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I have not been active on this forum in quite a while. For the better part of 2020, the wife and I have stayed pretty close to home. With our age and underlying health issues, the Covid virus has hampered our everyday movements. A trip to the grocery store every now and then and that is about it. However, I recently started hitting the roads looking for things to shoot. And one thing that I did during our lockdown was make a firm assessment of my photography gear and the way I shoot and I made some huge changes. Sometime in about the middle of summer, I sold very bit of gear I had. At

Shot on Mamiya C3, film Ilford Delta 400. Outside -30 Celsius. Bridge to Tatyshev Island.

Nikon Z6 & Reflex Nikkor 1000mm f/11. Thank you for looking. aZ6N_6812 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr

Daniel, I agree with you. I just feel so very rattled right now after hearing about my mate Anesh’s passing from this virus. He and I both got into the sports photography business at the same time, but he made it his only pursuit, whereas I followed a different path. A nicer bloke you would find it hard to encounter. He had only just turned 49 in November. According to a mutual friend from whom I heard the dreadful news this morning, he fell ill with it around 7 January and passed away in hospital yesterday. I just don’t know what to say about this anymore. It feels like we are al

My father-in-law is A-OK for now.

We had an unusual visitor to our back yard last night - a Tawny Frogmouth. It sat on the fence for a while and I was able to slide the window open a bit and sit and watch it. Whilst I was partially hidden behind the curtain, I'm sure it was also watching me. Frogmouth After a while it started to rain. Frogmouth 1 And it moved off the fence and into a nearby tree. Frogmouth 2 Before settling into the crock of a branch for a bit of a nap. It is certainly well camouflaged. Frogmouth 3 All tak

The leaf shutter was awesome, not only being quiet, but allowing for a wider range of flash sync speeds than the DSLRs that I've used. The hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder was something that we'd never seen before. While not pant pocketable, it was certainly coat pocketable, or te ability to throw it into an existing backpack or us a small belt like pouch made you want to take it with you everywhere. The original X100 used a Bayer sensor, so IQ was a known thing. But then the honeymoon ended. Slow auto focus, slow overall camera response caused us to miss sh

Background Olympus makes a small, pancake wide to medium zoom lens. My issue with it is the fact that it is an electronic zoom. I absolutely detest electronic zooms. They force you into specific focal lengths, they use additional power, and that is just one more point of failure in a device. Just not a lens for me. When looking for zooms, I want a mechanical zoom. For the low price of $102, I was able to get my hands on the superb Panasonic 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Mega OIS lens. This is the second time I got this lens. That in itself should tell you som

Finally got around to shooting a bit more with this lens. I'm getting used to shooting without the electronic connection to the lens - I'm generally ok with the focusing, although when focusing close with the focus peaking on, things can jump around a lot when handheld. The thing that is catching me out is the aperture as the only way to know what the setting is, is to look at the lens or count the stops from the end, however, on mirrorless this isn't a problem for metering. One feature I forgot to mention earlier is that there is no movement or extension of the front element whi

Double Fun with a Canon Canonet QL17 G-III (double exposure effect done in post processing)

An image I've shot a few weeks ago, from the Mebin concrete mortar factory. I've put some extra effort in extracting the details in post processing. I hope it shows (please click on the image).

When I go on a bicycle ride I take a camera with me. This is the only image I've shot on yesterday's ride.

My wife had her first vaccination yesterday, at a mass vaccination centre at Lord's Cricket Ground (about ten minutes walk away from us). The UK has now vaccinated 5.3 million people, and is currently doing so at a rate of over 400,000 a day. Deaths continue to rise and total nearly 96,000. But we seem to be over the peak of the current wave, although the number of patients in the hospital means that there are still a lot of deaths to come. We still do not know whether the vaccine stops transmission as well as protecting the individual. I cycled past the centre later ye

Nikon Z6 & Reflex Nikkor 500mm f/8, handheld. Thank you for looking. aZ6N_6746 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr aZ6N_6756 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr

It has been hard here in Texas. Due to a lack of leadership, this thing is spiraling out of control. My son, his wife, and both of their young children had the virus. Fortunately, they are okay. The wife and I have not been out much at all since last March. I am semi-retired now and have been using my retirement savings to get by this past year. My wife still works full time and her salary has kept us afloat. Financially, we are in decent shape as compared to a lot of folks I know. One plus side is that we moved to a small rural town outside of Dallas a few years back. The infection r

Olympus E-P5 With VF-3 Viewfinder Introduction Early on in my exploration of Micro Four Thirds (m43), I liked the concept of the PEN camera. One of my non-negotiables was the requirement that the cameras I use have to have a viewfinder of some kind. I looked hard at the OMD EM5 as well as the PEN EP5, The clincher for going to the EM5 was that it had a built in EVF and was more cost effective to get that than the EP5 with the VF-4 viewfinder add on. During one of my frequent searches around the third party used gear sellers and personal

A real challenge for shooting yesterday. As the sun set on an overcast evening, I took a walk around the lake. I could have done with more of everything for this - more focal length, wider aperture, more sensitivity or just more light! However, all I had was a Fuji X-E3 and 55-200 zoom (f/3.5-4.8), so getting a few usable shots was satisfying. Shutter speeds of 1/250 - 1/500 sec at sunset is a bit crazy and I ended up at ISO 6,400-10,000. bat 1 The classic bat shape bat 2 Dive into action bat 3 I'll tell you a secret I thin

Just for the fun of it, I picked up the 7Artisans 7.5mm f/2.8 fisheye lens for Fuji X mount. I've been using it on the XT3. I've defished it using 2 different methods. One is using the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye profile in Lightroom and the other is using Nik Perspective Efex fisheye mode. In my opinion, the Nik software edges out Lightrooms performance in the edges. Just wanted to share some of the fished/defished images. Original fished JPG (Yes, that is my big, fat sausage finger in the bottom right corner) Defished using Nik Perspectiv

Well, that's the promise I just made myself. Or at least until this pandemic is declared a part of our history. I bought way too many things this year. From a new Mac Mini to a new camera, to a studio stand, to video lights, to audio interface (and related peripherals), to studio light supports. Most of it was bought in my quest to simplify my product photography and also to take my mind off the collapse of the tourism industry that props up at least 60% of my life. I guess a little indulgence is alright, but if it becomes obsessive (as it seemingly has in my case) interventions n

Background You may not think much, or put in high regard a zoom lens for under $100. While the Olympus 40-150/4-5.6R may fall into that category monetarily, it certainly out performs the price tag by a high margin. New, the MSRP on this is $200, but there are plenty of copies of this lens floating around for under $100. Let’s go on the review adventure together and find out why you might want to consider this lens for your m43 camera. Handling/Size/Weight With a field of view of 80-300mm, you’d be forgiven to think that this lens might be h

If you celebrate the birth of Christ, as I do, a warm and heartfelt Christmas greeting from me to you. Wow. What a crazy time this has been, hasn't it? What was shaping up to be a marvellous year saw me take an unexpected (almost) "haymaker" punch in the 3rd round. Fighting my way back through the rest of the rounds in this boxing match of 2020 has been exhausting, to say the least, but by God's grace, here I still am in the 12th and while I still have breath in my lungs I will continue to punch my way through to the next contest of 2021. As we know many others haven't been as luc

Thank you for looking. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, full of peace and HEALTH. 1 aZ6M_1646 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr 2 aDFC_7354 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr 3 aDFC_7329 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr 4 aZ6M_1638 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr

Things are definitely not looking good here in South Africa w.r.t. the pandemic. The numbers are getting really big and people I know personally are falling ill and needing hospital. The funeral homes are struggling to keep up with the rate of death. We have several of them down the road from our home and somebody posted a video of the number of mortuary vans waiting outside to offload more bodies. It's chilling. My family is OK. We think my older son may have had it, but he seems to be fine now. He lives on his own, so we are checking in on him regularly. My younger son has been

Likewise. Keep your chin up!

Very sorry for the loss of your friend, Dallas.

I fully understand your profound concern about the pandemic issue and just to illustrate a personal example my wife's mother have barely survived after contracting the Covid-19 last spring. I dont like wearing a mask but you have to compare our situation with the one of those who have to wear one for their duties all day long. I most add add there are different kind of those masks and some appear more confortable than others. I dont think that the pandemic situation will end in a very short future and we have to learn to cope with it may be with a little more philosophy and less tragic appr

Here in The Netherlands we are in lockdown, again. People are getting increasingly restless and unwilling to comply with government regulations. The strain especially for those who have to work from home and take care and teach their children is substantial. The health care workers are under intense pressure but so far coping well with the challenge, bravo for them! My wife and I are fine, the rest of the family also. Three good friends (general practitioners) suffered COVID but luckily all three recuperated. Most COVID deaths I know off are elderly people. The economy has been badly hit but b

Great review, Andrew. Thanks for sharing.

I have had an official email from C1 confirming this. I will not be upgrading from V20 as the improvements are minimal and the cost excessive. C1's pricing policies are being heavily criticised on various photography forums. With the increase, the annual cost of upgrading will be £199. My LR and PS subscription cost £120, by way of comparison.

Interesting option, Andrew. When I was still shooting a lot of real estate for one client I sometimes used my 7.5mm Samyang in very small bathrooms and applied a Lightroom defishing profile I picked up from somewhere. The results weren’t too bad either.

Excellent image and may the best year of our lives be 2021! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the review - BTW some nice sample images.

. I too develop photography tutorials. There are a couple of areas of photography that I am expert in. I limit my tutorials to those specific subjects. So, my recommendation is - develop tutorials on subjects which you have the greatest expertise in. Don't rehash what has already been done by others; rather produce new content that is totally original and unique. Dallas, we've never met, but from what I've read, I would consider you an expert in wildlife photography and real estate photography. I'm sure you have other areas of expertise too; but I suspect you'd

Thanks Hugh. The amount of effort that is required to produce video is quite significant. If I look at the FZ YouTube channel I started a while back I have over 550 subscribers which kind of gives me a good reason to continue with it, as opposed to my other channel (the tech one) which only has 60-odd subscribers. The thing is, if I make videos about photography there has to be a pay-off for me. On Fotozones that has been my safaris, which are obviously stalled for now, so for videos to be monetised I have to think carefully about how I'm going to do that. I don't want to make vid

I find the thinking behind how people use their gear/equipment to be most useful and the idea of running technique tutorials is a good one. Gear wise, Alan7140 for example has gone back into some very old equipment in recent times and has combined his modern know how with the old equipment & materials to achieve best of breed outcomes.

If I was to make videos for Fotozones, what type of videos would be most useful? I can’t do gear reviews, but I can do technique tutorials on things like real estate, pack shots and using Lightroom.

I am sorry to hear this Dallas. I know several people who have had this disease, but all were young enough and survived well. The latest was my youngest daughter, who was allowed out of isolation a few days ago. Her sense of taste is gradually returning. The new variant we have here (and I suspect elsewhere) is driving a worrying increase in cases. For the last three days the daily increase has been over 50,000 new cases on each day. Yesterday we had 964 Covid related deaths. Germany, which did well in the first phase, reported over a thousand deaths in a day a couple of days ago.

Sorry mate. My thoughts are with you & your family.

Alex, compliments of the season to you and to your family and friends. The film grain somehow makes the snow seem more realistic.

Same to you, Alex. That is a stunning image.

Taken yesterday with a D5, handheld. 1 aD5S_8560 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr 2 aD5S_8518 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr 3 aD5S_8503 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr 4 aD5S_8585 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr 5 aD5S_8610 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr 6 aD5S_8472 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr 7 aD5S_8539 by Aguinaldo Tinoco de Paula, no Flickr

Thanks for the comments, Robert. Yep, one day we will all be back to normal. At least I hope that happens.🙁

I have to admit that I know very little about the game and you don't see it played much around here. It is getting more and more popular. The guys were very nice when I asked if they minded if I took some pictures of them. Those were from this year during the pandemic and we were yelling across the pitch questions at one another. LOL.

Although the batting style appears to be inspired by baseball....

Oh, I meant to say 'Pink Pug' is obviously a tribute to the great Porsche 917 'Pink Pig' Le Mans car - the pink livery was sectioned into named joints of Pork and might have caused the 'Porker' nickname for Porsches in general .. just thought you'd like to know ! https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/history/917-20-sau-10894.html

Merry Christmas and Happy New year to everyone!

A great thanks Dallas for all you have done this year 2020 to maintain the Fotozones photo community strong and alive despite everything was happening. I am sure that all of us truly appreciate and are beneficed from your never ending effort to prepare and produce a warmful place to share our photographic passion and our human interests. Merry Christmas and Happy New year to you Dallas and for all the Fotozones participants!

Here's some shots from the Okavango Delta in 2018 .. Male Lion in thick grass .. D850 400 f2.8G @f5.6 iso 640 cheers, Maurice

They are all visible now and they look good.

Sniffing flowers .. D850 400 f2.8G 1/400 f5 iso 4000