Canon gear on sale now - Up to $700 off!

I just got word about new Canon rebates with some really great deals. One that jumps out immediately is the Canon R6 camera which was selling for $2299 is now available for $1599! They also have the same rebate on the Canon R6 kit with the RF24-105mm f/4 lens, which sold for $3399 and is now available for $2699. 

Check out all the deals by clinking on the image above or HERE.

Happy shopping everyone!

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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 and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours. 

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Memorial Day Photos: San Francisco National Cemetery

Today is Memorial Day and I thought it would be appropriate to pay my respect to those who have made it possible for us to have our freedom. I looked back and found some of my older images from the National Cemetery in San Francisco (from a blog post I did ten years ago) and also have added some new photos that I took yesterday. 

The first two photos were taken back in 2013. It was the first time that I visited the cemetery after the volunteers has placed flags in front of all 32,000 tombstones. 

For this image, I used a fish-eye lens to capture the flags at the entry of the cemetery.

On my previous visit I was there on Memorial Day and had a chance to photograph some of the military who were in attendance.

Yesterday the cemetery was mostly empty. Since I had just finished shooting an event, I had many of my cameras and lenses to choose from. I decided to use my Canon R3 with the Canon RF 70-200mm lens. I got down low to capture the flags and show the repeating pattern of the endless headstones.

I also looked for graves that had been visited. I shot from a standing position...

...and also got down low to highlight the tribute. 

I did not just take photos. I also walked around and fixed some of the flowers and flags that had fallen over and took time to read many of the names of the fallen.

As I walked around, I was looking for repeating patterns in the background. I took this photo at f/3.5 to have the first stone in perfect focus, but let all the stones in the background go out of focus. This photo highlights the name and information.

For this photo, I waited for the wind to blow the flag in the foreground, and focused on that. I took this photo at f/5 to have both the flag and the stone in focus.

There are some military who are buried with flat headstones at grass level (like you can see in the first photo). I got down low to the grass to highlight only the repeating pattern of the flags. 

After spending an hour or so in the cemetery, I was about to leave when I saw these geese walking through the grounds. I saw these two that were walking towards the flags and waited to take photos until they got close.  It almost looks like they are paying their respects.

I got back in my car and was driving out when I saw this goose walking. I lowered my passenger window and framed my shot, and just as I did, it took off. I like that this is a different view within these hallowed grounds, with a little bit of life amongst the fallen. 

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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, Cuba, 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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Japan Photo Tour - Part 2 - Kyoto, Osaka and more

As you saw in the last blog post, we started our Japan photo tour in Tokyo and then made our way to Nikko, We had overcast weather for most of the first part of our trip. Unfortunately, we visited Mt Fuji, but the weather was so bad that we never got a glimpse of the majestic site. But the overcast skies and rain drops did not keep us from visiting some great sites and getting really nice photos.

Instead of taking wide shots, I showed our guests how isolating subjects up close would make for better images in this weather. This photo was taken with the Canon R6 MK II and the RF 24-105mm lens, under the cover of an overhang (to keep us out of the rain). With the low and flat light, I took this opportunity to slow the shutter speed to 1/15th sec to get some motion in the water coming from the dragon's mouth. I framed this shot to include the dragon (as my main subject), but also include the cherry blossoms and pagoda in the background. 

Our next stop was Kyoto, and it was the first time that we had no rain in the forecast. We arrived in Kyoto in the evening and had a nice dinner. As we were walking back from the restaurant, I saw that the Kyoto Tower was lit up in these great colors. I suggested that we do night shots, using the tower as our subject and the wet, reflective streets in the foreground. We walked to a nearby temple and used that as our shooting location. I really loved this location and was hoping to shoot this same image at blue hour the following night. My plans were made, but the tower was lit in white, devoid of this great color. It turns out that the first night was a special lighting to honor breast cancer awareness. 

Kyoto is known for all the amazing temples, and we really enjoyed photographing these. On this morning we visited the Golden Pavilion. I was really happy to see the nice clouds in the sky and great reflections in the water. Really nice shooting conditions! I used the Canon R6 MK II, RF 24-105mm lens with a Tiffen circular polarizing filter to accentuate the contrast in the clouds and the reflection.

We spent hours walking the grounds of the Golden Pavilion, enjoying the nice weather and capturing the beauty of Japan. 

The next day we went to an area just outside of Osaka, which had endless cherry blossom trees. As we walked around the trees, it was hard to stop photographing their colors. 

At one point we started shooting up into the sky. I saw the sun coming through the blossoms and used this as an opportunity to teach the starburst effect (using a low aperture and placing the sun in the right spot). Fun stuff!

I saw these young ladies dressed in traditional clothing and had to get their photo. They had just purchased some sweet treats and happily showed them to me.

I had heard about this next stop and was excited to photograph the tall bamboo trees and the Torii Gates and the Fushimi Inaru Shrine.

Due to the cherry blossoms being in full bloom, the area was packed with visitors, tourists and locals included. These walkways were VERY crowded but I really wanted a clean shot without people the frame. As I walked up the pathway, I thought that this was not going to be possible. But then I noticed that even though there were two open rows of these gates, people were only going up the right side. People assumed that the opposite side was for people exiting the area, but that was not the case. Once I figured this out, I went back down and walked up the left side to get this clean shot.

More cherry blossoms...

We saw this woman posing for photos, and many of us chose to shoot our own images of her from different angles. I decided to use this tree as a "frame" above her. 

One of our last stops was to the Himeji Castle, which was built in the 1300s. Once again, we had great weather. Our group split up, allowing everyone to walk the property to find their own favorite photo locations. I saw this hedge with vibrant red leaves and thought that it would make for a perfect foreground to the castle. For this photo, I got down low to the leaves...

...and i this photo, I raised the camera a little higher to show more of the trees and a little less of the red leaves. This really shows how shooting at a slightly different height can change the composition of your image.

Our last night in Japan was spent in Osaka, where we went to visit the Glico running man. This is one of the most well known landmarks in Osaka and has been popular for the last 80 years. While waiting for the sunlight to diminish and the billboards to light up, we all broke out our phones to capture video and time-lapses from this location. I saw one of our guests (Dave) standing still amongst the fast moving crowd and had to capture this. I slowed the shutter speed of the camera to 1/6 sec and held it as steady as I could above my head.

I did not really understand why this was a tourist attraction, but took the photo anyways. There were literally thousands of people taking photos of this billboard.

In order to capture this billboard differently than everyone else there, I slowed the shutter down and twisted the camera to get this spinning effect. It is different and I like the uniqueness of the shot.

And I forgot to post this cool time-lapse video from the Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo on the last blog post. This is the busiest intersection in the world.

Click HERE or on the image above to see the time-lapse.

Overall it was an amazing chance for all of us to experience the beauty of Japan and I really look forward to getting back there next year. Hopefully I will get a chance to see Mt. Fuji next time around! 

If you would like to go with us, please click HERE to get more information.

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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, Cuba, 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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Japan Photo Tour: The people, the cherry blossoms and more

After numerous years of delays due to the pandemic, we were finally able to take our guests to Japan last month! Even though I have been to Japan numerous times, it was the first time going with M&M Photo Tours, leading a photo tour to this amazing country. We timed the trip to try and catch the cherry blossoms in full bloom, and the timing was spot on. More to come on that in a little bit later in this blog post (and in another post coming soon).

It was also the first time for me to use the new Canon R6 MK II camera. For this trip, I decided to bring the Canon R6 MK II and my Canon R5. I brought 3 lenses with me: the Canon RF15-35mm, the Canon RF24-105mm, and the Canon RF70-200mm.

After landing in Tokyo, I needed to stay awake for another 4 hours in order to get time adjusted. I had yet to meet with our tour guests, so I went for a walk and tried the new camera. 

By the time I got to the hotel, it was already dark, but I love taking night photos, so this was fine with me. With all the lights on the storefronts, and masses of people returning home from work  I figured that motion pans would be fun. This was one of the first snaps from the Canon R6 MK II, taken at 1/5 sec.

I saw this small side street and loved the lights and busy walking traffic. Since I did not have a tripod with me on this evening, I decided to test the image stabilization (in camera and in the lens). I leaned against a wall and took this photo with a one second exposure, handheld. No problem at all!

Speaking of motion, the next morning was the first time for our group to head out for photos. As we waited for our train to arrive, I thought that this would be a perfect place for our first group shot. As a passing train entered the station, I asked everyone to stand still, so that I could get them sharp, but with motion of the train. I set the camera for a 1/20 sec for this photo.

For our first stop, we visited the Great Buddha of Hase-dera. It was an overcast day and we had white cloudy skies. It was great light on the Buddha, but really boring for a background. This was a great chance to demonstrate the new "Sky replacement" feature in Photoshop to the group, when I was teaching post production a couple of days later.

This bronze statue is about 35 feet tall and dates all the way back to the 13th century. There were a lot of people shooting straight onto the statue, so I showed everyone how we could shoot from an angle, and farther away, and use the foliage as a frame.

After visiting the Great Buddha, we walked to the Haze-Dera Temple and we all had a great time roaming the grounds .

We did not see any cherry blossoms in this location, but the architecture and other foliage was beautiful.

I took a lot of photos there, but my favorite was this detail shot of these "six jizo" sculptures. 

On our second day in Tokyo, we went to Ueno Park, which is the best place to see the cherry blossoms in Tokyo and it was awesome. When we first arrived, I looked around and saw these decorations and thought that they would make a perfect foreground for the blossoms. I had our guests start here and then we broke off to allow everyone a chance to grab photos of their own.

We saw a combination of white cherry blossoms and pink ones. So beautiful!

The next day we visited another temple. I found it interesting, but since we had overcast weather once again, it was not terribly photographic. But we saw this young lady who was dressed in traditional Japanese clothing and I saw an opportunity for some really nice portraits. It turned out that she was in this location to celebrate her 20th birthday with her family. It was a win / win for us because she loved having her photo taken, and it gave me a chance to teach some portrait photography techniques to the group. I moved her to this location to get a good background and nice side-lighting. For this photo, I grabbed my Canon R5 and I went with my favorite portrait lens, the Canon RF70-200mm lens.

We went to a couple different places around the temple for more photos. I took this photo with the Canon R6 MK II and used the Canon RF15-35mm wide angle lens to show more of the scene. Because I did not have a flash with me at the time, I knew that she would be really dark in the bottom of the frame. But I also knew that this could be fixed later, so I took the photo and brightened her in Photoshop later.

After photographing the young lady, we were standing around waiting for the other guests to meet back at our spot. I heard drumming noise and turned to see these people coming into the main area of the temple. It was a bridal party walking towards their wedding ceremony, with the bride and groom in the middle. More good timing.

One evening took the train to the Shinjuku station and we visited the famous alleyway informally called "piss alley".  It is nicknamed this because in the 1940s there were no bathrooms in the area so people would just go to the bathroom anywhere in this alley. This narrow alley is now home to many small places to eat. Since it was really dark, I recommended that our guests crank up their ISO to 3200 to get photos of these tiny eateries.

We visited many beautiful gardens, this one being one of my favorites. I took portraits of each of the guests and then asked one of the guests (thanks Dave!) to take a photo of me here. There was a light rain falling. If you zoom into the photo, you can see the rain drops falling everywhere.

Any time we saw people in traditional clothing, we tried to stop them for photos. 

The next stop on our tour was Nikko. In this area we ventured off to the Kanmangafuchi gorge. It was a really pretty location, and in this case the overcast weather once again worked to our advantage. Due to the low light, we could slow our shutter speeds and blur the water. I set the Canon R6 MK II to ISO 100 and f/20 which gave me a shutter speed of about 3/4 sec. And just like on the first night in Japan, I was able to use the image stabilization to shoot this handheld at the slow shutter speed and get a really sharp image (with motion blur of the water).

Hiking a short distance up the trail, along the edge of the Daiyagawa River, we came across the well known Narabi Jizo statues. These statues are lined up along the wall which stretches for hundreds of feet.  Again, we had perfect light for photographing the statues, with no harsh sunlight or shadows. I really loved this location for three reasons: 

1. It is not as popular as other tourist destinations, so it was not crowded with people.

2. The ancient stonework and colors were really pretty.

3. I love photographing repeating patterns.

The statues all wear these red hats and scarves, since they are treated as live people and kept warm from harsh environment.

After shooting many images of the statues, I was trying to figure out a unique way to photograph them. I saw this rain covered tree limb and focused on that, letting the statues go out of focus. I showed this to the other guests and we all took turns holding the tree limb down to get the best composition.

We were just about finished photographing the Jizo statues, when a couple of our guests came down from the hillside above and told us about a beautiful old cemetery. Even though we only had 10 minutes more before we were all supposed to meet by our bus, I hurried up the hill to grab some photos. It was stressful trying to shoot in such a short period of time, but well worth it!

These last photos (of the first half of the Japan Photo Tour blog) is of the Skinkyo Bridge. This red lacquered bridge was built in 1636 and crosses the Daiya River. It is known as one of the nicest bridges in Japan.  As we all stood there taking photos, all I could think of as "How can we shoot this differently than the standard photo taken by everyone else?" So I decided to teach everyone who to zoom the lens while shooting a long exposure shot.

This was my favorite image of this experiment. Some people might love it and others may not like it all, but I was happy to get something "different".

I have many more images from this trip to share with you all, and this will be coming in a "part 2" blog post in the next week or so.

We will be returning to Japan next year for another photo tour. If you are interested in going, check out the photo tours page here.

__________________________________________________________________________

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, Cuba, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours. 

__________________________________________________________________________