The Moon and Venus in the AM

Venus and the Moon Shine Together at Dawn This Week: Where to Look (from Space.com)

Keep looking up!

New Leica Cameras

Yeah, I sometimes still really miss my M3 system. Besides what was pictured here, I had a Visoflex, several lenses, and lots of their fun accessories.

But, I sold it all to finance a Nikon F3 system and a darkroom. (That will tell you how long ago I used the M3!)

Nowadays, most Leica digital cameras are out of the price range of almost every photographer I know. Prices range from used car numbers to dollars that could buy a pretty nice house in our area!

Enter a new camera line from Leica, the Leica T Digital.

Leica has long had a policy, in SLRs anyways, of linking up with Japanese camera companies to market some very useful, and competitively priced systems. Remember Minolta and the R3, R4, and R4s cameras?

Well, coming in July 2014, but available for pre-order now, is a new line that looks like it is based on Sony's NEX cameras. Funny, because a modified version Minolta's Maxxum lens mount is what the early Sony DSLRs were based on. And now the NEX, being mirrorless, can handle adapters for a variety of different lens mounts.

Likewise, the new Leica can mount M lenses with a new adapter. $395.00 Will more adapters come?

Here are the prices and specs available now from our friends at Adorama:

LEICA T DIGITAL CAMERA - SILVER Price: $1,850.00

LEICA T DIGITAL CAMERA - BLACK Price: $1,850.00

LEICA SUMMICRON-T 23mm/F2 ASPH Lens Price: $1,950.00

LEICA VARIO-ELMAR-T 18-56mm/F3.5-5.6 ASPH Lens Price: $1,750.00

LEICA VISOFLEX VIEWFINDER - BLACK Price: $595.00

Also check out the first impression from DP Review.

Enjoy!

Fun with GIFs

Weather Or Not

As a photographer, either as a professional or a hobbyist, the weather can be a HUGE factor in your photography outing plans.

Certain types of weather make for fascinating images, other types of weather may cause you to adjust your plans.

You can make some wonderful images of falling snow, or an approaching thunderstorm. But, an outdoor engagement portrait shoot may need to be rescheduled. Also, after a gentle rain, while the sky is still dark, get those flower close ups! Look for rainbows, lightning, back lit supercells, etc... Also exercise safety and caution! No need to risk harm to get a pretty picture. 

Two awesome websites I use for weather reports and forecasts have been updated. Check out Accuweather's new Minute By Minute page. Input the zipcode you are wondering about, and it will will tell you exactly what type of weather is coming at exactly what time, ymmv on exactness, of course.

Also, look at Weather Underground. Very specific, usually very accurate.

Here are some examples of weather affected photography. Have fun!

Medicine Park Art Walk

Medicine Park Art Walk (please like and share page) will be September 20th and 21st, 2014 in Medicine Park, Oklahoma. 

Hours: Saturday 10:00am to 6:00pm, Sunday 10:00am to 5:00pm

Located just North of Lawton, easy access from I-44

Lots of different arts represented. I will be one of a few photographers invited. Also represented will be glass blowers, wood artists, painters, sculptors, jewelers, etc... There will be no resellers at this event, it's strictly ART.

The public is invited. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Free Snapfish Photos for One Year

Are you a Snapfish member? 

If so, get their mobile app. 

For a limited time, if you log in to your pre-existing account from your mobile device (ios or android), your account will be loaded with a special offer of the first 100 prints ordered each month for free. (Restrictions do apply, of course, see the Snapfish website.) Shipping is still charged and by "prints" they mean 4x6.

A New Way to Contact Me

google.com/+SteveHarkerPhotographer

Have you set up your own Google+ account?

Lunar Eclipse Coming!

A great view of the Lunar eclipse is possible for a large part of the USA, weather permitting.

Accuweather has a good write up of it.

A couple of illustrations from their article:

To photograph a lunar eclipse, you will have to use a tripod and manually bracket your exposures. Until you actually see it, there is no way of knowing how dark the Moon (Earth's natural satellite) will be, how much haze is in the sky, etc... It could be blood red, reddish brown, or even a brightish ochre. 

One thing we do know, if your sky conditions allow for viewing, that allows for digital photography. Up you ISO, keep your aperture about 2 stops down from wide open, and bracket with shutter speeds. Do not expect any auto exposure mode to give good results. After shooting, play on your computer for cropping, exposure fixes, maybe even some minor color enhancement. Be sure to remove as much noise from the image files as your program allows because a night sky image will show all the noise your chip produces.

Enjoy! And may the good views be yours!

 

Lightroom for iPad

Apple iPad user have had image manipulation software from the rollout of the tablet computers, but in many ways the software market has been a little lacking for serious or professional photographers.

Enter Adobe with a Lightroom version designed specifically for iPad users.

You will need to have a Creative Cloud account. After that, you can now use all the features of Lightroom 5 on your iPad.

Hopefully, an Android version will be out soon. I'm enjoying my CC LR5 and PS on my Win8 computer. It's amazing how much we can do now, and so easily. Still need a working knowledge of photographic basic to get the best results, but you don't need to be a computer programmer anymore!

Anyone using LR CC on an iPad? E-mail your impressions to this blog. Thanks!

Fan Box Scam

If you get an email from Fan Box about internet earnings, beware! It is a phishing scam