24th International Meeting of Rhythmic Gymnastics in Kalamata

A challenging environment with flickering lights and inconsistent white balance all the time.  I found myself on this International Meeting of Rhythmic Gymnastics about a month ago and immediately I found myself in front of quick action, low light and weird white balance making this photo shooting a real challenge.  

EKEN H8R Action Camera Short Review

Today I received my EKEN H8R camera and quickly put it to test.  I had no empty class 10 micro SD card, so I used my smartphone's class 10 card which was probably too fragmented.  I made some initial tests taking a few videos and upgraded the firmware to "allow" 4K@30fps (yes it came with no true 30fps as advertised).  But let's start at the beginning, shall we?

4K@30fps waterproof action camera suggestion

Usually, I don't recommend cameras for video, as a photographer's job is static and has little to do with action, but there are a few times when an independent product review just sells the product without the technicalities and specification comparison.

Nikon D810A and D810 Firmware upgrades

Nikon issued an update for models D810A and D810 which seems to resolve the issue that may cause the cameras to stop responding if attached to a WR-R10 wireless remote control running firmware 3.00.  

Sony a6300 Review

Here's Sony's newest mirrorless camera.  I have to admit that Sony sensors are getting better and from what I've seen this is going to be a great future for photography.  If the problems with sensor temperatures when shooting video are solved, we will soon see real portable 4K cameras (and light ones, too!).  No need to say more, head on to DPReview to read their very good review.

Real world samples of Nikon D5

Real world samples of Nikon D5 from DPReview.com

Have a look.

Pikilo Mountain - A firy view of Athens

After my last blog post, I felt the urge to grab any opportunity for a small photography trip nearby, either alone or with company.  I had accidentally been  at Pikilo Mountain in Attiki prefecture and now I felt it was a great opportunity to further explore it.  Well to be exact, I didn't get there entirely by accident, but because I just wanted to get to the top of that small mountain and had a couple of hours to spend. 

Spring is here! SO WHAT?

Well, Spring is about to reach its peak these days, but frankly I have not understood any change in weather or light color until now.  African dust is everywhere giving a yellow color cast and foggy distant details and the world looks like I am living in a dirty glass jar.  Where are the blue skies and the green fields with their vivid colors?  I don't know!

THL 5000 and GPS (and Chinese phone GPS sensors)

Many Chinese phone owners  (like myself) know by now what a nightmare it is to use their smartphone's GPS sensor  outside China's sky, especially those smartphones with MTK* chipsets (MTK6592 to name one) that have poor  satellite reception.  This is mainly for two reasons: the bad design of their GPS antenna and the GPS chip itself.  There were some rumors that one can actually repair the GPS antenna, but the rumors never turned to reality for my own smartphone until today.  I will show you how I improved my GPS performance or at least what seems to work for now until I try it  in real life GPS navigation.

Nikon D8?0 and Canon 5DS? (Question marks are there for a reason!)

Well, it's been a while since Nikon's 35+ megapixel cameras were released (with their oil problems etc) and the response from Canon's 50+ megapixel monsters, but having a previous experience with the problems that can occur when handling light with such beasts, I cannot keep myself silent and happy with these technological achievements.  First of all, lets keep things simple by trying to figure out the problems of previous models of both brands in order to try and find some kind of solution to the most serious ones.

Lightroom 6 Dehaze plugin (new one with slider)

Well, after the July update I still couldn't see the Dehaze slider in Lightroom 6.1.1.  I found it frustrating that the Lightroom programmers implemented the function in Lightroom, but they wouldn't let me use it.  I found a workaround some months ago that allowed me to use the feature by saving it (or rather programming it) as a preset (more like 10!) in the left hand column under the picture map.  I was still not happy.  Especially when I read that in Lightroom 6.1.1 the slider was correctly put in it's position.  I was furious, was my Lightroom installation bad?  Did I broke anything with my presets or programming the Dehaze filter to work with that workaround?  No, wrong, wrong and again wrong!  My version did not allow for the slider to appear.  Nope!  Not on this version! 

New Projects and Events, A Summer Evaluation

It's been several months since my last post, some of you thought I had the blog retired altogether.  Well, this is not true, but there was not so much time or peace of mind to write about something... about anything...  Everyone talks about missing time, time badly spent, resting not as much as everyone should and taking too many responsibilities in everyone's hands.  These are also all true for me this passing 6 months and I now know I should have kept up with photo news and updates because I lost some good news.  And of course, I also need to shoot some more successful images for my photobank accounts and make my work available for calendars and high resolution prints in large sizes.  I am also planning of making some large prints in limited editions, small office calendars and a limited edition photobook containing my latest fine art project.

Lightroom CC 2015.1.1 available

Lightroom CC 2015.1.1 and 6.1.1 are now available as a final release on Adobe.com and through the Creative Cloud application.  The goal of this release is to provide additional camera raw support, lens profile support and address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom.

Photoshop CC 2015.0.1 Update (August 3rd 2015)

Some days ago Adobe released an update for Photoshop CC 2015 that has implemented some new fixes.  To update just look for the update in the Creative Cloud application and click “Update”.  If you don’t have the Creative Cloud application running, start Photoshop 2015 and choose Help > Updates.  The Adobe Application Manager will launch. Select Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 and choose Update.

Photography Awards List (2015-2016)

EISA is the unique association of nearly 50 special interest magazines from 22 European countries. Internationally known for the European EISA Awards, EISA started in 1982 when the editors-in-chief from five European photo magazines came together to select “The Camera of the Year” for the first time. They had no idea that out of this meeting EISA - the European Imaging and Sound Association - would emerge some years later. This historic moment took place in 1989 after another 10 photo magazines had joined the group in the meanwhile.

Long exposure, a new true love...

Recently, perhaps rather delayed, I wanted to give a try to long exposure photography, having a ND1000 (or ND 3.0) filter in my bag for some time now and not having used it as many times as I wanted.  So, I cleaned the dust over it and headed towards Sounio and St. Nikolaos in Saronida, Attiki with a friend of mine.  It was poring and the weather was depressing, but we hoped that we would have our chance when the sun would descend.  Since we had a long time ahead, we agreed to head over to Sounio and try some long exposure shots with the heavy clouds passing over the Temple Of Poseidon across the bay.

Sometimes what you see is not enough...

I have been a witness to many quarrels regarding the amount of photo manipulation from time to time.  There are times that I agree with the opinion that too much post processing alters the meaning of the word "photograph" making it mostly a "creative result" and there are other times when I couldn't agree more with an agressive plan of post processing to convey the meaning of the subject.  

Archangels Gabriel and Michael Day (8th November)

Going back to 2009 I have some photos to remember my visit to the local Kalamta airport for the celebration of Archangels Michael and Gabriel, protectors of our Air Force.  It was a 3-day open visit to the local airport and I went there to visit a friend of mine who was attending the events and welcoming the visitors to the exhibition.  

May 2014 (Part 3 of 3, Mount Athos)

The next monastery was the largest and richest on Holy Mount Athos.  I don't know if the word "rich" or "money" is compatible with religion, but this is what we were told about the monastery.  Please note that the monastery has a guard post on the road from Karyes, where the guard checks the visitor names against his list and their permits or "diamonitiria".  I don't know why, but it seems that in this monastery there are a lot of Cypriot visitors.  The monastery was very big with huge buildings and a lot of monks, but it was also very tidy and clean (like every monastery we went, the surrounding paths and rivers are a different story).  We were put in a room with three other guys from Cyprus, nice guys, we had a lot of fun for one day with them and we laughed a lot.  

May 2014 (Part 2 of 3, Mount Athos)

The following morning we had an early rise to catch the bus to Ouranoupolis where we would then take the ferryboat to Dafni, then the bus to Karyes and finally one of the mini busses to Megisti Lavra Monastery.  The morning resembled something coming out of a fairy tale with pink clouds and blue skies as the sun slowly found its way above the mountains.  Almost everyone was sleeping in the bus (or was sleepy like us), but from time to time there were voices talking about that spectacular morning.

May 2014 (Part 1 of 3 Meteora and Thessaloniki)

A couple of months ago I returned from a trip to Meteora and Holy Mount Athos and it was only a few weeks ago when I finished processing my shots.  I came home with over 2.500 photos shot in 9 days, and I estimated I was shooting one shot every 3.5 minutes excluding the time I went to sleep!  It's a large amount of data and some of the photos are not good, some of them are going to be merged together for panoramas or exposure blending.  Basically I was walking with the camera in my hands and my lens on my backpack almost all the time, except when I was getting really tired and giving up for the day (and even then, I occasionally regretted not going out to shoot some more).

500px, a good idea turning bad?

500px is one of the top photo communities today and a place where good photographs are always plenty and eye catching.  I am not sure how you can learn photographic techniques from this community, as it is up to the photographers to share their ways and it is not so chat-friendly to discuss on line with the creators.  That would require enormous processing strength and bandwidth as there are many registered users.  You can actually learn something from their blog, or their new "ISO" site, but generally speaking information is very scarce.

Lucius river, a dreamy forest path in Arcadia

It was high noon when we decided to go for a photo trip with a friend of mine around the region.  Clouds were present and we feared for rainfall, but there was something pushing us to make that trip anyway.  Finally we decided to go a little further this time and we drove about an hour north to Arcadia region having occasionally drops of rain in the way and hoping that the weather would allow us to see and photograph the beautiful surroundings near Lucius river.  At first, we arrived at the place where Ancient Gortys was located with some ruins of exposed ancient structures lying among green wet grass.  It had just rained and the rocks were all shining around, but we knew that we had to walk by the river to truly admire it's beauty.

Canon Recalls to Repair PowerShot SX50 HS Digital Cameras

Recall Summary

Name of product: Canon PowerShot SX50 HS Digital Cameras
Hazard:

A chemical used in the rubber part of the viewfinders on the camera can cause skin or eye irritation or an allergic reaction to the user. 

Tragic Lantern's GPS Auto-off feature in action. Thoughts...

Remember the previous post about Tragic Lantern's GPS Auto off feature?  Well it works, but is geotagging your photos worth it?  Well, yes and no.  Since GPS drains the battery very quickly it is up to you to estimate when and how to use your GPS features.  If you ask me now, I would probably plan to use GPS tagging for the first couple of photos in every session and then turn it off completely for the rest.

Adobe Camera Raw 8.4 and Lightroom 5.4 out!

Camera Raw 8.4 is now available as a final release for Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CC. New features include: new preview controls, red eye correction for pets and updates to Local Corrections. This version also has bug fixes, support for new cameras and new lenses.

Lightroom 5.4 is also now on Adobe.com and available through the update mechanism in the application. It provides support for Lightroom mobile, additional camera raw support, lens profile support and fixes bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom.  

Tragic Lantern (Branch for Canon 6D) to implement GPS-Auto-Off feature

One of Canon's 6D flaws is that the integrated GPS feature drains the battery if you don't remember to turn it off in every single session or when the camera is not used.  You can have the camera turned off, but the GPS still drains the battery as it was not related to camera operation at all.  Well back in December I purchased an EOS 6D and kept finding my battery drained within days of use, something that did not happen with my EOS 60D that uses the same battery type.

Nikon D4s and Lexar 400x or 1000x memory card issues

CompactFlash® Memory Card check for use with Nikon D4S and D4

It has been reported that there are a small number of a specific type of  Lexar CompactFlash® memory cards that may have a problem communicating with your Nikon D4S and D4 DSLR camera. This article describes how to identify the problematic cards and what to do if you have one.

Nikon to offer D600 replacements if 'spots' continue

With regard to the issue with which multiple granular dust spots are reflected in images captured with the D600 digital SLR camera, Nikon sincerely apologizes for any concern and inconvenience suffered by D600 users, retailers, and all concerned.

Chinese government orders Nikon to stop selling D600

The Nikon D600 had a rocky introduction in 2012, with countless users noting that the camera often produces images with dust/oil spots. The company released the D610 a year later that is virtually identical to the D600, but with this issue seemingly corrected.