Something very different on the blog today, a step into the world of music.  I have not been a professional musician for a very long time and then only as a pianist and not a saxophonist.  But I had to prepare a very short musical performance to spice up a ballroom dancing number that my … Continue reading How good (or how bad) is a brand new $250 Chinese soprano saxophone compared to a $3200 Yamaha instrument? →

Part 2. STC also provided me with their Multi Spectral Astro clip in filter and when I ran it through my spectrophotometer, the results were much more in keeping with STC's website specifications and even closer to the QC profile run on every filter they ship. The transmission profile is very similar to light pollution … Continue reading STC Multi Spectral Astro clip in filter and using Olympus m43 bodies for astrophotography →

I was an astrophotographer first, before I was a photographer.  And I don't mean photographing tiresome Milky Way galaxy backgrounds with different foreground landscapes.   I was imaging planetary, solar and deep space objects.   It is a highly complex niche world of photography that will leave you sleep deprived and financially impoverished.  Many books have been … Continue reading STC Duo Narrowband Astro clip in filter →

I had the recent opportunity to shoot the Cobble Beach Concours d'Elegance which is modeled on the premier Pebble Beach event outside of Monterey, California.   Rare and expensive cars are judged on authenticity, function, history and style, while displayed on the greens of Cobble Beach golf course overlooking the waters of Georgian Bay.  Fund raising … Continue reading Shooting a concours d’elegance with m43 →

I've been so busy this summer that yesterday was my first airshow of the season, the annual Brantford Community Charity Airshow.   And what is Brantford, Ontario?  It's a small city with a population of under 100k but it's also the hometown of the Great One¹.   They bill themselves as the greatest airshow in … Continue reading Shooting m43 at the air show. →

The premier world professional tennis tournament in Canada, the Rogers Cup, has come and gone again for another year.  It was a historic moment in Canadian history since for the first time in 50 years, a young Canadian woman won the women's event.  Not that this made the mainstream news outside of Canada.  Even the … Continue reading Shooting Rogers Cup Tennis with m43 →

I finally received my Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter and was eager to run it through a few tests to see if it exacts an image quality penalty - as it theoretically must.  Since the focal length rises, all of the optical aberrations in the base lens become exaggerated and more visible. I was not able to … Continue reading How good is the new Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter? →

My father was a young man during that era made famous by Mad Men.   Although a Western educated bourgeoisie, he gave Mao a chance but in the end fled metropolitan Shanghai for metropolitan Hong Kong, then a British colony.  Leaving with nothing, shortly after his first steps into the West he bought himself some … Continue reading Of vintage watches and custom made watch straps. →

I'm not a true artist because I draw terribly and likely paint even worse.  But I discovered that being a prolific user of Photoshop gave me some skills that allowed me to digitally paint certain styles of artwork, in my case motorsports.  Photoshop gives the user a powerful array of tools that immediately compensates for … Continue reading Digital Motorsports Painting →