Tuesday ~ November 13, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 13, 2018
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Happy Tuesday!

This was the view from the balcony of our hotel room at Coco Beach, Florida.  We spent two days there after Disney World to rest and relax.

I went down to the beach a couple of times but never got into the water.  I took my camera and the 28 – 300 mm lens to take some photos.

I noticed all the umbrellas on the beach and lounge chairs.  I thought I’ll just go down there and sit under an umbrella and enjoy the breeze and sound of the waves coming on shore.  No more had I gotten to one of umbrellas, a guy comes running up to me and tells me it $20 to rent the umbrella and $20 for the chairs.  I passed.

The birds on the beach let me get very close to them and I had some enjoyment of capturing some images.  I spent about a half an hour this morning trying to identify each of these birds.  Truthfully I’m just guessing at their names.

So I think this is a black-legged kittiwakes.

These two guys are Short-billed dowitchers.

And for the last bird that I can’t identify, I think these are Sanderlings.

Like I said I’m probably wrong on all of them but I spent all the time I was going to trying to identify them.  🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Monday ~ November 12, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 12, 2018
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Happy Monday and Happy Veterans Day!

A huge thank you to all our wonderful Veterans for their service.

I had a great weekend.  I did a photo shoot for a family in Dubuque this past Saturday.  Wonderful people and they were very gracious and patient.
This was the art director for the project.  🙂

She found a napping place in several of my photography equipment bags.

This is one of the backgrounds they chose from my website. They also chose a more neutral gray for the second background.  I had a lot of fun working with three generations of the family for this shoot.

Each time I do a photo session I come away with new techniques and better ways of lighting.   I learned a lot of things from this shoot and as a result I will cut down on the amount of stuff I bring on the next session.

One of the must have items (for me) is the Color Checker Passport™.  It has a graduated gray card and lets me build a color profile for the particular shoot I am on so that I know the colors are correct.

Anyway I would love to show you some of the images from the shoot but because of privacy concerns I cannot.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Wednesday ~ November 07, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 7, 2018
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Happy Wednesday!

Yesterday I said I was going to do an opinionated review of the Nikon Coolpix P1000 camera.

This is normally not the type of camera I would buy.  I love the DSLRs I have.  From the way they feel in my hand to sound of the shutter and the results I get with them.

Having said that, I gave my old Nikon Coolpix to my Grand Son some time ago.  I use to carry it on my bike and in the car for those occasions when I didn’t have my regular camera.

So when Nikon announced this version of the Coolpix and the fact it could shoot in RAW I ordered one.  Knowing of the trip to Disney World I thought I might get some use out of it. But the real selling point for me was the 3000 mm optical zoom lens.

An example of that zoom is below.  Above I stepped out on the balcony of our suite and captured this image of the basketball court.

This image is not zoomed to full length and has not been altered in any way.  No cropping of this image, it is just the way I shot it in camera.

Another example is this image taken from another balcony of our suite.  That is the Magic Kingdom Castle to the right and on the left is one of the rides at the Magic Kingdom.

This image is zoomed all the way out to 3000 mm.  I did not have a tripod and actually hand-held all these images.   Now this image is a little soft but considering the length of the lens and the atmospherics of the day I was impressed to say the least.

So for me it is better to have this camera than my iPhone.  It takes 4K video and has a digital zoom factor of X4 beyond the 3000 mm optical zoom.  So it can see a long way.

I used it one day at the Magic Kingdom.  I was not happy with the results I got photographing people.  One of the problems is that it has a pop up flash.  Handy sometimes but it makes an awful image more times than not.  The P1000 also has a micro function that lets you get very close to a subject.  I can shoot fully auto or completely manual and several variations in between.

Final verdict?  I have a few more days to decide if I want to keep it.  I’m leaning towards keeping it because I can see so many opportunities for its capabilities.  Not the most professional review but neither am I.  🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ November 05, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 6, 2018
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Happy Tuesday!

Today is all about Princess Gabriella Grace Roling and her transformation into a full-blown Princess.

This is the finished product with her personal attendant.  At one time she had three people (including one named Gabby) working on her.

I shot 79 images of this process and no I’m not going to show them all.  Just the four I have for today.  🙂

I can tell you that watching the excitement and magic in her eyes during the process was one of my most enjoyable moments of the trip.  It truly is such a magical place.

This image was taken after she had selected her dress and was waiting her turn for the make over.

There are about 12 personal attendants and each one of them has two specialist to assist with make up and nails.  It is quite the sight to behold.  Additionally there is a roving photographer who roams the room taking images of each princess and each step of the process.

I made all of these images (at the Magic Kingdom) with the new Nikon Coolpix P1000 camera.  This was its first outing so I made a lot of mistakes with it as the learning curve with this camera is considerably different than the DSLRs that I’m used to.

So tomorrow I’m going to write a blog on my first impressions about this unique camera and how it does or does not fit into my work flow.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Sunday ~ November 04, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 4, 2018
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Happy Sunday!

This is a continuation of my exploration of the resort complex we stay at while at Disney World.

After photographing the wildlife at the water’s edge (after reading the sign) I decided to see what else there was to see at this magnificent facility.

You are always reminded that you are in the world of Disney.  No matter how far you wander off the beaten path.  Well okay, truth be told I didn’t wander very far after reading the sign. 🙂

I didn’t realize this until I inquired.  Another way to get to the different areas of the park is by boat.  So some of these people perhaps came to our resort to have a meal or shop and then the boat (like a shuttle) would pick them up and bring them back to their resort.

If you click on the image to enlarge it you’ll see one of the signs that are everywhere there is water.

Another shuttle boat taking guest back to their hotel or to a different part of the park.

I saw one of these at Epcot as well as this one at our resort.

Next more of the Magic Kingdom.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ November 03, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 3, 2018
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Happy Saturday!

I’ll get back to some Disney images later next week.  On Thursday I decided that I was Disney-ed out and so I elected to stay at the hotel while the rest of the family went back to the Magic Kingdom.

I explored the resort we were staying at for most of the day.  It was still hot and humid but I walked at my own pace and sought shade at every opportunity.  After I explored the shops and recreational areas of the resort I decided to take my camera outside and walk around the entire area.

I believe this bird is an Anhinga (a heron species.) I spent a lot of time this morning trying to identify the birds of this post so if I got them wrong please feel free top correct me.

I was again amazed at how close the birds would let me get and pay no attention to me.  I had my 160 – 600 mm lens with me but this image full frame was taken at 270 mm focal length.  I could have taken 10 or more steps and touched the bird.  I believe this critter is a Cattle Egret.  I was walking pretty close to the water’s edge.  There was a chain link fence between me and the water but it let me get very close.

I was having lots of fun photographing the wildlife until I came across a big sign that warned of the presence of alligators and snakes.  “Nuff” said.  I was out of there.  🙂

I think this is a common duck.

This was the same general area where a young toddler was killed by an alligator.  It’s all fenced now and signs everywhere but of course you have to look at the signs and read them.  I thought it was strange that there were no footprints in the sand where I was.

This was the last wildlife image I made after reading the sign.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ November 01, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 1, 2018
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Happy Thursday!

I spent the better part of yesterday and last evening trying to figure out how to get my blog posted to Facebook.  I created a new page (Have Studio Will Travel) as Facebook requires and for the month of September everything was fine.  Then starting in October no more posts were going to Facebook.  If some of you have figured it out I would be grateful for some insight.  I have a fair number of followers on Facebook.

So to recap, we were at Epcot on Tuesday and on Wednesday we headed to the Magic Kingdom.  In fact we had breakfast at the beautiful castle with a lot of the Disney Princesses.  They were introduced one at a time to great fanfare and then eventually they would stop by our table to meet and greet.  It was so exciting for Gabby.

This is Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.  You should have seen how big Gabby’s eyes were when she stopped at our table.  🙂

Addie was not impressed with any of them.

Next Princess up was Rapunzel.  She and Gabby really connected.

Secondary to the Princesses but more important to me was the quality of the food.  It was excellent and our server was extraordinary.

The last Princess that I captured an image of is Jasmine from the Aladdin movie.  They all spent a fair amount of time at our table and talked with Josh and Gabby at some length.

This is our server Lynn.  She is from Windsor England and has a wonderful English accident.  What ever I asked for, be it coffee or something else she would reply I would be delighted to my lord.  She was just very gracious and helpful.

They say that the best camera in the world is the one you have with you.  In many cases that is true.  The camera I used this day was not well suited for this type of image captures.  More about this camera and its strengths at a later post.  It has a pop up flash, which just take terrible photos so I was constantly struggling to get some balanced images.

Enjoy your day and be careful.