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...
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...
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...
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...
Well, it's certainly been a...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
People regularly ask me what is my favourite lens, and what lens do I use for this or that subject? The answer may not be a simple one. While the 'best' lens for a close-up or macro photo would undoubtedly be my Nikon AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8. Yet, it's...