I took a lot of photos in Mumbai, this is the second group. You can view part 1 here. I decided to head to the south part of the city to explore the area.  Leaving the hotel the security guard posed for a photo.  Hotels have strict security since the terrorist attacks of 2008. I have heard some crazy stories about the “Mumbai Local” train.   During rush hour, it’s one of the most crowded trains in the world, people are hanging off the sides.  The staff at the hotel told me not to ride it, it’s not for tourists.  A tour guide I hired said “you are taking the local?  I don’t even ride the local”.  ...

My trip to Mumbai, India was an eye opening experience.  In a way it was what I expected but at the same time I wasn’t always prepared for what I saw.  India is clearly a developing nation but in many ways behind other third world countries I have visited.  I know that India is becoming a technology center for many global companies, it has a quickly developing economy and is on the verge of rapid industrialization.  However, when you walk the streets and talk to the people you don’t see much evidence of that.  There are obviously many wealthy people in India, but there are far too many that live on the street below the poverty...

I love this new Sony RX100, it’s a fantastic little camera.  I’m impressed with the quality and that is saying a lot since my other camera is a Nikon D800.  The D800 does spoil you with pixels and huge dynamic range, and you really notice the advantage when you start processing raw files from another camera.  However, the RX100 takes infinitely better images when I leave the big camera at home because it doesn’t fit in my pocket. This post is just showing three images from the RX100,  I was shooting in RAW+JPG in black and white mode.  The first image is straight from the camera.  I used default settings, but you can...

Apparently the May long weekend is a busy time for gardening in Vancouver.  Our tulips have already come and gone, but there is always something in bloom.  I took a few shots while my wife was busy in the garden.  Nikon D800 with a 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro...

I took a short walk around Vancouver’s Gastown with friends recently.   Here are some photos from my walk which started at the Irish Heather and ended at the...

The first photo is not from my trip to the Vancouver Aquarium, but it was taken during the same weekend when my brother was in town.  We decided to visit the lookout at Cypress Mountain at sunset, and lucky for us it was a fairly clear evening.  This photo is taken looking south east, the sun is setting to the right of the frame and Vancouver is in the foreground.  Mount Baker (which is in the USA), is visible in the background.  The use of a zoom lens (@ 155mm) provides the compression in the scene.  I have used zoom lenses for a few landscape shots in the past (Mountains at 400mm) and they can certainly provide an interesting perspective....

This post is to test the WP Retina 2x plugin for WordPress. The image was uploaded at 2880×1500 (603kb).  I’m also using CloudFlare and CloudFront with w3 Total Cache so I want to test it out to see if this configuration will actually work.  The photo is from my trip to Belize....

This is the third time I’m posting about the testing of my D800 autofocus system.  The first time was not long after I purchased it, just to see if it had the problem.  I found that it did have the problem, and I sent it to Nikon for repair.  When the camera came back, I tested it again.  Initially I thought it may have been fixed, but further testing showed there was still a problem. During this time, I also purchased LensAlign and FocusTune to help me more accurately fine tune my lenses and camera, but also to help me quantify the results.  When I tested my lenses, I noticed that the recommended fine tune values for three of my five...

I was coming back from taking some sunset photos in Lions Bay.  On my way home, I saw that BC Place Stadium was lit up green for Saint Patrick’s Day.  It was a clear night, so I had to stop to get a few extra shots.

I picked up a new set of wheels yesterday, a 2013 Acura MDX Tech Edition.  My first vehicle purchase in 9 years, and it’s a nice upgrade.  The car is Dark Cherry Pearl, which looks good on this car.  A quick shot I took at the dealership, which is just meh.   Since it was a beautiful sunny day in Vancouver, I decided to go for a short drive on the Sea To Sky Highway to Brighton Beach.  I found a nice place to pull off and get a few...

Another batch of puppies and dogs available for adoption from Vancouver Animal Control. You can see the animals they have available at PetFinder.com (not just dogs but rabbits, lizards, and at times even more strange things).  You can also see previous shelter dogs I photographed here.  Don’t buy a pet through Craigslist or other online sources, adopt a pet from your local animal shelter....

  A while back, Out There Images posted a list of recommended settings for the Nikon D800. I used that as a starting point to create four custom menu banks for my most common shooting situations.  The menu banks are not great because they don’t save all of the settings you need to change, but they are better than nothing.  The U1/U2 settings of the D7000 and D600 are superior to the menu banks both in terms of features and ease of use.  I have no idea why Nikon has decided to leave out such a fantastic function on their high-end cameras.  Neither the D800 nor the D4 have the U1/U2 settings.  Nice work Nikon. Here are the four...