Hasselblad X1D Review

I recently added some more photos to the Hasselblad X1D Review here on the site so, go have a look! However, if you are following the blog lately, then you may know I’m switching mostly over to the Sony A7R Mark 3!

Aurora HDR 2018 Free Update

As is often the case, the photo below was processed with Aurora HDR and it has just been updated for both Mac and Windows. If you already have Aurora you can automatically update from inside the app. If you don’t, grab it (including a free trial option) in the store! It’s now in its 11th iteration and the team at Skylum is making steady updates.

For those who have Aurora, here’s what’s new…

WINDOWS USERS

• Improved Sliders: You can now directly enter values into a slider with the keyboard.
• Improved presets: Applying multiple presets now handled correctly.
• Cropping improvements: The cropped state of an image is now correctly captured in the native Aurora HDR file.

MAC USERS

• Batch process faster: We’ve fine-tuned our bracket-detecting algorithm to speed up batch processing.
• Align brackets better: We’ve updated our alignment algorithm to improve hand-held HDR photography.
• Adobe plug-in improvements: The plugins for Adobe products have been performance tuned.
• Improved cross-platform files: We’ve fixed issue with cropped photos created on Windows.
• Improved user experience: We’ve refined the software to make it easier to use based on user feedback and testing.

Daily Photo – The Hills Near Arrowtown

This was one of my first stops when I got my Hasselblad X1D. Up at The Hills country club, there are some very beautiful rolling hills in almost every direction. Since I’m a landscape photographer, it’s a simple turkey-shoot! You can just kind of look in any direction and get a good shooting situation. That makes testing the camera a bit easier. I found myself going right into Manual mode because of the Live EVF. I still had to use the camera for about a month before I was totally comfortable with it, however.

The Hills Near Arrowtown

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2017-03-21 05:11:34
• CameraX1D-50c
• Camera MakeHasselblad
• Exposure Time1/125
• Aperture16
• ISO100
• Focal Length30.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

New Video!

Hey if you’re a lucky Passport Member, you’ll see a new how-to-edit video for today’s photo. It’s mostly a vertirama made from several quadcopter shots. I think you’ll enjoy the edit!

And here’s quick how-to video that shows you how to stitch together a four shot vertorama I shot using the DJI Phantom Pro 4 drone and then edit the vertorama in Aurora HDR 2018.

Exclusive content for Passport members

Unlock Now

Daily Photo – Visiting Waiheke

Thanks again to my friend Deanie for letting my family stay at her place on Waiheke! It was a great little vacation after Tina’s doctor visit in Auckland. Waiheke is less than an hour away by ferry and it’s like a perfect little island getaway! There are so many cool beaches and awesome places to visit. If you have an extra few days on your next trip to New Zealand, be sure to come over thisaway!

Visiting Waiheke

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2017-12-08 13:47:52
• CameraFC6310
• Camera MakeDJI
• Exposure Time1/500
• Aperture6.3
• ISO100
• Focal Length8.8 mm
• FlashNo flash function
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

My Instagram Stories

I advise you to watch my Instagram Stories only if you have absolutely nothing better to do. This should be your absolute last-resort, like after you’ve seen absolutely every show on Netflix. Then, and only then, you should watch all the silly stuff I put on my Instagram Stories.

Daily Photo – Fly, My Pretties!

This is what I scream every time my quadcopter takes off. You have probably seen this angle of the mountains a million times by now; that’s because this is what the mountains look like about 100 meters over my studio! But this was a very special evening because of this colorful summer storm that moved in. These were the colors… nothing added or subtracted! If you were watching my Instagram live stories from that day you may remember!

Fly, My Pretties!

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2017-11-27 21:17:04
• CameraFC6310
• Camera MakeDJI
• Exposure Time1/30
• Aperture2.8
• ISO160
• Focal Length8.8 mm
• FlashNo flash function
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

Time for a Passport Freebie! Panorama Processing Tip

Last year I made over 50 videos for Passport Members to see first or exclusively. I wanted to share this one publicly as sort of a promotion for the kinds of things you might see inside.

There are a lot of ways to skin the panorama cat. 90% of the time, this is the way I do it in the video below. To me, it just looks better than when the computer tries to auto-stitch it and remove the stitch lines.

Daily Photo – Jack’s Point Clubhouse

And here’s the final result. Pretty cool eh? And it didn’t take much time at all. If you ever get out to the Queenstown area, be sure to pop over to Jack’s Point and visit the clubhouse here. Anyone can go and there’s a really good restaurant inside. Just outside is this perfect little pond. If you get there early enough (or on a windless day), the reflection is perfect!

Jack’s Point Clubhouse

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2017-07-03 01:04:00
• CameraX1D
• Camera MakeHasselblad
• Exposure Time1/350
• Aperture8
• ISO100
• Focal Length45.0 mm
• Flash
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

DJI Mavic

I’m slowly working on the Mavic review now that I have one in hand. I paid full price for this thing, and I am very excited! Getting new toys is always fun. I plan on doing a few side-by-side flights of the Mavic and the Phantom and comparing the video and photos between the two.

A message from Denver

Thank you Passport Members! Here’s a quick video to show behind-the-scenes of the charity you’re helping to fund!

Exclusive content for Passport members

Unlock Now

Daily Photo – A Balloon in the Morning Fog

If I was more of a morning person, I’d definitely head over here to Lake Hayes for a morning walk much more. Maybe when I get older, I’ll be more of a morning person. Or maybe I should just to bed earlier and stop watching Netflix till midnight! I can only blame myself.

A Balloon in the Morning Fog

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2016-10-21 01:58:33
• CameraILCE-7RM2
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/500
• Aperture4.5
• ISO400
• Focal Length39.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Screenflow Review!

If you’re interested in a quick way to edit videos or do a screen recording, be sure to check out my Screenflow Review I just finished here on the blog. I’ll embed the video from the review right here below to give you a taste!

Oldie But Goodie!

Here’s one of the first videos I made when I moved to this area about six years ago. It’s called 30 Days and 30 Nights in Queenstown. It’s pretty much the only time-lapse I have ever made. It was so time-consuming that I haven’t had time to make another one!

Daily Photo – Driving Off Towards Glenorchy

I should make this drive once a week! I don’t know why I don’t. It’s so beautiful here and the water and sky are different enough each time to make it worth it. Also, when you get to the end of the road about 25 minutes later, there are some great spots for lunch and relaxation.

Driving Off Towards Glenorchy

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2015-10-08 07:45:04
• CameraFC300X
• Camera MakeDJI
• Exposure Time1/210
• Aperture2.8
• ISO100
• Focal Length3.6 mm
• FlashNo flash function
• Exposure ProgramUnknown (58655)
• Exposure Bias

Insta360 Camera Review

What a fun cool camera! 🙂 I just finished the Insta360 Review here on the blog. I hope you enjoy! There’s a video there and everything featuring a strange-talkin’ Russian.

Upcoming Travel Schedule!

I’m headed on a fun trip with the family again in January! We’ll be in Dallas, Austin, Denver, Sarasota, Grand Cayman, Key Biscayne, Hawaii, and then Japan again! I’ve got my cameras all dusted off and ready to go!

Daily Photo – Hard to Believe the Google Pixel Took this, eh?

Isn’t it though! And this was taken with the Pixel 1; now I have the Pixel 2 and it’s even better. I’ve challenged myself several times ONLY to use the Pixel 2 some days (btw Google is not a sponsor… I bought mine full price). Some of the photos that are coming out of it are totally unbelievable! I don’t like editing on such a small screen, so I often download the images to my laptop and edit there.

Hard to Believe the Google Pixel Took this, eh?

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2017-03-28 12:03:54
• CameraPixel
• Camera MakeGoogle
• Exposure Time1/2200
• Aperture2
• ISO54
• Focal Length4.7 mm
• FlashAuto, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

Busy Beaver in December

I’m home pretty much all of December, so I’ve been busy making a bunch of new videos and new photos. Some videos are exclusive to Passport Members, others are public, others are live Facebook Screencasts, others are special to Aurora HDR and more! They take quite a long time to make, edit, and move around… it seems like a big chunk of the time is just moving data from place to place… I call this digital wrangling!

Daily Photo – Abstract Snowscape

I’ve started playing more with landscape shots and not showing the horizon line. I think in landscape photography, typically you always see some kind of horizon, or at least have a general sense of where it is. This gives the viewer a certain amount of context as to what is going on. But, by removing that context and completely obscuring the horizon, it becomes a bit more mysterious and abstract. Try experimenting with this… just little ideas here and there.

This was taken near Glenorchy, New Zealand.

Abstract Snowscape

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2016-10-12 14:41:56
• CameraILCE-7RM2
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/1250
• Aperture6.3
• ISO800
• Focal Length103.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias-0.3

Coming up on Holidays Season!

If you’re looking for some Goodies, Gadgets, Photo Stuff for the Holidays, visit my visual Kit.com! It’s kind of a fun way to visually see things and better than a text-list. Not that material things will make you happy or anything, but maybe some of the gadgets and goodies can help fuel your creativity.

Daily Photo – Flying Over the Southern Alps

I took this photo while flying on a helicopter out to work on a photo project for a patron. That project took over a year or so to complete, so I ended up doing a lot of these flights. This one was in the middle of winter because I wanted to shoot the Earnslaw Burn in the winter. My shot came out kind of boring, but maybe the most interesting was this one while I was on the way there!

Flying Over the Southern Alps

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2016-10-12 11:11:54
• CameraILCE-7RM2
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/8000
• Aperture8
• ISO1250
• Focal Length101.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias-0.3

The Eventful Landing

Related to the story below…

Daily Photo – That time we lost a quadcopter

Well, there was never really ONE time, there have been many. But this one, I can say honestly, was not my fault. We had the DJI Inspire up. It was an early demo model and we never really had great firmware for it. We were going to fly towards the windmills, but about 2 minutes into the flight, we lost control. I mean, literally. We could not see it, but it was still broadcasting a live feed with GPS. It took another half hour, but apparently, it went about 10 miles away and landed itself perfectly. One strange thing, however, it landed right beside by a dead cow… I assume the death of the cow was not related to the quadcopter, but I cannot be sure.

That time we lost a quadcopter

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2015-12-21 05:02:30
• CameraH5D
• Camera MakeHasselblad
• Exposure Time1/50
• Aperture16
• ISO100
• Focal Length65.0 mm
• Flash
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias