Grandchild arrives - how these portraits were made

Please welcome our first grandchild, Mikah James Clark to the world.  And rather than acting like a doting grandfather, telling you how wonderful and angelic he is, I'll just share with you some pictures, taken when he was 1 week old:
 

How were these shots taken?  Read more after the break to find out!

Tweak to A700 Remote Control Behavior

Michael White, a reader of my Alpha 700 ebook, writes in with this tip:

"Dear Gary,

When you talk about the remote control in Chapter 2, you state: "Despite what Sony's user manual says, when you press either the "Shutter" or "2 sec." button, the camera WILL autofocus first before taking the shot!".  That is not quite true: it will only autofocus if you set the camera to AutoFocus Priority mode.  If it is in Release Priority mode... it will take the pic right when you press the button [without autofocusing first]."

Michael is right, and I'm extremely impressed at his attention to detail!  As soon as I get a spare minute I'll update the book, but in the meantime, now you know.  Thanks, Michael!

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Another Way to Use Dynamic Range Optimization

On this trip (see previous blog post) for the first time I experimented with combining DRO (Dynamic Range Optimization, which on the A700 you can actually invoke manually) with Sunset Mode during an actual sunset.  Wow!   (More info after the break...)

Latvia Photo Expedition - Trip Report

Well, what can I say?  The Photo Expedition to Latvia occurred on July 13-20th 2008 and boy did you miss a memorable trip!  The weather wasn't always agreeable (it rained during our first day in Riga; however this only served to challenge us some more on "how to get compelling shots when the light isn't always agreeable").
 

Read on for more...