Pre-Roll: Squarespace

Topic 1:  Tilt Shift

What is a tilt shift

Panoramas

Plane of focus

Benefits for landscape

Topic 2: Lumenzia Update

Topic 3: Jim – Why not just use ShotHotSpot instead of creating a new photo location app?

It’s a great site (don’t disparage).  Best that’s out there so far.  Has the advantage over my app in terms of quantity.

This site works by trolling flickr and seeing where lots of people upload photos from, and how many likes/comments the photos get.  Then, it puts them on the site.  It’s almost entirely automated, which is the problem.

Problems

Little girl’s backyard party gets marked as a photo location.

Only sends you to the most popular spots.  That’s the opposite of what I’m trying to do.  I want people to find NEW locations–not the same thing that everyone else is shooting.

No descriptions or info on locations.  Just grabs tags from the photos.  You may need to hike 20 miles to get there and you’d never know (Death Valley problem from this week).  Doesn’t tell you if it’s a sunrise or sunset location, and TPE doesn’t know where you’ll face for the best comps.  You just need someone to research it.

GPS coordinates frequently off. (The Vestrahorn problem)

General area instead of a very specific spot–not helpful for night photography or arriving early way before sunrise.

Flickr is an OLD site.  Still a good resource but not nearly as popular as 10 years ago.  Consequently, it leads you to old places–much of which are now non-existent like the Chatillon Car Graveyard in Belgium.

No app.

Midroll: Squarespace

Zenfolio

Topic 4: 2016 Macbook for Photographers

Topic 5: Jim – Pentax KP

$1,099

Weather-proof

APS-C

ISO 819,200

Pixel Shift for high resolution

4 images combined to one

5 axis shake reduction

27 point af (LAME)

Tilting LCD but not swivel

Swappable grips

Magnesium alloy construction

No real 4k video

390 shots per battery

Ships Feb 23

Pretty sure it’s a Sony sensor

1/6000 mechanical.  1/24k electronic

From https://www.dpreview.com/news/0516825567/ricoh-announces-pentax-kp-with-new-shake-reduction-system-and-24mp-sensor  “With the addition of an optional accessory GPS module (O-GPS1 GPS unit), the PENTAX KP, simplifies astro-photography, making it possible to record stars as points of light rather than star trails during extremely long exposures.”

Topic 6:

Doodads of the Week!

Jim – Corn LED light bulb 

Greg – Petzl Tikka RXP headlamp 

Brent – Sony Voice recorder, ICD-UX533