Like Cars, cameras get milage too!

Actuations & Shutter Count – Someday our Cameras Will Die
by Elizabeth Halford

If you’ve ever sold a camera on Ebay before, you’ll be familiar with the term “actuations”. Prospective buyers will often write and ask you how many actuations your camera has on it’s meter and you may think “what on earth?!” Actuations (or shutter count) is the amount of photos your camera has taken. And this is an important number because your camera has a life expectancy, just like your car.
Yes, I did say that: Your camera has a life expectancy. This is a troubling thing for an avid photo taker to learn for the first time because it’s not something we know until we are told. Although it makes perfect sense that your camera, like anything, will only last so long.
The inner workings of a camera are delicate and fragile and made to withstand around 100,000 shutter releases. Canon says that their 5D mkII is good for about 150k and the 1D, 200k. But life expectancy isn’t something you’ll find on the specs of a camera you’re looking at buying, much like mileage expectancy isn’t on the price sticker of a new Ford Focus. No manufacturer of items can assure how long an item will last and to do so would be a bad idea on their behalf incase your particular unit didn’t match those expectations.
Just like with cars, the best way to know what kind of mileage people are getting out of their cameras is to get on forums and see what people are reporting. You’ll find a host of certain cameras died around the 30k mark, others 100k. Just get out there and read the chatter because the manufacturers don’t say much.
When I first heard that magic 100,000 number, I was disheartened and frightened for the life of my camera. Isn’t it especially true that we have a false sense of security with digital cameras? We think there is no end to the photos we can take simply because we aren’t tied to rolls of film. But sadly, this isn’t so. We do have to think before we go hog wild with a heavy trigger finger. Although 100k is a LOT more than it sounds, a professional can easily hit this mark within a few years.
The best comment I read while scanning forums for actuations information was this: “If your car could only do 100,000 miles, would you be driving it 1000 miles a day?”

Elizabeth Halford is a professional photographer and mother of three. She owns a photo studio in Hampshire, England. Visit her online: elizabethhalford.com

Go west young man!

It's amazing how just "getting out there" opens your eyes to new photographic opportunities.
In an attempt at researching a nice photographic route, my family and I along with Amanda's sister's family headed up the west coast for a day's outing and here are some of the picks we brought back....

SURF ROCKS!

This is just a little piece of silly nonsense I put together  - waisting time while I should have been doing other stuff :-D

SunSet - in the East....

The rescue of Humphry

Braving a howling South Easter this morning as we took our usual stroll down Glencairn beach where to our utter amazement there was a seal parked just at the edge of the breakers. We were sooo excited until we realised that this poor little fellow was actually wounded with a broken jaw and was not in a hurry to go anywhere.

I hurried back to the house to call the SPCA while Amanda stayed and made sure that he was safe from dogs and people. We named him "Humphrey" due to his occasional "humph" sound he made as he struggled to breath. 45 mins later the SPCA pitched up and Gareth told us that he looked like an Arctic Fur Seal as opposed to the more common Cape Fur Seal we get around here.

I helped pack Humphrey into his new form of transport and carried him back to the car where Gareth told us their vets would examine him and we could call later to find out how he was doing.

Down Perriscope!

Well it had to happen!!
Living at the coast, it's only a matter of time before you as a photographer wonder what's down there...

What I discovered was that you don't have to go very deep to get some really nice shots!
(Thanks to a friend of mine who lent me his Sony Cybershot with underwater casing)

f/7.1, 1/200 sec, ISO-125
This amazing 24 cm Rock Code was more curious about my camera than I was of him. He actually followed me around the rock pool ;-)

f/7.1, 1/200 sec, ISO-125
In this shot I could actually be swimming with him...

Then there was this little fellow who thought Graham's feet were really interesting...

"mmm... something smells fishy??"

Now here is a shot I'm particularly proud of... You may have seen pictures of drops in water from above the water, BUT have you ever seen it from below the water? ;-)

This pool was just your average Cape Rock Pool at first glance but as you sat and waited patiently it came alive!

To like or not to like... is that the question?

The joys of being a light-art'ist is that what I like and what you like might not neccesarily be the same.
If you've been doing photography for any length of time you will have come across this phenomenon.  You take a picture and you think it's just DaBomb... only to find out that none of your friends feel the same way. Or you are clearing out your pictures and then are about to delete one when a friend peering over your shoulder says, "Wow, that's great!"
Well that's what art is. It's subjective, personal and emotional.


It's like this picture I took for a client recently. I think it's amazing I love it, the feel, the mood etc. but she didn't even pause when I showed her. It was, "Nope. Next"... And that's just the way it is. The important thing is that you do what turns you on. That way your photography will bring you all the joy it promises.

f5.6, 1/200 sec, ISO 200

2010 and we're off!!

f3.5, 1/1250sec, ISO 400

4th Jan and back on the job.
Had a stunning shoot this afternoon in an exquisite garden.
Now here's a bumber... I got there to discover I hadn't checked my flash's batteries... you guessed it, not only were they flat but they weren't even in the bleeding device!! AAAH! Nothing quite as humbling as having to do a shoot with your camera's pop-up flash. (Especially when you're used to showing off with your nice BIG 580 EX ;-))

f4.5, 1/320 sec, ISO 400

Needless to say we do what we can with what we have...