This is as close as I get to the tables unless I'm supervised by a friend who knows how to play. I spent the afternoon out and about in Vegas shooting some photos. I saw Thomas Hawk take a similar photo when he was asked to photograph the Wynn hotel. I tried my best to emulate it. I had my Sony NEX-7 with me on this shoot.
Las Vegas, NV
I'm getting ready for a big photography trip to New Zealand in February. I needed a great way to back up and store the hundreds of RAW photos I plan to shoot. Enter the Drobo mini.
Drobo mini
I've been a Drobo user for years and I was anxious to get my hands on their brand-new portable 'mini'. It sports 4 ports for small SSD drives, lightening connectors and USB 3.0 for super fast data transfers, and a polycarbonate durable case that makes it a pleasure to hold and put in a bag.
Here's a set up video I put together showing the unboxing and software installation. I also show you how freaking fast the photo transfer speeds are from the desktop to the mini using the Lightening port.
A short video that walks you through the set up process of the new Drobo Mini. It's a great device for photographers. To learn more about using this set up for photographers please visit www.photographybegins.com
I just received my new 50mm f/1.8 Mid-Range Prime Lens for my Sony NEX-7 and here's my early review. Wow! It is stunning that it's this good for under $300. It's even more impressive because it's just as outstanding as the more expensive 50mm Prime I'd been using before. And I've heard from fellow photographers that even it rivals the $4,000 Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4.
Sony 50mm f/1.8 Prime Lens
The only reasons I kept my Canon D-Mark II camera for as long as I did was (a) I loved that camera (b) the 50mm Prime lens I had to go with it was just a gorgeous piece of glass. But I've moved onto to different cameras with more advanced lenses. The new Sony lens is a perfect substitute. And there's simply no reason to be using an older 50mm lens other than cost at this point.
I got this lens to shoot portraits, plain and simple. I wanted a crisp shot with shallow depth of field and this lens gives you that creamy Bokeh that brings out the subject beautifully. The reason for this is because of the large aperture of the lens and what Sony calls its 'circular aperture design'. Who cares what they call it, it takes amazing pictures.
It's also really light and compact. My older Canon 50mm Prime could be used as a paper weight it was heavy.
I'm going to add more to this post over the next few months as I spend more and more time with it. In the meantime please enjoy a few of these photos that were shot with the new Sony 50mm lens.
My daughter
My son the photog.
Play time.
Here's another in a series of photos I took at Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was the last one I snapped before the park closed down for the day. I stood here for about 30 minutes just hoping that the blue sky would give me something interesting. About 25 minutes after sunset this small strip of pink clouds began to emerge and it last just about 5 minutes before it disappeared. I'm glad I was ready for it.
This was shot with my Sony NEX-7. Because the NEX-7 lacks a 5 exposure option I had to manually expose each shot. I started at -2 and went up to +2. Then to create the HDR final image I ran it through Photomatix Pro and then brought it back into Lightroom to clean up some dust spots that showed up on the final image. My sensor is dirty! Time to pick up one of these bulb blowers.
Cactus at Red Rock Canyon, Nevada
I had a rare weekend day off and my wife and I decided to hike up Mission Peak in Fremont California. We got up at 5:30 in the morning to get to the peak by sunrise. It was a 2.5 mile hike straight up.
There weren't too many great shots because the sunrise happened from behind. But I managed to get pretty low to the ground for this shot. Not bad. It was a series of five exposures on my Sony NEX-7.
Sunrise at Mission Peak, California
Took the family to the San Francisco aquarium today. Lots of nice colors to play with and some smart lighting inside the tanks made for a few fun shots. The jelly fish part of the aquarium was particularly beautiful.
Jelly fish at the San Francisco Aquarium