Another addition to our family. Canon 5D Mark II!

Recently got rid of my Canon 40D and 5D to upgrade to the 5D Mark II. Although the 40D and 5D were both great cameras it was definitely time to upgrade. So now Im lucky enough to own both my dream cameras the Canon 1D Mark III and the new Mark II. They both have different strong points but Im totally loving the low light performance of the MkII. Tried it out shooting a wedding today playing around with the ISO set to 6400 and the results were fantastic. Very usable indeed! Also the ability to crop down from the 21 mega pixels is nice also!

I bought this camera with the Canon 24-105mm f4L IS lens. Although I would have probably prefered the 2.8 version for the money this is a awesome bit of glass with a nice zoom range. Havent had a chance to play around much with its new HD video capabilities yet or even shoot much stuff for myself (only work) but perhaps on Monday (day off) when the family and I head down to Chiba to check out some houses we are looking at buying. Hopefully next week I will have some shots I can upload from the my new toy 8-)

RIP Mininova.org!

I was sad today to drop by my favorite torrent site Mininova.org only to see they are ONLY sharing "Content Distribution" files now. Basically that means all my shows I watch on a regular basis like South Park, The Office, Family Guy, Weeds etc... are no longer there for download. Not to mention movies and other stuff we have come to take for granted over the years from this great site. RIP Mininova! You will be missed.

Rota trip images finally uploaded!

Welcome to Rota island!
Originally uploaded by Shenanigans in Japan

The latest Outdoor Japan magazine with the story about our (Aya Ishii and myself) trip to Rota Island a few months back. The story and images came out great in the magazine and now I can finally share some of my favorite images from that trip with you online.

I will be uploading them to Flickr each day for the next week or so, so check back regularly to see new images.

To see these and other new images drop my my Flickr gallery at http://www.flickr.com/photos/peteleongphotography/

One reason I love living in Japan!

One reason I love living in Japan!
Originally uploaded by Shenanigans in Japan

I am always amazed when people back in Australia tell me how much it still costs to have a decent internet connection (let alone an unlimited download limit). Is it really that hard to hook everyone up with nice fast access without paying through the nose for every gigabyte you download?! Come on already we're in the age of technology aren't we?

Shooting Autumn

Namekawa waterfall hdr pano
Originally uploaded by Shenanigans in Japan

Been getting out as much as possible on my days off recently to try and capture some nice Autumn colours up in the mountains of Fukushima and Yamagatta prefectures. Tried this HDR panorama shot of these amazing falls just near Namekawa hot spring just over the boarder into Yamagatta prefecture. Its about an hour hike from the onsen (Hot spring) up and over a ridge down to a beautiful clear water rock river. Then you make your way up the river for about 5 minuets or so to get to the base of the falls. Its not a walk in the park to get here thats for sure.
Im always amazed at the strength of the elderly Japanese people that make an effort to make the climb to get here. Although I didnt see anyone make it all the way to the falls there were quite a few people making the climb and decent some of the way or most of the way before turning back as it gets a little tricky balancing over rocks etc.. But they are just amazing.

So to make the most of my time on the days off Ive been getting up around 3:30~4am to drive out to these places. Its a great change from shooting all day in the studio or at weddings etc.. Very relaxing. But I defiantly don't feel like a professional photographer as far as landscapes and nature goes yet. Still fun though!
As usual come check out more recent shots on Flickr or Smugmug.

Canon 1D Mark IV details released!

The new flagship camera from Canon will be gracing us with it presence very soon and specs for the camera have been showing up around the net. It looks to have fantastic high ISO low noise performance. ISO can now be extended up to a whopping 102,400 ISO!!!!! You'll be able to overexpose a pitch black room while still keeping it pin sharp handheld lol, now thats insane!

Heres a little vid explaining more of the Canon 1D mk IV's features.

The Daily Grind

The Daily Grind
Originally uploaded by Shenanigans in Japan

After a very long day (started at 3:30am) shooting on my day off up various mountains looking for nice autumn colours I ended up at our local skate park shooting some of the fellas doing there thing there. I was experimenting with some off camera "Strobist" type flash shots and also mucking around with some pseudo HDR stuff as you can see in this shot.

As I get so many questions about how I do my HDR's I will be witting up a more detailed blog post shortly explaining my technique so I dont have to keep witting it over and over for every email.

Jet screams like a chimp

Heres a funny little clip I captured on my Canon G9 of Jet in the park. He wanted to go higher so Mummy was pushing him higher. Maybe bit off a bit more then he could chew LOL

Jenna pix

Heres a few more photos of new born Jenna I just uploaded to Smugmug for anyone who would like to see.

http://petesphotographyjapan.smugmug.com/Other/Jenna-just-born/9889157_fHz2Z

Keep checking back for new additions to the gallery!

Its a girl!!

Our baby girl Jenna was born at 4:30 this morning! 3 days over due but at least the labor was quick this time (6hrs) compared to with Jet (24hrs or so?). Both Haruna and baby are doing great and are resting at the clinic for a few more days before going back to Harunas parents place to stay for a month as is Japanese tradition.

I managed to get some shots of little Jenna being born also this time. I shot with the Canon 5D and 50mm f1.4mm so there was no need for flash and could also get a nice shallow depth of field.

Now its time for a long over due nap!

More photos to come later today. 8)