Great tips on composition by Steve McCurry.
Photography Info
Info on various subjects, what I am doing etc.
Cheap Chinese batteries compared to genuine Canon
Ever wondered what the difference was between those cheap Chinese batteries on Ebay and the Canon OEM batteries?
I have used both types over the years and have found that generally the Canon batteries last longer and are more compatible with the electronic monitoring in the camera. I had a couple of old batteries and decided to cut them open to see the difference. As you can see, a lot less electronics and smaller cells in the copies. I have also tested a number of the cheap Chinese batteries and found all the ones that I tested to be below their rated capacities. The battery on the left is the Canon BP-809 and its equivalent and on the right is the Canon BP-511 and its equivalent. The Canon BP-809 has a leaky cell due to it along with my video camera being ran over by a truck. It was in for repair at the time, so was replaced with a new camera by the very apologetic repairers. Is it worth paying the much higher price for Canon OEM batteries? …
Bendigo Photo Shoot
Some images from a recent photo shoot in Bendigo. The photos were for a new website my son is building for a Christian group in Bendigo. The shots were taken to suit a wide panoramic format that would have text on the right hand side. I was to capture the essence of inner city Bendigo with casual images of members of the group. Great people, easy to work with, a most enjoyable shoot.
[acx_slideshow name=”Grinter”]
Jamies Fine Dressings
These are a few photos from a shoot I did a couple of years ago. The client is still using them and has just asked me to produce a couple of large display banners. I had my son, a graphic designer as an assistant and used off camera flashes triggered with the Canon inbuilt wireless system, I now have Pocket Wizards. I had just purchased a dozen high quality AA batteries and had charged them up the night before. I spent a bit of time on the web researching rechargeable AA’s and the ones I purchased came highly recommended and were quite expensive. About half way through the shoot my speedlights started miss firing and then stopped all together, they all had flat batteries. I thought no way, new batteries, fully charged, must be something else. I had a full set of older cheaper AA’s that were also fully charged, and once they were fitted my problems were solved. I did some test at home and found that the batteries were discharging themselves after about 24 hours. I contacted the supplier and sent them back. Turned out that there was a complete shipment faulty, the supplier was most grateful that I brought the problem promptly to his attention. They had not sold many batteries from the faulty shipment so the recall was only small. This episode certainly taught me the benefit of having backup equipment. These dressings are absolutely the best I have tasted, here is a link to the website, Jamies Fine Dressings.
[acx_slideshow name=”Jamies”]
Photo of the month: December
Sturt’s Desert Pea, Swainsona formosa, the floral emblem of South Australia. I took this photo while on a recent outback trip researching a photography book I am working on for John Flynn’s 100th anniversary of the Australian Inland Mission. It was the first time I had actually seen a Sturt’s Desert Pea. We were not far from Broken Hill’s Sculpture Symposium when we spotted hundreds of flowering Desert Peas, the light was a bit harsh but I was pleased with this exposure after a quick edit in Lightroom.
