Stuff
After a 1 1/2 hour delay, I made it into Orlando yesterday at about 6:30pm. My right hand man Jim Litzenberg picked me up and I was home catching up on the Mets and Sunday’s NFL action by 8:30. I fly to Santago, Chile in two days 🙂
Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART
Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charges a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily.
After a lull in September, things have really heated up lately:
Canon 500mm f/4L IS (the “old five”) was sold by Glen Shellhammer for $2450 in mid-October, 2015.
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens was sold instantly by Walt Anderson for $4750 in mid-October, 2015.
Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens (the “old five”) was sold by Dane Johnson for $4150 in early October 2015.
Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 zoom lens (Canon mount) was sold by Beth Starr for $4,999 in early October 2015.
Canon EOS-1D X in excellent condition was sold by Patrick Sparkman for $3650 in early October, 2014.
Canon EF 100-400 f 4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens was sold for $699 by Sean Traynor on October 7, 2015.
Canon 100-400 L IS zoom lens (the old 1-4) was sold by Susan Carnahan for $675 in mid-October, 2015.
Used Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens
Multiple IPT and A Creative Adventure workshop veteran Brent Bridges is offering a used Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in excellent to near-mint condition for $4599, another record-low BAA price. The sale includes nearly all of the items in original box: lens trunk, lens hood, fabric front cover, rear lens cap, wide lens strap, strap for lens case, CD, plus a LensCoat, and insured ground shipping. And, a 4th Generation Design CR-X5 Low Foot, a $122 value. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Brent by e-mail or by phone at 770-565-5012 (Eastern time).
The 300 II is a superbly sharp and versatile lens that kills with both TCs. In addition, it is a great flight lens. Brent’s price is the lowest-ever BAA price so it will likely sell quickly if not instantly…. Even better, Brent has always taken fastidiously good care of his gear. artie
Used Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM Lens
Multiple IPT and A Creative Adventure workshop veteran Brent Bridges is also offering a used Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens in excellent to near-mint condition for $9799, another record-low BAA price for this item. The sale includes all the items in original box: lens trunk, lens hood, fabric front cover, rear lens cap, wide lens strap, strap for lens case, CD and instruction papers, a LensCoat, and UPS insured ground shipping. And, a 4th Generation Design CR-X5 Low Foot, a $122 value. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Brent by e-mail or by phone at 770-565-5012 (Eastern time).
The 600 II is currently the world’s finest and sharpest super-telephoto lens; in the right hands, it too kills with both TCs. Brent’s price is again the lowest-ever BAA price so it will likely sell quickly to someone looking to save $1,700…. And as above, Brent has always taken fastidiously good care of his gear. artie
Canon EF 2X III Extender (Teleconverter)
Multiple IPT and A Creative Adventure workshop veteran Brent Bridges is also offering a used Canon EF 2X III Extender (Teleconverter) in excellent condition for $299. The sale includes all the items in original box: lens trunk, lens hood, fabric front cover, rear lens cap, wide lens strap, strap for lens case, CD and instruction papers, a LensCoat, and UPS insured ground shipping. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Brent by e-mail or by phone at 770-565-5012 (Eastern time).
The 2X III TC does take a bit of getting used to but most folks should be more than capable of making very sharp images with either f/2.8 or f/4 telephoto or super-telephoto lenses and the 2X III down to shutter speeds as slow as 1/15 sec. artie
Tripod/Mongoose Give-away!
Brent is absolutely giving away a Gitzo 1325 tripod in very good condition for only $299. It was serviced by Manfrotto 07/14: general check and clean and replaced all the bushings. Includes forest-green LegCoats and UPS insured ground shipping. Brent is also giving away a Mongoose M3.6 Action Head, 4th Generation Design Flash Arm, and 4th GD Low Mount Arm in excellent condition for only $399 including the ground shipping.
Please contact Brent by e-mail or by phone at 770-565-5012 (Eastern time).
|
|
|
This image was created with the hand held Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens (at 73mm) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. With the on-camera Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT. Center AF point/AI Servo Surround/Rear Focus AF on Leah’s face and recompose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Clockwise from upper left: my nephew, Brian Weinstein; his wonderful and beautiful wife Melissa (Missy); my grandnephew, Max Weinstein, the bar mitzvah boy–a highly skilled little league baseball pitcher; little sister Leah–too cute; and little brother Carter–at age two he could throw a ball through a wall! Whenever I see Carter I ask him, “Where are your Little Liver Pills?” Young folks can learn about those here on WikiPedia.Behind the family is the ark that holds several torahs, holy scrolls that are sacred to the Jewish religion. Max did quite well reading from the torah at his bar mitzvah on Saturday. This image was created at the Thursday morning service as the use of electronic devices in the temple on Sabbath is not permitted. |
This looks like and easy point and shoot image, right? Whatta you think?
Just grab your favorite digital camera and a short lens–or your point and shoot or even a cell phone, and get to work. Easy, right? Not! See below to learn what went into making the family portrait above.
|
|
|
Above is a portion of the EXIF data as shown by DPP 4; hit Command + I to show info. |
Not so easy to do it right…
Why Tv mode? Remember that I have ISO Safety Shift set on all of my Canon cameras.
Why 1/80 sec?
Why did I need to go to -1 1/3 stop EC?
Why did I set the flash EC to +1?
Why Color Temperature 4200?
Does anyone know an easy way to set the Color Temperature on the camera when working indoors without a white card? I do and will share it with you here soon.
Summing Up
The more you know about exposure, about your gear, about flash, and about photography, the better your images will be regardless of the situation. By no means am I a wedding (or bar mitzvah) photographer. I was forced to use the gear that I had in my hands along with the knowledge stored in my head to create some useable images.
Induro Tripods
To learn about Induro tripods and determine which model is best for you, click here. To order yours, click here or on the logo-link above.
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Support the BAA Blog. Support the BAA Bulletins: Shop B&H here!
We want and need to keep providing you with the latest free information, photography and Photoshop lessons, and all manner of related information. Show your appreciation by making your purchases immediately after clicking on any of our B&H or Amazon Affiliate links in this blog post. Remember, B&H ain’t just photography!
Amazon.com
Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may click on the logo-link immediately above.
Amazon Canada
Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here. Many thanks to those who have written.
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).
Beautiful family!
1/80 sec. – basically “dragging the shutter” to get some of the ambient lighting to register in the image (I’m thinking this was to get a luminous look to the stained glass panels on each side).
EC -1 1/3 – I think it was to get more depth of field from a smaller aperture than you would have had with no EC and the 1/80 sec. shutter speed.
FEC +1 – maybe needed to compensate for what might otherwise have been a tendency to underexpose the flash due to the large areas of light colors on the left and right; this might still have been OK dialed down some.
4200K WB – one of the other responses addressed this.
Thanks Sam,
As for the WB, nobody has it right yet 🙂
a
Wild guess on the WB – my friend Google tells me 4200K is about right for white fluorescent white balance, so I’m guessing there might have been fluorescent ambient lighting.
Also, best wishes for your upcoming travels. 🙂
Sam, Many thanks. My method involves uses a feature of the camera…. But not custom WB….. a
Artie,
You did color correction using one of the grays in the picture, which came out to 4200
Not warm enough and a bit too harsh(a pro max or soft bounce will work).Need to gel the flash head.
Thanks for the critique. I am happy with the WB but did think of diffusing the flash a bit. I notice that you did not take a crack at the questions. Perhaps you would like to try…. a
Mazel Tov!
Exposure comp and flash exp comp already answered.
Here’s my take on the rest.
Ambient light may have been quite warm so the blues and purples would be off colour.
Set WB by using the white part of the prayer shawl .
Fill the frame with it and set accordingly. Fairly straight forward on the 5 D 3.
Shutter priority so you have control,over shutter speed.
Set 1/80 probably the lowest you wanted to go to maintain sharpness.
The 24-105 is IS so you technically could shoot a bit slower shutter speed maybe 1 or 2 stops but that would only gain you some lower ISO and ISO 800 is very usable so no need to sweat over a lower shutter speed.
Lovely family photo and pretty sure I could have done it after about half an hour of fussing.
So thanks for the tuition once again.
Love from down under.
DP
Wonderful shot. Mazel Tov to the entire Family.
Mazel Tov to you and your family.
Mazel Tov
EC -1 1/3. Lots of white around the edges of the picture, you saw many blinkies.
Flash EC +1. Faces needed more light, due to the reflection from the white at the edges turning off the flash before the faces were properly lighted
TV mode needed when using flash, AV keeps shutter open to long due to ambient light leading to possible blurs.
First two right on. Third one not so much 🙂 a
Mazeltov from me too, Artie. Lovely image. And for your Mets so far.
Mazal Tov!
Great picture……
Artie
A hearty Mazel Tov. What a beautiful family.
Thank you for sharing this joy.
Morris Herstein