Come join me on a Photo Tour next year - See the best of India, Scotland, Ireland, Costa Rica, and Japan!

Next year is going to bring something totally different for my photo tours. For the first time in years, I will not be leading any trips to Africa in 2020 (since it is an Olympic year and I will be photographing the Games during much of the summer). But instead, we have chosen to lead groups to other places which offer amazing photo opportunities that don't conflict with the Olympics.

Along with my two trips to Costa Rica next year, I will be joining M&M Photo Tours as their Guest Pro to teach photography in India, Scotland, Ireland and Japan.  And the good news is...all of these trips are a go! This means that we already have them at least half sold out. This also means that, if you would like to join us on one or more of these awesome trips, you need to let us know soon.

And here is a BIG bonus: Due to my partnership with Canon, if you sign up for any of my photo tours, you can borrow just about any Canon camera gear you would want (cameras, lenses, flash) at no cost for the duration of the trip!

Here is where we are going:

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INDIA

Photo Credit: Mike Gulbraa (M&M Photo Tours)

In January of 2020, we will be heading to India to photograph the scenes, the people and even the tigers. We will be visiting Delhi, Bandhavgarh, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer to offer an amazing variety of photography. There are four spots available for this trip.

You can find more information about this trip HERE.

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COSTA RICA

In May and September of next year I will be leading trips into the rain forest of Costa Rica. As many of you know, this is one of my favorite places to photograph wildlife. You will capture great photos of sloths, monkeys, tree frogs, colorful birds and so much more. Currently there are 2 spots left for the May tour and 8 spots open for the September tour.

You can find more information about these trips HERE.

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SCOTLAND AND IRELAND

In June, we will be heading to the beautiful countries of Scotland and Ireland. From Edinburgh and the Isle of Skye in Scotland to the beautiful west coast of Ireland, we'll photograph the awesome landscapes of mountains, coastlines, villages, lochs, and more. Castles, lighthouses and peat moss thatched houses are also on the shooting list. Currently there are 5 spots left for this tour.

You can find more information about this trip HERE.

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JAPAN

Photo Credit: Mike Gulbraa (M&M Photo Tours)

To finish off the year, I will make a return trip to Japan (after photographing the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in July and August). But this time I will not just be in the big city of Tokyo. We will be capturing the fall foliage in this amazing country. We will be seeing the best of Tokyo, Nikko, Kamakura, Kyoto, Mt. Koya and more.  Currently there are 8 spots left for this tour.

You can find more information about this trip HERE.

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As you can tell, it is going to be an amazing year of unique travel experiences. I hope that you can join in on at least one of them.

If you have any questions about these tours, please email me at jeff@jeffcable.com

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Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
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If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
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Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

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Two new presentations at B&H Photo next week

Next Tuesday I will be back at B&H Photo in New York for two new presentations.

The first presentation will talk about how I use Photoshop to "finish" my images. The second presentation will show you my images from numerous trips to the rain forest of Costa Rica, and talk about the process of capturing these images.

If you live in the area, come by and watch live. If you want to register for the events, you can do so HERE. If you are not local to the NY area, both will be live-streamed and eventually put on YouTube.

And thanks to Datacolor and Canon for sponsoring these!

I hope to see you there.

__________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

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Is the new Apple Mac Pro the best choice for photographers?

Finally, after many years of waiting, I was happy to see that Apple just announced a new Mac Pro computer. I have been (and still am) using the 2013 model of the Mac Pro and have been waiting for this Apple announcement for years. But, now that Apple has announced all the details, the big questions are:

* Does the power of this computer justify the cost?
* Is this the best computer for photographers?

Before continuing this blog post (and what is probably fairly obvious since the computer is not even out yet) I should say that I have not actually tried the new Mac Pro and I am basing this blog post on all the specs and information that Apple announced today. But having used Macs for 15 years and knowing the technical ins and outs, I am able to make some pretty confident conclusions here.

Lets start with the base price of the new Mac Pro. This computer is going to start at $6000, which will get you an 8-core Intel Xeon processor, 32GB of memory and a 256GB solid state drive. These specs are OK for photographers, but I would never recommend a 256GB SSD and would suggest a minimum of 512GB. This will likely put the price at approximately $6500.

And then, of course, you will need to purchase a monitor. Apple's new 6K monitor looks simply amazing, but will set you back another $5000. Yikes! I am currently using a Samsung 32" 4K monitor, which is no longer current, but you can find this model for only $600 at B&H. Since I don't see myself ever spending $5000 on a monitor, I figure I am looking at a starting price of $7100 to get the new Mac with a third party display.

So...looking at this price vs performance, my first thought was to compare this new Mac to an iMac or iMac Pro.

On Apple's web site, they show this speed comparison for a task done in Adobe Photoshop CC

The first thing I notice is that Apple is running this test using "faster processing of well-threaded filters". What the heck is that? Having spend 20+ years in marketing at technology companies, I can assume that Apple looked for the the most processor intensive tasks to show off the new computer. But I don't know that I have ever run a "well-threaded filter" and would love to know if my everyday tasks in Photo Mechanic and Adobe Photoshop will be faster. And the second thing I noticed is that Apple is doing the comparison of the older Mac Pro, iMac Pro to the new Mac Pro with all 28 cores! I have no idea what the 28-core Mac Pro will sell for, but I am guessing that it will run a minimum of $10,000. I have even seen heard that a full configured 28-core Mac Pro could cost as much as $50,000.

So all this leads me to look at the prices of similarly configured iMac computers.

* A 2019 model 8-core iMac Pro with 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X GPU, and a 27" 5K monitor can be found at B&H for $5699. Here is the link to that configuration

* An 2019 model 8-core iMac with 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 GPU and a 27" 5K monitor can be found at B&H for $4500. Here is the link to that configuration

And I should point out that having more cores in your processor does not necessarily mean that you will get a ton more speed out of photo editing tasks in programs like Photoshop. Those cores are going to be way more important to the person editing 4K or 8K video or rendering 3D graphics or large animations.

All of these computers have expansion ports (like Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C), so connecting other drives is a simple process. I choose to store only the operating system and applications on the internal drive of the computer, and keep all of my photos and documents on my Drobo 8D.

Some people are interested in the aesthetics of their computers, and the new Mac Pro looks like an updated version of the older "Cheese grater" computer I used 8 years ago. It is pretty interesting looking, but I may still be partial to the all-in-one design of the iMac for a good clean look on the desk.

My last point may seem silly to many of you, but looking at the massive power supply of the new Mac Pro, my first thought was about the heat output from this beast. Having used older computers and monitors in the past, I know that they could increase the temperature of my studio dramatically.

Is this new Mac Pro the best choice for professional photographers? I guess it really depends on how much money you have to spend and what tasks you are typically performing. None of these are inexpensive solutions, but this should give you some things to think about before buying your new Mac desktop.

__________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

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