I was first introduced to Sunseeker when my mentor Moose Peterson went raving about it over at KelbyTraining.com and ever since, I’ve been hooked on this amazing little tool! Sunseeker is a $5.00 app for the iPhone and iPad that just rocks! Sure it gives you the sunrise and sunset times, but that’s not all! Sunseeker is designed as an Augmented Reality program. “What is augmented reality?” you ask. Augmented Reality is this technology where you can point your iphone’s camera at something, and see a whole boat-load of information show up on the screen about what your looking at. With Sunseeker, the information you see is a map of where the sun is now, and where the sun will be at certain times throughout the day! Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve needed to plan to get a certain photograph and you just have to know when the light will be shining where you need it? I’m sure you have! Sunseeker brings photographers the information they need to plan these things out!

So what if augmented reality isn’t your thing?

Personally, I prefer to see this sort of information on a map, and the great folks that designed Sunseeker have taken this into consideration for people like me! Sunseeker comes packed with a map feature which allows you to see where the sun will be at increments throughout the day relative to your location (or wherever you decide to look at)!

The Bottom Line

Sunseeker is a powerful app that any photographer should have loaded on their iPhone! It’s clean and simple UI, and it’s powerful  functionality make it one of my favorite apps (of thousands I’ve tried). Don’t second guess it, go get Sunseeker today!

Don’t ever make the assumption that just because Nikon releases the predecessor to the legendary D3 series, that camera is right for you, or that camera will improve your photography. I cannot stress enough that garbage in is garbage out, and if you aren’t a good shooter in the first place, buying a $6k body is not going to make you hot *&^%. No human body is perfect, so obviously the same applies to Camera Bodies. The Nikon D4 was launched a little over a month ago, and with good reason, it stirred up a lot of attention! 204, 800 ISO? Really? Seriously?! When I first read that little detail on the Nikon website I just about lept from my seat. This coming from a guy who started out on 64ASA b&w film and thought 400 ASA was incredible! For a guy like me, shooting things like concerts, having that low light capability is absolutely crucial (theirs one point for the D4!). Additionally, I do a ton of wildlife work, and having that 10fps is similarly, crucial. So without question, if I was debating what body would be best for me at the moment (the D4 or the D800), I would most definitely say the D4. But you are not me, and most likely you aren’t shooting concerts frequently, and maybe you don’t need that 10fps. Which raises the question: Are you sure that the D4 is right for you and your photography? While this little blog posting may seem short and to the point, I hope you can derive the point I’m trying to communicate to you here. Think about how that $6k hunk of metal and circuit-boards will help you improve your photography. What will it bring to the table? The D4 (nor any camera body) is not right for everyone, so make sure to think about these things before you go breaking the bank. And remember, most importantly, that camera body is nothing without your passion for photography! So get out, get shooting and have fun exploring your passion in this beautiful world we all share!

Image courtesy of Nikon USA

I’m often shocked when I hear someone talk about the importance of shooting Raw and when I ask them why they do it, they have no answer for me! If you’re a little shy on information, go give this a gander! It just might clear things up for you. Curious about what I shoot? My personal preference is to shoot in Raw+Jpeg or Raw (depends on the situation) but never just jpeg!

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If you look at these photographs or any other successfully wildlife photograph, one thing you will always be able to identify as a contributing element is a clean background that tells the story of the critters environment! A photograph should tell a story without words, so think about that when you make your images. Does the background I’m incorporating in my photograph improve my image or does it take away from it? While this is a thought process that should be sub-concious for you after practice, I was thinking about exactly that this past weekend when photographing Red Deer in Montebello, QC.

The Red Deer lives in beautiful pine forests amongst gorgeous view’s and scenery, when I made these images, I cropped them in the camera so as to show not only the critter’s magnificent pose, but also it’s environment, therefore communicating the grand nature of the subject. Background is everything in wildlife photography! Jay Maisel says that Light, Gesture and Color are the fundamentals of all successful images (notice the above image has all of these?), but for wildlife photography, I like to think of one other, background! Want to learn more about working the background? I’ll be hosting a webinar in the near future on the topic, so stay posted!

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It’s kinda rare when you find those wicked cool places purely by chance. This weekend, we didn’t expect to be in Ottawa, nor did we expect to be in Montebello, Quebec’s amazing Parc Omega, but you know, plans change! Well on a search for wildlife shooting opportunities, we headed north to see if the Ottawa Valley would provide the juice we needed! When discussing our needs with some relatives living in Ottawa, we were introduced to this amazing place where Elk, Arctic Wolves, Bison, Black Bear, Caribou, Red Dear and more critters rome without boundary! As you can see from the images, this sort of wildlife photography doesn’t typically come shot from a car 45 minutes from the capital, but Le Parc Omega is incredibly different! The best way to describe Le Parc Omega is how the owner’s describe it: A Natural World Oasis. A place for city dwellers to get close to wildlife without the Some might call it a shooting pen, a photographer’s haven! They’d be right! No matter where you turn their are shooting opportunities! The wildlife comes right up to your car! You think I’m kidding? (See Below)

At Le Parc Omega, It's as if the wildlife is right in the car with you!

Le Parc Omega is actually privately owned by a team of people who’s goal is to make wildlife and natural exploration accesible to those who don’t live in Yellowstone National Park! What they’ve done is a blessing to all of us out here on the east coast who really don’t get to enjoy the beautiful big game of the west. If you get an opportunity to visit Le Parc Omega I strongly advise that you take it! It’s a great gem of a place that you should definitely check out next time your in my neck of the woods!

By the way, if you want to check out more about Le Parc Omega head here! 

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