Friday, March 30, 2012

SDXC Cards in your EOS 7D (Video)

Remember the SDXC cards in your EOS 7D tutorial I posted a while back? (If you don't remember or you are new, you can view it here.) I made the tutorial into a Youtube video. I hope you enjoy it!


To use SDXC cards in your EOS camera, you need to format your exFAT SDXC card to FAT file system. To do this, either use the format option on your camera, or use the computer method. Make sure you back up all data on your SD card as formatting will delete everything. To format your SDXC card on your computer, follow these instructions:
1. Insert SD card into your computers SD card reader.
2. Open up My Computer.
3. Right click on your SD card and click format.
4. Choose the FAT option and let the computer finish formatting.

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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Taiwan (台湾) 2011 (Part 1)

Last year, I made my first visit to Taiwan, R.O.C. I was very busy after I got back and never got a chance to look through them and pick out the photos I'm going to post. I finally took out enough time to finish, so... Here they are! I did not take many photo there as the tropical weather made me very sick. I will be splitting them into a total of 8 parts. I hope you enjoy viewing them!

我去年去台湾旅游了一次。我会把这些照片分成八章文章。

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Taiwan photos, use this link. To see all of my Taiwan photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Today I will be posting the pictures I took with my cellphone, and begin some of the photos I took with my DSLR.

This is the presidential office. Yeah I remember! LOL I forgot a lot of the names... My Chinese sucks too, which is the other reason. 

Some sort of park. It was beautiful. Weird how they can open up such a place in such a crowded city.  

Water fountain.  

This was Zhong Shan Tang.
中山堂。

This is the Shilin Night Market. It is one of the main tourist attractions in Taipei. A lot of snacks and food. Also lot's of small souvenirs for sale.  

Another photo of the Shilin Night Market. I took photos with my phone because I can get a better view above everybody. XD It was very crowded.  

This was on the edge of Shilin Night Market. There are some arcade games and souvenirs for sale.  

This is the Ding Tai Feng Restaurant (鼎泰丰) in Taipei. It is one of the famous tourist attractions, famous for their Xiao Long Bao (小笼包). They also have stores in mainland China.

The Xiao Long Bao figurine. LOL Anyways, I'd say the place is over-rated. The food in some of the less popular stores actually tasted better. If you are a foreigner with no idea how to speak Chinese, you are probably better off here. The waiters and waitresses can speak English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and maybe some other languages.  

The tall building is Taipei 101 (台北 101). It is one of the world's tallest buildings.  

Taipei 101 at night. 

Taipei 101 at night. 

One of the underground malls in Taipei.  

Giant hermit crabs! These were a lot bigger than the ones I've seen in the US.

The store had tiny ones on the left, and the big ones on the right. I've never seen the big ones in the US before. That is why I took a picture.

That is all of my cell phone photos. The rest of the photos and the ones in the days to come is taken with my DSLR.  

This is Zhong Shan Tang. Good thing I got a picture of the name. XD 

That says Zhong Shan Tang (read from left to right). Good thing I got a photo of the name.  

Outside of Zhong Shan Tang 

It says Zhong Shan Tang on the building. Since it is an old building, the text is read from right to left.  

Another photo of Zhong Shan Tang.

I hope you have you enjoyed viewing today's photos! Next time I got more Taiwan photos including some wildlife photos! Please remember to share them with your friends! Check back soon for more photos! If you would like to be notified when I post, you can "Like" us on Facebook. This can also be done in the Facebook box on the top of the right side bar.

Next Part >>

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Central Park and Rio Vista Birds

Today I am here to share with you some photos I took at Central Park and Rio Vista. As with the past few blog posts, these photos were from last year. The first 3 photos may have been posted before, however, I am not that sure, so I am posting them again. The first 3 photos was taken at Central Park. Central Park is located in Fremont, CA. The last photo was taken in Rio Vista, I think. Rio Vista is a small city located in California.

Before I get started, I would just like to remind you that I made a Facebook Fan page for this photography blog. You can "Like Us" here. I have also made Google+ and Twitter pages. If you follow or "Like" me on these, you can be updated whenever I post something new! :) Please invite your friends too! I'm trying to get more viewers on here. Anyways, as always, enjoy my photos!

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. Images of Central Park here. Pelican photo here.

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)

 Mallard Ducks (Anas platyrhynchos)
The first 3 photos are taken on 4/27/2011. 

This an immature Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis). You can tell because its colors has not fully developed yet. (According to my North American bird field guide)
This photo was taken on 9/3/2011.

I hope you have enjoyed today's photos. Please remember to share them with people you know! Please leave me good comments below. :) Also if you would like to be updated every time I post, please "Like" us on Facebook. This can also be done in the Facebook box at the top of the right side bar.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Sunflowers

Continuing photos from last year, today I will share with you some sunflower photos. As you all know now I have 2 pet birds. I usually empty their crap try in my back yard and front yard. A lot of rice and millet grew out last year. I had one giant sunflower grow up too! There was about 30 flowers on the single plant. It was beautiful. I hope you enjoy the photos!

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best 2011 and 2012 backyard photos, use this link. To see all of my 2011 backyard photos, use this link.


I got a lot of sunflower seeds from them. :D Anyways, that is all for today. I hope you enjoyed it. Please share this blog post with your friends! Also if you would like to be updated every time I post, please "Like" us on Facebook. This can also be done in the Facebook box at the top of the right side bar.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Baby Robin

I have to admit. These photos was actually taken during May of 2011. They got mixed in with my Taiwan photos and I was really busy (and a bit lazy ROFL) so I didn't find time to organize and pick out the ones I was going to post. I finally got the photos from Taiwan all sorted out. Expect them to be posted soon. :) Anyways, today I want to share with you some baby robin photos. Last year, there was this robin that nested in my backyard and I got a really good look at the babies and took some great photos. They are really cute so I hope you enjoy viewing them!

Just as a reminder, if you love my blog, you can also "Like" us on Facebook. You can also do that in the Facebook box at the top of the right sidebar. This will give you updates on your Facebook feed as I post more photos.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best bird photos from 2011, use this link. To see my best 2011 and 2012 backyard photos, use this link. To see all of my 2011 backyard photos, use this link.

The photos are of the American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

Here is a photo of the nest.

There was 2 chicks. 

Anyways, continuing my story... Well apparently later I tried to take a photo with my phone, and that scared one of the chicks out... It tried to fly, but apparently fell slowly to the ground. I caught up with it (it managed to run to the other side of my yard!) and put it back in the nest. Nothing bad happened. Later that afternoon I saw the momma bird teaching the one that fell out how to fly. She didn't seem to care I touched her baby. So... and they all returned that night. No abandonment, but they didn't come back to the nest to lay the eggs this year. :( Maybe it was because of me, oh well, I got a bunch of finch nests in my yard. :D I think the robin moved into my neighbor's home, because I see a lot of robins flying around their house now. 

Momma bird back with food?

Yep she had food. LOL Bird butt...

The baby chick looking at me. The photos aren't in order. The first 3 photos was taken with my cellphone. I obviously couldn't fit my DSLR up in that little space. One benefit for tiny cameras. The rest was done with my Olympus (my old DSLR). 

Anyways, you would be surprised at how much finch and sparrow nest in my yard. I see them in my front yard and backyard everyday. I guess they love the free food. ROFL I usually leave my parakeets outside during the day time, and boy do the wild birds love coming for the spilled food. My parakeets probably spill half of what I put in. 

Both of them are looking at me now. ^_^ Cute

This what the robin did after I put it back into the nest. I guess it was scared.

Momma bird teaching him/her how to fly. 


I hope you have enjoyed viewing these cute photos. I'll try to get more baby bird photos if I can. There is a finch nest in my yard I can see very well, however it is too high for me to reach. Don't want to disturb the birds, but I'll try to spot out more nests in my yard. Please share this blog post with your friends, and any bird lovers you know! Thanks for viewing! See you next time.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Introduction to Aperture

Today I will teach you about choosing an aperture. An aperture is a hole inside the lens in which light travels through. Aperture is a very important thing to learn about for a photographer. First of all, if you are new, aperture can only be adjusted while in Aperture Priority (Av) mode, Manual (M) mode, and Bulb mode. If you would like to mess with this function, use those modes. Aperture is measured in f-stops or f/xx where xx is a number. The bigger the number, the smaller the opening. So as you can now see, the smaller the number, the wider the aperture opens, the more light that hits the sensor, which in turn, will decrease your shutter speed. The bigger the number, the smaller the opening, the less light that can hit the sensor, the longer the shutter speed. Now you may be asking, "Why don't we always open up the aperture to the widest mode?" See the next to photos below.


The photo above was taken with a f/7.1. See how the background is nice and blurred out? Opening up your camera's aperture wide is key for macro photography. For macro photography, you want the background nice and blurred out while your subject is in focus. 


The second photo is of the same subject except it was taken at f/45. See how the background is so much more in focus now? This is not what you want your macro photo to be like. You want the background blurred out, however this is the effect you want when you are doing landscape. In a landscape shot, you want everything in focus. Closing up your aperture for a landscape shot is key to a great photo. 

Good! Now you just learned about adjusting your aperture for what ever you need! Please note an aperture of f/7-f/10 is a "default" aperture a camera uses. If you ever use program or auto, this is what your camera will usually be using. I hope you have enjoyed today's lesson. :) Have fun and experiment with aperture yourself! Please share this with other photography enthusiasts. If you would like to be notified next time I post, please "Like" us on Facebook.


Monday, March 12, 2012

Pleasanton Trail Photos

Today I got more photos from Pleasanton Trail. The trail behind my house. Enjoy! The first 19 photos is from last year November.

Pleasanton is located in California.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best bird photos from 2011, use this link. To see my best Pleasanton photos from 2011 and 2012, use this link. To see all of my Pleasanton photos from 2011, use this link.


Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

Not sure what birds those are.


Mallard Duck (Anas platyrhynchos)


I'm guessing it's a vulture.

Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)


California Towhee (Pipilo crissalis)

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)


Vulture

I'm guessing this is a American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), but I'm not that sure.

I hope you have enjoyed the bird photos today. Please check back soon for more photos. Also, please share this blog post with your friends and family. If you would like to be notified next time I post, please "Like" us on Facebook. Thanks for looking!