Saturday March 7th 2015 - Street Photography Dongducheon, South Korea

I have been neglecting my outstanding Sony A99 as of late, thanks to the arrival of a new member to my camera harem, the Sony A6000. But I promised my Sony A99 Facebook group that I would take out my A99 this weekend and well, I am a man of my word. I decided to get my lazy butt dressed and out for some street photography, but not before a lengthy mid-afternoon nap. I had also decided I need the scant bit of exercise that a nice street photography walk would provide.

Street photography in Korea is a photographers dream. There are so many cool and interesting sights. There are an abundance of street markets, subway stations and the people make such irresistible subject, especially older people for some reason.

I had given some words of "encouragement" to an amateur photographer who is a little down because she dropped a really nice zoom lens for her Nikon, I think it was a 70-200. Anyway, it will only work in manual focus and she's going on vacation to Bali soon. I told her to just shoot in manual! As a result, I decided to pack my camera bag with only manual focus lenses today. They included:

Rokinon 14mm wide angle
Rokinon 35mm
Bell and Howell 85mm

And here are the results from today's street photography...

Dangerous Photography

I have suffered two significant laceration injuries which were directly related to photography activities in the past 6 months. The first was when cut the back of my left ear bad enough to require stitches and then just this past weekend, I filleted my left thumb with a knife. The how and why of how I managed to put myself into two situations resulting in these lacerations is what follows...

Turner and I were in Itaewon to shoot a You Tube commercial for Coreanos Kitchen, a delicious Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant that's not to be missed. After we wrapped the shoot, it was time to load all the photography gear into the back of Turner's SUV. The back of Turner's SUV is taken up by a combination of baby seats and related accessories, as well as all of our photography gear. On this particular occasion, we also had to load up a jib, slider and other videography equipment that we don't normally bring with us, the end result was that the back of the SUV was overpacked and I had to use one hand to kind of push and hold everything in the back of his SUV, whilst simultaneously attempting to close the hatchback. My efforts were unsuccessful. As I pulled down the hatchback, I failed to move my head out of the way in time and my left ear was clipped by the metal edge of the hatchback. Although, it sounded and felt like I simply shut the trunk on my head.

The pain set in almost immediately, my ears were ringing like the after hours of a loud rock concert and there was a little blood. Initially, I didn't think I had cut myself, I was content with the fact that I had just shut the trunk on my own head like a ritard. But when I had Turner's wife look at the back of my ear, she gasped and said, "Oh, that looks bad". It was bad, it wasn't so much a cut as it was a gash. I kept pressure on it and made it to the Combined Troop Aid Station at Camp Casey where they proceeded to apply 5 stitches.

As for the laceration from this past weekend, the cause was rather more straight forward, but equally negligent and ritarded on my part. I received a "Cam Caddie" camera stabilizer in the mail that day. It was brand new and was attached to it's packaging with a pair of thick, black, plastic zip ties. My only tool to cut the "Cam Caddie" free from the zip ties and packaging was a recently sharpened Gerber knife.

Many years ago, I had cut a finger when I applied too much pressure to what I was trying to cut through and when the knife broke through, it raced towards the flesh on my left hand ring finger and lacerated me. I remembered this hard won lesson and made sure to face the blade away from my body and fingers as I began to cut through the zip ties.

These were thick zip ties and I had to really apply a lot of pressure to try and get through them. I was determined, wanting desperately to get at my new camera accessory. I pushed hard and finally the knife snapped violently through the first zip tie, the thumb on my left hand lay directly in the path of the thrusting knife. I had just sharpened the knife a few days before and it proceeded to make a one inch fillet near the first knuckle (see image). My combat lifesaver first aid training instincts kicked in and I applied pressure immediately. I happened to have some 2 x 2 inch sterile gauze and fabric medical tape in my room and dressed my would within minutes. This cut was bleeding profusely. But eventually, the bleeding stopped and I finished opening my package, a little bloodied, but not defeated.

The moral of the story is, you can never be too careful when working with knives and photography can be a dangerous endeavor. Keep safe y'all and keep shooting!

Dangerous Photography

Maybe I should wear a protective helmet when I got out from now on?

See the zip ties? Bastards. Cam Caddie.

Rokinon 14mm Wide Angle Lens - First Impressions

I was quite excited to get my new Rokinon 14mm wide angle lens, as I am with each of my new camera-related acquisitions, and wanted to post a few images and give you my first impressions.

Firstly, the lens looks to be extremely well built and sturdy. It is fairly compact, not too long in length, not too wide. It comes in a nice package and includes a felt soft case. It fits snuggly onto my Sony A99 and the manual focus ring is smooth and quiet.

I just received it yesterday and only had the chance so far to snap a few photos in my army barracks room here at Camp Casey, Korea. I'll take it out into the world this weekend. Check back for more pics.

Price $279 (eBay)

The interior of my army barracks room at Camp Casey, South Korea

Shot with Sony A99 and Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 wide angle lens

Rokinon 14mm wide angle lens

Rokinon 14mm wide angle lens

Rokinon 14mm wide angle lens

Sample image shot with Rokinon 14mm wide angle lens

Surely, I Must Be Crazy - Another Camera, Sony A6000

I feel quite confident in saying that I have a serious camera habit.Granted, it's not a crack habit but it's as close as you can get. I have so many cameras that if I wanted to open my own shop right now I'd have a fairly decent inventory to stock the shelves with. And while that may be a slight exaggeration, what's not an exaggeration is that I do, in fact, have a serious camera habit.

Now, I can justify my need for all these various cameras all day long, but who am I trying to convince? No, I don't "need" them all but, I do put each and every one of my cameras to good use.

So why do I "need" a new Sony A6000? Well, I'll tell you why (you knew that was coming). I have been most unsatisfied with the little Sony DSC-W710 that I purchased for around $70 USD. That camera is supposed to fill the role as my compact pocket camera for when I don't want to lug around a DSLR, like when I'm going out to dinner with friends, for example. But it sucks. I have never liked the photos it takes, never. But you get what you pay for, almost without fail. I paid $70 USD and that's what it's worth, probably not even that much.

With a vacation to the Philippines just around the corner, I found that I was questioning whether or not I wanted to bring a treasure trove of lenses and cameras. Sure, there would be plenty of photo ops, that's half the reason I'm going, but when I consider the weight of a full camera bag, combined with the thought of my gear possibly being stolen (we've all heard stories about cameras being stolen on vacation right?) I found myself leaning more and more towards finding a high quality compact camera to replace my POS Sony DSC-W710.

I knew right off the bat that I was going to pick a Sony camera to fill this need of mine, but which one would it be? And what would my budget be?

I knew I didn't want to go with something as pricey as the Sony A7 but I wanted to get the highest quality images I could at the best price. The Sony A6000 is the replacement for the Sony NEX6 and NEX7. Both really nice compact cameras. But the improvements found in the A6000 really set it apart not just from the NEX series, but also from all it's competitors.

Let's take a look at some of the main features:

* Mirrorless
* World's fastest auto focus!
* Continuous shooting at 11fps
* 179 auto focus points (unheard of!)
* 24 mp Exmor CMOS censor
* OLED viewfinder (which the A5000 does not have)
* Tiltable LCD screen
* Wifi and NFC connectivity
* Amazing low-light images with ISO up to 25,600!

And lastly, it's an interchangeable lens camera that uses the Sony E-mount of which, I already have 3 lenses which I use on my NEX-VG10 video camera. So right there, I will have a total of 4 lenses, including the 16-50mm lens the Sony A6000 comes bundled with.

As for price, when it was first launched the Sony A6000 sold for around $800 USD. Currently, the Sony web site has them listed for $699 and I've seen some deals online for around $680 which includes some free accessories. I contacted my camera "insider" dealer here in Seoul and he was able to get me a brand new one for $610. He couldn't locate any used ones for me. Used models are currently trending around $530-$570 on ebay. So for the modest difference in price I figured I'd go for a brand new one this time.

And as if all those features weren't enough, viewing some of the review videos currently available on You Tube definitely closed the deal...



As always, I'll post sample photos as soon as I get to shooting with it!

Here are some stock images of the silver Sony A6000. She's a beauty isn't she?

New Lens - Rokinon 14mm

I hope, I think, I believe I have finally found a suitable lens for wide angle photos for my full-frame Sony A99. I already have a few wide angle lenses but I haven't been totally happy with them and several of them are not compatible with the full-frame A99, such as with my Tokina 11-16mm which is for cropped sensor cameras like my A77. It will work with my A99 but only when I'm fully zoomed in at 16mm.

I also have a couple of nice Minolta lenses but they are at 20mm and 28mm respectively and while the Zeiss 24-70mm is a good all around lens that I've captured some nice landscapes with, I really want something just a little bit wider without breaking the bank.

I stumbled across a pretty good deal on eBay today for a used Rokinon 14mm lens. The seller had it listed for $279 USD (buy it now), I found it too difficult to resist and went ahead and bought it, my decision helped with the knowledge that brand new ones go for around $500 USD.

Here are a few photos of the actual lens. As always, I'll be sure to share some images as soon as I get it in my hands!

Rokinon 14mm wide angle lens

First Shot - Hasselblad 503CW

One of the best parts about having a shooting buddy is that I've always got a photography subject close by, and really, I find great pleasure in photographing friends, especially friends who are photographers.

Turner is a good person, devoted family man and a passionate photographer.

It was Turner who reminded me of a critical step in film photography, which is to keep a notebook detailing camera settings and lighting conditions for each photo. This is an essential step, not dissimilar to zeroing a scope on a rifle. Unfortunately, I made the rookie mistake of not keeping notes on my first roll of film, so I can't even tell you what the settings were for this shot. All I know is that it was shot on expired AGFA APX ISO 100 black and white film.

The photo below is one of the first shots that I took with the Hasselblad 503CW and it is a promising sign. With time, knowledge and practice I am certain I will get some great results.

The next Episode of our Hey Don't Shoot YouTube show is about film photography, I should have it edited and posted by next weekend.

Check out Turner's photography at the following links:

https://www.facebook.com/turnerhuntphoto
http://turnerhuntphoto.smugmug.com/

"Turner" - Shot with Hasselblad 503CW

Hasselblad 503CW

My First Film Camera, Minolta X-700

I'm sure I owned at least one 35mm film camera when I was younger. I couldn't tell you what brand or model it was or what happened to it, but what I can say is that I have never shot with a film camera since I started shooting professionally in 2000. That being said, I have been watching with much interest, my good friend Turner Hunt, and his film photography. He started out with a Canon AE-1 a few months back and he has been capturing some amazing shots.

I have been hesitant to get into film because I simply enjoy the lazy convenience of digital photography, but alas, I can't resist because it just looks like a lot of fun. So today I went ahead and purchased my first film camera, the Minolta X-700, a classic from the 1980's. I chose it because I love my Minolta A mount lenses and the X-700 features Aperture Priority mode which I love shooting in. I was also impressed with the sample photos I found on the web. Have a look..

Minolta X-700 Sample Images

Minolta X-700