Back in October 2018 I wrote an article on why I had changed to Capture One Pro as my primary Photo editor. At that time I was firmly of the opinion that Capture one was producing superior results from my Nikon RAW files than Lightroom. I continued to use Capture One...
My favourite images of 2021
Jan 10, 2022
Another year - another move! we have now settled (finally) in Canmore, just a few minutes drive from the gates of Banff National Park, and surrounded by the majesty of the Rocky Mountains. Hiking, skiing the Bow River for fly fishing and a wealth of wildlife are now...
Smoke
Aug 16, 2021
Although we live on the East slope of the Rockies in Alberta we are suffering badly from smoke pollution drifting over the mountains from the extensive BC wildfires. The last two days have been particularly bad, in fact this morning the the AQI (Air Quality Index) in...
Bears galore
Jul 20, 2021
My new home of Canmore is situated right on the edge of both Banff National Park (the first National Park created in Canada) and Kanananaskis Country. Within 10 minutes of here I can be out in bear country, and there are lot's about. In fact, I don't even need to go...
Bald eagles
Mar 5, 2021
A recent article in The Calgary Herald mentioned a big influx of Bald Eagles along the Bow River in Calgary, with as many as 20 being viewed on some days. This is probably due to less freeze up occurring on the Bow in the City itself, keeping open water available for...
My favourite images of 2020
Dec 30, 2020
Well, it's certainly been a strange year! What with moving from Nova Scotia back to Alberta, and the Covid epidemic I have not spent as many days in the field as I had wished. Added to that, at the beginning of the year I was all set to cover some major sporting...
Capture One 21
Dec 15, 2020
Capture One 21 was launched a week ago as the latest iteration of my favourite RAW processing software. So, lets get one thing out of the way immediately - are the new features worth upgrading from version 20? In reality, even though this remains my post processing...
Clean up your images with Topaz Denoise AI
Nov 23, 2020
Each new generation of digital camera has improved its control of digital noise in high ISO images. None the less I have always found it necessary to do a certain amount of noise control in post processing with most images shot at 1600 or above. For the last few years...
Z6 II and Z7 II announcement imminent
Oct 13, 2020
In just less than 6 hours the updated version of the Nikon Z6 and Z7 will be formally announced. www.nikon.ca So, what will we see in the specs for this update? Rumoured specs have been floating around various internet sites for a few weeks but I suspect that no-one...
Full circle
Aug 17, 2020
In October 1998 I, along with my wife Jean, emigrated to Canada from our previous home in France, and settled in Calgary. In great part our decision to come to Calgary was pre-ordained as we had been attending one of the world's major equestrian events, The Masters...
Fox Family
Jul 5, 2020
Driving to one of my regular beaches to search for migrating and resident shorebirds a few days ago I suddenly glimpsed a flash of red in the sand dunes beside the road. Pulling over I was astonished to see a fox sitting in the narrow strip of dunes between the...
Nikon TC-14
Mar 30, 2020
In 1999 I prepared for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney by replacing much of my equipment with the latest and greatest available at the time. The latest buzz word was 'digital imaging', Nikon having just released its first professional digital camera, the Nikon D1. It...
Winter surfing
Mar 10, 2020
The recent storms that have hit the coast of Nova Scotia have brought the winter surfers out in force. Even with temperatures well below freezing this does not stop these hardy souls getting out on the water to ride the huge incoming waves. Inevitably, to get good...
Which tripod head
Jan 14, 2020
I often come across other photographers while shooting and regularly see them using inadequate tripods and, more particularly, bad tripod heads. The tripod often has tiny thin lens with 5 or more sections. Great for folding the tripod down to a small size for carrying...
Capture One 20
Jan 8, 2020
Capture One version 20 was released early in December 2019 and is touted as a major upgrade over Capture One 12. Now, you may well ask what happened to versions 13 through 19 and the short answer is they never existed. Version 20 is to bring the vesion number in line...
Wildlife and nature with the Nikon Z6
Oct 18, 2019
The Nikon Z6 (and its sister Z7) has now been out for just over 10 months and has had one major firmware upgrade in that time, adding functionality and performance enhancements. For the past two weeks I have been shooting exclusively with the Z6, provided courtesy of...
Making travel just a bit easier
Sep 17, 2019
In recent years travelling with camera gear has been an increasing problem as carry-on requirements become more restrictive, and actual application of weight limits more regularly applied. Indeed, when travelling to Turkmenistan on Tukish Airlines they were actually...
Photographing Shorebirds
Sep 2, 2019
As we move into September the Southern migration of shorebirds is in full swing. The main way station beaches are full of life as these long distance travellers rest and fuel up for their long journeys, in some cases thousands of miles well into South America, but...
Nikon D3 for sale – SOLD
Aug 19, 2019
This item is sold - there will be another available soon I have one of my Nikon D3's for sale. Body only (no lens) in excellent condition. No dings, or scratches other than a couple of small wear marks on top of pentaprism. Regularly serviced by Nikon. Sold complete...
Sharpness issues
Aug 10, 2019
I have recently been having real difficulties with getting really sharp images with my 500mm f4 lens. I have tried different camera bodies and re-calibrated the lens using Lens align with Focaltune software, with each of them, both with and without the TC-14...
Back to Canada
May 9, 2019
An Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) which is Nova Scotia's provincial bird, sittiing on a nest, Hydro power station, Annapolis River, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada, As many will know my wife and I have spent the last 20 months living in Mexico but, for a variety of...
Photo Mechanic 6
Mar 29, 2019
The long awaited Photo Mechanic 6 has now been released and I have been using it extensively for the past week. As many will know, Photo Mechanic is an essential part of my workflow for all my images, both sport and wildlife and is my program for culling outtakes and...
The super blood wolf moon 2019
Jan 21, 2019
Last night I spent several hours photographing the 2019 super blood wolf moon. I was lucky to have perfectly clear skies and a warm evening to shoot this amazing phenomenon. Your camera needs to be locked down on a very sturdy tripod and head as the slightest shake...
Photoshop v Lightroom v Capture One as primary editor
Oct 24, 2018
First, let's be clear, I no longer use Lightroom. ( See https://peterllewellyn.com/new-workflow/) However, I did use Lightroom for many years and, as it's still the most popular program for handling RAW files, I include it here for comparison Imaging software 2018,...