Back And Alive

Hey All,

Miss me?

I've been quite busy lately and actually just returned (Thanksgiving) from an 18 day adventure to Egypt. An adventure is an understatement to say the least. I brought along my 20D and some lenses as any photographer would. I'm actually quite happy with most of the shots I got - nothing to write home about but great memory shots - and I'm also kicking myself for some of the absent minded moments I had.

For example, start climbing mountain at 2AM have ISO set to 3200 to get some people shots etc (no flash available - didn't bring it didn't care). Get to to of mountain just after 5AM for sunrise. Find spot on peak to shoot amazing sunrise over mountains and desert and forget to change ISO from 3200. AHHH.

I still need to go through those shots to see if I can salvage some for the most part - I think I might be able to. But that was just some of the struggles.

Air there is dirty as hell as well and my lenses/sensor need some serious cleaning. I didn't realize how bad it was until a few days in when I actually looked at a lens and some shots. Yikes!

Anyway, I'm back. Shots hopefully coming soon

You seem familiar, and yet... and yet...

Oh there we go, I remember you now. It just took a minute. Sounds awesome, I was reading recently how fine the sand is there and how it gets in everything. You'll probably be finding it in unmentionable places for the next few weeks.

Can't wait to see the photos. I almost don't want to see them online. You should have a showing or something, that would be awesome.

Camera Craft has some sersor cleaning swabs in stock but if I were you I would send the camera and lenses in to Canon Canada in Mississagua and get it professionally cleaned. It may cost a pretty penny but would probably be worth it in the long run. A simple sensor clean is complimentary but they might charge more for a full cleaning. Give them a call and find out. 1-800-OK CANON

Thanks for the tip Ken. The lenses I was using weren't Canon - they were mostly my Tamron zooms (ie: me trying to bust them so I can buy some new Canon glass - it didn't work ).

Sending the 20D in for cleaning might work - all depends how long it will be gone for as I'm now accustomed to shooting double body and I have a couple of paid shoots coming up at various times. Hmm...

And you're not the first that wants a showing HAHA - honestly I don't know if it's worth a showing or not. Might be. It'd be awesome if I had a sweet 42" LCD to have a big viewing party with.

I do plan on making a coffee table book for myself though to whip out and show people when they do come over down the road.

Wow!!! That sounds like an awesome trip. Can't wait to see what you've got. A showing would be so cool! I'd be there!

As far as making a book, I used Blurb recently and am very happy with the results. And there are so many (easy) options!!

I have sensor dirt all the time too. Biggest pain ever! I so need to head over to Ken and get one of those little cleaner kits and figure out how to do it!!

Glad you're back safe and sound.

Cujo, how about a 120" screen? I've got a projector that we could use. The room would have to be dimly lit to unlit.

120" would be pretty awesome HAHA.

I'm currently tryign to convince the gf that a 42" would be a nice screen to show clients work on - I don't think she's buying it.

I've checked out Blurb before for books but I'm looking a little more high end so I'm checking out some wedding album manufacturers at the moment. I just need to complete registrations to get pricing.

Hmmm... with all the pushing for a viewing I may have to see how many images I have that people would want to view etc. I didn't have a lot of time to set up shots etc as I was on an adventure tour and we were always on the go. I was 1 of 18 backpacking through the country so a lot of stuff was shoot and run. All handheld etc.

I did shoot 1500 images and didn't shoot for 3 days as I was extremely ill (that was 14 GB of photos ). So I'm sure there's about 5 in there that are quality. Also depends if you want to see people I was with as well as there are about 150 of those.

Ken, question - do you know how much the sensor cleaning swabs are running for at CC?

The only ones they have left are the 1.3x swabs, for the Canon 1D series and they don't currently have the cleaning solution that goes with them. They come in a 12-pack for about $50.