Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh Power Bank - Ultimate Battery For Wilderness Photographers

Before I get started on the review for today, I want to give a warning to everyone who might buy this power bank or has already bought this power bank. The unit I am reviewing here is a replacement from Anker. The original unit I got was defective and managed to overheat and fry one of my chargers. I will give more details about this incident at the end of this article/blog post. As a precaution, I would recommend everyone who get this power bank to closely monitor the device for the first few charge and discharge cycles to make sure the unit you get is not defective. If you do get a defective power bank, you can contact Anker's customer service. I've been with Anker for years and most of their products are fine. When I do get a defective device, Anker is quick to make things right. Their great customer service is one of the main reason I am still their customer after all these years.

Also, I participate in the Amazon Associates Program so Amazon does pay me a commission for every sale I make through the product links in this article/blog post. This won't cost you anything extra and the money helps fund my blog, photography, and videos. If you do buy through my links, thank you for your support. My product reviews are of my honest opinions and recommendations. I do not let the commission I make affect me in anyway. You can trust me on this, because if I was really in it for the money, I would not have told you about how the original defective unit fried my charger. I cover the good and bad of products.

Today I will have a bit of an in depth review of the Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh Power Bank with Anker PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger. Some parts of the review is fairly technical so don't be alarmed if you don't understand certain parts. The photos in the article/blog post can be viewed bigger by clicking on them. The review will be separated into the following sections: Specifications, Review, and Incident With The Defective Unit. The sections are clearly labeled with a larger title, so if you wish to skip to a certain part in the article/blog post, just scroll around.


Specifications

Let's first start off with what you get in the box. In the bundle you get an Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh Power Bank, an Anker PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger, an Anker micro-USB cable, and an Anker drawstring storage pouch for the power bank.

The size of the power bank according to Anker is 180 x 80 x 24 mm (7.08 x 3.15 x 0.95 in). You can see the power bank compared against a ruler (inches) in the photo above. The weight of the power bank according to Anker is 590 g (20.8 oz).

The size of the Anker PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger according to Anker is 56 x 53 x 28 mm (2.2 x 2.1 x 1.1 in) and it weighs in at 70 g (2.5 oz).

The included Anker micro-USB cable is 0.6 m (2 ft).

The power bank itself can be recharged via any USB charger with a micro-USB cable, however it is recommended to be charged with a Quick Charge 3.0 charger for the fastest recharge speed. The power bank recharges via Quick Charge 3.0 (you can also use a Quick Charge 2.0 if 3.0 is not available). As for the USB ports on the power bank that is used to recharge other devices, there are 3. One of the ports is a Quick Charge 2.0 USB port with an output of 5v at 2.4A, 9v at 2A, and 12v at 1.5A. The Quick Charge 2.0 port can be used to charge other non-Quick Charge devices too. The other 2 ports are regular Anker PowerIQ USB ports that can output 2.4A per port with a combined 3A maximum output. The USB ports used to output power will not operate while the power bank is being recharged (no pass through charging). This is probably a good thing as pass through charging is not good for the battery cells.


Review

Now that I have given you the specifications and features of the products in the bundle that you get, I will proceed with the review of the products. Since the package comes with 3 main products (excluding the Anker drawstring pouch), I will sort of split the review into 3 sections.

The first thing I want to talk about is the included Anker micro-USB cable as this is an item with a major flaw. The included micro-USB cable is bad because the cable is too thin and the wires inside are too thin. I spent an hour trying to charge the power bank with the included micro-USB cable and the power bank didn't go up in charge. The power bank has 10 LED power indicators and has a recharge time of 8 to 9 hours on Quick Charge 3.0. If you do the math, the power bank should gain about 1 LED per hour. Both the charger and the power bank got a bit hot (not to the point of overheat, but warmer than usual). I work a lot with DIY electronics and stuff, so I knew very well this is due to the included micro-USB cable. The included cable isn't defective but is designed too thin, therefore causes a high amount of resistance hindering the flow of electricity. This kind of cable might work with some smaller or older electronics that doesn't require as much of a voltage and current draw, but is not made for big devices like this. I am not the only one complaining about this issue as I saw another review on Amazon that mentioned this problem. This isn't too big of a deal as I just went ahead and used one of my own Anker PowerLine micro-USB cables (which is a thicker than the included cable) which fixed the problem. You can see in the above photo that the included micro-USB cable (top) is thinner than the Anker PowerLine cable (bottom). I wish Anker didn't cheap out and included a better micro-USB cable in the package.

The second item I want to talk about is the Anker PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger which has a slight oversight by design. In my photos above, I compare it to my Choetech Quick Charge 2.0 charger (Choetech has a QC 3.0 charger out now that is the same size) which is on the left in the first 2 pictures and right in the last picture. Ignore the tag on the Choetech charger. As I have mentioned at the beginning of the article, the original defective power bank I got fried one of my chargers. I taped a note on there so I don't accidentally use the charger again. Anker's customer service helped me replace the charger with one of their own so everything is good. As you can see, due to the orientation of the plug on the Anker charger, it covers 2 electrical outlets which the Choetech charger does not do. The 2 chargers are about the same size (Choetech's charger is a tiny bit smaller by like half an inch width wise) but the orientation of the plug changes a lot. While the plug on the Anker charger does fold in for storage, I feel it is more important for a charger to not cover 2 electrical outlets than to save a tiny bit of space in storage. This could be a problem if you are at a hotel or have a limited amount of electrical outlets available. Also, I wish Anker had a bundle where they included the Anker PowerPort 2 Quick Charge 3.0 USB charger instead of their charger with 1 USB port. This way, you can recharge your power bank and your phone at the same time.

Finally I get to reviewing the Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh Power Bank which I did not find any design problems on. This power bank is huge and a bit heavy but that is needed in order for it to store this much electricity. You are probably aware of this by now but I am a nature photographer who goes into the wilderness a lot so a power bank of this size is needed to keep my electronics powered off the grid.

In the photo above, I have the following devices charging simultaneously by the power bank:

• My Huawei Nexus 6P via an Anker PowerLine USB-C to USB 3.0 Cable (3 ft). 
• My Canon LP-E6 battery (which powers my Canon 5D Mark III) via a 3rd party USB charger and one of my Anker PowerLine micro-USB cables.
• My Nitecore NL189 3400mAh 18650 batteries (which powers my Nitecore flashlights) via a Nitecore UM20 Li-ion battery USB charger. 

If you are just looking for a power bank for casual use or you are a photographer who doesn't go off the grid for more than a day, I would recommend something smaller with less capacity as there is almost no way you can use all the power in this power bank in one day. There is no need to pack the extra weight and I doubt you need all those USB ports. If you are looking for a phone charging solution for your whole family, I would recommend you just get a few smaller and lighter power banks. That way your family members can still use their phones while it is being charged and no one person would be stuck carrying all the weight.

If you are a wilderness photographer, camper, backpacker, or a person that will need to be off the grid for a few days, then I would recommend this power bank to you. This power bank is awesome with its 3 USB outputs as you can use it to charge up several USB devices at once (comes in really handy for photographers) and should have enough power to last a few days of general use. There will most likely be no signal in the wilderness so your phone will drain faster because it will constantly be searching for a cell tower. Sometimes people put their phones in Airplane Mode to prevent this, but I normally don't. In some wilderness areas, cell towers has been set up for emergency purposes. I usually leave my cell radio on because you never know when an emergency will pop up.

Since this review/article is more directed more towards wilderness photographers, I'm going to talk a bit more on this topic. One thing you may be able to do with this power bank is charge up your camera/DSLR batteries. You may think that your camera/DSLR battery can't be charged via USB, but you could also be wrong. I had the same thought with my Canon LP-E6 battery which powers my Canon 5D Mark III. Then I found a 3rd party USB charger on Amazon that did the trick. There might be one for your camera/DSLR battery too. Just go to Amazon and search for "(replace with your battery model) USB charger". Since we are dealing with very low voltages and current here, there is very little that can go wrong. I still highly recommend you read the reviews of a particular product first before purchasing though. Another thing you can do with this power bank is recharge the Li-ion batteries found in certain high power flashlights (as demonstrated in the photo above). If you are a night or cave photographer, you more than likely have one of these high power flashlights. There are USB Li-ion battery chargers that can be found on the internet (such as the Nitecore UM20) that recharges this kind of battery. Another thing I can think of (that I don't do myself currently), is recharging your rechargeable AA or AAA batteries. There are USB battery chargers that recharges these batteries too.

The power bank takes about 8 to 10 hours to recharge with Quick Charge 3.0 when mostly or fully depleted. You can recharge the power bank on a regular USB charger, but it will prolong the charging time by a lot. On a regular 2A USB charger, it will take approximately 16 hours to recharge a mostly or fully depleted power bank. I recommend you recharge it overnight if you fully drain the power bank. As I have warned at the beginning, please monitor the power bank for the first few charge and discharge cycles to make sure your power bank isn't defective. After you confirm everything is working correctly, you can recharge it overnight. The recharge times may seem long, but you don't have to do this too often as the power bank has a really large capacity. Due to the long recharge times, I don't recommend trying to recharge this power bank via a solar USB charger. With a solar USB charger, it could take several days of sunlight to recharge a fully depleted power bank. You probably won't need to do that anyways because when this power bank is fully charged, it should last a few days of general use.

I have already done a full discharge cycle with the power bank. In my test, I recharged my Huawei Nexus 6P several times via an Anker PowerLine USB-C to USB 3.0 Cable (3 ft). At the time of writing, the better known Android phones (Samsung Galaxy, Flagship Google Nexus line) tend to have higher capacity batteries than their Apple iPhone counterparts. In other words, if you use an Apple iPhone, you may be able to get more charges out of this power bank than my Android phone. As for which USB port I used on the power bank, I switched it around each time I recharged my phone. The following are my test results (I purposely drained my phone battery to test the power bank):

15% to 100%
15% to 100%
15% to 100%
15% to 87%
77% to 80%
75% to 100%
15% to 100%
15% to 52%

I drained my phone down to 15% each time because that is Android's default cut off before turning on battery saver mode. I doubt anyone on Android would drain the phone completely down, especially on a large phone like the Huawei Nexus 6P. As you can see, it recharged my Huawei Nexus 6P approximately 5.5 times before the power bank died on me.

In conclusion, I love this power bank even though the included accessories had some design problems and my original defective unit fried one of my chargers. As always, it is a quality Anker product and their customer service is always good. They are not paying me to say this, but I want to say it because their customer service has been very helpful to me for years now and the company truly stands behind their products. In the end, I would highly recommend this product for wilderness photographers, people who go camping a lot, and backpacking. I will update the review if something bad comes up as I continue to use it. If you want to purchase the power bank, please use my link here.


Incident With The Defective Unit

The day after I got the original unit from Amazon, I plugged the power bank in for over 8 hours on the Quick Charge 3.0 charger that came with it, but the power meter never went up and it showed it had as much charge as when I first opened the box (3rd led flashing and 3 LEDs lit when unplugged). I also noticed the charger got a bit warm. I thought maybe it was the USB cable so I tried a different USB cable (one of my Anker PowerLine micro-USB cables) for an hour and the power meter didn't go up. I thought maybe the included charger was defective so I tried to charge it with my Choetech Quick Charge 2.0 charger to see if it was indeed the included charger that was the issue. After leaving it on my Choetech charger for half an hour, the battery indicator went up to 9 out of the 10 LEDs with the 9th one flashing. When I unplugged it and checked the power bank, it showed 7 LEDs or 70% capacity. I plugged the power bank back into the Choetech charger and it flashed the 7th LED indicating it was charging from 70%. I left it on the Choetech charger for another half hour. After half an hour, I noticed when I moved the power bank slightly, the LED indicators would turn off for about 2 seconds before going back up to 70% charged state. I felt my Choetech charger and it was so hot it felt like my hands was getting burned. I quickly unplugged everything and brought my Choetech charger up to my nose. As I suspected, there was a smell of burnt plastic. I didn't see smoke or anything, but I also wouldn't dare use that Choetech charger again. As I have shown earlier in this article, I stuck a warning label on the charger so I won't accidentally reuse it again. The defective power bank ruined a perfectly good charger that I have been using over a year. I believe the charging circuit in the power bank was defective, causing high amounts of electrical resistance, leading to the overheat.

After some back and forth with Anker's customer service (and some miscommunication), Anker solved the issue for me free of charge (I didn't even need to pay for any shipping fees). They replaced my Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh Power Bank with Anker PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger and gave me an extra Anker PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger to replace my fried Choetech charger. As I have mentioned before, Anker really stands behind their products and has the best customer service ever. This is why I have been their customer for years. I am still putting this story up because a defect this big should not have went unnoticed. I understand there will always be lemons in the manufacturing process, but a big defect like this can't be simply ignored. The replacement I got works great so far. Anker fixed everything for me and made things right.

In the end, I still recommend Anker products. This incident did scare me a bit, but it doesn't change my positive opinions on this company. Again, if you want to purchase the power bank, please use my link here. I hope this article has helped you in some way and thank you so much for reading. 

New Photography & Backpacking Gear - July 2016 Vlog (Part 2)

During the month of July, I got new photography gear, Anker gear, and gear that I need for camping and backpacking out in the wilderness. In this vlog, I show you my haul this month and some other things.

In this vlog:

• My new Anker and Choetech USB-C cables.
• New AmazonBasics rechargeable AA batteries.
• Compact way to split an electrical outlet and me preparing for an aerial photo shoot.
• New wireless Polaroid intervalometer for photography along with a battery hack.
• New photography gear and wilderness survival gear.
• New Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh Portable Power Bank, Anker  PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger, and Anker's great customer service.
• New water bottle for my hiking and camping trips.

Photos from the aerial photo shoot I mentioned can be found in this blog post.

Warning: Hateful, rude, anti-LGBT comments will be deleted, and you may be banned from my channel.

<< Previous Vlog | Next Vlog >> (Coming Soon)

Subscribe to my Youtube Channel here.

Giottos Rocket Air Blaster Small Review (Video)

I review the small Giottos Rocket Air Blaster. This is a great little tool blowing dust off your lens and sensor of your DSLR. I personally find this helpful when I'm bringing a small photography bag (when I don't need my full set up). This tool fits in my small photography bag very nicely. As  mentioned in the video, I always blow off my lens before using a cleaning cloth to get rid of any sand or hard debris that might otherwise scratch the lens. I highly recommend you bring an air blower in your camera bag.

For the review of the large Giotto Rocket Air Blaster, click here.

Warning: Hateful, rude, anti-LGBT comments will be deleted, and you may be banned from my channel.

Subscribe to my Youtube Channel here.

CES 2015 - Las Vegas, NV (Part 1)

I went to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV this year! There was so much cool electronic gadgets to see. I went on the last two days of the convention (Thursday and Friday). I obviously didn't get through all of the exhibits. I got so carried away looking and playing with the cool electronics, that I forgot to vlog and take photos for a lot of the stuff at the convention. Even with that, I still have a pretty good collection of shots to show you that I took at the convention. I hope you enjoy viewing the photos. The photos will be split into four blog posts. If you haven't watched my vlog yet, you can do so here. In the vlog, you can see some of the products in the photos here in action. Obviously, I can't animate a photo! :)

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos here, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best CES 2015 photos, use this link. To see all of my CES 2015 photos, use this link.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 

Here is part 1 of the photos from the event. Coming up in this blog post: Happy Plugs (Take a guess at what this is. LOL), person dressed up as Elvis, headphones, camera tripods, drones, 4K gaming, and much more!

One of the first shots I did at the convention. A wide angle shot of the convention center. 

Happy Plugs earphones! Did you guess that? :)

Nitecore flashlights. These are great flashlights. I got to test them out at the convention. They packed a punch! Really bright in such a small form factor. The flashlight in the center of the photo was the brightest one they had on display at the convention. It was really cool to see! The company sells the flashlights on Amazon. If you are in need of a bright flashlight, definitely go check them out. I am actually considering on getting one right now. Will definitely help out in my photography. 

They had a guy dressed up at Elvis singing at the convention. Decided to get a few shots of him. 

Another photo of the guy dressed up as Elvis. 

This is the MEElectronics stand. I wanted to get a photo of their headphones because I own a pair myself. It is those crystal ones you see on the left. They are shiny, pretty, and the sound quality is good. You can check those out here. Only issue I had with those is the housing around the plug coming loose, but I contacted the company, and they are currently shipping me a replacement. This is a trustworthy company that stands behind their products!

Virtual reality goggles. 

Here is a portable power bank with a built-in car charger. This I feel is really handy. Sadly, I forgot to get the company name. I already have 2 battery banks anyways. They last long enough for me to get home and charge, plus I've got quite some stand alone car chargers in my cars. While a handy idea, I don't really need one of these. I can see how some others might find these handy though.

Several models of carbon fiber tripods made by WB Products Group. 

The Digital Imaging/Photography section of the convention. 

Demo of some quadcopters (drones). 

Another photo of the quadcopters (drones). 

Here is a photo of the news media at the convention. 

Here is a photo of a quadcopter (drone) and a remote. 

The stand for IPv6... If they offered lanyards I would totally wear it. If you guys don't know, I'm quite the computer geek too. LOL I picked up one of those bumper stickers. 

4K gaming demo from DisplayPort. 

DisplayPort's giant chair. 

I forgot the name for this company, but they are making an electronic wallet (similar to Apple Pay and Google Wallet), except this a separate device. This electronic wallet only has one purpose and will last a very long time on each charge. 

A photo of the Happy Plugs exhibit. My friend and I thought the name was funny. LOL

These are all the photos for today. I have more CES 2015 photos next time (Canon, Nikon, Polaroid, etc...). Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 

Black Friday Deals Week 2014

Black Friday Deals Week has begun on Amazon and I have the link to the deals page for you guys! Happy shopping! Amazon has the best deals ever including photography and computer accessories during this time of year and best of all is no waiting in line, no camping out, and your merchandise is delivered right to your doorstep! So please enjoy your chance to shop for cheap merchandise without the risk of getting potentially trampled by other shoppers! I have already got quite some nice deals in these past few weeks from the Countdown to Black Friday Deals Week event such as a USB 3.0 Hub, a pair of Bluetooth headphones, and a USB car charger. All of those were pretty nice deals, and works great right now. I will most likely be getting more merchandise as more deals roll out. Amazon will be having many limited time deals on their Black Friday Deals Week and the stream of deals will end as they start Cyber Monday Deals Week after Thanksgiving.

If you wish to be updated with a daily deals list, please follow me on one of my social media sites. On my personal Google+, I will post a deal's round up everyday if I found anything photography, videography related, or if I find some other cool electronics products. On my main photography fan pages such as Google+, Twitter, and Facebook, I will only post if there are photography and videography related deals up.

And as always, please make sure that you use my link before adding anything to your cart! This way, you will be helping support my photography without having to spend extra. :) What happens is, once you click the link, Amazon will pay me a small commission for everything (with some exclusions) you buy in the next 24 hours. I participate in Amazon's Amazon Affiliate Program. The funds goes into helping support my photography such as paying for website storage and buying new equipment. Thank you very much for your support. Happy shopping!

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Countdown to Black Friday Deals Week 2014

Countdown to Black Friday Deals Week has begun on Amazon and I have the link to the deals page for you guys! Happy shopping! Amazon has the best deals ever including photography and computer accessories during this time of year. So please enjoy your chance to shop for cheap merchandise! I have already bought myself a USB 3.0 Hub (one of the deals at the time of writing) so I can plug more external hard drives and memory cards onto my computer and still get the faster transfer speed of USB 3.0! I will most likely be getting more merchandise as more deals roll out. Amazon will be having many limited time deals on their Amazon Countdown to Black Friday Deals Week and the stream of deals will last end before they start Black Friday Deals Week. 

Make sure that you use my link before adding anything to your cart! This way, you will be helping support my photography without having to spend extra. :) What happens is, once you click the link, Amazon will pay me a small commission for everything (with some exclusions) you buy in the next 24 hours. I participate in Amazon's Amazon Affiliate Program. Thank you very much for your support.

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Depth-Of-Field (DOF) in Photography

Hi guys, today I am writing up a general tutorial on how Depth-Of-Field (DOF for short) works in photography. It is actually pretty easy to learn. DOF is pretty much how much of an image that can be in focus at certain settings. There is actually quite a lot of physics and how light travels, but I will just be giving a pretty general overview in this tutorial to help you take better photos.

For depth of field, here are the 2 rules you need to remember:

• The closer you are to an object, the less you can get in focus. The farther away, the more you can get in focus. That is why you see people using telephoto lenses to do portraits. Zoom in and back up if you want more in focus. 
• The wider your aperture, the less you can get in focus, however you get more light and faster shutter. The narrower your aperture, the more you can get in focus, however less light means slower shutter speed. Don't go too narrow, or you will experience blurriness. 

The distance is quite self explanatory, but aperture might be a bit confusing for beginners, so I will go into more detail here. The scale for aperture might be a bit confusing for beginners as the scale is kind of "opposite". The aperture is measured in f-stops (generally denoted as "f/XX" where "XX" is the aperture). The SMALLER the number, the BIGGER the aperture opening (example: f/2.8), more light and faster shutter speed. The BIGGER the number, the SMALLER the aperture opening (example: f/22), less light and slower shutter speed. If you are on a tripod and want everything in focus, you can use a smaller aperture, however when handheld, you want to balance these to not get motion blur, but still get a usable image. The widest aperture for the lens is generally denoted in the name of the lens (you can't go wider than that). Some zoom lenses have a variable aperture where the widest aperture will change as you zoom in and out. You usually find two aperture numbers in the names of those lenses. 

For landscape shots, you don't want to go all out f/22. When the aperture opening gets that small, a different type of distortion occurs and you will get a blurry image that looks out of focus. I generally use an f/14 and f/16 for my landscape shots, but the "good aperture" varies lens to lens and is something you want to experiment with and balance out with DOF. When handheld, I use a middle of the road aperture for landscape shots somewhere from f/8 to f/11.

If you want to experiment with the aperture controls to further control DOF, you can do so in the following modes of your camera: A or Av (Aperture Priority), M (Manual), or B (Bulb) modes.

Below are some sample photos to show you the DOF from controlling the aperture. These photos are shot at Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA on my road trip from the SF Bay Area to Vancouver, BC, Canada. You can view the photos from my trip here. The photos are of the giant steel cables keeping the bridge up. I thought they would make a great DOF subject to do a tutorial on.

This first photo is shot at f/2.8, a very wide aperture with less of the cable in focus. 

Here is a photo at f/5. As you can see more of the cable is in focus now. 

Here is a photo at f/2.8. See how very little of the cable is in focus. 

Here is another photo at f/5. As you can see more of the cable is in focus. 

This is it for the tutorial! I hope it has helped you out a bit with your photography. :) Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

My first portrait shoot!

Today I have something special. Here are the photos from my first ever portrait shoot. These photos were also shot on 5/31/2014 in Fremont Central Park in Fremont, CA. I met up with a friend that day and got her to model for a few shots and she agreed to have me share it out. This was the first ever portrait shoot I tried with a reflector. I did blind her on a few shots with the silver side of the reflector because this was the first time I tried using one and had no clue what I was doing. The only other practice I had before with people was in street photography, which is very different than using a reflector and shooting photos of a model. Even though I had watched many tutorials and lectures on Youtube on how to do portrait photos, the hands on experience is quite different than just watching other people do it. If you want to see a higher resolution of any of the photos you see here, you can do so with this link. In this blog post I will also point out some beginner mistakes and things that beginner portrait photographers should be watching for.

Notes on these photos: The photos in this blog post are not available for commercial use and/or personal use. The photos in this blog post are not for sale. You may not redistribute and/or make copies of the photos in this blog post in anyway. 

The shade is always a good spot to shoot portraiture as the light is very soft in the shade however always pay attention to the background and try not to blow it out. I had a few people tell me the background looks a bit blown out. No reflectors or flash was used in this portrait. Usually, when you compose, you want the background to also be in the shade or try to balance out the light with an external flash or by bouncing some light in using a reflector. This was my first portrait shoot so I was still experimenting and didn't pay too much on the background. For the background in this photo, that was as much as Camera RAW will go at recovering the highlights. Always shoot your photos in RAW! There is a lot more room to work with the shot after than JPEG. 

Also when composing your shot, pay attention to what is in the background! I did not see that trash can until I was back on the computer. The first photo is a the edited one with the trash can patched out. Pay attention to your background or prepare to spend a lot of time in 

Photoshop patching things out with the Healing Brush. The mistake I made at the beginning was just checking to see if the exposure was good, making sure everything is in focus, and checking to see if there is any motion blur as I was on a non-image stabilized lens.

Here is another portrait photo with a slightly different pose at almost the same spot as above. 

The trash can was also in this photo sadly. Another method is if there is an unavoidable obstacle in the composition, position the person to block out the object in your photo, however this can be tricky at times. 

My friend suggested that we do some on the swings so that is the next spot. Since this was under the sun, I decided to experiment with my reflector a bit. I blinded her a bit with the silver side. I tried a few photos with the silver side however they did not work out so well. The silver side is way too intense. I think the silver is used for further away light bouncing. I'm not too sure how to use it. Either way, whenever you plan to bounce some light in, have the person you are shooting face away from the sun. 

Here is another photo shot with the silver side of the reflector. 

After all that squinting, I decided to give the white side of the reflector a go. With the white side of the reflector, the light bounced is a lot softer however you do need to get pretty up close to the model in order to see it have an effect. However after switching over to white, the photos turned out a lot better. The background is still a bit blown out on this photo. A lot more learning to do. :)

One last portrait of my friend with the white side of the reflector. 

These are all the photos for today. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

My new portfolio is now LIVE! (Opening Promotion + Haiyan Relief Fund)

That is right guys! I have spent the last 2 weeks vigorously designing my new portfolio and you can now view it live here. I have of course gotten my own domain name and called it something very easy to remember:

http://naturetastic.com

So why am I making this change? In the past, as I get more popular and popular here on this blog and on Google+, people have asked if they can get prints of my work. In the past, I've always have to turn them down because I have no way of having them purchase prints. However with my new portfolio up, you can!

Also as a new website opening promotion, all prints have been priced low (up to 20% off, no codes required). If there is something that you want to hang up on your wall, now is the time to get it! I plan on running this promotion for approximately one month. If I make good sales this first month, I may extend the promotion. :)

If you have been a long follower on my blog, you probably know that I am a college student. I don't have much money for new photo gear. Next month, I am taking a trip back to China, to see relatives, and get some shots of Asia which many of my North American followers have never visited before. I am in need of some new memory cards, rechargeable batteries, etc. If you would like to help fund for part of the trip, great idea to take part of that promo right now! Not only will you get a professional quality print from Bay Photo, you will be helping fund for my trip so I can bring you guys back more amazing photos!

HAIYAN RELIEF FUND DONATIONS
Also to help out the natural disaster in the Philippines, I will also be donating money via Amazon to the Haiyan Relief Fund of the American Red Cross. How much I donate is directly based on my sales. I will donate $1 for every 3 orders I get (excludes digital downloads) that is successful. I will also be donating additional $$ if orders reach a certain amount. All details about both promotions is available here. If you wish to donate directly, you can do so via Amazon here.

Nothing much is going to change for my blog. I will continue blogging about my trips. However on each post, I will give you links (if I remember) to the galleries on my portfolio so you can see images in higher resolution or full resolution. That is one good thing about Smugmug. They allow me to share my photos in full resolution. This is free for you to use. I don't charge you for viewing my photos at full resolution. Also, my blog now has its own URL (http://blog.naturetastic.com). Don't worry, my old URL still works. It will just redirect you to the correct page on my new URL.

That is pretty much it. I told you about the changes to my blog, the promotion, and gave the link to my new portfolio. I hope you enjoy. Also this means that I will be posting up more photos on my social network pages (which I have already rebranded). So if you wish, please don't forget to "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. 

P.S. If prints isn't your thing, you can always support me by doing your holiday shopping on Amazon by using my link. Amazon will pay me a small commission for all purchases you make within 24 hours after you click that link. Just make sure you do that before adding anything to your cart. :) Here is the link. (The photographer is a participant of the Amazon Associates Program)

Samsung Announces Samsung Galaxy NX (Video)

A video I made talking about Samsung's announcement on the Samsung Galaxy NX.  I do not have a demo unit, so this video is strictly only TALKING about this device. The Samsung Galaxy NX is the word's first mirrorless interchangeable lens camera phone and is built with a pop up flash and a 20.3MP APS-C sensor.

More details on the phone on Samsung's website here.
My article on Samsung's announcement here.

Pet Photography

Today I have some pet photos I want to show you. One photo will be of my neighbors cat, and the other two will be of my parakeets. Sorry about the short post, I've been a bit busy recently. My flu symptoms is almost gone, but not completely gone, and because of that, I am a bit behind on my school work so trying to catch up a bit. Hope you all understand. Anyways, let's continue with the photos for today.

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 at home and backyard photos for 2013, use this link. To see all of my 2013 at home and backyard photography photos, use this link.

 I walked out one evening and spotted my neighbors cat sleeping right under my loquat tree in my front yard. I went back in my house and brought out a camera and took a shot. The cat left after the photo. LOL

Here are my 2 parakeets. The left one is Blue and the right one is Chirpy. I know Blue looks a bit sick in the photo. I took this photo several weeks back. She is doing a lot better now after the antibiotic treatment.  

Here is another photo of them. 

I hope you have enjoyed these photos. Again, quite busy recently so I might not post as often. Hope you can understand. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.