China 2014

Simon Pollock July 12, 2014

I've spent the last week in China, specifically Shanghai and Ningbo "City of Tripods" ...not quite as poetic as "City of Lights" or whatever, but what a trip. It's late, I'm cold, let me share some photographs of my time with 3LeggedThing CEO, Danny Lenihan in China.

Photos below are a gallery. click.

Camera trade shows, factory tours, train rides, cool hidden bars, many hawkers selling everything from fake iPhones right through to women (for the night, not for keeps) it was crazy, it was mesmerizing.

China was vibrant and dirty and loud and busy and DID I SAY LOUD?

A new toy to play with...

Simon Pollock April 15, 2014

I'm a big fan of fun, informative apps (I'm an iPhone user, but I'm not a fan boy, honest) and one of those recently released apps is Sakoos, an 'In my bag' style app but not just for camera bags, for all sorts of bags - hipsters of the world unite!

I'd love to see you give Sakoos a try with whatever your daily bag is! Add me [gtvone] when you join up.

Get it on iTunes - App Store : https://itunes.apple.com/app/sakoos/id850390426

On a holiday, taking a camera swimming?

Simon Pollock April 14, 2014

I'm not actually 'on a holiday' but I am away from home and at the beach! One of the things I wanted to do when I was up here was to take a couple of cameras back into the water and see how they performed.

HOlding the Olympus TG2 half in and half out of a still pond results in this craziness...

Now, the cameras I've chosen are "point and shoot" cameras and they don't shoot RAW and they don't allow for full manual control, though they do have some operations you can fiddle with.. Aperture, etc.. They have a feature set that includes 'scene modes for underwater' etc. The two cameras I'm using are the Olympus TG2 and the Sony TX30.

I reviewed an earlier Olympus Tough 8000 when it was released back in 2009 [here] and, as was pretty typical, only had the thing for a couple of weeks - for a camera that's billed as tough, that's not really enough time to see how it handles the rigours of regular 'tough' life - you know, taking it in water and stuff... You can see by the comments that people who have purchased that camera are not super happy with it.

The original Olympus Tough 8000 was where the fun started...

Come forward five years and there have been a lot of advancements in tech as well as the housings, seals and performance of 'tough' cameras as is evident in the TG2 and the TX30, too.

Anyways, over the next two weeks (I'm already a week in) I'll be taking the two cameras on more underwater adventures (as long as the water clears a little, it's been VERY murky with recent rains!)

...and will report back with my findings!

I've had one instance of condensation build up in the TG2, right in the middle of the lens, which meant I missed a couple of photographs of my little boy playing in the sand, I've not experienced that with the Sony yet.

Condensation from a rapid change in temp, let the camera sit for a few minutes...

One thing I do find amusing is when, while snorkelling and diving down to photograph some fish or some such thing, is looking at the back of the screen and seeing the name of a local landmark scrolling across the top - Yay for GPS, eh...

More later... Sime

Where did the music go?

Simon Pollock March 5, 2014

Was allowed back in the pit the other night with lovely bloke and epic photographer, Adam Elmakias... Wandered along to watch him work and see how things were in the pit... Had a great time, even made a few photographs...

The Support : The Ghost Inside.
The Band : A Day To Remember.
The Venue : The Forum, Melbourne.

Jeremy McKinnon | A Day To Remember — Jeremy McKinnon | A Day To Remember

I used two camera bodies, a Canon 5DMK2 and a Canon 5DMK3, the MK3 had a 16-35mm f/2.8 (mk1) lens on it, the MK2 had a 70-200 f/2.8IS on it and, in hindsight, I'd have left it at home... The stage is low and close and it was tight... Maybe just a 35 or, at a stretch, the 24-70 next time... Yep...

The Ghost Inside were the second support, I didn't make it to the pit for the first band, "I Killed The Prom Queen" but i did hear some of their bassy rumblings... Between shooting the first three of The Ghost Inside and A Day to Remember, I sat with Adam in his little room and chatted about the tour so far, managed to offend him by thinking he was late 20's (he's a very mature young man, what of it!) and hearing about him and where he's from and stuff - it was really cool to be able to hang out. Make sure you check out Adam's work on his website, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram. Spend some time having your mind blown by ADTR and ...well ...that's it!

Happy days...

Zach and Jim getting their mind melt on | The Ghost inside

Oh, side note - the pit was rammed. The *kids* were loving the hell out of it... "A good time was had by all" ...well, aside from Alicia who was hit with a beer... (I think it was her...)

Gallery below of a couple of extra photographs, hope you enjoy!

How does the Peak Design Micro Plate work with an RX100 Sony?

Simon Pollock February 27, 2014

This is mostly for Dan Carvajal -- hi Dan!

The plate actually fits really well on the RX, sits nicely out of the way and doesn't bother me much at all. It's also quite easy to slide in and out with one hand.. (click / arrow left and right below)