It came in the mail a few days ago. I traded the 5dmk2 for a submirror fixed, extended canon warranty 1d Mark III. Best thing ive done in my photography career. The AF tracking is rediculous, and if i had the reach, id post the picture i took today of birds in flight. super small birds, flying really fast, and not one picture out of focus. I worried when i did hte trade that i would have AF tracking problems like so many people i hear about, but thank god this is a good camera. I have no regrets at all. I mean even picture size out of camera is big enough to print a poster….36×72 inches at 10MP JPEG file. If that isnt big enough for anyone..i feel sorry for them. an 8×10 print is going to be NO problem. So why did i buy the mark2 in the first place? I wanted it. While i wanted it, it was not what i NEEDED for my business. I found after a few weeks of using it, that the 5dMk2 is a studio camera. It works great at 100 iso, great light, and on still figures. But take it out in the real world…and things change. High iso leads to banding (on my copy), af is unbearably slow, and 20mp is overkill fo sho. The video is mediocre since you cant really control…..anything.

so we are back to today. I hiked through 6 ft brush to get to the side of a river to try and take soem pictures of Cranes i see every day as i drive over the bridge. No luck. But it is ok. I got to take alot of pictures of cranes in flight, and while my lowely 70-200 is not NEAR enough reach, it was a fun experience. I saw how fast my AF tracked the small item in the viewfinder with no back or front focusing along the way. superbly performed under these circumstances.

So what is in store for this weekend? I have a BMX photoshoot that will hopefully happen this weekend. I now have a set of impact stands, umbrellas, and brackes to mount my two 430EX, and the 580EX on camera to control it. hopefully it will happen, and i can post up some stuff for you guys to see.

that is it for now. nothing much else to say!

Lately i have been slammed with work. From a base chemical exercise, to working my photojob, i haven’t had to shoot, work on my car or anything really. But i have been doing alot of camera gear swapping around.

I bought a 24-70 for a great price
bought a 70-200 2.8 after i sold my f/4…plan to run a 1.4x on the track to get the reach i want.

But i think the most important thing i have done, is realize the 5dmk2 isnt really what i need. Sure i want it, but i dont need it. So i have decided to put it up for trade for something i really can use, a 1dmk3. No real need to have 20MP…or video. Sure they are both super cool. But if the pros can do what they need with a 1dmk3, then by god so can i. Besides, who wants 3k in body and lens hanging off a car drifting at 100+ KPH. not this guy.

oh yeah, and im 24 officially.

This is my second picture feature either online, or in print. first one was a picture from a performance on base for a paper called “Stars and Stripes”. i have about 10 of them sitting in my house lol.
link to page

picture:

last night around 6pm, apparently a fire started in a structure right behind my work that was built in 1945. Went up in flames, and 24 hours later (time of my photos basically) they are still sifting through putting out embers. It was crazy. I just wish i was there for the actual fire, instead of just some smoke. would have made for much better pictures.

and i couldnt help at this poor soul. using an on camera flash, in the day…so sad.

I must say, I do believe i am changing in some way. I am taking more time to do things i want to do, instead of what i have to do. Less of “it has to be done today” and more of, maybe later (not so much work, but things like my car, and stuff like that). Ive been spending much of my 3 years so far in japan balls out building cars. Im sure most of you that are reading this have seen them sometime or another, and if you haven’t, check out the flickr. Regardless, i have been reading Photography on the net much much more, and came across this thread…..Lighting thread and was inspired. I began building a softbox, got about half way done and started playing with it. I still dont have lights. I was only using the overhead light and an apollo diffuser on my 430ex. pictures are mediocre, but i dont care! I had fun with my birds, learned a bit about lighting, and above all….I had fun. Isn’t that what hobbies are all about? Food for thought for everything that gets stressed out over cars not working, pictures not turning out right, or anything else that can (and will) go wrong. Take life and roll with it.

I finally found it in stock. I had it on order for about a week through an online store, but then i went looking a little loser to home. A few stores had the camera in excess of 3,000.00 (after yen to dollar conversion), but i decided to check Kitamura’s website. I couldnt believe what my eyes were telling me! They had it on sale for 250,000ish yen, which at 90 to 1 was like 2770 ish! Ebay has em for 2799 pus shipping, and they are only about a hundred less on B&H. So i decided to go for it, and let me tell you i am HAPPY about it!. Photo quality is awesome, and video is equally as cool. When i first heard about it, i thought it was a total novelty, but not anymore. AWESOME.

anyways, here are a few sample pics from today, and a Vimeo link to the HD video i made.

pics i took today

more on my flickr of course!

Driving through one of the backroads of okinawa, we went by this house and immediately slammed on the brakes, backed up, and were greeted to this awesome structure. Not too sure if it would withstand a typhoon, but it was super cool none the less. I will let the pics speak the truth about this.



and the detail he did with this was crazy. he actually like caulked it all together and stuff. killer

So this is my final full day in okinawa. I leave tomorrow unfortunately. But, yesterday, Bret took me to some more places. One was a Lighthouse, then a go kart track, then back home (got a late start). The lighthouse was so cool. It was on the edge of a cliff basically, right on the ocean (obviously). You could walk out on the cliff rocks and look at the ocean beating away at the cliff faces. It was seriously awesome.
Here are some of the pics for the day. Check out the click able pictures for more pictures.

GoKart Track we ended up at. Sorry, no in progress pics

I am originally from Myrtle Beach, SC, so I am no newbie to beaches. But i have to say, this place was gorgeous. The formations on the rocks all around, the clear ocean (which is not happening on the east coast ever) was so breathtaking that i had to just take it all in. The small beauties are the great things that make you appreciate everything. In Tokyo, the sky isn’t blue (unless it just rained), it is NEVER this clear out, no oceans really this close, not to mention the great weather. It was soooooo relaxing.

For more pictures please visit my Flickr Photostream


That was my great host Bret (FDokinawa on Zeroyon Forum)in the hole.


These little passages were all over the beach in the rocks. years of Typhoons and erosion take its toll.

I decided to take a vacation to Okinawa, an island section south of Japan mainland, with my wife for a week. Well, sort of with her. She is down here for work, and I decided to tag along since i always wanted to go down here. So we flew in on Sunday, and I haven’t really been able to do too much since I didn’t get a rental car yet. However today was a different story. Bret (FDokinawa) From Zeroyon forum was a great guy and picked me up this morning, pretty early mind you, and took me around the island for sightseeing. I had a fantastic time and cant thank him enough for the awesome thing he did for me. So here are the vital pics for the day.

For full size pictures, MORE pictures, and all of my other pictures, please visit my
Flickr Photo Album

First stop was an awesome castle. The climb was rough in my new shoes, but it was worth it. So surreal. They were doing maintenance on it while we were there. My guess was they were fixing walls and other structures since they were chipping away at rock.
Katsuren Castle was the location








More at my flickr.

We also saw some awesome kite surfers out on the water. Makes me wish i lived here now.

I think the coolest thing was this go-kart track he took me too. Apparently they race mopeds, bikes, and karts there. CRAZZZZZZZY knee dragging on a moped.

Check back soon for more pictures and ongoings!