Recently in Photography Category

Noticed what (to me) is a huge spider outside the back door, positioned very nicely for a little photo shoot. I called him Spider-Zilla or Spidersaurus Rex. Oh, and he's not that big compared to "real" spiders, but viewing the images at 1:1 zoom on my monitor? Freaky eyes. Cool that I was able to get them though, that's the first time I've had the luck/lens/huge arachnid to get me close enough to see eyes. Still, not bad for a boring household spider no?

Nothing special, camera on a tripod, lowest ISO possible for the best quality, 2 second delay for the least shake, my flash on camera (by the time I got it into wireless mode he had gotten tired of me and decided to go hide up in the beams). Here's another one to help you sleep at night.

Finally got around to blogging about the Vancouver Strobist meetup that I went to a couple of weeks ago to learn more about off-camera lighting. Read about it over at my photography blog: http://k20dblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/may-strobist-newbie-meetup.html.

Had an absolutely incredible rainstorm here earlier this evening, torrents of rain, wind, thunder, lightning, etc. Got a couple of shots off of the rain and wind hitting the tree in the front yard. Sadly I'm not that good at conveying or capturing the power of the rain that there was...

Just a quick post of a picture of the train yard across from the Coquitlam (I think) station on the way home today, shot with my LX3.

Random pic I found while surfing... check out Burj Dubai 2009 over at Chromasia. Very sweet!

Threw a bit of a writeup and some pics from the meetup I went to last weekend up on my photography blog.

Some friends and I went out to take pictures in downtown Vancouver a few weeks ago (when the fog was here)... got some nice ones and have them sitting in a 'to process' pile that I just haven't managed to get my brain into getting to. Was doing some other stuff so I figured I'd throw at least one up to prove I hadn't forgotten it completely!

Tanker clearing the Lions Gate Bridge, K20D, DA 16-45 at 16mm @ f/9.5 and 125th.

So I finally got around to throwing up some pics to Flickr of my "Stealth Camera Bag" which I raved about before. The inspiration came from this article (via lifehacker). The idea is simple, take a generic and boring looking messenger bag and fit it with foam and padding to protect a camera so you can wander around the or foreign area without lugging around a Lowe Pro bag that screams "mug me, I've got expensive photo gear here!".

Most of the work here was done by my lovely wife, as the bag I found needed a bit more work than the article described (it was a single big interior pocket and not segmented like they found and she felt doing it right and sewing things properly was better than slapping a cut up old t-shirt in with duct tape :)

Anyway. My idea for this was to allow me to use it as a laptop, going-to-work bag as well as a photo bag. A little bit of design and voila! Here are the "build" pics:

First of all the overall view of the finished product.

Here's the top view in "Laptop" configuration. It's got a piece of cloth sewn on both sides along the seam, made a bit longer to accommodate the laptop and it's extra padding in the left hand side. Note the small bits of stick on Velcro on the inside of the pocket, those'll come in handy in camera mode.

This is the laptop in it's padding. It's basically a three fold chunk of cloth with foam inserts in each section. It's not a perfect fit, but as it's stuffed into a cloth area so perfect fit doesn't matter that much.

Fully stuffed for work.

For when I want to put in a camera (the real purpose) I use the bits of Velcro (see above) to close the laptop area and now it's open with more stick on Velcro in a familiar looking configuration for anyone with a camera bag.

... which I use to stick in standard camera bag dividers stolen from another camera bag. It's not perfect, but it gives side padding and creates a familiar and usable triple section setup. There's a fair amount of adjustment in the center area, though it doesn't make it as snug as a "real" camera bag.

This is another bit of folded padding, this time a 4 fold section, each with it's own foam padding, and configured so it can be wrapped around something, say a longer zoom lens.

In full camera configuration. Note the zoom lens on the right wrapped up in the second chunk of padding and my beloved K20D sitting happily in the middle. Lots of room on the other side (and front pockets) for flash, more lenses, etc.

I've been using this bag as my full time work bag for a week or so now, and for one weekend of photowalking and here's what I've found so far:
Pros

• Sits nicely and comfortably across the shoulders. Much nicer than my laptop backpack as I don't have to have one hand on it for security (I tend to carry my backpack off of one shoulder only). Seems to stay comfortable for longer, even with laptop and workstuff in it.
  
• Easier (marginally) to get in and out of compared to my Lowe Pro bag, and way easier to get into than my "proper" camera backpack.
  
• Feels way more subtle carrying it around, and could potentially even be something to not alert people I'm a tourist on my next Mexican vacation (assuming my sunburnt or white skin doesn't of course).
  
• Flexible! Easy configuration changes with a small towel, tuque or t-shirt for padding.
  
• Lots of room for everything I've needed to lug around. Fits personal stuff (phone, wallet, etc) along with K20D with 16-45/4, Sigma 70-300, DA 40 Limited, walkaround P&S, batteries, spare memory cards, etc.
  

Cons

• There isn't a "top" handle so it's a bit odd to pick up the bag, I tend to grab it from the side and worry about it falling to the side and dumping everything out.
  
• The interior isn't perfectly padded compared to a real camera bag and I'm not sure how much I'd trust it to take a fall.
  
• The flap is a bit large, so the distance you have to go to get into the bag, and the amount of cloth you need to hold up if you're changing lenses is a bit much. Fairly easily mitigated though.
  
• The Velcro in the front isn't the most secure thing in the world. The option of a proper buckle that can be optionally clipped for longer trips might be nice.
  
• The Velcro really needs to be properly sewn in, the stick-on stuff isn't all that great.
  
• The colors are a bit.... uhm.... unexpected compared to the green of the canvas. Course, I'd have to be crazy to bitch about what my wonderful wife did set up for me!
  

Wow, it's been a weird week of weather (or two weeks now) where pretty much the whole lower mainland has been foggy (think thick like pea soup) morning and evening. The following picture was passed on from someone from someone from email spam. Super-cool. This is apparently a view of Downtown Vancouver from Cypress Mountain at 6:30 this morning. Click for the full image.

A couple of shots of my own from downtown are below:

Foggy Canada Place

A Foggy Street

Had to share the great shot of downtown from Cypress though!

Another weekend almost over, another couple of days of vegging and relaxing done. Sadly not much was actually accomplished this weekend. I did get my new camera a few days ago (had to get it from B&H in New York as it's impossible to get in the lower mainland. The plan with this camera is not to replace my beloved Pentax K20D, but to give me a pocket-sized camera with features and quality that a DSLR geek can appreciate. Also the fact that the guys from the TWIP podcast love it helps.

I also picked up a messenger bag to do a project found via lifehacker, a Stealth Camera Bag. The shop was a last ditch find from Andrea, who saw it on our way out of Abbotsford after visiting 7 other shops (everything from thrift stores to a camera store). A tiny little store full of fake machine guns, grenades, camouflage everything, and a very friendly (and scary) proprietor. Not surprisingly, the store and parking lot were completely empty (what, no one buying fake M-16s a week into the new year?).

Unfortunately the bag I found has no internal divider or pockets, so the next step will be to get a couple of dividers setup inside so I can use it as a DSLR bag or a laptop, going-to-work bag. Alternatively I could use a more expensive, but easier, DIY method, ie: buy a pre-done divider.