What confused me with the Sony a6000

Posted on by Ken Zirkel

I bought my a6000 specifically to use on a trip. I’ve been doing photography for 30 years, I’ve used everything from film to DSLRs to Sony point and shoots. Piece of cake, right? Well, there were some things that confused me. Mostly focus-related.

I found it tricky to control the focus point. My 6D, I use the center focus point, it’s tiny and accurate. The a6000 has giant focus points, and I never quite figured out how to use just one. Finally I just accepted the auto focus points.

I like to shoot back-button autofocus, so I set it for that. Then I wanted to lend my camera to our tourguide, but I couldn’t figure out how to disable the back-button autofocus. Well, fine, I’ll focus it first, and hand it to him, but …

The pre-focus feature kept messing me up … I’d focus the camera, hand it to my tourgude, and the prefocus feature would kick in and mess up the focus. Finally turned that off.

I decided I’d do just as well to manually focus my Canon 1-22, but it took a while to figure out how to turn on the focus peaking. Didn’t realize my Canon lens focus switch had to be set to “manual” to see the zebra stripes.

Stupid power zoom is stupid. I kept going wide when I wanted to go tele, and vice versa. Saving grace would be that I can control the zoom from the body, right … no, you can’t. The other NEX cameras can, but the a6000 cannot zoom from the body AFAIK. So you get all the disadvantages of power zoom without the advantage.

I bought a wireless remote release, but I kept forgetting how to activate the camera to accept it (it’s not in the shot mode menu, as with Canon). Once I figured that out, I couldn’t figure out exactly how to point the remote to get it to work.

Dunno if that helps anyone, but that was my experience.

Posted in Photography (writing)

Why do I travel

Posted on by Ken Zirkel

Interesting question was posted on reddit: Why do you travel? Traveling has enriched me greatly for some wildly different reasons.

Mostly, I travel because I like the break from the routine. It forces me to try different foods, sleep in different places, interact with new people, maybe even speak a different language. It encourages me to manage my time and schedule in a new way. I like to think that this encourages a kind of personal growth.

In part because of the break from routine, travel brings me closer to my family. We have a collection of shared experiences that we can recall. Even the bad experiences. Remember that time we saw Ringo Starr’s childhood home. Remember that time you got sick in the hotel. Remember that time we got a flat tire in Ireland!

I have a number of different interests that are complemented well by travel. I’m interested in history, for example. I read a book about the first sea clock. Then I went to Greenwich and saw it. It was a thrill to have that connection to something I had read about. Similar for Gettysburg (you can really see where the battle of Little Round Top happened), etc.

Oh, and I also learned a lot about places that I wouldn’t have known about if I hadn’t traveled there. Could I have read a book? Yes. Would I have? In many cases, no.

I’m also a hobbyist photographer. I can’t get great photos of things unless I go to those things. Pretty self-explanatory.

I’m also a bicyclist and hiker. It gets boring hiking and cycling on the same old paths near home.

I am also doing genealogy research. I (and my wife) have met distant family members who live very far away, who we never knew before. My wife has German cousins who descended from the sister of an 1860’s immigrant to the US. They greeted us warmly and hosted us for a meal and showed us around town. Two years later, I visited my father’s cousins, and they told me stories of a side of my grandfather which I never knew. Ironically, since they are older than me, they remembered him better, even though he lived a block from my house. The time spent meeting these people — these new friends and family members — are among the highlights of my life.

I’m not trying to convince anyone else to travel, merely answering the question of why I do. I realize many of my reasons are personal. If people prefer not to travel, that is fine by me.

Posted in Travel

Driving in Ireland

Posted on by Ken Zirkel

I knew that in the UK and Ireland, people drive on the left side of the road. I heard the advice “drive left, look right” at intersections, and repeated the mantra to myself all during the drive. However, what I didn’t anticipate was that the roads and parking lots are all designed for smaller cars than the US. Also, Ireland/UK cars are designed with the steering wheel on the right. Sitting on the right side of the car is disorienting in a way I did not anticipate. I was very uncomfortable judging where the edges of the car were. For some reason, I had low confidence when backing up. I’m so used to looking over my right shoulder, it was disorienting to look over my left shoulder.

The car: Since we had four people, we rented a Ford Mondeo, which is a standard mid-sized car for the US. However, it’s a large car by Ireland standards. In retrospect, I would have preferred a smaller car. As a plus, though, the car had audible proximity sensors which beeped when we got close to an object. And there was a rear cigarette port, into which we plugged this Anker 5-port USB car charger, which was great for the kids.

Transmission: I drive manual transmission daily at home. My rental in Ireland had manual transmission … at my left hand. The “reverse” was to the left of 1st, instead of being to the right of 5th, not sure if that’s an Ireland thing or a Ford thing. It took some getting used to reverse being in the “wrong” spot on the stick. If you don’t know how to drive manual … absolutely get automatic, no matter what the extra cost. As it was, I stalled a few times and had difficulty finding “reverse”.

First advice: Check your tire pressure. Driving on the left was awkward, and I slammed into the left curb a few times while getting the hang of it. Unfortunately, one of those times resulted in a blown front left tire. I later checked the pressure, and all the tires were underinflated. Was the underinflation the cause of the blowout? I can’t say for sure, but I believe so. Anyway, I successfully changed the tire, and a passing motorist helped direct us to a tire shop. We were back on the road in two hours, one of which was spent having lunch.

Second advice: get the excess damage waiver. If you get any dents or such, you are covered. Normally I don’t get that with a rental, but the driving is so different in Ireland, I feel it was worth it. I got scratches in the hotel parking garage. I backed into a bunch of beer kegs and broke the rear reflector off the bumper. The small spaces in Ireland seem to make scratches and bumps so much more likely.

Naviation: For navigation, I still like CoPilot GPS. I bought the US map first, then added the Europe map last year. I have now used it in Germany, Ireland, Arizona, Utah, upstate New York, and remote parts of New Hampshire and Maine. It works in all conditions, signal or no signal.

Driving: The roads vary from US-like interstates to one-lane country roads, but almost always the lanes are narrower than in the US. For two-lane roads, you need to guide the car down the lane with precision, because these roads are often twisty and there is not a lot of visibility as to what is ahead. Some of the really narrow country roads are just one lane; one car has to pull over to let the other pass. And the country lanes are planted with hedges on either side; when the road twists and turns (and it will), you cannot see if anybody is coming.

The main drawback of CoPilot is that its database of “Places of interest” was lacking in Ireland locations. I have since found the free Pocket Earth, it seems to have a lot more points of interest available.

Finally, repeat to yourself, “keep left, look right at intersections.” Keep left, look right.

The good news is, we made it fine, after 8 days of driving, Belfast to Shannon via a northerly route through Portrush, Derry, etc.

Posted in Travel Advice, Trip Reports

Misc Lessons from Ireland trip

Posted on by Ken Zirkel

We spent 8 days driving in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Here are some miscellaneous notes:

Clothes:

Ireland in summer was in the 50s to low 60s Fahrenheit every day. It rained almost every day, and was sunny almost every day.

Clothes: if you can afford it: wear a nice waterproof outer shell, an insulating layer, and a base layer. As a male, I really liked my new Uniqlo Airism briefs (seem to be sold out), they pack tiny and are easily washed.

Phone:

If you are happy with the photos your phone takes, use that. For navigation, I still like CoPilot GPS. I bought the US map first, then added the Europe map last year. I have now used it in Germany, Ireland, Arizona, Utah, upstate New York, and remote parts of New Hampshire and Maine. It works in all conditions, signal or no signal. The main drawback of CoPilot is that its database of “Places of interest” was lacking in Ireland locations. I have since found the free Pocket Earth, it seems to have a lot more points of interest available.

Also, my T-Mobile plan has free international roaming, which proved invaluable in sorting out some issues that came up. We had a flat tire, and I left my laptop in Liverpool airport security. Both issues would have been very tough to resolve without my T-Mobile plan.

Chargers:

For most plug adapters, I am fine with a cheap power converter like this generic one. I bought 3 for $9. They are bulky, but light. In Ireland, it was difficult to find a hotel with more than two available wall plugs, though.

We were a family of 4 who all had USB devices to charge. I loved this EZOPower 4-port USB Charger that comes with plugs for US, Europe, UK, and more. In the car, we had the Anker 5-port USB car charger.

Posted in Travel, Travel Advice

Software for making self-published books

Posted on by Ken Zirkel

Ah, printing books online. You’d think this would be simple, but unfortunately this is a difficult nut to crack.

Generally, I use blurb’s Booksmart software to make my annual photo books through blurb.com. I know Blurb offers a Lightroom Book module, but I think the Booksmart software is more flexible. It gives you a set of built-in templates, and also allows you to create your own templates. Booksmart is a good solution if you have multiple pages that use the same template. It’s really good if you’re doing a photo book that re-uses the same layouts from page to page.

However, if each page in your book is unique, Booksmart is not a great workspace. It’s a hassle to create a template for each page, then edit that template every time you want to make a change. It’s not agile at all, especially if you like to try different things to see what it looks like. Another issue: the Booksmart format locks you into using Blub.com. If blurb.com goes out of business, or if you just want to try another service, your book is locked up with Blurb.com.

Last year I had a more sophisticated book project come up, that required a unique design for every page. Because it was a genealogy book, I was concerned about being able to print updated editions in the future. Booksmart wasn’t going to cut it, so I looked around for other solutions.

The industry standard for desktop publishing is Adobe InDesign. InDesign is fantastic software for making books, and Blurb has a very nice plug-in that makes using InDesign very easy. InDesign is a wonderfully agile work environment. I managed to make my book within the 30-day InDesign trial, and it was a great experience.

However. If you already subscribe to the Photoshop/Lightroom subscription for $10/month, there is no inexpensive upgrade path to add InDesign to that. You basically have to pay the full Adobe CC price, *just to add InDesign*. So you’re talking to committing to $50/month with a minimum 2-year contract. I mean, if you could just pay for the time you need it for the project, that would be one thing, but you have to commit to spending $1200 ($50 x 24 months) up-front. To make a few books. And, if you let the subscription lapse, you cannot open your book files again. So, financially, InDesign wasn’t going to be a good solution for making one or two genealogy books a year.

I wound up re-creating my genealogy book using an open source solution, Scribus. Scribus is basically an open-source InDesign. It’s not nearly as powerful, and the interface is clunky to the point of being non-intuitive and occasionally maddening. Basically, you create the book, export a PDF, and upload the PDF to blurb.com. The process was more difficult than using InDesign, but in the end you cannot tell the difference between the books I created using InDesign and the books I created using Scribus.

If you use Scribus, know that you must very carefully follow the guidelines for page size on the blurb.com site. If you are at all familiar with desktop publishing software, you should be able to figure it out. A worry I do have with Scribus is that it doesn’t seem to have a wide user base, nor a wide developer base. I don’t see that there is anyone actively working on developing Scribus at all, actually.

Good luck.

www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus

Posted in Technology

Ortlieb Back-Roller Classic Panniers review

Posted on by Ken Zirkel

I’ve returned to bicycling regularly in June 2014, after being off the bike for a couple of years. I got a new bicycle and some new gear. One of the things I wanted to upgrade was my panniers, which were a pair of cheap Nashbar bags that were over 10 years old. I wasn’t happy with the selection in my local bike shops; apparently there are not enough commuters in my town. I even searched some very large bike shops in Long Island, NY. The selection was disappointing.

In October, I visited Portland, Oregon, which of course has a widespread bicycle culture, as well as famously wet weather. Everybody, but everybody in rainy Portland was riding with Ortlieb panniers. That was testimonial enough for me. I headed to a Portland bicycle shop (Western Bikeworks on 17th Avenue), and picked up a pair of Ortlieb Back-Roller Classic Panniers. I’ve been using them for about a month.

Pros:

  • The material is very strong and completely waterproof. The mounting system does not depend on elastic, which can stretch or day out over time.
  • The mounting system is very secure, but it quick-releases easily. My old panniers used to fall off occasionally if I kicked them while pedaling. Ortlieb stays when you want it to say, comes off when you want it to come off.
  • The mounting system is very adjustable for different kinds of racks.
  • The entire design is simple and very smart.
  • The size is expandable; it collapses reasonably small for small loads, and extends way above the top of the rack for large loads. I can use one Ortlieb where I used to use two of other panniers.

Cons:

  • These look great on the bike, but terrible off-bike. Ortlieb provides a nice shoulder strap for carrying off-bike, and you can do it, but it looks bad for a nice office. I think Ortlieb makes other models that look more like an office bag.
  • you have to buy two even if you just need one.
  • Could use more pockets. There’s only one interior pocket.

Overall, I love the bags and recommend them.

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Posted in Bicycling

Photo book advice

Posted on by Ken Zirkel

The question of what bookmaking service to use, and how to make the book, has come up a few times lately on Reddit. I combined several of my answers in this post. Realize that I use Blurb.com. I can’t tell you if Blurb.com is the best, or the biggest service. It’s just the service I use. The advice below is all based on using blurb.com:

I have made an annual photo book since 2005. I have used Blurb.com for each. I have been pleased with the results. I’ve used a few methods to make the books, which I’ll discuss below. By far, the easiest method is to use the free, proprietary Booksmart software which Blurb provides.

I’ve tried a few of the book sizes. Most of my books have been Large Landscape 13×11 inches, which is a gorgeous large format size. I have also made a few at Standard Landscape 10×8, which is really not as small as I had originally thought. It’s a very nice size.

I have made a few softcover books, but they are flimsy. I’d definitely recommend hardcover. Choose the imagewrap option, it is gorgeous.

As for number of pages, I have always erred on the side of “more is better”. I have to assume that after I’m gone, the book will be all that anyone will have of my photos. This does make the books kind of boring to go through. Maybe after 5 or 10 years I should put together a “best of” compilation.

I used the BLURB BOOKSMART software that Blurb provides for free. It has more options than using the Lightroom plug-in.

If you’d like to see an example, here’s my 2011 photobook. Click PREVIEW and you should be able to see the whole book.

I would absolutely caption and date the photos. If the entire book is from the same year, you just need a month and day. Also, identify any people in the photos, including yourself or “obvious” people like your parents or children. I have my family’s albums back to 1900 or so, and the most aggravating thing is photos that are not captioned. Or that are simply captioned “your grandfather”. Which one is the grandfather? Whose grandfather is he?

Finally, I’d advise that photos of your family are going to be treasured more than photos of sunsets and flowers. Go out and take the best portraits you can take of your friends and family, and make a book of that. I guarantee you that you’ll treasure that book in 10 years.

What software to use to make the book?

I find that Blurb’s “booksmart” app works well enough for a photo-centered book. It comes with some predefined templates, and you can create your own templates. It works great for a book where you don’t mind using the same design over and over; or, more specifically, a small set of templates over and over (ie, each page is not unique).

You can do it in Photoshop, of course, but Photoshop is not really made for that. (Adobe’s bookmaking software product is InDesign). To use Photoshop, you’d have to either 1) create a separate PSD for each page or 2) create a layer comp for each page.

Either way, in the end if you had a 120 page book, you’d have to export (“save as”) 120 separate exported JPGs (or TIFF’s? Not sure if Booksmart supports TIFF), and import each one into a separate page in Booksmart.

Personally, I think the Photoshop workflow is ridiculous. If you are not a publishing professional I’d recommend Booksmart for its ease of use. If you are a publishing professional, I’d recommend Adobe InDesign. However, since the InDesign subscription is ridiculously expensive, you could look into Scribus, it’s the open source book publishing software. It can do about 80% of what InDesign can do, although you have to wrestle with the interface quite a bit. Anyway, with either Scribus or InDesign, you create the book to the proper sizing specs, export a high-rez PDF, upload the PDF directly to Blurb, and Bob’s your uncle.

I should add, however, that there’s a huge catch to using Booksmart: it’s proprietary software, and therefore you are locked into using Blurb.com forever, at least for reprints, revisions, and new editions of that particular book. I have to admit I switched to using Scribus for a recent genealogy book, which I expect to have many revisions and edits over the years. I didn’t want to be locked into Blurb, and I want to be able to edit the book 10 years from now. Also, each page has a unique design, and the Booksmart template system works very poorly in that scenario. Essentially I’d have to create a unique template for each page, and when I wanted to edit the page layout, switch to Template editing view.

Be aware, though, there’s a much, much higher learning curve using Scribus over Booksmart. And really, who knows if ten years from now either Scribus or Blurb.com will still be around? Or Adobe InDesign, for that matter.

Posted in Photography (writing)

Most-used smartphone travel apps

Posted on by Ken Zirkel

I’m just finishing up a driving trip in Germany, and my #1 indespensible app has to be my navigation app. I just cannot imagine driving around a foreign-language country without it. I have a year of German under my belt, but I still cannot understand all the road signs, the exits can be confusing, and the autobahn is just too fast to let you read a map while driving.

As for which app to choose, there are a lot to choose from. I use CoPilot GPS for any kind of long-distance driving, where my cell signal may be unreliable or I want to avoid roaming charges (this is less of a concern for me since T-Mobile offers free international data roaming). CoPilot downloads the whole map (not just parts that you select; the entire country) and does not require a cell signal to operate. I have used it in upstate New York, Arizona/Utah, and now Germany with very excellent results. I have now used it for driving and also for walking. I not only visited major tourist sites, but also the homes of my German relatives, with no problem. I can’t even imagine having my relatives give me driving directions in German. It helped me find a gas station near my car rental return location. It’s a great app. It’s not free, but the price is reasonable.

My #2 app had to be my German dictionary.

No. 3 and on would be related to my photography (I love InstaPlace, and use Dropbox for backing up photos).

I also use TripIt. Tripit is convenient alternative to writing down your hotel and flight information on a piece of paper like we did in the old days.

As for a currency converter, I downloaded one but didn’t use it even once. Really, if I’m in a restaurant or something, I’m more concerned with relative prices than the exact conversion to dollars.

Posted in Travel Advice

Planning a trip

Posted on by Ken Zirkel

A novice traveler on Reddit was nervous about planning their upcoming trip, and asking for general trip planning advice. I thought I came up with some good advice:

There’s no one way to do it. Everybody has their balance of how much they like to plan in advance and how much they want to be spontaneous. I think I’m more of a “planner” than most.

The #1 most helpful thing for me is a good guidebook. A good guidebook will help you plan where you want to go, what to see, and all kinds of details about transportation, weather, food and whatnot. Mark up the guidebook with post-it flags for the places that look interesting.

I book flights first. Then hotels usually shortly thereafter. I like to have a guaranteed place to stay every night. This requires having a general outline of where you’re going to be and how long. I don’t like to waste vacation time wandering around, looking for a room. It can be stressful to me. At the least, I’d say make sure you have weekends and holidays booked in advance, as those tend to be busiest.

Generally we’ll plan a rough outline of each day. There might be one thing planned for the day; or two, or three. Often a day is planned the night before, in the hotel.

The first day, you may have to allow for jetlag. We’ll usually schedule a museum or something else low-stress for the first day. Or a train ride to a different city, hoping to sleep on the train.

On a city trip, we’ll often plan a bicycle or walking tour for the 2nd day. Almost every major city has these. A good tour gives you an orientation to the city, and helps you plan where you might want to spend more time. You can also ask your tourguide questions to help you plan your trip.

A typical day might be: Tower of London in the morning, visit Tower Bridge museum, walk to the Tate Modern. Or: explore the Zitadelle in the morning, Spandau in the afternoon, and Reichstag for the 5pm tour and sunset.

We’ll typically stay in a city for several days or a week, and take day tours to outlying towns (ie, Salisbury from London). In big cities there are always tour companies that can take you on day trips.

We have a general rule that for attractions that are likely to be popular, we either book online or arrive as early as possible in the morning. You can often book museums the night before online, and skip waiting in line.

There are some attractions that need to be booked far in advance; for example, the Reichstag tour in Berlin. I knew this from the guidebook.

Some attractions are time-sensitive, or free at certain times/days. You have to plan around those.

My spouse likes to plan in advance restaurants in the area we’ll be in. Also, ice cream places. Apps like Yelp make this easier than in the past.

If your trip is a whole year out, I highly recommend you plan a short trip of 2 or 3 nights somewhere not too far from where you are, in the meantime. That will give you confidence and experience organizing a trip; what to pack, how to plan, etc. This is not essential, but should help give you confidence.

Hope this helps.

Posted in Travel Advice

Nat Grid uses my images

Posted on by Ken Zirkel

I was browsing the National Grid website, and was pleased to discover that they are using not just one, but two of my images: Getty Images 157188472 and Getty Images 102327035.

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