Rainbows are rare in nature, because a number of events have to happen at the same time. First, there has to be moisture in the sky, so a rainy day or a quick rainstorm is the first pre-requisite. Second, the sun must be positioned on the horizon at a low...
Macro Image Comparison: Nikon D800 vs Nikon 1 V2
Since buying my first Nikon 1 V2 in August of last year I’ve been having some fun trying to push the limits of this little, mirrorless camera and its small CX sensor to see what it is capable of producing. On the surface doing a macro image comparison between a...
How to Photograph Clouds
Nature often rewards us with incredible opportunities for photographing sunrises, sunsets and sun rays piercing through the clouds, creating stunning views. As a landscape photographer, I tend to wait for partly cloudy and stormy days, because clouds make photographs appear much more dramatic and vivid. Without clouds, sunrises and sunsets...
Capturing Birds in Flight with a Nikon 1 V2 and FT-1 Adapter
For the past 8 months or so I have been shooting a lot of static and perched birds with a Nikon 1 V2, FT-1 adapter, my Nikkor 70-200 f/4 VR lens and TC-17E II teleconverter. This set-up gives me an equivalent field-of-view of 918mm @ a rather slow f/6.7. Even...
Christchurch: The re-building of a City
Every time each of us presses the shutter button on our camera we create the potential opportunity to time travel. To go back and experience events and emotions...and to relive memories. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have visited New Zealand twice. The first time was in 2004 and most recently...
Microsoft Surface Pro 2 Review for Photographers
One of the biggest challenges that we photographers face when traveling is productivity - being able to import, access and back up captured photographs and sometimes even edit them to be posted online or provided to a client. While we have plenty of gadgets today to accomplish this task, the...
Depth of Field Comparison Between Nikon FX and CX sensors
There have been some interesting discussions about the pros and cons of various sensor sizes and how they impact angle of view, lens focal length and the depth-of-field that results. For example, some photographers bemoan the fact that it is difficult to achieve a shallow depth of field at a...
Telephoto Setup with Nikon 1 V2, FT-1 and Nikkor 85mm f/1.8G
Grimsby Ontario is on the raptor migration route and every year the town holds an indoor “RaptorFest” event at the local hockey arena during which various presentations of live birds, and educational initiatives are conducted. A fast, mid-range telephoto like the Nikkor 200mm f/2G VR would be the perfect lens...
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Review
Standing above all other Olympus mirrorless cameras, the Olympus OM-D E-M1 is a flagship model with the most impressive list of features. Built on the success of the Olympus OM-D E-M5 (which we highly praised), the E-M1 reigns over the OM-D line on a number of features - from the...
Tamrac ZipShot Tripod Review
Recently when I was investigating ultra-lightweight and portable tripods I came across the Tamrac ZipShot. This tripod is one of the most innovative, lightweight tripod designs to hit the market in some time. The tripod comes in two sizes: the TR404 mini which extends to 28” in height, weighs 9...