HOME.EDPUSKAS.COM

Nikon D7000 - New Toy

2011-03-06T23:33:00Z

As I start to slowly start to clean up this website a bit, I thought I would put out one quick post on my latest toy. My primary camera is a Canon 5D Mark II. Love it, for landscapes and low light shots it doesn't get any better. However, I have a big investment in Nikon lenses and my lovable D300 was getting a little dated (plus probably has a million clicks on it by now. As a belated Christmas present I got a Nikon D7000 to replace. Haven't spent a ton of time on, but so far I am very very pleased. Bigger change and update than it looks like in the stats. Nikon slipped in a new sensor and it is amazingly fast. I always liked Nikon a little better for wildlife and speed shots anyhow, and even more so with this new model. Anyhow, great bargain for the cost in my mind. Below are few shots taken recently (I was also very impressed with the low light shots (all the night shots in here are hand held, and it did very well). BTW, the dolphin shots were taken at 1/6500 of a second. They were zooming, and the boat was moving at top speed, so I literally tied my self to a post to get the shots, I was amazed the D7000 handled without a problem. 27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="600" height="400">

Greetings

2011-02-27T23:39:00Z

Wow, just realized I need to really update this website. Ignored the blog for quite awhile, and the site utilizes several products, all that need to be updated. I also want to add a better IPAD interface, and have tons of photos to update. For now to see more updated shots feel free to visit me on my flickr account below, and there should be a new look and feel on this in a the coming weeks. Thanks for visiting!
Ed
Click Here to Visit me at flickr

Trip to Aptos

2010-03-18T21:41:00Z

Visited one of my favorite places (Davenport, California) over the weekend, awesome as usual. A real photographers paradise. Then spent the night in a new spot (for me), the Seascape Resort in Aptos. Great place, we did the dinner on the beach option, where they set you up with a fire, a bottle of wine, food including smores etc. Best thing was the sunset was amazing. Posted quite a few shots out on the homepage.

Oregon Trip

2010-02-24T23:49:00Z

Just returned from a three day photo trip to Oregon. Beautiful weather, and the first time I've really seen Oregon (one other trip to Portland was totally fogged in, couldn't see a thing). Stayed in Porland, traveled down the northern cost and also visited the Columbia River Gorge, which has the amazing waterfalls. Used either a Singh Ray Vari ND filter for all the long exposures as well as a new Singh Ray Combo LB (birthday gift) for many shots as well. Had a great time, wish I would of had a couple of more days. I posted a set of shots on the home page, or there are larger versions and more shots if you click on the "FULL SCREEN" photo window on the bottom menu below:

Great Surf Day in Pacifica

2010-02-16T00:43:00Z

Finally got my camera back from the shop. The main memory board and memory card reader had to be replaced. So I ran down to Pacifica for some shots. The infamous Maverick's surf contest was going on over the hill with 40 foot waves (yep the one where the rogue wave clobbered a bunch of viewers. It's almost impossible to get a shot of the competition without being in a boat, so I stuck around Pacifica, which still has some beautiful 20 footers. Below are a couple. Going to head to Oregon the rest of the week to catch up on some photography, see you next week.

Broken Camera Blues

2010-02-05T21:15:00Z

Unfortunately my primary camera (Canon 5D Mark II) has been in the shop for repair for a couple of weeks. So mainly just editing older shots, or ones I never actually looked at. Good news was that it broke three hours before the warranty ran out, so at least Canon is picking up the cost. Compact Flash card reader would not work with any cards, may have been related to all the high surf shots I was taking. Oh well, I might get the back up camera (Nikon D300) out for some shots this weekend, if the rain lets up.

La Jolla Trip

2010-01-19T03:18:00Z

Took my first photo trip of the new year. Weather is pretty crappy everywhere, but I hit it just right in La Jolla. 75 degrees, plus great large waves. Most of my shots were in La Jolla, but also swung by Seaworld, since it is off season and the crowds were low. I posted quite a few on the home page.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-26T22:12:00Z

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years Everyone! As you can tell I haven't done a very good job updating the BLOG portion during the holiday, high on my resolution list... Have many been making local trips of late, as well as visiting family in Colorado for the holidays. Hope to have a photo journey after the first of year. I was pleased to have a fair amount of images selected for publication this year (several more are due to be published soon, so more about that in future entries) as well as winning an occasional contest. First year I ever seriously submitted many shots, so it was a learning experience. I also made a big switch during the year from all my Nikon gear to my first Canon, the fantastic 5D Mark II. I'm not a religious fanatic when it comes to brands, it was more of a desire to go to full frame lenses and pricing at the time. But, no complaints love that Mark II, I haven't even bought a flash because of it's great iso handling in dark situations. The second great choice I made (not going to talk about all the bad choices...), was getting a Singh Ray Vari ND filter. Just had a hard time justifying the price, but it turned out opening up so many more options for long exposures during the day that it's allowed me to have fun when the suns out again. Had some great photo trips (Alaska, Victoria, Chicago, Seattle and San Diego), and hope to continue that trend in 2010. Hope everyone got their dream camera kit this Christmas, please visit my regular site at http://www.neonphoto.com (I do sneak in the latest photos on a regular basis), and you can also find my on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/edpuskas/ . Feedback is extremely helpful as is viewing other photographers work out there, so stop by and say hello!
Ed

"flickr" Web Site

2009-11-08T23:20:00Z

I've been busy setting up my first flickr web site. Never have used before, so I'm still learning the right way, but a valuable tool for seeing and sharing with a new massive audience. Please visit me at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edpuskas/

Singh Ray Vari ND Filter

2009-11-08T22:55:00Z

Just received a new toy. It's the Singh Ray Vari ND Filter. It has the potential to make noon fun again for taking shots. It works a bit like a circular polarizer but does not change the color. By slowing the light entering by up to 8 stops, it allows you to take more advanced long exposure shots during the day, or to extend time during night shots. Because I am using on a Canon 5D Mark II, I was aware that it will vignette on wide angle. That's due to the high quality of full size lens that are used. Not a major problem, I noticed it a bit at 24mm but you can easily adjust when shooting for a crop. At $390 (for the thin filter) it is a bit too pricey but everyone raves at their quality and it is an impressive bit of technology. They have a new DUO model with a polarizer added in also, but thought that might be pushing extra glass too much for my camera. There is a little less expensive standard size that probably will vignette a little more than the thin version, but has a screw in adjustment on it for other filters. The thin model I got, doesn't allow add on's. Still learing but so far I have been very impressed. Here are a couple of shots I took the first day. One is a noon 15 second shot in San Francisco (the rocks), the other is a sunrise on the bridge that was only about 1.5 seconds. If you get addicted to long exposures of water (easy to due) it is a wonderful tool.

Shoreline Trips

2009-10-29T00:12:00Z

Returned from a two day trip to the Santa Cruz area, spent most of it taking long exposures in Davenport and Pescadero at night, love the rocks in those areas, and the weather was excellent with large surf. Posted a bunch of shots on the home page. Now I'm off to Marin County for another couple days, once again concentrating on long exposure ocean shots. Below are a couple of shots from the last trip, one at Capitola and one at Davenport.
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Night Time Beach Trip

2009-10-20T18:30:00Z

Heading out for a couple of days (and nights) down to the Davenport area of California (north of Santa Cruz). I scouted some sites a week ago, but the 60 mile an hour wind limited my photo taking. Concentrating on night long exposures, and will try a little light painting as well. Here are a few shots I got last week, I like the hidden beaches in the area, and nice time of year, now that the tourist season has wound down.

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival

2009-10-20T17:49:00Z

Stopped in at the annual Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin festival this weekend. I was amazed in the crowds.

Half Moon Bay - Images by Ed Puskas

Best Triptych Freebie

2009-09-24T00:15:00Z

Triptych art goes back at least to the 10th century, when it was common to divide sculptures or paintings into three sections. It has also been a very popular framing option for photos. You certainly can create your own effect in Photoshop or other tools, but it is a slowwwww process. One of the sites I have mentioned a couple of times in here, panosfx.com, just released a free Triptych option as part of their also free reflection action software. It took me about 3 minutes to create the triptych below. The effects are most useful for web display, A big thanks to the Panosfx folks for another outstanding (and free!!) time saver.

Victoria Trip

2009-09-18T18:22:00Z

Back from a week in Victoria, British Columbia. What an amazing place! Fantastic site for whale watching, saw dozens of Orca Killer Whales, and the Butchart Gardens will knock your socks off even if you aren't a big garden person. We actually got stuck an extra day due to a plane problem, but were thrilled. I put 4 portfolios out on the main web site for now, while I am in the process of reorganizing it a bit. Will take me a bit longer to go through the 3,000 shots I took (groan) but the light and color in Victoria were too hard to pass up.

British Columbia Trip

2009-09-09T00:39:00Z

I'm headed out for a few days in Victoria, British Columbia. Been to Vancouver but not to the island so looking forward to it. I'll be testing a Photo Safe II backup unit from Digital Foci. I have lot's of backup units, but this is a portable that is a memory card reader. I'm always running out of memory cards no matter how many I get (per the 25mb raw files the Canon 5D Mark II creates), and tired of lugging my laptop with me. Looks pretty cool, 250gb so will review after I get back (hopefully with photos on it).

Colorado Trip

2009-09-04T22:13:00Z

Been traveling a fair amount. Just returned from a Colorado trip, more to see friends and family than to take shots, but managed to get to one of my favorite sites (I lived in Colorado for 25 years) at Rocky Mountain National Park. Posted some shots on the home page. Short break than I'll be in Victoria, British Columbia for a week.

August Contests

2009-08-23T19:00:00Z

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Entered a few contests this month. I have one photo published in Digital Photographer Magazine in issue 85.
Also had one category winner (5th place overall) at the National Photo Awards, which I had won the top award for last month. I have a couple of shots competing for publication in JPG magazine. If you get really bored and like them, all votes are appreciated. You can view (and or vote) on the links below:
Foggy Sunrise
Seattle Center

Seaplane Shots

2009-08-20T18:42:00Z

Took quite a few shots on a seaplane flight from Sausalito to San Francisco. Not as easy to shoot as the Zeppelin or Helicopters trips I've taken lately, but fun and each give you different pov's.

Grand Canyon/Vegas Trip

2009-08-14T02:20:00Z

Just returned from a few days in Las Vegas and the highlight was a sunset Helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon.

Vegas & Grand Canyon - Images by Ed Puskas