Pioneer on the Internet – Sean Gursky

Between climbing a mountain and floating down a river last weekend Gord and I were talking about the Gallery software we use on our respective sites. He mentioned there was a new version of the software that featured some fancy upgrades. I thought the Gallery project was abandoned, but I guess development stopped on Gallery2 to make way for Gallery3.

On Monday I began the process of installing Gallery3 and configuring it to my server and preferences. There were several hurdles in the installation. Some were documented but I only accidentally stumbled across them while searching for another issue. I ran the migration module and slowly my Gallery3 library was filling up with photos from Gallery2 (). This was a several hour job but it had over 4000 items to move so I forgave the wait and was happy that it completed without issue.

I had Gallery3 running for a day and a half before deciding to downgrade back to Gallery2, and here are some reasons why.

Gallery3 worked well enough but I think I had been using Gallery2 for so long that if I couldn’t get it to look just like Gallery2 I got frustrated. I spent hours installing the available themes, customizing the options and then digging into the CSS to modify items I wasn’t satisfied with. There was a developer who was working on a “Classic” theme, but their demo site produced a server error and they hadn’t posted in months. That may have been all I needed to stay with Gallery3 but visuals aren’t enough to ignore missing features.

I appreciated the effort to have SEO friendly slugs but it didn’t work with my folder/file naming convention. Folders had an address of http://gallery.seangursky.com/index.php/Project-365-Year-5 and clicking on an individual file had an address of http://gallery.seangursky.com/index.php/Project-365-Year-5/20110910. This wasn’t so bad except some file names were long (look no further than something like http://gallery.seangursky.com/index.php/2011-Ice-Dragons/2011-08-12-Shredders_Castledowns_6430) and my compulsion to have things look good would have forced me to rename several thousand files so the URL’s look better.

For reasons unexplained it bothered me that “index.php” was present in all of the addresses. Gallery2 has a constant “main.php” but at least the album and photo are pulled through a query string, but the combination of “index.php” and long addresses pushed me over the edge.

I was able to look the other way for a few nuisances but then I found some potential deal breakers.

The two Gallery3 WordPress plugins I installed couldn’t recreate the current Project 365 Grid of photos I currently use (). I even used the WPG3 plugin (which was the predecessor to the one I was using in WPG2) and had no success. I was able to have the plugins communicate with Gallery3 using the REST API module but I couldn’t see a way to get what I wanted without making it myself.

The “Summary” title on my photos was merged into the “Description” text when the Gallery2 to Gallery3 migration was performed. This made my updated descriptions look something like “Fluid Hair Vandalism An ad campaign by an Old Strathcona company got people all riled up and some reacted by vandalizing their storefront.”, where “Fluid Hair Vandalism” was the original “Summary”. I could run some PHP/SQL to look for the upper case letters and remove the offending string but that would have been tedious and probably made a few errors along the way.

I had no problems with installing modules to open up functionality of themes but when I was recreating my workflow in Gallery2 there were problems starting to appear. I was no longer able to “Edit Captions” for all photos within an album (). Instead I had to click on the “Edit” (gearbox icon) () on each photo I wanted to edit, which added unnecessary clicks into my day.

The gearbox was a nice feature but it slowed me down when I wanted to rename multiple items or when I would accidentaly click on it. I am fine using the “Album/Item Actions” drop down () and it would have been nice if there was an option to change how the “Actions” menu was accessed.

I wanted to customize the metadata information that displayed on an album. Instead of showing the number of views on the thumbnail overlay I wanted to show the item count. This information was visible once you clicked into the album but I find album size more important than number of views. This should be possible to change in the template but it was just one more thing I’d have to manipulate myself.

I was no longer able to customize the thumbnail either, I had the “Square Thumbnails” module installed but I couldn’t focus in on a small part of the photo to generate the thumbnail. It was nice to have all of my images have a square thumbnail but I would prefer to customize the thumbnail over having uniformity in my older albums.

I like having my EXIF details visible for all photos but this required a click to open up a “Photo Details” modal which felt tedious and bothered me more than I thought.

It was around this time I debated if I could live with these problems. There were some incredible features of Gallery3 that I will miss, but they were more flash and not function so I decided to undo the steps I did only a day before by reverting the .htaccess file, 301 redirects and GoDaddy subdomain forwarding.

Some of the pros of Gallery3 were the ease of use and installation. The administration panel was well laid out and I didn’t have to go hunting to find a setting that I needed to update.

The ability to have a mobile theme was incredible (even if I would be the only one to view my gallery on a mobile device) and I like the implementation of some JavaScript libraries that brought new life to the photo gallery…but these were all aesthetics and weren’t enough to keep me around.

If you want to poke around the installation you can still find it here: http://seangursky.com/gallery3. I will leave the /gallery3 folder around for now so when the software has matured a bit it will make my transition a little easier.

At no time did I encounter a bug or error while using the software, modules or themes. Everything seemed rock solid and was nice to use, but I couldn’t switch until all of my Gallery2 needs are met. There is active development on Gallery3, coders are always checking in updates to templates and modules but it’s just wasn’t the ideal solution for me right now.

I bought my Canon EOS 5D in September 2010 with the knowledge that it did not have the mirror fix completed on it. Some 5D users never had the mirror fix performed and don’t bother sending it in for repairs while others had the mirror physically fall out. Not wanting to continue to risk the odds I decided to send the camera in.

After using the camera for 11 months I am using a pause in the action (between summer hockey and before the holiday season) to send the camera away for a few weeks to be fixed up. I was mostly concerned about having something happen to the camera while on vacation. The 5D survived our trip to England/France in 2010 but I was afraid of what would happen if it decided to break in Iceland 2012.

On August 15 I went to the Canon Repair website, created a profile and requested a repair of my camera. I asked that the mirror fix be performed and to get the body shutter count. The original cost estimate for the repair was $250, but after speaking to a member on the Photography on the Net boards, they assured me the same thing happened to them and they paid $0 for the mirror fix and shutter count.

I received a confirmation email that day from Canon and on August 17 I sent the camera to Mississauga, Ontario. I shipped only the camera body, I removed the memory card, strap, eye cup and battery. The only thing that was attached to it was the body cap cover. As per the instructions Canon sent me I had Canada Post send the package with a tracking number and insurance. To expedite the process I paid for two day shipping and on August 18 the camera was received by Canon.

On August 19 I received a repair estimate email () from Canon stating that the total charge would be $271.95. To see why I was being charged something that should be corrected for free I contacted Canon Customer Support. I spent a few minutes getting into the right department but once I arrived at the service area the phone agent (Mike, one of two I spoke to) confirmed the repair would be done for free and sent a revised email to me stating the repair had been acknowledged.

Shortly after my phone call the end user online repairs page was updated to reflect the $0 amount and that work was underway () . The camera was in their system and ready to be fixed, and now I just had to wait the estimated 15-20 business days for it to be completed.

On August 29 the repair status said completed ()! Later in the day the status changed to shipped (). Seven business days to perform the work on their end, thankfully this was well under the estimated time frame.

On August 30 the camera arrived in Edmonton and was delivered to me over lunch (). I appreciate that Canon rushed the delivery (as the Online Repair page said), after checking the Online Repair status daily for the last 10 days I didn’t want to have any delays with the shipment.

The camera came well packaged with paper and the body was inside a plastic bag with a print out of the work done. The technician’s notes were:

Adjusted shutter speed, AE, AF, cleaned sensor, mirror modification was already done last time.

Oh…that’s underwhelming.

Admittedly I felt like a putz for sending the camera in for something when it was already performed but I’m surprised the work was allowed to continue if there was nothing to do. I had hoped that if the mirror fix had already been performed it would have been something the Online Repairs system could determine before accepting the body in for work.

I read the Service Repair Form () several times but I didn’t see anything about my shutter count, which was listed in the “customer complaint” section. I guess it’s good to have the camera be given a once over, but without knowing the exact shutter count I won’t know how much life is left on the body.

Without the 5D I felt a little like a photography nomad. I had cameras available to use but none could perform the way I knew the 5D could. I would see a sprinkler creating a rainbow or a large spider web and knew that my Pentax Optio S55 or iPhone 4 wouldn’t capture it and I begrudgingly moved on. It was nice not to have to carry a second bag with me everywhere I went, but after having one around me for so long it was strange to not have it. I always felt like I was leaving the house and forgetting something.

In a rather anticlimactic fashion my experience with Canon Canada comes to an end and overall I’m satisfied with the process and how quickly it took to get the camera back. I hope this post will assist other Canadians who have a 5D to get their camera to Canon and back without problem.

Last week Gord sent me a link to a Craigslist posting asking for photographers to photograph fans at the Friday and Saturday Harlem Globetrotters performance. I applied immediately and received a phone call from someone at the PrintRoom on Monday confirming my application for Friday night.

The rest of the week I was nervous about Friday. I have always wanted to approach people on the street to take their photo but never worked up the nerve to do it, and Friday would be doing exactly that. I have also thought about getting into paid photography jobs for quite a while now and I felt this would be a nice introduction to see if it would be something I would want to do.

I arrived at Northlands early and met Karen, the other photographer waiting in the designated zone. A few minutes later Ella showed up (who applied for the job after I forwarded the Craigslist ad onto her) and then us three were escorted into Hall “D”.

I didn’t dislike the work, but as Travis (the tour manager) said, this is about quantity and not quality so you check your creativity at the door and get through as many people as possible. We were tourists on Travis’ day job and I think it could be repetitive to do this night in and night out. It wasn’t hard work but it was physically more demanding than I expected. For five hours I was walking, crouching, kneeling and interacting with people and once I put the camera down I realized how sore and tired I was.

The highlights of the evening was photographing the Magic Pass portion before the show. Magic Pass was a pre-game performance by the Globetrotters and we were allowed to go on the court and shoot the kids interacting with the players.

After that concluded I was shooting fans against a green screen with a Globetrotter. It was repetitive work but I enjoyed it. When you are processing a line of 60 people deep you don’t have much time to compose the shot so you move around as much as you can, click, rotate the camera to get a portrait orientation, click again and then move onto the next person in line.

When the game started the candid photos stopped and we moved onto photographing the fans. Judging by the amount of photos I took from Magic Pass to fan photos it was obvious I was having a hard time switching shooting rolls. For the 30 minute Magic Pass portion I took nearly 330 photos, but for the game I took just under 90.

I wasn’t uncomfortable approaching people asking to take their photo, and after the second rejection I wasn’t bothered by hearing “no”. However, the problem I had was asking people to take their photo during the game. I didn’t want to interrupt their enjoyment of the game so I would wait for quarter breaks and did my biggest stretch of work during half time where I took 1/3 of my photos.

It was easy to keep track of people you asked when the stands were empty but as it started to fill up you quickly forgot who you asked. At the end of the night I realized I never went back to the people that agreed to have their photo taken but wanted to wait for someone else from their group to return. When the stands started to fill up you could only approach people on the aisles and that made asking people difficult.

I would watch the audience, pick my mark, ask them for a picture and then ask a few others around them. I think my downfall is that I wouldn’t work the entire section. I would get in, take a few photos, and then return to a safe distance to watch the crowd (and the game).

It was hard not to watch the game because it was incredibly entertaining. The game was more than trick shots and hilarity, there was a large amount of basketball skill but yet the Generals lost to the Globetrotters, continuing a tradition of losses that goes back to the 1970′s.

At the end of the day I had as many people decline having their photo taken as I did who agreed to have it taken. I wondered if they were declining because of my introduction, if they genuinely didn’t want to have their picture taken or if it was something else. One of the other workers was able to get a lot of photos taken but they put effort into it. They would walk up and down the aisles and ask everyone they could. Their hard work paid off because a lot of the photos from Friday April 8 are marked with their gallery name of KXL. Mine are listed as SXG and Ella was EXE. MGR was Travis, the photography tour manager.

I was asked to return to shoot the Saturday performance and I declined because I didn’t feel I was giving them the quantity they were looking for. However, looking at the photo gallery and seeing a few SXG’s made me think I did have something to offer. I would probably take more photos of fans on the repeat performance but I was happy to have been given the opportunity to try this, and if something like this came up again in the future I would strongly consider it, but doing it again on Saturday felt too quick.

All in all this didn’t turn me off from making photography more than a hobby. I would like to stretch my creativity with being a second shooter at a wedding but being confined to quick “get in and get out” photo sessions is fine with me too.

Because any photo taken on my Compact Flash card was property of the Globetrotters PrintRoom the CF card dumped and wiped I had to switch CF cards if I wanted to take photos for myself. You can see the limited photos I took here or any of the official photographs on the PrintRoom website here.

For a while I had been entertaining the notion of upgrading some of my camera gear. I thought of investing in a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 or maybe a faster prime. This lead me to do some retrospective on Sean Gursky: Photographer. I understand that the gear doesn’t make the pictures but it helps in being able to capture a specific shot you may have been unable to before.

During this time I read an entertaining, and frightenly accurate, article about the upgrade path that people take when getting into photography. With the exception of upgrading my point and shoot camera I saw myself in all of these situations and I’m certainly not alone with that.

With the trip to London weighing on my mind I thought about the photos I would improve on or what I would do differently and looking over my photos I noticed a common trend in my pictures: I liked architecture, lines and wide shots. I didn’t do a lot of action or sport shots where I required an intelligent auto-focus and I started to contemplate a move to a full frame camera. I had read about a full frame sensor being the promised land, and once you go full frame you don’t go back.

I had one EF-S lens and another EF, the EF-S lens would not be compatible with a full frame camera so I looked to sell my Canon T1i and 17-85mm EF-S lens as a package. Thankfully a former co-worker was looking to make the DSLR jump and I was able to sell him my gear and put that money towards a used Canon 5D. I decided on the Canon 5D over the 5D Mark II primarily for cost. The 5D Mark II was another $1,000 and I was okay with the smaller mega-pixel count and loss of video, plus the 5D is still a solid camera and well recommended for anyone who wanted to make the move to full frame.

The 5D is no longer available new so I looked online for a deal on a used one to come along. I scoured the Photography on the Net marketplace forums for a good condition Canon 5D and when one showed up for the right amount I acted fast. Because all I had was a 50mm f/1.8 lens I was able to get a 85mm f/1.8 and 24mm f/2.8 lens to complete my gear list, and this gave me three very fast and versatile lenses without adding a lot of weight.

I have enjoyed the move to the Canon 5D, but I miss some of the automatic features like sensor cleaning. Being responsible for cleaning the sensor has been an interesting experience. The full frame cameras are more susceptible to dust and with primes I am switching lenses more often so there is a greater chance of dust to get into the body.

I spent a few weekends working on the perfect sensor cleaning wand, gathering the right supplies and after multiple cleaning attempts I improved my skills and am ready for the next required cleaning. I have also found the metering to be a little unreliable. I find I have to underexpose my images, especially if I am on Tv or Av setting.

However, the cons I have are greatly outweighed by the pros. I have found 24mm on the full frame to be incredibly wide, and when I would switch from 50mm to 24mm to shoot the same scene the difference was drastic.

The sliver thin depth of field is huge and not having a flash on the body hasn’t been a problem because I can open the aperture up, turn the ISO to 1000 or higher and still capture the scene.

I don’t plan on upgrading cameras anytime soon, but I doubt I will return to a cropped body. The 1.6 sensor size is beneficial when you are trying to get some reach but I don’t often get into situations where I need that extra distance. I would like to have a 70-200mm f/4.0 lens in my bag for times I require a zoom, but for now the 24mm, 50mm and 85mm lenses are a perfect trio.

Because of the body change I have also found new appreciation for my 50mm f/1.8 lens. It was useful on the Canon T1i but on the Canon 5D it is my primary lens and was used for 90% of the photographs on the England/Paris trip in October. It is perfect and being the cheapest lens in my bag is saying a lot about how impressive the nifty fifty is.

Overall I am very happy with my decision and the 5D has challenged me to be a better photographer, and when situations are right, I feel I am up to the task.

Last weekend I rented a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM lens for, what turned out to be, a busy weekend. My original purpose was to use the lens at the World Wide Photo Walk (), but there was also time spent at Taste of Edmonton, a road trip to Millet, a family picnic in Beaumont and an Ice Dragons hockey game to close the weekend out. The lens never made it to the hockey game but I got a bit of use over the few days I had it.

This will be the farthest thing from a technical review of the lens, I can’t even say I used the focus switches on the side of the lens, so data and charts do not apply here. Obviously a piece of hardware that retails close to $3,000 is going to be good, but it was almost too much lens for me. I don’t know if 70-200mm was the right focal range for the photo walk on University campus, I think having a wider lens would have been better. I may have found more to take photos of if I used a Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM or see if my lust over the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM was worth it, but I’m glad I tried the 70-200mm.

The lens was incredibly sharp and fast! There were several times a rabbit ran towards me and as fast as I could pull the camera up I got the rabbit in mid air and in focus. The rabbit may have been behind a fence, partially obstructed or accompanied by an over exposed photo, but I got it. Something I wouldn’t have been able to do with any lens I currently own (, , ). I can’t imagine what this lens is capable of if I had a camera with an upgraded auto-focus sensor or dialed settings in for high speed action.

While I found University to be a little tight with the 70-200mm range it was a wonderful close up and portrait lens. I spent some time this weekend using my workhorse Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens and when comparing what the f/2.8 II could do, comparatively the difference was outstanding. The crispness was the biggest benefit and it pulled the subject in beautifully.

I knew that the lens was heavy, but I had no idea how heavy it was () until I carried it around for a few hours. To be expected, the build quality was top notch and the focus rings were smooth and solid. One thing I didn’t expect is that the lens didn’t increase/decrease in size based on the focal length. I am used to EF-S lenses where the glass would extend out of the housing and I guess when you spend this kind of money on a lens all of that business is handled inside.

There is definitely a place for a fast and sharp 70-200mm in my camera bag, but I think I will have to settle for the original Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM lens. Until then, I will look back on my weekend with the fastest and most expensive glass I have used fondly.

Photos from my World Wide Photo Walk and Taste of Edmonton trip on Saturday can be found in my gallery here.

No image stabilization, no auto focus, no ability to preview a shot after it was taken and when you start a roll off at a certain ISO you are stuck at that speed until you’re done. All of this sounds like a negative but after using a DSLR for 18 months I decided to take a step back and see where photography came from. I am comfortable with the manual mode on my camera but have constantly read that the basics are learned from old cameras and I thought I would give it a chance.

I am using my Mother’s Canon FTb 35mm camera with a 200mm f/4.0, 50mm f/3.5 macro and 50mm f/1.8 lens. It came loaded with film but I have ISO200 and a roll of black and white that I will try my hand on.

My initial reactions to using the SLR was that it was a challenge but exciting. The way I approach photography on a DSLR is drastically different than on a film camera. With a DSLR I would adjust the settings, or not at all, point and shoot. If the image was blurry I would adjust the aperture, ISO and shutter speed accordingly and try again. If my hand was a little shaky I could rely on stabilization to save a shot. An infinite amount of processing power was available to me on a DSLR to save a shot.

None of that applies here.

After I dial in, literally, a proper exposure I tweak the focus ring and press the shutter I hope that after the fwwwhhiiik sound goes I got a good photo. At this point I am not looking to take profound or engaging photos, I just want something that is not underexposed and out of focus. Both are key fundamentals to photography that I have been able to easily ignore with a DSLR and it is a humbling experience to adjust all of these settings manually and still not know if the shot worked.

If I put the camera down and picked it up an hour later I don’t remember if I advanced the film. This is likely an instinctive process for some but it has not become a habit yet. I also find myself instinctively chimping to see if the show I took turned out…and see nothing but the back of the camera.

I never found a use for the DOF button on the DSLR, but completely understand why it is around now. I prefer seeing the shot lighten or darken depending on aperture and goes to show how much going from f/4.5 to to f/5.6 can really make. I never sought out the DOF button on the XTi or T1i but I will be more cognizant of its presence when I set up shots with the T1i in the future.

The ergonomics of the FTb are a little awkward. I thought my Rebel T1i/500D had much to improve upon and preferred the feel of higher end models like the 50D or 7D. Little did I know how easy I had it with the Rebel compared to the hard rectangle shape of the FTb. It has an uncomfortable grip, difficult to adjust shutter speed dial and yet those force me to concentrate on the photo more, making sure the camera is steady, focus is tight and the subject is in frame.

Roll #1
This roll was in the camera when I got it, so it could have been anywhere between three and eight years old. I didn’t expect the film to develop at that age but I put in the effort to use that roll of film. When I finished off the roll I realized that the camera had been set to ISO400 but the film was actually ISO200 and immediately doubted if anything would develop. To my surprise the age of the film didn’t make all the exposures void, and the underexposed photos were passable.

Some highlights from the first roll were…

Roll #2
I was going to develop my first roll at the same time I developed the second so I wouldn’t know if there was a problem with the camera or lenses until it was too late. I took the cautious route and before installing the second roll of film (the first roll of film I have installed in a long time, if ever) I cleaned the inside of the Canon to make sure there were no spots or errant specs that could affect the results. I took a photo with each of the three lenses and then got to work.

I had finished strong on this roll of film and when I took all the exposures I confused the steps for removing the film and opened the back door leaking light onto a few of my shots. Sadly the photos I was most proud of were not developed (they are visible on the negatives) but it was a hard lesson learned to properly rewind film first and then open the door second.

Some highlights from the second roll were…

All photos developed from both rolls are available in my Gallery here.

Project 365: Film versus Digital
On March 11, 2010 I took my film camera out with me when I took my photo of the day with the 500D. I thought it would be interesting to see how the two shots turned out with over three decades of technology separating them. Below are two side by sides of the film and digital, and the originals can be found in the Gallery (digital / film).

The amount of detail picked up in the rocks and wood from the T1i is incredible, but the dull and grainy capture from film gives it a quiet and scerene feel.

Advancing Forward
I know that the body and lenses all function so I am going to take my time on my third roll of film and make every shot count. To ensure that I stick to this I have put in a roll of black and white and will take photos outdoors (people, buildings — things that stay still and don’t require precise focus pulling).

This has been a fun experiment and I am glad I did it. Stay tuned for updates as they develop.

For as long as I can remember I had a Fujifilm QuickSnap disposable camera in my bedside drawer. I don’t know when I got it, what photos were taken with it, or where it has been, but it was always there. I rediscovered the camera a few years ago and there were half of the exposures remaining. I wanted to make the most of this mysterious camera and took random photos with it until I finished the roll.

In January I took the last photo and was giddy with excitement to finally discover the secrets that were on the camera. When I picked the pictures from the photo lab the lady said “Not many turned out” and I was devastated. The camera did have an expiration date of 2005, so anything taken after that time would be a surprise. Sadly only ten photos turned out but they were a nice glimpse into the past.

It looked like the camera originated from our June 2004 trip to Jasper and could have been used at the three consecutive Matthew Good shows later that month before being tucked away in the move to the condo in 2006. Here are a few of the results from the mysterious Fujifilm:

I plan on taking this adventure with the disposable camera one step further. My Mom was an avid photographer and among her gear was a Canon A-1 with a macro and a zoom lens. The next time I am at the homestead I will recover the gear, purchase some film and see what sort of results I can get.

Oh, I can’t wait until I’m old enough to feel ways about stuff.

As part of my shutter resolution I have doubled the size of my RSS subscriptions to include feeds from portraits, candids, photo-journalism and wedding blogs, tutorials and everything in between. One common message I keep reading is to ask yourself what is the purpose of my photo. Remember the subject and be clear on the story you are trying to tell.

I have never felt that my photos tell more than where I am or what I was doing so I find capturing emotion or making a story unfold in a picture challenging. Now when I find a picture that strikes an emotional chord with me I appreciate it more because their art affected me and I want to learn how to achieve the same.

I start things off with Days With My Father. This photo album has been around for a while but the message and emotional impact is still very strong. The photos are accompanied by a story, but in most cases words are not necessary and I find the whole piece very moving.

I am amazed by how human triumph, suffering and devastation can be captured and the photos compiled by the Big Picture from Haiti are worth viewing, but the photo set that inspired this post was Todd Heisler’s “Final Salute”.

Katherine Cathey draped herself over her husband's casket.

The amount of emotion in those seven photos can be a little overwhelming, but the glimpse into such a personal and sad moment are remarkable. I can just picture photo seven and get swept up in the feeling again.

To end on a lighter note, Beyond The Still is a project where photographers take a single photo and film a story around it using the video capabilities on their DSLR. Only the first of seven chapters has been released, but this concept should produce some interesting results over the next few months.

It may not be a print magazine, or prominently displayed in an advertisement campaign but something I photographed was displayed on another site and it is a pretty neat feeling.

The photo was used on the Edmonton Real Estate blog as a photo of the week for what is happening in Edmonton. The photo was taken at the Ice On Whyte, and the rest of the photos from that trip can be seen here.

Sadly, I use Flickr less than I should. I use it to publish my Project 365 photos, and with the free account only showing the last 200 photos it is barely a snapshot of my portfolio. I am unable to justify the cost of a Pro account but the social networking aspects of the site cannot be beat because this whole thing transpired through a comment on my photo.

In August I read about the Brando Ultimate 3-Point Hand Strap on engadget.com here. I had starred the item in my Google Reader and it sat there for a few months. After lugging the Rebel with the stock strap through England, France and Las Vegas I thought I would take a different approach to how I hold the Canon.

I ordered the 3-Point Hand Strap on November 24, 2009 and it arrived on January 6, 2010. I had no photo walks or tours planned immediately but giving the strap a work out during my daily photos would be a way for me to see if the $16USD was worth it.

So begins my 3-Point Hand Strap review.

Installation was breeze. It’s a simple concept but I am able to let go of the camera and it will stay close to my hand, attached and secure.

I didn’t realize how often I moved my right hand around the body until it was locked into place. Most of my setting adjustments were done with my hand pulled off the body, but being strapped in I had to slide the hand out of the strap a bit to make changes. This was a little awkward because I have been using the Rebel body a certain way for over a year and I had to re-learn how to make adjustments.

One thing that bothered me the most was that my Lowepro Nova 160AW case had to be reorganized. The Brando strap was just large enough that I couldn’t use my standard configuration, so I had to remove the divider between the 500D and my 50mm f/1.8 lens, which has worked reliably for me for over a year.

When Gord and I went to Troll Falls in Kananaskis I thought this would be a great opportunity to test the hand strap. It stayed ready in my hand but when the walk got extreme with snow and slippery conditions I was handicapped with being able to use only one hand. If I had to tie my shoe lace or write something down the camera had to be removed. These are not deal breakers for the strap, but if I just had the regular neck strap on none of this would have been a problem.

However, the afternoon walk to Ice On Whyte was ideal for the Brando strap. It was nice to have the camera always present and not worrying about moving the body as I went through the crowd.

The hand strap was able to remain attached to the camera when I would put it on the tripod, but I never felt that the camera was securely on there. I could still adjust the cameras position because the Brando attachment had some give. I was never concerned about the camera falling out, but I would have preferred it if the DSLR felt a little more tighter in there.

I think there is a definite place for this Brando strap, like going on a long photo through a city park or on a leisurely stroll. However for everyday typical camera use it was mostly an inconvenience and may not have aided to a steady hand with the camera. Simple urban exploration is where the strap excels, but should be left at home if you leave the city limits and do some exploration.