Imre Z. Balint, BSc, MPM, MBA

Calgary is getting a hefty helping of snow and it has motivated me to do two things, one of which I like and the other not so much. The latter has to do with plowing the snow off the sidewalk, which stinks as the snow is terribly wet and heavy (at least it's a good quick workout though). But it has also motivated me to write up a quick blog post (about time, eh?) regarding taking wintery photos. I'll keep this short and sweet as I'm really busy with my business venture, but I hope you'll find this information useful. Overexpose - To newbies this tip might sound crazy. If you're shooting a scene that is already bright white for the most part, why on Earth would you want to overexpose the image? Wouldn't that blow out the highlights? Well in most cases no and instead you'll likely get the proper exposure. To understand this, we must understand how the camera meters. I happen to have a video on this topic, click here to view it. In a nutshell though, the c

Finally made some time to complete part 2 of the solar eclipse time-lapse post. Let's get right into it, but first a quick warning message you all should read if you're not familiar with taking photos directly of the sun: Without proper solar filtration, there is a very real chance that you could cause serious and irreparable damage to your camera equipment, and more importantly serious or permanent eye damage such as blindness. If you do not feel comfortable with such photography, I do not recommend doing it... even what I did can be considered borderline (and I actually don't really recommend my method either), but I'll explain my actions below. Ok, now with that out of the way I'll start with a quick list of equipment used: - Olympus E-3 - 50-200mm Zuiko lens - 2X tele-converter - camera hand-held - Variable ND filter ... DIY type Nothing really stands out from the list above until you get to the last item, a do-it-yourself (DIY) variable ND filter. I

If it wasn't for my mother, I would have completely forgotten about the solar eclipse today! As it is I missed almost half of it! Arrrgggg!!! Oh well. At least I managed to capture the latter half with decent results, especially considering that there was some high altitude cloud cover with the occasional denser lower-level clouds that would almost completely obscure the sun. Now... seems I just can't get over this habit of working really late into the evening... or night... so I will follow up this post with the details I promise in the video. Interestingly, I found an alternative use for something something related to my next episode! But you'll just have to check back here later to find out what that is! G'night!