PWH3 – Page 2 – PWH3.COM

Reasons to Upgrade to a Full-Frame Camera

Full-frame cameras are digital cameras that have sensors that are equivalent in size to the surface area of a single frame of 35mm film. When digital cameras first arrived on the market, the sensors were small when compared to a frame of 135 (35mm) film. Eventually, camera manufacturers were able to market cameras that had larger sensors that matched the size of 35mm film, and thus the term “full-frame” was used to describe them.

Only a small segment of digital cameras on the market today are full-frame cameras. Most consumer DSLRs and mirrorless cameras use the APS-C sensor format, which feature a sensor size that’s about 30% smaller than a full-frame sensor. If you are reading this article, the DSLR you already have is most likely an APS-C camera. The reason APS-C is still popular is because it’s a good technical compromise: the sensors are just big enough to produce very good images, but because they are smaller than full-frame the cameras and lenses are usually less expensive for the consumer.

Getting Off of the Endless RAW Upgrade Treadmill

I have written many articles as to why you should always shoot RAW and the reasons still hold true. However, RAW shooting comes at a hidden cost: an endless need to upgrade your editing software as you buy new cameras, which may become a time-consuming burden in some circumstances. In addition, the new software may not run on your old hardware, requiring you to upgrade your computer too, which can get expensive rather quickly.

Want to Photograph NYC? Bring Your Wide-Angle Lens

Photographing New York City presents unique challenges. As a photographer, you will have to contend with both cramped spaces indoors (such as inside bars, restaurants and the subway) and incredibly tall buildings outdoors.

The best way to deal with these disparate photographic challenges is to simply use a wide-angle lens all the time.

For our purposes, “wide-angle” means any field of view that is 35mm or wider. The 35mm field of view is great for capturing the city. 24mm is even better. My personal favorite field of view sits in between these two at 28mm.

No, Now Is Not a Good Time to Visit NYC

Consider me a pandemic junkie. I actually enjoy following the pandemic and the statistical trends of the virus, and I have since New York City was hit hard by COVID in 2020. I used to write a series of very popular Tweets early in the pandemic when information was poorly presented to the public. I would combine my photos of the empty and dead city with the grim statistics taken from the Department of Health in the hopes of presenting information that people could use to keep themselves educated and safe.

Always Strive to Deliver High-Quality Images

Your goal as a photographer should be to show your clients, your audience and your fans images of the highest possible quality. I’m not saying you always have to “wow” people with dramatic shots of exotic locations. What I mean is that you should produce images of high technical quality. Here are some guidelines for evaluating your own images to see if they meet the standards of high-quality photography.

My NYC Vaccination Experience and Thoughts About Boosters

I was a vaccine holdout — not due to politics, but due to concerns about an eye condition I have called lattice degeneration. Lattice degeneration is a congenital thinning of the retina that leads to holes and tears in the retina. This condition puts me at high risk for a retinal detachment at any time. A retinal detachment is a medical emergency, requiring an immediate visit to the hospital and delicate eye surgery to repair the retina. If it’s not taken care of quickly, it can lead to permanent vision loss.

I was not sure how these vaccines (or actual COVID-19) would affect this condition since there’s little official research about how the COVID vaccines interact with a retina that’s already damaged by disease. My thought was that any micro-clotting caused by the vaccines could affect blood vessels in the retina and cause issues.

A Visit to SoHo, NYC

SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan that is known for art galleries, lofts, shopping and a few interesting restaurants and bars. The pandemic has of course dampened the vibrance of the area and caused it to be littered with what we will refer to as “outdoor dining structures”. These shacks have definitely reduced the attractiveness of the area, but SoHo is still a nice destination to visit for an afternoon or evening.

Women’s March NYC, October 2nd, 2021

Women’s March events were held all over the country in response to recent efforts by right-wing radicals to use the rigged judicial system to restrict the rights of women.

Using an Action Camera For Photography

GoPro pioneered the concept of an “action camera” – a tiny, rugged, easy-to-operate camera that is intended to be used to record action sports. In the years since the first GoPro was launched, many competitors such as Akaso and DJI have produced action cameras as well. Regardless of the brand, these cameras are primarily video-focused, and the newest ones are capable of recording crisp and detailed 4K and even 5K video. Though it’s not their primary function, most of these cameras are capable of doing still photography as well.

While they aren’t the best choice for general still photography, action cameras can be very useful as a photographic tool, particularly to capture very wide landscape shots. Here are some things to consider when using an action camera for photography.

Note: In this article, I used an Akaso Brave 6 Plus for all of the photographs.

How to fix the “Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress” Error on HostGator

This is an off-topic post, but many photographers use WordPress as the basis of their photography portfolios and photo blogs, so I am writing it anyway.

If you’re using HostGator and you tried to update your PHP version to the most recent one (like I did) and you thereby broke your entire WordPress blog (like I did), here’s a quick fix I found that will hopefully get everything working for you again.

Even though this is specifically for those of us using HostGator, it may work with other hosting platforms that use cPanel. Or you may be able to extrapolate a solution that works for you based on this information if you’re using different control panel software or a Linux distribution on your own server. Give it a shot if nothing else is working – but remember, you are doing this at your own risk and I am not responsible if you mess up your site even more.