital reach.

With the polar vortex weather we've been having, going outside to do photography is just plain nuts.  I need warmer weather.  Maybe I'll take a day off during the week and just spend the day by myself.  I need a rest.

This past Saturday

It was snowing lightly.  The weather wasn't cold or warm.  It was just right.  The girlfriend and I went up to Parc Omega.  We usually go in the fall and winter as it's too hot in the summer and the animals aren't as active due to the heat.  But when it's snowing and the Canadian winter starts to set in, that's when the animals are active.  They get their majestic winter coats and are more playful.  It is a good time of the year for both animals and humans.

Photographers also enjoy this time as they get to spend more time with these majestic animals.  I uploaded my shots to my Shutterstock portfolio.  I am still editing the footage from the day.  They should be done by the end of the week and uploaded by the weekend.  Hopefully they'll get approved soon as well.  I hope to go back to Parc Omega soon as we're supposed to get 10cm worth of snow tomorrow and another 6cm worth of snow on Saturday.

What is happening????

So more work related news.  The guy who was supposed to start with me today appears to be a huge moron.  He requested he be paid upfront for work he hasn't done yet.  He was supposed to start with me a few weeks back but got "another" job.  I'm assuming he asked the same thing from his other employer who told him a flat out no as well.  We assume he contacted my employer and asked for the same thing.  Who asks for money up front for work that he hasn't completed?  I can see a as a photographer to ask for a deposit to make sure your client and your photographer are set for that date.  Typically I would charge 25% of my fee up front so my client knows that I will not take on another photography gig on said date.  It also pretty much guarantees that my client will not flake out on the date as well if they find a cheaper photographer or something goes wrong in the relationship and the wedding doesn't happen.

For a contract that is multiple months long with possibility of extension, you do not ask for your fees up front.  You get paid every two weeks just like everybody else.  

I'm currently editing photos and videos we shot this past weekend at Parc Omega.  It was pretty much the first snow fall of the year so we wanted to go see the animals in the new snow.  It was really nice out.  High of two degrees celsius and low of minus one degrees celsius.  So it wasn't cold and it wasn't warm.  It was just perfect.  The park was not busy at all with a few moronic drivers who don't obviously know how to drive.  I'd say most were Montreal drivers.

I'm using ON1 Photo Raw 2019.  It just came out today so I bought it and upgraded to the new system.  So far, so good.  It's very easy to use and export the photos.  I have to edit the 4k footage as well at some point.  Maybe do that on my 5k 2015 Apple iMac later in the week.

I really, really enjoy Parc Omega and all the animals.  I'm at peace there.  It's really awesome during the week when it feels like you're the only person there with the animals.  I am really going to miss the park when we move out west.  But out west you have the Rocky Mountains and real wild animals.  I really miss the mountains.  I used to go to the mountains every weekend when I was in Calgary on contract last year.  Hopefully I will get more contracts or permanent work out there when we move at the end of March next year.  I look forward to travelling the west and the Rocky Mountains.

October came in like a lion

October came in like a lion and came out like a kitty cat.   A few video sales at the beginning of the month raised my hopes for a good month of October.  But its been just subs (subscriptions) for the rest of the month.  Nothing but $0.36 sales.  Seems like anything of quality sales is hard to come by now on any stock site.  I haven't sold a video on Pond5 or Storyblocks in months even adding a few hundred to each site this month.

We are moving at the end of the month so for the next couple of days, we'll be packing up all our stuff and we both get to work during the move so it's going to be long days and no opportunity for photography or to shoot footage.  We got our first snow last night so winter is pretty much here in Ottawa.  I still have my all seasonal tires on until November 5th.

I think it's time to go for breakfast.

One of my favourites

Shot back in 2013.  Hasn't sold once anywhere.

People either like owls or they don't.  They are one of my two favorite birds, the other being Bald Eagles.  It's been 5 years since the Great Gray owls were in Ottawa.  I hope they come back soon.

Been away for a while

The Rockies in B/W

I have not posted in a while.  I have been extremely busy since March.  Also, a lot has changed in my personal life.  First off, back in March 2017, I left for Calgary for what I thought was a three month contract with the National Energy Board.  Turned into a four month contract.  I also started dating a wonderful woman back in January 2017.  I am still with her and we actually moved in after I came back from Calgary.

I spent a lot of time in the rocky mountains on my weekends when I was out in Calgary and I have to say I fell in love with the environment when I was out there.  I took roughly ten thousand photographs while in Calgary.  I traveled to Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma and back to Calgary while out in the wild, wild west of Canada.

A lot has changed in the past 8 months.  All for the better I think.  Got a new girl.  Got some new digs.  Got some new photography and video equipment which I will talk about in a later blog.  Needless to say, I am back in Ottawa looking for a job.  I am still doing a lot of photography.

I will be updating the blog more often now.  Stay tuned!

The Canon EOS 7D

Got this shot of a Great Grey Owl a few years ago with my trusty Canon EOS 7D and the Sigma f2.8 70-200MM.  Honestly,  I think the Canon EOS 7D is a great wildlife, sports photography camera.  On a trip to Prague, Czech Republic in June of 2013 it was the only camera that survived of the two.  My Canon EOS 6D body did not make the flight from Ottawa to Prague.  Somewhere between Ottawa and Prague, the pentaprism dislodged from it's housing and was completely useless.  So back to shooting on a cropped sensor.

Anyways, we're gonna talk about the Canon EOS 7D.  Great, great action camera.  With the version 2 of the firmware it just kicked into an awesome action camera because of the number of shots you could get within a second.  The above shot was taken with the Canon EOS 7D and the Sigma f2.8 70-200MM non OS lens.  From what I remember it was a warm day that day.  Now a March day in Canada is not warm for anyone south of the Canadian border.  I think it was maybe around -5 degrees celsius with no wind, no clouds.  Just your typical Canadian spring day.

This was one of the better days of photographing the owls.   No winter snow storm.  It's actually pretty cool to photograph these owls in a cold snow storm with the snow falling down.  It adds some drama to the shot.

In this case I got the Owl coming in to get a meal on a little mouse.  I t think after it got the mouse and went back to eat it, we left as we knew that, that was it as far as it flying as it disappeared into the woods.  I to this day still remember this being one of my happy days.  Photography always makes me happy.