Travel Photo: Out Shooting the Dam with an Old Friend

It's Been a Few Years Since I Last Used this Camera

 

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 got dusted off and taken to Kin Dam today.

The Pentax K3 was mounted on a tripod and, waiting for some birds to fly by.

After a few days of cold weather and rain, it was time to get and get some sun and exercise.

A bit of a chilly breeze started blowing so, I reached in my camera bag for a windbreaker.

That's when, I remembered, I had brought the little Panasonic along.

When, I yanked my jacket out of the bag, the camera went flying and, crashed to the ground.

The poor camera was sent in for a tune-up earlier this year and, came back like brand new.

It cost a few hundred bucks but, I liked that old camera. And, now it's busted, again.

That's what I figured, I deserved anyway. Here's the test photo, I shot.

Exposure:  f/5.6  1/500   ISO 100

Focal length: 7MM

Location: Just off HWY 104 standing above the Kin Dam, Okinawa, Japan

Date and Time: DEC 9 2015  3:08PM

A similar shot was taken from the same location with the camera at f/11.

But, dark clouds had rolled into the scene so, it's been digitally disposed of; trash.

And, I will have a big decision to make if, this blog ever hits 2 million views.

For the celebration:

Should I give away the Panasonic or, the Cannon G12 ? 

Related Post:

 Panasonic DMC-FZ50 Review of a Good Old Camera

Travel Photo: A Place on the East China Sea

What a day this has been.  Look at this gem we ran across in our travels today.

Picture some gals all dressed-up and dancing in traditional Okinawan kimonos out there.

Well, I've seen it plenty of times and always figured the location was on another island.

The problem is, I've been seeing it on karaoke video screens .

And, when I asked where it was, nobody could tell me.

It looks like some place far away.  Like maybe, Ishigaki island or, somewhere near China.

Well, it ain't.  It's right here, on this island and, it's sticking out there in the East China Sea.

There has to be a story about this place but, that will come eventually.

In other breaking news, I got this in an email, today:

 Emi Iwasaki, the winner of the million views contest sent me this photo.

The Panasonic Digital Photo Frame arrived in Tokyo and she hooked it up in her house.

Everything works and she can watch 170 photos of Okinawa, anytime.

She doesn't even have to turn the internet thing on ! 

See, I was worried about that package, I mailed, getting there.

The post office said it had to go by boat.

It sure is nice to know everything turned out alright.

Now, I have to go back to do some more of my research.

We found that castle-looking thing, right here in Okinawa.

But, still haven't figured where all those dancers, in kimonos went.

Visit my homepage for today's Feature Photo

Photography Tip: Quick Release Your Camera Strap (How-to)

The straps that come in the box with your new camera are alright for carrying the thing but, for shooting outdoors, the strap's gotta go.  It causes too much camera shake.

I modify all my cameras so the straps have quick releases.  How-to depends on the make and model.

The latest addition to the RyukyuMike family was this CANON G12 and in the above photo you see the way the camera dude at the store, kindly assembled the strap for me.

Well, I didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings so, I left it that way until yesterday.  That way the wife and some of the party animal girls that run around here could test drive the thing with the strap hanging around their necks. And I wouldn't have to worry about them dropping it.

But, when I took the little guy along with me outdoors a few times on windy days, the strap started bugging me.  It had to be modified.  My other camera straps were much easier to make quick releases for and I'll show you how three different models were modified so you can decide which method best suits your camera.  The Canon modification I did here, I will be refining when I get around to it but, for now it's ready for all the festivals and sports days I have to shoot over the next few weeks.

A stainless steel bolt snap hook, needlenose pliers and a short piece of stainless wire were what I used.

Remove the camera strap and rethread it through the swivel-end of the snap hook.

It's a good idea to take your camera along when you visit the hardware store.  That way you can make sure the strap will fit whichever size hook you decide to buy. 

There are all shapes, sizes and styles of snap hooks.  This style,  a Bolt Snap Hook,  is the best.

How do I know ?   I have two Huskies to walk everyday.  We know what breaks and what don't.

The length of stainless wire I cut so, folded in half, it was about the size of the snap hook.

I used 0.9mm wire, just because I happen to have a few hundred meters of the stuff.  It comes in handy when the Huskies chew through my fence.  If I were to make a contraption like this again, I'd go with more narrow wire.  I had to wrestle with the camera and pliers trying to snake the wire through the slot for the strap.

Next, I twisted everything together with the pliers, making sure the loop that I formed was large enough to easily attach and detach my snap hook.  If it gets too tight you won't have a quick release.

  This ain't pretty and the Canon guys are probably grating their teeth and voiding my warranty.  Hah !

It's my damn camera and I can do anything I want with it.  Make a better model next time.  That's what I would do.

The PANASONIC LUMIX has, what I'd call, ears sticking out the sides with little slots wide enough for the camera strap.  All I needed to do here was find a couple of small, sturdy key rings and thread them through the camera's ears.  Again,  it's a good idea to bring your camera along when shopping for these items.  You want to make sure everything fits before blowing five bucks on something that doesn't work when you get back home.

The PENTAX K5 came with sturdy enough hardware.  I just had to make sure I didn't buy a bolt snap hook too large to attach the camera strap.

Camera straps are important.  When I'm cleaning lenses, changing, batteries, SD cards, reviewing on the LCD or attaching a quick release for the tripod the strap is on the camera.  When I'm shooting, the strap if off, almost always.  Now that you know how to make a quick release for your camera strap, give it a try.  Guaranteed, you will see an improvement in your photography.

It's a blast going to all the festivals I shoot and running into other cameramen loaded down with all their camera gear.  We're always spying on each other trying to see who has what.  Everybody wants to know in what mode the other guy is shooting, what lens and which make camera they have hanging off them.  So, I got thinking.  Maybe, at the next festival I'll put the Cannon strap on the Pentax, Panasonic on the Canon and one of the Husky's harnesses on the Panasonic just for the heck of it.  There's more how-to's in this business than just making quick release camera straps.  Ya gotta know how-to have some fun while you're working at it, too.

Like last year, I remember using every strap I had available to keep myself from blowing off a tall building while shooting the THE NAHA TUG-O-WAR

The Flying Spider-monkey Tree Fern (Cyathea lepifera) Photos

The ferns right behind the pink and white flowers in this photo don't look very tall when viewed from this angle.  I was up in a tower shooting an Azalea Festival at the time and thought they added some interesting colors and contrast to my shot.  I took this photo with the Panasonic DMC-FZ50 in March 2009.

These ferns grow all over the forests of northern Okinawa, the area we call Yanbaru.  Today I was back up that way again shooting coffee plants when Flying Spider-monkey Tree Fern popped into my head.

Here's a shot from 2009 that I took with the Pentax KD10.  It's just a sprout of a fern that I couldn't identify, at the time.  I narrowed it down to two of the thousands of types you can find in the fern family but, was never sure what the thing really is supposed to be called.

As I was leaving the area where the coffee plants were and brushing spider webs out of my face walking up a jungle trail, I spotted these guys overhead and shot them with the Canon G12.  No tripod, handheld and with camera flash turned on,  I snapped a few quick shots and got out of there as fast as I could.  Spiders and monkeys and ferns, I had to figure this out TODAY before it really drives me crazy.

Doc and RyukyuRu were up above at the coffee house drinking freshly made iced coffee.  I didn't mention spiders, monkeys, or anything.  I drank some coffee, too.  Then, shot a few more photos of little potted coffee plants.  Doc bought a couple of them.  We thanked the guy running the place and went off on our next adventure, chasing the sun with our cameras.

A few hours later as we were coming down out of the mountains RyukyuRu says "Hey, Mike.  Look at those ferns.  There's a bunch of them over there".  I told him they're spider monkey arm ferns, or something like that.  And, they have been driving me nuts, ever since.

Well, I downloaded my camera and developed the shots.  Then, I did some serious research.

They are Flying Spider-monkey Tree Ferns (Cyathea lepifera) because someone thinks the way the new plants and leafs form looks like a spider monkey's arm.  I don't make this stuff up.

REFERENCES:

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TREE FERNS photos and descriptions.

WIKIMEDIAORG photo from Okinawa, Japan.

SPIDER MONKEYS FROM NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC for monkey fans.

The Mountains and Ocean Are Calling Me (Photos)

This weekend an event that happens only once every two years takes place in Ada, a coastal village in the northeast area of Okinawa, Japan.  It's called the Shinugu Matsuri (Festival) but, there won't be any of the trappings you'd see at most festivals.  Here are a few photos from the event in August of 2009.

The mountains, ocean, and river play a role in this event and I will capture all I can from whichever angles the light suits me best.  I'll be putting the Panasonic, Pentax, and Canon through their paces.

          There will be some high contrast photography in daylight and during the hours of darkness. 

        There will be gals, both young and old, dancing around fires for me to capture on digital film.

After a long, hard day humping all my camera gear up mountain trails and down to the ocean, I might just hand one of my cameras to someone else.  Then, have a sip of the local spirits and jump in on the last dance so, someone can snap a photo of watashi!  Reckon that'd be alright?

Panasonic DMC-FZ50 Review of a Good Old Camera

What's the point in doing a review on an old camera?  I'll tell you. Nobody is paying me or even giving me some kinda freebies. This is my old camera, first digital camera outside of a cell phone, I ever bought.

It's been used, abused, misused, dropped, rained on, tripped over, loaned out, lost and forgotten and even, once or twice, had a thorough cleaning. The poor son of a gun has over 250,000 shutter snaps on it and just keeps on ticking.

This is not a point and Shoot Camera. It's not a DSLR, either. It's what you'd call a Bridge Camera; something to fill the gap between the two.

I bring this up because many people ask me what cameras I recommend. When I bought the DMC-FZ50, I had no idea what I wanted to accomplish with my photography. This was the perfect camera for me.

It has excellent glass (Lecia lens) 7mm-85mm zoom. Aperture from 2.8 to 11 and all the Mode settings for lazy people, plus, you can shoot fully manual once you decide that's what you want to do.

In the photo above, you'll see, I added a 1.7X Teleconverter. That was only after I decided I wanted to reach out further and grab some wildlife shots.

This good old camera won't fit in your pocket but, it is light enough to wear around your neck. When I wear a jacket, I tuck it inside to keep it from swinging around and sometimes, get into places where cameras are not allowed. Hah !

Most times, I don't wear jackets and usually don't take my cameras places where they are forbidden. The ideal way to carry a camera like the DMC-FZ50 is in a holster. A strap over your shoulder and a belt through slot provided on the back of the holster will keep everything secure even if you go mountain climbing.

If you want to read full reviews on this old baby, type DMC-FZ50 in any search engine and you'll find plenty.

The feature that I found most useful on this camera is the LCD screen. You can rotate that puppy and make shots with it around corners, over the heads of crowds or get close to the ground and shoot scenes above that would be impossible, peeking through the viewfinder with my DSLR.

The DMC-FZ50 gets a five star rating from me. Panasonic will have to wait before I'll buy, whatever the latest, greatest model happens to be, because I believe my good old camera is going to be around for a long, long time.

Wildlife Photography: Tip #2

Tip #2. Be Aware of Lighting Conditions.

Probably every photographer with a digital camera, who’s been around awhile, has made the mistake of forgetting to check the ISO setting on their camera at least once. After doing a low light or night shoot, we’ve all been caught the next morning wondering why we have shutter speeds in the thousands when the light isn’t so bright outside. Then a little light comes on in our heads. We want to shoot at ISO 100 but, the night before, had set the camera to ISO 800, or higher!

Before I leave home, I check ISO settings, batteries, SD cards and lenses. I look at the sky, wherever I am and can tell you if it’s an ISO 100, 200, 400 or worse day out there, wherever I am. I also, make it a point to preset my aperture and shutter speed before stepping out the door. With wildlife, you want to be able to quick-draw your camera and shoot in a split second. Wildlife won’t pose for you; you have to be ready for them, always. A lot of my favorite wildlife shots were taken before I got to my shooting destination or after leaving it to head home.


This spider was at the edge of the jungle in the path I was taking to do some bird shooting at a beach. Photo taken with Panasonic DMC-FZ50 29AUG2007 9:23AM f/10 1/1000 ISO 100 Focal Length 89mm.