Amazon Windowshop
Posted by admin | Filed under Tech
I must have been under a rock for the last couple of weeks because I have only just had a go with the new Windowshop but I am impressed. Apart from the minor hickup where I got a C++ error which killed my browser it behaved brilliantly and is the best crossover of physical shop I have ever seen on the web, in fact in somes ways for me it is better than a real shop especially when shopping for CDs, you can just scroll over the album and it plays a 30 sec (or so) clip which is perfect to get a reminder of the band. Go and have a look here.
Lightroom and GPS
Posted by admin | Filed under Lightroom, Photography
I know people, I have gone a little external link bonkers at the moment but I am finding so many great little addons to Lightroom that I may have to get a special badge saying how much of a fanboy I am. Anyway I digress, I used to have a Trackstick Pro and loved the GPS + photo stuff I could do but tbh it was always a bit of a pain in the ass to get all the data in the right place, this new plugin from Jeff Friedl would have saved my bacon and made the whole job a lot easier. If you ever use any GPS geocoding with your photos and Lightroom get your hands on this plugin, see here.
Lightroom web templates
Posted by admin | Filed under Lightroom, Photography
Just found this great site for some alternatives to the default Lightroom web templates, see here.
Lightroom to Flickr export
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography
If, like me, you use both Lightroom and Flickr you will want to get this free plugin for Lightroom to make it quick and easy to get your photos onto Flickr, see here.
Portable Strobist Backpack
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography
Watch this, I know it seems completely ridiculous but I might just try this out:
Do you use Lightroom and Photomatix?
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography
I do and I love them both, Lightroom is great for organizing and processing photos and Photomatix is great for HDRs, now Photomatix has an export from Lightroom function to speed the whole process up, see here for more details.
Tulips - from the air
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography
A few great shots of the Dutch tulip fields can be found on the Daily Mail site, see here.
Removing people from photographs in photoshop
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography
Just found this great video showing how to quickly and easily remove people from a set of photographs which is ideal for those locations where you want to photograph a building but people keep walking in front of it. Check it out here.
Earth from above
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography
I have always been fascinated by photos that are beyond my capabilities both technically and physically and recently came across this great page on Boston.com for the photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand who takes some of the most amazing aerial photographs, do go and check it out here.
Feisol 3441s & QB 30 - Mini Review
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography
Before I get into the detail of the review I need to put a disclaimer on this: I am a newcomer to photography and have only ever owned one other tripod (Manfrotto 785B MODO Maxi) which is at the budget end of the market and not really designed for SLRs.
I ordered the 3441s with the QB 30 head directly from the UK distributor (www.feisoluk.com) on Tuesday night and received it on Thursday, very pleased with the quick service and I was given two update emails along the way to say it was being processed and then again when it had been posted. One small way this could have been better would have been to supply the tracking number in the email but I am just nit picking.
Once you get inside the small box you get this:
Feisol 3441s in bag
A smart little bag which holds the tripod, head and a few accesories. The bag is snug, so if you chose a different ball head you may have to chooses to transport it outside of the bag. Once you pull the tripod out of the bag you get to feel the weight (or lack of it) and the size (very compact). See here (I know it isn’t in focus):
Feisol 3441s
Positives
- light, I mean really light
- twist lock mechanism, it may be personal preference but I like this instead of the clip locks once you work out the order of opening and closing (start at the top, undo a quarter turn pull out then re do quarter turn before moving onto the next lowest one)
- very stable for its size and can be used with the included weight hook to make it more stable
Negatives
- marks are already showing on the leg and platform contact points which makes me doubt how long the paint will last
- very stiff to pull it out of the folded down storage mode and therefore slow to put up
- the ballhead has a nasty problem with longer lenses that when you get your camera focused, apply the lock mechanism of the ball head and then let go of the lens, the weight of the lens pulls the ball head down slightly
Overall I am pretty happy with it.
