A Month in Oceania

I just returned from a major trip to Australia and New Zealand.  Lots of photos and stories.  No time for a travelogue-style blog post.  I'll have to contain all of what I have to say to captions.  Here goes...

A gift for my wife...

Also in this issue:

• How High Speed Sync Works (video)
• Australia and New Zealand Seminars are almost here!
• Things you Didn't Know about the RX-100 IV and RX-10 II (oh, and there's a new ebook)
• High-Speed Sync without HSS
• Cameracraft news (hint: we're merging!)
• Parting Shot

A Gift for My Wife

I took these profiles of the grandkids (at the top of this post) in secret as a surprise for my wife.  And I did it with just ONE unmodified wireless flash.  You can do this too.  How, you ask?

Shooting Star Trails

Believe it or not, I’ve never attempted this kind of a shot before.  Maybe because I thought it was too cliché; maybe because I grew up in Southern California where we never really had clear enough skies.  But whatever the reason, the first time I tried it was last week, while on a family vacation in Kauai, Hawaii.

Back in the days of film, this kind of a shot was straightforward: Put your camera on a tripod, set the shutter speed to “B”, use a locking cable release and keep your shutter open for an hour or two.  Not so with digital.  Leaving your shutter open for so long will develop so much noise that people looking at it would cringe.

Baseball with RBS (Really Bad Shadows)

Also in this issue:

• The Future of Sony's A-mount
• Announcements
• Day 2 of the Seminar is now available for streaming!

Baseball with RBS (Really Bad Shadows)

In the states, there is a special kind of baseball game called T-ball which caters to 4-year-olds.  Rather than having to hit a ball that is pitched to them, the baseball sits stationary on a stand (a “T”) and the kids swing the bat to hit it.

T-ball tournaments are all the rage here, but this month I witnessed what I think is pretty extraordinary.  At the end of the season there was a “World Series” playoff, and a whole team of T-ball players from Taiwan flew in to participate!

That’s right – a whole bunch of rich parents paid gobs of money to give their kids an international travel experience that they are very likely too young to appreciate.  I had the honor of shooting one of the games in this historic playoff.

Better Pictures Using Your Smartphone

Also in this issue:

• Why In-Camera GPS is Going Away
• Seminar Update
• I Get Emails...

Better Pictures Using Your Smartphone
I take family snapshots as much as the next guy.  And yet I cringe whenever I see the hallmark of a snapshot: A flash picture taken in a dark room, with the camera’s built-in flash as the sole source of light.  This is the universally acknowledged, Guinness-book-of-world-records worst way to light a shot.

How I Lit this Child Prodigy

Also in this issue:

• A footnote to last month's video
• Take Better Pictures This Summer
• Other Announcements

How I Lit this Child Prodigy

I took the shot above in a very confined space and so it was essential to have as little "light spill" as possible - that is, light only the subject and try to minimize any of the adjacent objects (like the bookshelf and chair behind her) from being lit as well.

A-Mount and E-mount Focusing Differences

In This Issue:

• Focusing Differences between Sony's A-Mount and E-Mount
• Quick Announcements
• Back-Button Focus ebook is out!
• Something Really Big

I try to keep this blog very general most of the time, knowing that many readers shoot with a wide variety of camera brands.  This month I'll make a small exception -- I'm going to start with something Sony-specific and kind of technical, then at the end I'll get to something non-technical that every shooter from every type of camera needs to know.

Apple's "Shot on an iPhone 6" Ad Campaign

Also in this issue...

Explore Sri Lanka with a National Geographic Photographer!
The Dress that Blew Up the Internet
Apple's "Shot on an iPhone 6" Ad Campaign
The Friedman Archives is Hiring!
And more...

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Apple's "Shot on an iPhone 6" Ad Campaign

A licensable shot taken with a Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone.  Good light, strong composition, no distracting background.  Smartphone cameras do great in ideal conditions.

Apple is currently running a major ad campaign called "Shot on iPhone 6" which, not surprisingly, shows off some pretty impressive images, all shot with the camera on their iconic smartphone.  (If you haven't seen it, here's a link to Apple's World Gallery.  Worth a peruse!)

Upon viewing these images, Apple wants you to say, "Wow, the iPhone 6's camera must be great!".  And in fact, I'm sure most people seeing the photos will say this very thing.  The pictures are quite good, after all.

But without meaning any disrespect to the camera,

Classical Environmental Portraits

Also in this issue:

• Supplements covering the Sony A7s and A7 II are out!
• Unfair tease about a use for 14-bit RAW
• Seminar and Ebook updates
• I Will Live Forever

A Classical Environmental Portrait

Leon Levitch's life revolved around the piano.  He passed away last November.

 A "classical" portrait is little more than a headshot, with the eyes placed roughly in the upper third of the vertical frame.  An "Environmental Portrait" is a portrait of a person in the environment in which they thrive - it tells the story of a person and who they are in one shot.

So what is a "Classical Environmental Portrait", then?