crowecg

An interesting exercise and from viewing the resulting images on the web, you certainly can’t tell the age of the camera. Your comment about the battery going from 100% to empty in the cold sounds about right. I don’t think the batteries are faulty. Probably more about the time it takes them to loose any warmth they had before you headed outside.

A couple from yesterdays walk. Pelican - with a beak that long, there must be some spots that it can't scratch and that must be frustrating. Cormarant - they always seem to like this pose with wings spread. There were also spoonbills, black swans, ibis and a lot of ducks and swamp-hens. The smaller birds reminded me I need to get out and order the teleconverter for my 70-300. Now, this is not a bird - but it does have wings! butterfly. It does demonstrate the versatility of the Fuji 70-300. All pictures Fuji X-E3 with Fuji 70-300.

Like the look you have gone for, although the subject is not my thing.

I don’t tend to watch a lot of real estate videos, so I’m not sure what to expect. One thing that stuck out to me was the difference in exposure when cutting between videos and still frames. Given your preference for stills, you could make use of “Ken Burns effect” - panning and zooming across a still frame to emphasise a point in that frame. Just wondering and I’m not sure if it will work, but would it be possible to use “perspective correction” to add rather than remove perspective and stop the “Ken Burns effect” looking too flat. If real estate is going to be your main business for now, another thing to look into is 3D models. The older way of achieving this was a technique called photogrammetry, effectively stacking a series of photos each taken from a slightly different position. Nowadays there are a number of 360 degree cameras from manufacturers such as go pro which may simplify this a bit. There are also things you can do in this field with late model iPhone pro which have a LiDAR sensor.

It can certainly be a challenge finding locations with a good view but without clutter from trees and power lines. There are so many times I’m driving down the road and get a glimpse of the skyline but translating that into a picture is often impossible as it would involve setting up in the middle of the road - moving to the side of the road and the trees and powerlines spoil it. There is one location - Studly park drive - that is just about perfect and I’ve posted from there before, but that needs a bit of planning for me to get to if I want to catch the sunset. Dropped pin https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZhZF1vigyiX5FiM58?g_st=ic

And this is the view from outside, a little while before. pic163 It was one of the little window above the door in the middle of the top balcony.

Luckily sunset didn't clash with the Managing Directors speech!

An alternative to some of the pre-focus options is the 'back button' method - that reprogrammed a button, usually the AFLock so that AF is only active when the button is pressed. That allows pre-focusing without having to constantly holding the AFLock or half pressing the shutter. Haven't used it a lot, but did find it useful when shooting kids sports, particularly cricket where there are a couple of known locations for the action, but lots of movement across the field of view. It was especially useful for trying to catch the bowler releasing the ball - you knew where it was going to happen, but the bowler would be running up, then passing behind the umpire before reaching the crease - a nightmare for focus tracking.

pic137 taken during a work event at the University of Sydney. X-E3 with 16 f/2.8

And a follow up from the earlier picture I posted in this thread. pic136 Again, daylight with flash, no masks.

The black and white look wonderfully dramatic, but the the colours - I can’t decide what I want to see more of.

I've always liked macro style photos, giving a close up view of things. Whilst I do have a macro lens (Laowa 65mm), I decided to have a try at what I can achieve with other lenses I have. Firstly, the 16 f/2.8.... pic133 It can get surprisingly close! And then one of the few lenses that tempts me to remove the 16 these days - the 70-300 (yes, I do jump to extremes!) pic134 The 70-300 also plays nicely with extension tubes if I want to get even closer, but I didn't need to for this shot.

I was much happier when I saw it had legs!

As I was flicking through some recent pictures, I realised there was a bit of theme with these shots... . pic132 A small skink, I think. pic131 And a hairy spider - still need a bit of research to identify it. Both Fuji X-E3 with 70-300.

Looks a bit cold. We haven't had much of a summer yet here in Australia either.