It has been a very long time since I have updated my website.  I hope to get back into the swing of more regular updates, but for the moment I will provide some brief updates on previous topics

Aperture Death:  With the slow demise of Aperture, I needed to make a decision about which picture processing path I was going take: go with Apple’s Photos or switch to Lightroom CC.  In the final analysis, Photos was insufficient for my purposes so I started useing Lightroom CC about a year ago.  The task was two fold.  First I had to teach myself Lightroom and second I had to migrate my Aperture libraries (over 300,000 pictures as referenced files) over to the Lightroom system. 

While not a Lightroom expert, I now manage all of my pictures through Lightroom and I find Lightroom actually is much better than Aperture or Photos, at least for my purposes.  

With respect to the migration, I made sure each Aperture Library was clean: Libraries upgraded to 3.5.1, maximum size of previews, reconnect or delete missing pictures, all pictures are referenced, Trash was emptied, and the Aperture database was repaired.  With Aperture, I had libraries for each year from 2001-2015.  I then used the 'Plug in Extras:Import from Aperture Library function’ being careful to check two boxes under Options: 'For images which have been……' and most importantly ‘Leave referenced files in your Aperture Library in their current location’  This left both Aperture and my new Lightroom pointing to identical RAW files with minimal drive space need for the Lightroom Catalog.  Ratings and keywords came over, but NO adjustments.  While not quite done, I can see the end of the tunnel!

Nikon vs Sony: I have been a Nikon shooter for many years with my D800 as my last Nikon body, but I have been interested in a smaller and lighter system.  I first used a Sony NEX-5N with the Sony 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 zoom lens.  While it took nice pictures, it was ackward to use with the two most serious deficiencies: ability to use flash and the absence of a viewfinder (in bright sunlight, I would not really tell what I was shooting).  I then migrated to the Sony a7R and while it took great pictures, I found it to be slow to focus, and their was no ability to do continous focus-shutter release on focus (so called focus-trapping).  I have now migrated to the Sony a7RII and now use it for all my photography needs.  I primarily use one of five lens: Sony 28mm f2.0 with and without a 21mm f2.8 teleconverter, 24-70mm f4, 70-200mm f4 and 55mm f1.8.  Interesting, I have moved to shooting more with prime lens because of weight and image quality.  

Somewhat to my surprise, I was always a bit disappointed with the a7R/70-200mm/f4 combination, but the a7RII/70-200 f4 combination is quite good.  Below is an example of the full image and below is a 100% section.

My wish list includes the Sony FE 85mm f1.4 and probably the HVL-F43M external flash.