rmlewis

<p>The problem with Australia is that it is so big and diverse. There are a number of fascinating places to visit on the East coast from the the Daintree Forrest in Queensland to the 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.<br>

<br /> I live in Perth on the West Coast of Australia and it's just as diverse. We have the wide open red earth north west country of the Pilbara and Kimberly regions down to the scenic wine growing regions of the Margaret River region in the South West.<br /> July is our winter season (but not so wet in the North as that has its tropical cyclone season in November to February) so July, as Matthew points out is probably the best time to visit the northern regions.<br>

<br /> If you like stormy coastline then the Great Ocean Road and Margaret river are good for that. If you want wide open spaces then the Kimberly and Pilbara are just great in July - in fact I'm off there myself around that time.<br>

<br /> Like Matthew I'm not familiar with drivers as such but there are people who lead tours that might be available. In the Kimberly region, for instance, I have toured with a photographer called Nigel Gaunt from Red Dirt Photography Tours in Broome. He has excellent tours. I have traveled on a number of tours both in Australia and Europe and I find that small group tours are good as the leader usually knows where the best photographic places are; otherwise you can spend forever looking for them.<br>

<br /> Nigel's web site is http://www.reddirtphoto.com.au/kimberley-photographic-tours/<br>

<br /> Some of my tour of the Pilbara last year can be found at - http://www.roblewisphotography.com/Pilbara-Tour-2013.<br /> Hope that helps a bit.<br>

<br /> Rob</p>

<p>Living on the Western side of Australia, I don't get to actually see much snow let alone do any snow skiing but I do own and use an FSTOP Tilop backpack which I found very useful when travelling through the north west of our country.<br>

Fstop produce a variety of adventure backpacks which are better designed than the normal camera backpack. They probably meet most of your needs and have an abilty for multiple internal configurations.<br>

I carried 2 Canon DSLR cameras, and 4 L class lenses (plus acessories). It was heavy but easy to use when I needed to even thought access is though the back of the pack<br>

Check out the range at <a href="http://fstopgear.com/">http://fstopgear.com/</a> <br>

Rob</p>

<p>I've been a subsciber since Lenswork #63 (now up to 94) when I saw those beautiful images by William Fuller in his Lenswork portfolio Urban Wilderness (I think the buildings were in Chicago).<br>

The beautiful tones and high quality production made me a slave to this publication ever since and I await its arrival every other month. I also subscribe to the extended edition on iPad and while the images are a joy, nothing compares to the sight and touch of those images on a high quality printed publication<br>

How Brooks does such high quality is an acknowledgement of skill. I'm still working on arriving at such quality in my own images.. </p>

<p>I am fortunate that my upgrade of SEP v2.0 is working well if not a little slower (but not significantly) than my V1<br>

I subscribed to the notification alert for the SEP upgrade before the release on the NikSoftware site. The day after the release I received an email with my new serial number and a link to the download. (Now that was impressive service and great use of automated systems :) )<br>

As I have the Complete version of NIK products, the notification email did suggest that my Viveza product was the latest version before installing the upgrade.<br>

Hope this might be of some use.</p>

<p>Wow, great work. The history of photography all on one site :)<br>

I also bookmarked your website.</p>

<p>For me it needed to be something that above all fitted in my top pocket and shot RAW. Some of the other P&S cameras may do more but being small so I can keep it with me was the most important decision for me<br>

So I purchased a Canon S95.</p>

<p>I have recently become interested in toning B&W images using Lightroom 3 or PS CS5.<br>

I originally saw some duotone prints and was keen to get that look into my images, so I used the duotone capability in PS. I think I understand that this allows toning of the highlights and shadows.<br>

But then, as I tried to learn more about duotone, I started reading about split toning and being able to also tone the highlights and shadows (and mid tones, etc)<br>

So my question is; what is the difference between duotone (and tritone/quadtone) and split toning.<br>

Are they the same thing but done diffferently. I see that duotone allows tweaking of not only the colour but also the curve whereas split toning in PS provides all the benefits of layers.<br>

So are they different or does one method provide something else?<br>

Thanks in advance. <br>

Rob<br>

PS I have googled a lot but I can't find where anyone has specifically discussed this subject</p>

<p>Hi Ken<br>

Yes 16GB was overkill and it was a set of circumstances that got me there.<br>

While upgrading my PC, I ordered 8GB but they failed to arrive. I picked up another 8GB from a local supplier but the first order arrived while I was negotiating a return credit. I decided to keep both sets!<br>

I'm not sure how much extra performance I get but I usually finish up editing large multi layered PS CS files and the procesing time on my PC is a magnitude or so higher than my Sony VAIO with 3GB.</p>

<p>Don't forget that 32 bit systems only support 3GB RAM.<br>

When I moved to the 5D MkII, I upgraded my system to a 64 bit Windows (now W7) Intel Quad Core system with 16GB of RAM. The 64 bit allowed nmy to increase my RAM past 3MB.<br>

I had discovered that my Sony VAIO 3GB Dual Core processor just slowed down so much when I processed RAW 21mb files. This was especially true when I had 4 0r 5 PS layers or was merging files for panoramas. This Panorama of 5 files stitched together took 20 minutes to finish (<a href="http://www.broughttolight.com/p/favourites/_mg_0606redgatepano8bit16">http://www.broughttolight.com/p/favourites/_mg_0606redgatepano8bit16</a>) but only a couple of minutes on my new system.</p>

<p>There are usually a LOT of people at the dawn services. For instance in Perth its mostly shoulder to shoulder at Kings Park and it can be tough to be unobtrusive and sensitive.<br>

Oh and its dark too and I wouldnt be using a flash in this instance!</p>

<p>Hi<br>

In June 2008 I travelled to France in a tour group. It was a great tour as I travelled from Australia and joined a group from the US - <a href="http://www.europaphotogenica.com/AnotherSummerinProvence.htm">http://www.europaphotogenica.com/AnotherSummerinProvence.htm</a><br>

The tour met all my expectations as I got to take some great photos (which was out main actvity), met some great people and had a very good tour leader.<br>

This year I would like to join a photo tour to Italy (preferably Tuscany) for about 10 days and get the same results. I am limited to September for a number of reasons not the least of which is that my wife has planned a tour to Scotland to meet some relatives and I have to fit in around this :(<br>

I have searched the net and found this tour (<a href="http://www.phototc.com/tours/tour.php?tour=10">http://www.phototc.com/tours/tour.php?tour=10</a>) It looks good but I am wondering if there are any other Italian Tours that people have had experience with.<br>

Also, has anyone traveled with these people or done this tour or a tour with Kathy Adams-Clark, the leader of this tour?<br>

Thanks for any feedback<br>

Rob</p>

I confess I believe in that old saying the one with the most (best?) toys when you die wins.

I'm looking forward to upgrading from my 5D but here in OZ it will be some time before I think I will get one as I am low on he waiting list. January is looking good.

Hopefully all the bugs will have been found and the firmware upgrades done.

I have purchased equipment in the past (not in the last year through) through eBay where they do have a rating. I haven't looked lately but that might give you some indication of their reliability.

For the record I v'e bought a couple of cameras and a flash and bits and pieces without any problems through eBay. At the time they must have had a good rating otherwise I wouldn't have bought from them.

Hope this helps.

BTW I purchased from Australia.

Rob

I think it depends on how much data you have and how much you are willing to spend. I have a lot of data and a number of family laptops. I also come from the IT industry and am paranoid about backups.

My personal solution is simple. I have two NAS external drives(Network attached drives - just an external disk connected to my network) with 500GB of disk and I back up to one of them to each night.

On a weekly basis I take that NAS Disk to my father's home and retrieve the previous one. I bring the second copy back and my automated backup continues to update it for the next week. Then next week I take Disk 2 back to my Father's place and bring Disk 1 back home.

I am fortunate that my Father is close by and needs me to visit him weekly (he's 85 and living alone) but any outside destination is good - even your work desk.

Rob

Hi Patrick

Montreal Passion Photo sounds like an interesting organisation. Can you tell us more about it?

I think it sounds like something I would like to promote in my own city.

Rob

Feisol don't seem to have any agencies here in Australia so I purchased mine online.

I made several enquiries and got prompt accurate and courteous replies from Michael at http://www.feisol.net/

When I purchased the freight was quite reasonable (US$45) and it was to me in a week (much quicker than a number of other suppliers that I have dealt with in the US.

I am very happy with the product and a few of my friends have had similar satisfaction following my experience.

I highly recommend Feisol.

BTW they are available on eBay but I preferred to buy through the distributor.

Rob

Everyone has a retailer story but my local camera shop retailer (authorised Canon) here in Australia mentioned to me a few days ago that in his opinion the 30D would be replaced as he is no longer able to get them and that the 5D would not be replaced yet as they are still in supply.

I had already decided that I would buy a 5D as the price is now good (for me that is) and even if one was released next week it will be some time before the camera is in shop and consumer beta testing is completed ("my new camera back focusus/front focuses/has a strange noise/won't focus on moving objects, etc")

Anyway I went out yesterday and upgraded my 20D to a 5D and am loving it so far.

Rob

http://www.pbase.com/rmlewis

I had a 70-200 f/2.8 L IS which I swapped for the 100-400 because I wanted more reach.

I found the transition to slide zoom to be effortless and move between it and the 24-105 without thinking whether I am using twist or slide.

Rob

Thanks Jimmy for your quick reply

I will give it a try

Rob

I have had the Auto setting work once and it showed the shutter speed at the top of the viewfinder window. I thought I had it sussed out but nearly all the time it has not worked.

When I follow the instructions it shows a red triangle in the right hand top corner and the shutter settings seem to flash across the whole range of numbers.

I thought that the batteries may be flat so I replaced them - no success.

I cleaned the contacts on the prism and the camera but alas no success

Could the AE prism be faulty?

Any other suggestions would be welcomed

Hi

Thanks for your response.

I have found what I needed at KEH

Rob

Hi

Thanks for your complete and detailed answer

I now have it sussed

Rob

Hi

I just acquired a SQ-Ai with an AE prism.

As much as I have tried I can't work out how to use the AE.

Anyone know where I might find instructions on how to use it?

Thanks

Rob

I have recently acquired a Bronica SQ-Ai and need a WLF for it.

I have seen a WLF for ETRS / ETRSi.

Will this fit and work on the SQ-Ai?

Thanks

Rob