Photolog

My random life, infront of the lens.

Gear check.

My gear.

Alright, the number one question I receive is "what do you shoot with". Now normally this is easily answered with "Canon". Lately though I have been getting more serious inquiries as to what gear typically gets used. This is nothing super special and personally I do not have the super high end stuff... Yet... 

Going left to right. The first image is the bag I have recently began to use a little more. I enjoy having a couple lenses with me at all times, and since acquiring my 70-200 it's hard to have that on the camera, this bag allows that. This is an Amazon bag that was found for $10 online and could not be passed up. I have been looking into a camera backpack for a while and this was the winner due to the price. As you can see with the second picture a few things get crammed into there.  Not pictured is my iPhone 5 that literally is a life saver and took the photos you see here. Not the greatest due to the lighting, but did the job. 

Canon 50D with strap; yes i still like the strap, and spare battery and charger. Canon 70-200 F2.8 NON-IS, Canon 28-135 F3.5-5.6 IS, Canon 50 prime F1.8, Sigma 17-35 F2.8-4, Rokinon 8mm Fisheye all manual, Yongnuo YN-468 ii speedlite, Cowboy Studio wireless triggers for the speedlite, spare CF cards, a knock off cable release/intervolometer, GoPro hero2, small cleaning kit with lens pen, Square credit card reader, and shoe strings and zip ties. 

Basically this covers a little bit of everything so I can be ready for almost anything. Of course when going on a shoot I will not be carrying this exact set up, but you never know on a day to day basis what you might see, or need. Yes those are shoe strings, they tend to get used a lot when I need to stick the speedlites in a weird spot or hold branches, or other things out of the way for a little bit. They have saved my shots plenty of times and will always be in close reach. 

the 4th photo is the other stuff  may be used depending on what I need. Lowepro 150 shoulder bag, this thing is my day pack/travel life saver. My iPad fits nicely and I can carry a couple lenses and a speedlite. This is usually what I carry when I know what will be needed or for a daily bag. For traveling it works perfect as well as my personal bag, I DO NOT check my camera, ever. Too many horror stories of gear getting stolen. Included in this shot is my old manual lenses. these were some of my first purchases and helped me learn how to operate my camera and understand the basics. They are both M42 lenses with EOS adapters. 28mm F2.5 Vivitar and a 70-210 F3.5 MACRO Soligor. The Sigma 70-300 F4-5.6 is my cheap telephoto that gets used rarely, it also has a MACRO setting that will get used for some off the wall stuff that gets shot. Cokin ND and polarizer filters and adapter ring for landscapes (ND and grad ND filters not pictured). Another Yongnuo speedlite, this is the yn-560 manual. Some shoot through and reflective umbrellas and a couple tripods. 

Finally my daily bag for random other stuff is my Timbuk2 bondage laptop bag. This little bag is an amazing example of efficiency and awesomeness. Macbook Pro mid 2009 for editing and emails/internet/Facebook machine/time waster. Bose MIE2i ear buds, and my iPad. This was included in the photo, but it usually goes everywhere with me. Also included is my back up 500GB hard drive and card reader with cables. Wallet... yes my TGT wallet is included as i have used my ID and some tape to use as a makeshift bounce card for my flash or help as an optical slave with the on camera flash. 

So there you have it, nothing super special or crazy. These tools are what get used to create the images you see, and like on a daily basis. I plan on doing more gear related stuff as i get new toys. If there is something specific you would like me to single out and review or explain, please email me or leave a comment below. 

Jon

scarred land....

burnt tree

this was shot on a short vacation to the Black Hills of South Dakota. i took a trip out there with my girlfriend for the 4th of July in 2012. this was out by Jewel Cave.

i shot SO MANY photos out there and i am just now finally getting around to taking a peek at some. pretty sure i over shot. this was back when i was on my HDR kick and everything was bracketed. this is not and HDR shot, just a single exposure.

shot at F22 1/8th of a second ISO 250 using my Sigma 17-35mm lens.

single file please...

here is a shot i did on the same day as 40/52...

literally a short walk on my local bike path, led to many beautiful photos. this one is not HDR, the wind was too high for me to get a decent bracketed exposure. so i shot to the left and really underexposed the sky. the sun was shining directly on the trees so that helped a ton. all post was done with lightroom. i added a graduated filter to the bottom to lighten it up a bit, and boosted the vibrancy and saturation a little. probably one of the most simple photos i have taken in a while, but it turned out amazing.

thanks again for reading.

jon

@jonseaton-instagram @thejonseaton-twitter

34/52...

shutter speed: 30 sec aperture: f2.8 ISO: 6400 focal length: 17mm

decided to revisit an old spot. this spot has been featured on my blog twice. i took my first panorama photo here, and my first star shot. the star shot was the most memorable. i have included the link to both posts below.

i went back because the last time i was here was October of 2011, since then i have gotten a WAY better camera, and have learned a ton of new tricks to composition and editing. thankfully my camera has a bit higher ISO speed, granted its not as nice as i wish but it does the job. this will be a favorite spot of mine for a long time. its in the middle of nowhere and super peaceful.... well except that one night... read Stars to see what i'm talking about.

Stars: http://jonseaton.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/stars/

country evening: http://jonseaton.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/country-evening/

20/52...

here is another sunrise photo at the Indialantic beach in, Florida. for this i used my sigma 17-35mm at 17mm with a ND8 filter. i believe this was a 10 second exposure at f22. i set the timer on the camera then watched the waves for a bit.

i was hoping for a more dramatic sunrise, and was pretty disappointed with what i had in camera. i was originally trying some HDR shots but the noise was just too high.

after i got home i realized the colors that were present and decided to process them in lightroom 3. there was very little post done on these, just some of my "stock" adjustment. overall i was super please with my morning.

throughout the next week or so i will be posting some more shots form this morning.

Thanks again for looking.

Jon

@jonseaton – instagram @thejonseaton – twitter Facebook.com/seaton.jon – Facebook.

7/52...

I took my son to the car show this weekend. of course i took my camera along!! I only got a few shots, but this one turned out pretty well. it was shot with a Sigma 17-35 f2.8 @17mm. this is an HDR image, with three exposures. Due to the lights EVERYWHERE, it was difficult to get a decent image without some glare, or over exposure.