Tips for Optimizing your Photography and Workflow
While leading three photography workshops in the unique Palouse region of eastern Washington State, a few issues arose that got me thinking about some key accessories for photographers.
Gary Farber of Hunt’s Photo & Video has been kind enough to put together a few special offers for my readers based on that experience. You can get all the details about these offers here:
https://www.greylearning.com/pages/hunts-specials
Registration is now open for the first in a series of live online GreyLearning Ultimate Events. The first event will be on the subject of “Planning a Photo Trip”, and will be presented live online on Wednesday, April 19th, from 1pm to 5pm Eastern Time.
In my latest live online presentation as part of the “GreyLearning Live!” webinar series, I provided tips for photographers interested in exploring the world of macro and closeup photography. A recording of the full presentation is now available on my “Tim Grey TV” channel on YouTube.
During this presentation you’ll learn about some of the top gear that can help streamline the process of capturing macro photos, get tips on overcoming some of the key challenges of macro, and much more.
The recording can be viewed here:
Today I shared some of my top tips for photo gear when traveling for photography in a live online presentation as part of the “GreyLearning Live!” webinar series.
During the presentation I shared tips that will help you travel light without sacrificing the quality of your photography or the effectiveness of your workflow. A recording of the full presentation is now available on my “Tim Grey TV” channel on YouTube here (be sure to subscribe!):
It seems that laptop computers never have quite enough ports for all of the hard drives and other peripherals you may need to connect. I found that to be especially–and painfully–true with the original MacBook Pro featuring the powerful M1 processor but with only two USB-C ports.
While there are many USB hubs available that provide additional ports for expansion, many of these hubs can prove frustrating because they aren’t able to provide a reliable connection for bus-powered hard drives, meaning hard drives that use a single cable for both data and power without an external power adapter.
Through trial-and-error I found a USB hub that provides a great solution including providing power for devices such as bus-powered hard drives.
The USB hub I’m using now connects to a USB-C port. It includes two USB-C ports on the hub, with one of those being used for power input. This is what enables the hub to power the various hard drives and peripherals I might connect to the hub.
With power plugged in the hub still has an available USB-C hub, and since the power goes into the hub the second USB-C port on my laptop remains available. The hub also includes two USB-A ports, an HDMI video connection, SD and Micro SD card readers, and an Ethernet port.
I’ve been very happy with the port expansion provided by the hub I’m now using. You can learn more about the Anker 8-in-1 USB hub here:
The August 2021 issue of Pixology magazine is now available, featuring the following articles:
Pixology magazine is included in the GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle, and is also available as a standalone subscription here:
I was recently interviewed about my experience on a trip that took me around the world with only one lens for my camera. The result is an article featuring some of my favorite photos captured with that all-in-one lens, with a bit of the story behind each of the images.
You can read the article (and see the photos) in the article on the Tamron USA website here:
https://www.tamron-usa.com/enews/archives/2021/jul321_grey.html
A reader of my Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter had watched my webinar presentation where I talked about the lessons I learned while traveling around the world on an extended trip, using only a single lens for the full trip. They send an inquiry, curious about what the “histogram” distribution of lens focal length used during trip looked like.
I should hasten to point out that the single lens I used during this trip was the Tamron 18-400mm lens (https://bhpho.to/2DPkI3C) on a camera with a 1.6X cropping factor. That translates to a range of about 29mm to 640mm in 35mm (full frame) equivalent focal lengths. So I wasn’t exactly making a big compromise when it came to available focal lengths for my photography by using a single lens.
Below is a histogram chart showing the distribution of focal lengths used, but the chart is admittedly not the easiest to read because of the scale of the data. So I’ll start with some stats that help illustrate how the lens was put to use.
During the trip I captured a total of 8,342 photos with my digital SLR and single-lens combination. Of those, 2,253 (17%) were captured all the way at the maximum focal length of 400mm. Another 648 (almost 8%) were captured at the minimum focal length of 18mm. So just about one-quarter of all photos captured during my travels made use of the minimum or maximum focal length.
Beyond that the range was somewhat evenly distributed, with a bit more representation at the shorter focal length range compared to middle to long focal lengths.
The distribution is interesting to me, but in retrospect it makes sense. As much as an all-in-one lens such as the 18-400mm lens I was using provides a wide range of focal length options, very often I found myself at the limit. It seems when it comes to lens focal length, we always want either as much zoom as possible or as wide a field of view as possible.
Here’s the histogram chart, which you can click on the chart to see it in a bit more detail:
The presentation that inspired the question was on the subject of “Lessons Learned Around the World with One Lens” after an extended trip in 2019. You can view a recording of that presentation on my Tim Grey TV channel on YouTube here:
In my latest presentation in the GreyLearning Webinar Series I addressed the process of deciding which lenses to bring with you on a given photo trip or outing. I discussed the various factors to consider, as well as an approach I use when trying to decide which lenses to put in my bag and which to leave behind.
You can view a recording of the entire presentation on my Tim Grey TV channel on YouTube here:
I was recently on a trip where I was traveling extremely light, which among other things meant I didn’t bring a tripod. Then, after departing on this trip, I realized there was going to be a total lunar eclipse in a few days, and I certainly didn’t want to miss that. Fortunately I had my “Red Pod” bean bag camera support, which enabled me to get the shot.
One of the best features of the Red Pod is that it has a built-in 1/4″ camera mount. You literally screw the bean bag directly onto your camera using the same mount you would otherwise use for a plate for a tripod. This provides a secure platform for your camera that is pliable enough to adjust your camera to a variety of different positions.
I’ve found the Red Pod to be tremendously helpful in a variety of situations. In fact, I’ve now given my Red Pod a permanent spot in my camera bag, to make sure I always have it with me to provide good camera support even if I don’t have a tripod with me.
You can get more details about the Red Pod here: