A few new photos
Jul 26, 2010 Photography
Here are a few new photos from some trips so far this summer:
Pagoda in Patterson Park Baltimore, MD
Capitol Building, Washington DC
Gettysburg, PA
Tags: Baltimore, Canon 7D, Gettysburg, Photography, Traveling, Washington DC
Trip up the Blue Star Highway in Michigan
Jun 2, 2010 Photography, Transportation
Back on May 22 I took a nice trip up the Blue Star Highway in Michigan. The section I was riding was from Hagar Shore Rd (Exit 7 on US 31/196) north of Benton Harbor to Glenn Michigan. I just had to stop and take a few shots with the Canon 7D I was carrying in my backpack. As you can tell from the photos it was kind of foggy and it was a bit chilly but a great escape for a ride.
Tags: Canon 7D, Google Map, Michigan, Photography, Suzuki, SV650
Tip: Choppy playback of video on computer from Canon 7D
Jan 24, 2010 Photography
I had previously been rather disappointed with the quality of video playback from the video that the Canon 7D takes. When I would open the videos using VLC player or any other media players I have installed the video would be all choppy. After doing some searching I came to the conclusion that it was more than likely my slower compact flash (CF) card which is a 4GB 133x card which only operates at 20.0 MB/s. Since CF cards now go up to 667x (100 MB/s) I thought this is a very plausible situation. I now have a new 16GB 400x (60 MB/s) card waiting to come in the mail to see how much that helps. However, after taking some spur of the moment video of some friends kids while over at my house and previewing the video on the camera the video played back just fine. With this new information I started doing even more searching and I found this tip on how to have smooth playback in VLC and it seems to work rather well.
Step 1: Open VLC player and navigate to the Tools menu and select Preferences.
Step 2: In the lower left corner of the Preferences dialog box change Show Settings from “Simple” to “All”.
Step 3: Then navigate to Input & Codecs > Other Codecs > FFmpeg and change the option called “Skip the loop filter for H.264 decoding” from “none” to “all”
Now try to play your video back again and see the difference.
When you hover your mouse over this select option it says:
Skipping the loop filter (aka deblocking) usually has a detrimental effect on quality. However it provides a big speedup for high definition streams.
Now you can enjoy smooth playback of your video from your Canon 7D DSLR.
Hunter Ice Festival – Part 2
Jan 18, 2010 Photography
The Hunter Ice Festival is a 3 day festival that starts on a Friday night with lots of carving, setting out sponsor’s sculptures and lots more. While I was playing with the wireless Speedlight flash system on the first night I caught this little boy looking up at one of the main sculptures in amazement. I only got two shots off and thankfully one of them turned out since the father was telling the boy to step back.
On Saturday you get to see more of the tools that get used while carving these sculptures. Anything from angle grinders, chainsaws, picks, chisels, dremel tools, custom made jigs and cloths irons get used.
Some people use templates made out of paper to help start the carving process.
While others just have a drawing and go at the ice just by looking at it.
When doing night photography with a flash you can easily tell where many of the different blocks are.
More photos in the gallery at: Hunter Ice Festival, Niles Michigan
Tags: Canon 40D, Canon 7D, Festivals, Michigan, Photography, Winter
Rock On! – Hunter Ice Festival, Part 1
Jan 16, 2010 Photography
Today kicked off the Hunter Ice Festival in Niles Michigan. This is my first year going to this festival and so far I think that it will not be my last. How can you beat ice carving and fire? This is my first time getting out with my new Canon 7D and seeing what it can do. I was working with the wireless Speedlight trigger and some higher ISO’s due to hand holding of the camera in crowds. More photos to come once the weekend is over.
Tags: Canon 7D, Festivals, Michigan, Photography, snow, Winter
Canon 7D is here!
Jan 11, 2010 Photography
So I can’t wait to continue learning all of the different features of my Canon 7D. I purchased it as an upgrade to my Canon 40D. Not exactly sure what I am going to do with the 40D just yet. I may keep it around so if I do different photo shoots I can just grab a different camera instead of changing lenses. What I can say though is that I was a little worried when it arrived. The UPS man showed me this hole in the side of the main delivery box and asked me to check the contents to see if it was damaged. Thankfully B&H packed it with enough air pockets that nothing was damaged.
There will be several future postings on what I like/dislike about the 7D as compared to my 40D.
Tags: Cameras, Canon 40D, Canon 7D, Photography