There's Always A Shot... Trailing Edge

I've always been fascinated by airplanes, aviation and fluid mechanics in general. As an undergraduate physics student, the most that fascinated me was the airfoil, drag, yaw... That's why when I got a window seat on a flight, I took the opportunity to get some shots of the wing of the airplane. (Actually, I cajoled the wife to swap seats.) It also paid that it was a very nice day with some clouds and plenty of sunshine. It also helped that the view from above was spectacular.

From There's Always A Shot

The Best Camera Bag for Your Canon G12 - the BlackRapid Snapr

Almost immediately after you purchase a camera and a memory card, the next on your camera-related purchase is a camera bag. There are some who would think that this is a very straight-forward process but in reality it surely is not.

If you purchased a Canon Powershot G12, you will be presented a dilemma - the camera is not small and you won't be able to put it in your jeans pocket. This is especially true if you have the neck strap that came with the camera. So, the dilemma is, you want the power and capability of the G12 and yet you want the portability of a point-and-shoot. Using a big bag to house the camera will defeat the purpose of having a compact camera...

Enter the BlackRapid Snapr.

I eagerly awaited the arrival of the bag. It was announced some time back and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. This is due to the fact that the bag would perfectly house the Canon G12 according to the announcement. Everyday since its announcement, I check the BlackRapid website regarding its availability. I knew that I didn't have to wait for the reviews of this bag before I buy it because I have great confidence that the bag will be of good quality - I knew this since I also own the BlackRapid RS5, the perfect camera strap for DSLRs. My review of the RS5 can be found here.

The bag is perfect. The materials it is made with are really good and the construction is really very nice also. There is nothing to complain about regarding the zipper, the shell nor the interior of the bag. There is not even a loose thread! It came with two straps: the main strap, which I use so that the bag will be diagonal across my chest like in a messenger bag, and the hand strap, in case you want to be able to separate the camera from the bag.

You attach the camera via the  included "mini" FastenR (I don't know what the guys at BlackRapid call this). This is a D-ring that you screw into the tripod mount of the camera.

How you use the bag is up to you: Do you want to still use the neck strap that came with the camera? Yes you can though it'll be a little tough to put the camera inside. Do you want to use the handstrap so that the camera and bag can work independently? Or do you want the camera to always be attached to the bag so that they would act as one unit just as I have pictured here?

(There is another option: you can go "commando" and not put any strap on the camera and just use the bag as a, well, bag. I admit I do not have the nerve to do that - shooting a sunrise or sunset with the camera over the railing of a bridge is not something I would want to do strapless...)

Well, as I've said, it is up to you. The important thing is, you now have a bag AND strap that is a 99% perfect match for your Canon G12. What is that 1% incompatibility? You can, with a little effort, remove the memory card when you are done shooting but you cannot remove the battery to charge it without removing the mini FastenR. The tripod screw mount of the G12 is too close to the battery/memory card door so there is no other way about it.

There are two pockets on either side of the bag and you can put a lot of stuff on them: extra G12 batteries, memory cards, even an iPod Classic, an iPod Touch or an iPhone.

I was looking for a camera bag and a camera strap that would be well-suited for the Canon G12. I have found the perfect, stylish bag for it - the BlackRapid Snapr.

Highly Recommended.

There's Always A Shot... In The Rain

The wife and I spent last Thanksgiving at a friend's house. The weather wasn't cooperating - it was rainy on the way there, foggy on the way back - but it didn't deter me, as a photographer, from making a picture.

From There's Always A Shot

The New 11-Inch MacBook Air

I got a chance to play with the 11-inch MacBook Air and in the few minutes that I held it I fell in love with it. Before, I didn't think that the MacBook Air would be for me, but the 11-inch model made a big impression on me. I love the keyboard, I love the screen size and I love the fact that I could do much more with it. When I held the 11-inch MacBook Air I suddenly forgot that there is an iPad out there - I suddenly wanted the MacBook Air.


The big change, I think, was because of the new, smaller size. The 13-inch Air didn't appeal to me because, for me, it's an under-performing computer yet is still the size of a "big" laptop.  Why would I replace my 15-inch MacBook Pro with a 13-inch, underpowered laptop? It just doesn't make sense.


But the 11-inch Air is something that doesn't try to hard. Its size is small enough and its weight light enough that traveling with it can be a great pleasure. But it's big enough that you can do actual work with it - the full size keyboard beats typing on glass any day. And since I'm a writer and a blogger, having the ability to type easily is always a big advantage. The iPad? I couldn't use it for my grocery list, it is not pocketable and I'd need a bag to bring it with me not like the iPod Touch which I absent-mindedly put in my jeans pocket every time I leave the house. Those are things that turn me off…


Before, I wanted to have an iMac and an iPad. But now, I want an iMac and a MacBook Air.


The 11-inch MacBook Air is highly recommended.

A Perfect Gift for A Photographer - the Canon Lens Mug from @Photojojo

For finishing the photography class, the wife gave me a Canon lens mug as a kind of reward. :) I already learned a lot from the class and I even got a gift for it. The postman delivered the mug and I got to have my first cappuccino drink using it. But first, I have to make some product shots of the mug in action. The mug has a very striking resemblance to the Canon EF 24-105 f/4L lens. From a distance, you can mistake the mug for the real thing. You will only be able to tell that it is not really a lens because of its weight and because the Image Stabilization and Focus switches do not work - yes, I tried. I love the mug and I will take my coffee with it from now on.

If there is one thing that I can complain about it is that the "lens cap", which is also pinched from the sides like in a real Canon lens cap, is loose. So, there is a great likelihood that the content will spill when you take it outside for a walk, for example. Also, the loose cap will mean that there is a really good chance that you will lose it, much like in the real lens also. But, this may be an isolated case and you may have a better chance with your own mug. It's just sad that I can't display my lens mug when I go out and have my coffee. That would have been a nice conversation starter...

The lens mug can be bought directly from Photojojo at this link. There is also a Nikon lens for the Nikon shooters out there.

There's Always A Shot... Shadows

I want to start a series. This came about when I sort of had a photographer's block - I thought that there was nothing more to shoot in my immediate environment; I thought that traveling is the only way for me to make fresh photos. But, partly inspired by the photography class that I attended at the Princeton Adult School and partly inspired by Moose Peterson's Simple Clicks, I soon realized that there is always something to shoot. Hence the title.

So, for the first photo in this series, I hereby present this photo:

The shadows are formed by three light sources. I love the simplicity of this photo.

High Speed Droplet

One of the assignments in the photography class is to use different shutter speeds Drag the shutter to show motion or use a very fast shutter speed to freeze time. Aside from learning a lot from the class, I love the challenge that it brings. Also, it kinda forces me to do the things that I wanted to do all along but couldn't bring myself to do. Out of laziness? Perhaps... :)

One of those things is to shoot water splashing.

One day after eating, I noticed that water is splashing on the plate that I just used. I was going to fully close the tap when I notice the pattern being made by the water droplets. So, I stacked pots one on top of another so that I will be able to view the droplets sideways. I used an ordinary bedside lamp to light up my set up (I realized that my speedlite won't be able to keep up with the camera's 8 frames per second shooting rate).

I used a cable release so that I will be able to time the droplets. I had to put the camera on a tripod so I won't have to worry about camera shake.

There are two things that made this venture difficult:

1. focusing
2. timing

I had to set up the camera on manual focus or else the camera will keep on looking for what to focus on. Also, I wanted the sharpest part of the picture to be the one where the droplet after the splash is at its peak. What I did to make sure that the focus was perfect was to turn on Live View mode of the 7D and zoomed in. Next, the timing also had to be perfect. I took a lot of pictures and most of them were shots before the drop hits the water or when there were only ripples left behind by the event. This is where the cable release was crucial because you can see the droplets from formation at the tap to the actual splash down. The high speed shooting rate of the Canon 7D is also very useful here. I would have wanted to have something faster but 8 frames per second was sufficient to get the job done.

I used a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens so that I wouldn't have to raise the ISO as much. Speaking of high ISO, if I wanted to get a fast enough speed, I was required to set the ISO to a value that would give me a fast shutter speed. The 7D performed well and there wasn't much noise despite the high ISO value.

Here is a sample shot:

f/1.8, 1/500s, ISO800

I'm very happy with this shot.