February 1st ~ Site will be somewhat inactive for the next week until we get settled. Main page
images will come mostly from the archives unless an interesting and timely opportunity presents itself. Camera gear is packed for the trip and
and working with/getting used to the Mac again (wireless).
February 4th ~ (Upload check) Looking forward to heading out. First stop on Saturday is Las Vegas for a night.
Arriving Long Beach Ca. on Sunday. (Renting roller blades at Venice Beach!) Will be checking out some surf spots.
February 6 - 7th ~ A rare rain is falling in Las Vegas covering the city in clouds. Will wait till our return to get some shots
of the city and the Grand Canyon. The strip is an amazing array of attractions
and it goes on and on. Much larger and much more interesting than we imagined. Staying at the Wynn Encore for two days.
Saw Cirque de Soliel (Le Rev) last night (no cameras). What a huge spectacle! And, the Ferrari dealership is in the hotel, darn, On our way
to California for a week then back here for some more good times. (Couldn't get the Ferarri out of the showroom for a test spin to California.)
(Click to enlarge)
February 9th ~ Staying in Beverly Hills/Bel Air. Have a few famous
neighbours who haven't waved back to us yet. It has been raining a lot. Went to Vitello's restaurant in Studio City
tonight and sat in the booth where Robert Blake and his wife sat and dined the night she was shot. Had the same waitress who
served them. She said that he was innocent. He was found not guilty (11 - 1) and was acquitted of the charge(s) involved
in the case against him.
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The area in Bel Air/Beverly Hills is spectacular and the homes are outrageous.
Will head out to the beaches when it warms and sunnies up in the next few days.
February 14th ~ It's been an amazing week and we've barely scratched
the sightseeing surface of Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Malibu, Venice Beach, and Hollywood. Our beautiful grandson, daughter
Beth and son-in-law Sean have been most of the reasons why our immediate neighbours think we're wonderful, and have invited us
back anytime. The weather has been warm and sunny. We're staying in a cottage in Bel Air. The last resident
here was Anne Hathaway (for 6 months while she was shooting Alice In Wonderland).
Adam Sandler (sort of) spoke to
Nancie at a playground park today where we were taking our grandson. She asked if he was leaving (through our car window)
because we needed the parking spot. He said, "Yes, we're just on our way, have a good day!" and pleasantly smiled at her.
Beth said, "Love your movies," he waved and drove off with his family. Nancie was beside herself. I keep waving at
the Playboy Mansion but to date have not had any response or acknowledgement of any kind. Darn.
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February 19th ~ Las Vegas is an assault on all of the the senses.
Splendid hotel lobbies have a unique spice or citrus scent. Large, highly coloured visuals appear at every
possible moment. Surface textures amaze. Music fills the
air and the sound of slots paying off or cheers from the gaming tables abound and are correctly augmented somehow by acoustics.
Comfortable, familiar profiles from the Sphinx and Pyramid to the Eiffel Tower and Lady Liberty appear along the strip.
Smiles, laughter, fast cars, spectacular shows, bright lights, limos moving you around, fresh faces, and smart, exclusive
shops appear moments apart 24 hours a day all along the Strip. You can bet on almost anything significant that's happening (see below)
~ right here. While it's going on! What will Tiger say? Will his wife be there? Will the public believe he's sincere?
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Great food. Walk anywhere with your drink. You name it. A powerful, surreal, almost overwhelming place
to visit for a few days.
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February 19th ~ Working with higher ISOs ~
Camera ISO settings above 3200 on the 70D are moderately noisy, (best under 1600). (aside - And, the new Canon EOS 1D Mk 4 has
ISO capability to 100,000! Maybe, just maybe consider the EOS 1D-4 as a point and shoot with the Tamron 17 - 250mm, HA!)
Shooting through the plexiglass of the helicopter and aquarium windows degrades and distorts image quality somewhat as you would expect.
It helps to take the shot through the plexi/glass at as close to 90o as possible to maintain the quality. Don't forget
to turn off the flash! Use the spot focus and focus on the object through the glass to help ensure image sharpness.
A larger depth of field is needed in the helicopter shot (f~11 in this case, ISOs 1250, 1/250 sec.) So, use the
largest f stop possible, (boost the ISOs as needed).
The shots below were taken with all this in mind and corrected a bit.
Photoshop was used to sharpen, darken and add some contrast. Click the thumbnails to enlarge.
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Looking forward to reorganizing at home for a week and off to Miami for March. (Sat near Nicole Kidman at lunch last Sunday.
It would have been very uncool to have taken her picture, even with the cellphone. The hotel would have likely banned us forever.
The paps are hated.) (Aside ~ She's absolutely gorgeous.)
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February 20th ~ back home on the PC reorganizing and uploading some of the pics from the trip.
Getting more comfortable handling and shooting the new 7D.
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February 21st re: ISOs Am not that able to speak knowledgeably
about the technical aspects of ISO noise other than it becomes quite obvious to me above 1600 in the 7D, (moreso with the 30D/40D). Here's an interesting
link about ISO noise and the 7D that may answer your question (especially the multiples of 160 in video). Google
7D ISO noise test to try to get a better handle on the subject. You can replace
(7D)~>ISO noise test with any other digital camera to see the results for your own use.
Quite a few other worthwhile links will likely appear. I also
like the way Popular Photography reviews ISO noise when they test a camera.
>> Canon 7D ISO noise test <<
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February 22nd re: ISOs/noise The following 3 shots show levels of noise.
The 7D does handle noise well at higher ISO levels but becomes rather unacceptable over 3200 in my opinion. That said pictures can be obtained in
extremely low light conditions using high ISOs. In situations where a picture must be taken without flash ISOs of 25,000 - 100,000 will get a result
albeit a very noisy one.
(left) Canon EOS 7D (low light) ISO 5000 (moderate but rather unacceptable noise)
(centre) Canon EOS 40D (low light) ISO 800 (moderately low noise)
(right) Canon 7D (very low light) ISO 5000 (unacceptable noise but got the picture at 1/1600 sec.)
An adjusted fill flash would have helped to improve the exposures and reduce noise using lower ISO numbers in both the left and centre instances.
Should have chosen a lower ISO
on the right (where a flash would not have worked on the surfers) but didn't realize at the time it would be so noisy. Live and learn!
It's also very interesting to note again that in the 7D ISOs of 160/320/640 (etc.) are less noisy than in the lower whole numbers of 125/250/500 (etc.)
(Please click on the thumbnails below to enlarge the pictures)
February 26th re: Canon EOS 7D - ISOs ~ acceptable levels Here's a shot on the left
taken ISOs 2000, 1/1250 sec., f 7, the noise level is not bad, just beginning to show. It was taken about 10 - 15 minutes before
the pic on the right when the light levels had dropped considerably, and the ISOs were boosted (rather inadvertently) to 5000 to get the shot. (see Feb 22nd)
Will continue to work the 7D adjusting ISOs in lower light/action situations to see what works well.
It's all about selecting the right/best ISOs from now on.
please click the thumbnails below to enlarge the pics
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