Jeff Cable's Blog

Friday, April 1, 2022

Canon announces new Butt Detection Software (BDS) on the R5, R6 and R3!!!

I am really excited to announce a new feature added today to the Canon mirrorless cameras. For the past year we have been really spoiled by the amazing face detection of the Canon R5, R6 and R3 cameras. I have blogged about this many times. Now Canon has upped their game once more. Introducing butt detection!

For anyone lucky enough to join me on a photo tour, you know that there are lots of times when we are shooting and an animal turns their back side to us. When this happens, I have often hoped for a better focus mode for this situation. Well...last summer when teaching photo tours in Botswana and Tanzania, I was lucky enough to test Canon's new butt detection. I was not able to tell anyone about the special software that had been loaded into my Canon R cameras, but I was secretly using the feature throughout the trip.

After photographing these two elephants for a little while, they walked away from our vehicle. While the rest of our tour guests were discouraged, I was secretly testing the new feature and loving it. The new focus mode locked right into their back sides perfectly!

I wondered if the zebra stripes would throw off the butt detection, but no, the camera locked right onto the back of the animals and stayed super sharp at all times.

These two made it even easier for the new focus mode, providing targets for the cameras to lock onto.

For those of you looking to get this new feature on your cameras, you need to be using the Canon R5, R6, or R3. And you also need to upgrade to firmware 1.4.1. This will give you a new option instead of just "People" and "Animals".

I wondered how the camera would handle this situation, with two animals facing away from me. It appears that the Butt Detection Software (BDS) defaulted to the closest wild dog.

I was concerned that a wagging tail would throw off the BDS, but nope, it locked in just fine.

For those of you wondering if the BDS will work in conjunction with the "people or animal" option, the answer is yes! For this shot, I selected I/O Servo, people detection and switched from eye detection to butt detection. Notice how the camera avoided the people who were sitting and focused on the derriere that was showing.

This subject was a good test to see how the new mode worked with very little contrast in the scene.

This would have been a perfect test of the butt detection on this cheetah but our driver was in a terrible position for that shot. Darn it!

I loved the accuracy of the new focus mode here, with so many subjects to detect. Butts everywhere. I started bursting off a lot of frames with a big smile on my face. When I looked up, I saw all our guests looking at me like I was nuts. Little did they know that I had BDS installed on my cameras.

As you can see from this photo, the new focus mode drifted from the female lions back side to the eyes of the cubs. What a huge disappointment!

The new feature is definitely not bullet-proof. In this case, it failed miserably. I wondered why the focus drifted to the face of the red-headed agama lizard. I called and talked to Drew and Tony (my technical contacts at Canon) to see why this was happening. Their first question was "Are you using the latest firmware 1.4.1?" and I told them "Of course I am!" After a little more pushing on my part, they told me that there was a newer firmware being tested that would be better optimized for red-headed rock agama lizards. I am super excited to get that one.

If you have been waiting for butt detection on your camera, April 1st is your day! Look for this new firmware to be released later today. It will be posted to the following url:

https://www.wereallydontneedthisfeature.com/

Remember, I told you about this first!

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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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Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Upcoming photo tours to amazing places!

After 2 years of dealing with the pandemic and halting almost all photo tours, things are getting back to some sense of normalcy. Most of my photography friends have started traveling again, and are doing it safely. I have done two photo tours to Costa Rica and two photo tours to Africa and all went amazingly well.

If you are like me, you are tired of being at home and you are itching to travel again. Well...I have good news for you. We have a whole bunch of new photo tours going in 2022 and 2023. These trips are designed to achieve the following:

Get you to the best photo locations.
Teach photography as we go, giving you advice, tips, and ideas to take your photography to the next level and get you the best photos from those locations.
Give you a chance to try new Canon equipment during the duration of the trip for free. (We do have many photographers who shoot Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Fuji and others, and that is totally fine too!)
Introduce you to the culture with the best local guides.
Have a whole lot of fun together!

Our group in Tanzania (with LOTS of borrowed gear)

My most recent group in the rain forest of Costa Rica

I have all upcoming photo tours listed on my website. You can see them all here:

https://www.jeffcable.com/phototours

Before hopping over to that page, here is a quick list of all the upcoming trips:

April 2022 - Japan - SOLD OUT
May 2022 - Costa Rica - 2 spots just opened up
June 2022 - Scotland / Ireland - 5 spots left (and closing soon!)
July 2022 - Botswana - 8 spots left
July 2022 - Tanzania - 4 spots left
Oct 2022 - Indochina - 8 spots left
Nov 2022 - Costa Rica - SOLD OUT
Dec 2022 - Cuba - 8 spots left
Feb 2023 - Tanzania - NEW
April 2023 - New Zealand - NEW
June 2023 - Croatia / Slovenia - NEW
July 2023 - Costa Rica - NEW
Sept 2023 - Morocco - NEW
Nov 2023 - Costa Rica - NEW

We would love to have you join us on one (or many) of our tours. The trips are not designed exclusively for professional photographers. We love taking photo enthusiasts of all levels.

You can see what others have said about their experiences here:

https://www.jeffcable.com/photo-tour-testimonials

Feel free to email me for any information!

Jeff

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Saturday, March 19, 2022

Tips for photographing a concert - Shinedown in action

Let me start this blog by saying that I am not a concert photographer. I know people who photograph concerts and bands for a living, but I am not one of those guys. With that said, I do love the challenge of photographing bands in action!

For the last two years, the pandemic has made it almost impossible to see a concert let alone photograph one. But one of my favorite bands kicked off a tour recently and made a visit to San Francisco. I really wanted to see Shinedown live but their concert was scheduled just days before the Beijing Olympics. I knew that there was no way I could risk being in a group situation, indoors, before being subjected to the intense Covid protocols in China. But since I pulled the plug on the Winter Olympics just days before going, I decided that the concert needed to happen for me! I called and asked for a photo credential, but it was one day before the concert and that was not going to happen.

I decided to bring a camera just in case. Since I was entering the venue without credentials, I kept things inconspicuous, bringing just a Canon R6 and a Canon RF24-105mm lens. Luckily, nobody stopped me at the door, and so me and my trusty camera got in with no problem. I have a friend who works at the venue and he was nice enough to escort me into the pit to shoot the first three songs.

That is how I got access. Now let me share the images and some of my tips for shooting concerts.

Photographing concerts is really challenging, mainly due to these reasons:

1. There is low light which means that your camera ISO has to be set pretty high.

2. The light is constantly changing, going from super dark to extremely bright in a second.

3. The action is fast and you need a shutter speed fast enough to capture the action.

When shooting from up close in the pit (especially in a smaller venue), I find that a 24-70mm lens or a 24-105mm lens works great. Chances are that you will be only feet from the performers.

If there is room to move in the pit, you can move to capture the different musicians. But most of the time you will be stuck in the same location and will use the zoom lens to isolate your subjects.

As I mentioned, the constantly changing lights make it tough to get your exposure correct in the camera. I shoot concerts in aperture priority mode, using spot metering, and typically under expose by at least one stop to keep from blowing out the highlights.

Every concert has different lighting situations. In this particular venue, they used a lot of red lights on the artists.

I try to capture the artists individually, but also try and get them interacting.

For most of these photos, I was shooting with these settings:

* ISO 3200

* I/O Servo focus (since the artists were moving all over)

* f/4 since it was the best aperture I could get with this lens

* Minus 1 1/2 stops of exposure compensation

I like to capture different poses for each performer.

As you can see in these two photos, there are times when it is good to use the bright lights to your advantage, putting your subject in silhouette.

These three photos were taken within a split second of each other, and you can see the change in background color and the amount of spot lighting on the lead singer.

After the first three songs, we were escorted out of the pit area (which is the common practice today) and I I shot from farther back in the crowd.

Shooting from farther back is easier than shooting from up close, since the evaluative metering takes in more of the scene and the movement is easier to track.

I was carefully watching the lighting to determine the best backgrounds for photos.

I saw this moment with a spotlight shining through the legs of Brent and Eric, and fired off some shots hoping to get that starburst through their bodies.

Here are more examples of using the house lighting to create dynamic photos.

Pyrotechnics make things even more challenging, with a lot of ambient light flooding your cameras sensor. This is why I generally photograph with exposure compensation turned down at least one stop. It is easier to brighten a dark image than to try and darken an overexposed shot.

I like including the audience in some of the photos, since they add to the excitement in the scene.

More pyro!

Just like when shooting sports, I look for the peak of action and emotion. For this reason, I like to keep my shutter speed faster than 1/800 sec.

Just like shooting sports, where the reaction of the crowd can be just as interesting as the action of the athletes, the concert audience is worth capturing as well.

Barry (the drummer) was often hidden behind the other band members and pyrotechnics, so it made it challenging to capture good shots of him at the drumset.

I love pyro at concerts!

Towards the end of the concert, Barry and Zach performed an acoustic set with minimal lighting effects. You can see the difference with the simplicity of the background. Not nearly as dynamic as with the stage lighting.

This last shot was taken at the very end of the concert. I zoomed out to 24mm and caught Brent with his fist in the air, framed by the excitement of the crowd. This is one of my favorite photos from the night.

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Wednesday, March 2, 2022

I have (finally) made the switch to all mirrorless cameras!

I have been a professional photographer for more than 15 years now and have never made a mass change in the camera gear I use over that time. I have upgraded camera bodies, and at times upgraded to a newer version of a lens. But those are incremental changes, done in small doses. For instance, I upgraded from the Canon 5D Mark III to a 5D Mark IV or a Canon 1DX MKII to a Canon 1DX MKIII. And I upgraded from the original Canon 100-400mm lens to the second version of that lens, since it was much sharper. Those changes were made over many years and did not require many changes in my preparations, shooting style, or after capture. But then Canon came out with mirrorless cameras that upped the game.

When Canon announced the original Canon R mirrorless camera, I was not very impressed with the camera, and suggested that it was not a camera I would be using. But I did see its potential, and I even wrote that in a blog post back in 2018. Back then I viewed mirrorless cameras as "not ready for prime time". I know that there are plenty of people who switched to mirrorless before I did, many of them using the Sony cameras. I did not want to switch all my cameras and lenses in one fell swoop, and also had faith that Canon would come out with something better.

When Canon came out with the Canon R5 and Canon R6, that was when I got excited. Not only were these cameras a great fit for my everyday shooting, but they were exciting to use. My images were sharper than ever, and the immediate feedback in the eye-piece was just awesome. I started by purchasing one Canon R6 body with the RF24-105mm f/4 lens. I also purchased a couple of the EF-RF adaptors so that I could use my older lenses on the new mirrorless bodies. This has worked great for the last year, with no degradation in image quality, but I really wanted the newer lighter lenses. I got more of the new RF lenses (RF70-200mm 2.8, RF24-70mm, and RF15-35mm), figuring that these 3 lenses were my "go-to" for most of my event photography. But the big problem was that I was using one mirrorless camera and one DSLR (either the 5D MKIV or the 1DX MKIII), which meant that I had to pack a lot more gear. To use both cameras, I needed to pack a set of RF lenses and a set of EF lenses.

I also found it hard to go back to the DSLR cameras after using the mirrorless bodies. I have gotten used to reviewing my images in the eyepiece, which I can not do in the DSLR cameras. And most importantly, I am spoiled by the incredible face and eye detection of the Canon R cameras.

A couple of months ago I decided that it was time to make the switch to all mirrorless camera bodies and lenses. Well...I am not getting rid of all my EF lenses just yet. I am going to keep using my Canon 200-400mm, Canon 100-400mm, and Canon 15mm fish eye lenses, since they are not available as an RF lens (yet) and are still very useful to me. I have the EF-RF adaptors for these lenses and still use them all the time.

Recently I did also get the Canon RF85mm 1.2 lens which is amazing for portraits (see below), and the Canon RF100-500mm lens for wildlife and sports. I was thinking I would sell my EF 100-400mm lens but still like it so much that it is going to stick around for a while.

(Canon R6, 85mm f/1.2 lens, ISO 320, f/1.2, 1/250 sec, Canon 600EX-RT flash)

I am now using two of the Canon R6 cameras and a Canon R3 for all my photography. I love the lighter weight of the cameras, the fact that they have two card slots, the ability to shoot in complete silence, the smaller size of the RF70-200mm 2.8 lens, and overall quality of the images. And, as I said before, the eye detection is so darned good that my "take rate" is better than ever before.

Both of these cameras have similar resolution, and each time I shoot I decide on which camera bodies will go with me. For most events I like the light weight and smaller size of the Canon R6, and for any fast action or wildlife shooting, I will grab the Canon R3. It has faster focusing and a faster burst rate if needed. I am still playing with the eye-control of the R3 and determining whether that will yield me better results when taking portraits of multiple people (being able to focus on my main subject just by looking at them). I also like having the larger battery of the R3 and the built-in grip for shooting portraits.

People have asked me why I am not using the Canon R5 in my event photography, and the reason is this: I do not need that high of resolution for my clients, and those cameras are more than $1000 more than the R6. For these reasons, I chose not to purchase the R5 bodies. But, when I go on safari and want the ability to shoot high resolution (to give me the ability to crop in on my images and still have good resolution), I do borrow the Canon R5 bodies from Canon Professional Services (CPS).

It took a while to make the investment and the change, but it has made a big difference to my everyday work, and I am so happy with the upgrade!

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Monday, February 21, 2022

Beijing Winter Olympics: Watching NBC vs Being There

I am sitting here writing this blog post while watching the Closing Ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics on the TV next to me.

I have a range of emotions as this Olympics comes to a close, but most of all I am happy that they are over and I can look forward to Paris 2024.

I have no regrets, and still feel that staying home was the right thing to do. And being here for the birth of my first grandchild was something really special!

It was really different watching the Olympics on television, as opposed to being there. And the funny thing is...I now have a better idea of what you are all feeling when you watch TV and read my blog posts. From what I saw on television, the sports were well covered, but there was so much that was missing. The last time I watched the Olympics on NBC (back in 2006), they had all kinds of back stories on the athletes, and this time I saw almost none of those. Maybe this is due to the pandemic and the fact that the athletes needed to stay in a small bubble. But I was actually looking forward to some of those. I was also surprised how much coverage that curling got on prime time. I had no idea that this sport would be featured as much as it was here in the US.

Most of all, I wanted to see more behind the scenes, more of the inner workings of the Games, and more about the Olympic experience outside of the competition. I think about all of the interesting things that I experience in between the sports, and of course that was all missing this time around.

I had lunch with my good friend from USA Water Polo the other day and we were talking about the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. While I was driving home, I realized that not once did we talk about the amazing competition that we saw, we just reminisced about our time in between the different events. The logistical challenges, the tiny hotel rooms, the weird bus schedules, and the fact that we had to eat the same food almost everyday. But while recounting those memories we were smiling the whole time.

It was nice to watch the Olympics from the comfort of home (with weather in the 60s and 70s here in California) as opposed to being in temperatures well below freezing. But I am already chomping at the bit to get to Paris to cover the next Olympic Games in two and a half years.

I guess I could wrap this up by saying that staying home and watching this Olympics from half a world away was as weird as tuning in to NBC and seeing Johnny Weir's constantly changing outfits and hairdos.

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Monday, February 14, 2022

Beijing Winter Olympics: The escape from solitary confinement!

For all of you who have read the recent blog posts, you know that my friend, Ian. He is the photographer who had been locked up in Beijing for testing Covid positive.

I talked to him a couple of days ago and he was hoping to get out of the 1-star hotel where he was being quarantined. He told me some crazy stories which I thought I would share with all of you.

He told me that in the 12 days he had been holed up in this location, he had yet to be served any hot meals. Not that the food was bad mind you, just not hot. Ian said that he would keep his door open for most of the day, just to hear what was going on outside his 10x12 room. He would also communicate with others this way. This made me think of all those prison movies I have seen. He said that an American guy had just been put into the room across the hall from him, and was trying to order a hamburger and coke. He thought that he could get room service! Later when the guy received his Chinese meal, he asked if they could heat it up. Ian just chuckled and thought "that will not happen". It wasn't that the people were mean, Ian said that they were mostly kids, and that even though they had a hard time communicating, they were friendly.

Another person who tested positive and is entering the quarantine zone. Ian posted this on his Instagram page and said quoted the Eagles' Hotel California lyrics "Relax, said the night man. We are programmed to receive. You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!" (Photo credit Ian MacNicol)

When I asked Ian how things were going, he told me that the place was a bit like "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest". He said that there was an Australian sports reporter who was staying down the hall from him, and the guy was going nuts after 12 days in "captivity". He was yelling down the hallway accusing the Chinese of locking him up for too long and putting Covid in his food." Ian was wondering if this guy was going to start a hunger strike from his room.

Ian was cracking me up. Knowing how much I love walking and getting my steps everyday, he was sending me his step count each day. Even though he was stuck in that crazy small room, he was managing to achieve about 10,000 steps a day. I asked him how he did that, and he said "thank goodness for my little hallway to the hotel room door." He was also doing sit ups and press ups.

The good news is that he is now released, back to his original hotel and shooting the Olympics.

The bad news is that the challenges were still ongoing. Since he had been locked up immediately after entering China, he had yet to get his shooting sleeve (needed to photograph at every Winter Olympics). Since Ian was staying up in the mountain cluster, he had to make the 3 1/2 hour trek to the Main Press Center in Beijing, get his sleeve, and then take the buses and trains back for another 3 1/2 hours.

He said that, since nobody involved with the Olympics is allowed to walk anywhere, they are required to take the press buses. We dealt with this, in a slightly less stringent way, in Tokyo. He told me that he even had to take a bus for less than 1000 feet to get to another bus because of the 0 tolerance rules.

The Olympic Sliding Center (where they have Bobsled, Luge and Skeleton) is almost next door to Ian's hotel. But much like we experienced in Tokyo, there are no official buses which will take people from the hotel to the venue. And they are not allowed to walk. So...(you are not going to believe this)...the only way to get to the venue is a 3 1/2 hour bus ride to Beijing, and then a 3 1/2 bus ride back up the mountain! He said that some of the photographers he had talked to were getting up at 4am to make an 11am event. That is NUTS! At this rate, the press who were located in the mountains would be lucky to cover more than one sport per day.

I am just happy that he has made it through the worst part (we sure hope) and that Ian can get back to doing what he does best, shooting awesome sports photos! I am also happy to be here at home and not dealing with that.

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Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Beijing Winter Olympics: Watching TV but thinking like a photographer

It is so weird to watch the Olympics on television!

For the first time in 16 years, I am not at the Olympics, but sitting at my home watching it like most everyone else. This also means that it has been that long since I have heard the back stories, the commentating, and the spin that NBC puts on the Games. It has also been that long since I have heard the all too familiar Olympic theme song which has been used by NBC forever. I have to admit, I actually have missed hearing that song played before every Olympic segment.

I made sure to tune in to the opening ceremony, and had some really weird mixed feelings as I watched the broadcast.

I realized that when I was watching the ceremony, I was thinking photographically. I was watching each sequence and thinking "Would this part be worth shooting? and How would I shoot this?" Honestly, I watched the opening ceremony (with the luxury of fast forwarding through each country walking in - which is always too long when we are in the stadium), and I thought that the only part that would make great photos was the beginning. Yes, I even took a photo of the screen to show you what I am talking about. After this, most of the ceremony was using the giant LED display on the deck of the stadium, and lacked the energy of having people performing, much like the opening ceremony in Tokyo.

I have also watched many different sports over the last 5 days, way more than I would have seen if I was in Beijing photographing the one or two events per day. And when watching those, I am often torn between watching the athletes and looking at the photo positions and how many photographers are in the venues. It does look like there are far fewer photographers covering each sport, but I have yet to get clarification on how many photographers are actually at the Games.

The toughest sport to watch is hockey, knowing that I would normally be parked against the glass and shooting the action first hand whenever Team USA is on the ice. I get the email updates from the team, and it kills me that they are not able to use my images this time around.

I can assure you that I am not rethinking my decision to stay home, knowing that I would go absolutely nuts being locked in a small room for weeks. And I am still hearing the same horror stories that many of you might have seen or heard, with athletes and journalists being locked up for weeks in poor conditions as they wait anxiously for negative Covid tests. Stories like I shared from my friend Ian. (I talk to him every day and will share an update on his predicament soon.)

The one thing I miss the most, is knowing the back stories. NBC does a good job of showing the sports, but I want to know about the housing, the food, the transportation, the volunteers, and the overall conditions. I have reached out to some of my photographer friends who are there, but as expected, they are working crazy hours every day with little free time to communicate. That I know well!

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Thursday, February 3, 2022

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics: Good decision to stay home!

It is now Thursday here in the US, and tonight I will be watching Winter Olympics in Beijing on television like most of you. It will be the first time in 16 years that I have done that, and it will be with really mixed emotions.

First of all, I would like to thank the hundreds of people who reached out via email, blog comments, social media...in support of my decision not to go to China for these games. I really appreciate your feedback. Truly!

I spent the better part of two days undoing everything I had been working on for the year. Communicating with my contacts at Team USA, cancelling flights and hotels, cancelling Covid tests, and reaching out to all of my sponsors.

A lot has transpired in the last 5 days, since I wrote the last blog post, both great and bad.

Let's start with the great news!

Saturday night I was at home and getting ready for bed. It was supposed to be my last night at home before heading to China and I definitely had mixed emotions. And then...I got a text message from my son that his wife was in labor, two weeks early, and it was happening fast. I stayed up and waited, excited to hear the news, and at 12:49am my first grandchild was born! She arrived on the same morning that I would have been flying to China. That would have been REALLY hard for me not to see her in person for a month! I guess this was meant to be.

I am currently with my son and his family now and loving the time with them. I promise to post some photos in the future.

And then there is the bad news:

I mentioned in the last blog post that I would reach out to my photographer friends who were going to Beijing, to have them share content for the blog. I had two friends who I was communicating with the most. Kyle (from USA Today) who also decided not to go, and my buddy Ian MacNicol, who is an amazing sports photographer from Glasgow, Scotland. Days before Ian was supposed to fly out from Europe, his charter flight was cancelled (since so many people pulled out) and he had to scramble to get new flights. He ended up flying out earlier than expected.

Then he arrived in Beijing only to find out that he tested POSITIVE for Covid!

When he got to the airport, Ian had to do his Covid test and he said "This lady carried out a PCR test on me today, however I am sure she chose to use a knitting needle rather than a swab, the real killer was it felt like she drove it in with the heel of her hand! I swear I felt it scrape the back of my eyeball." This would put me over the edge!

After the test, he was transported to his hotel. As you can see, almost everyone working the Olympics in Beijing are wearing full PPE. Ian shoots of lot of the skiing events and, unlike me, he usually stays up in the mountain cluster. This was a 3 1/2 hour bus ride for him.

After getting to the hotel, he was notified that he had tested positive for Covid and would now be locked down. They put a guard in front of his room and he was not allowed to leave. Since nobody there speaks English, he is having a hard time communicating with them. They do have small translating devices, but he says that they are not working very well. At least he had a nice room with a good view (at the time).

The following morning Ian was tested again. This time they gave him a choice of a nasal test or a throat swab. As he told me "I was seriously worried that if they did the deep nose test everyday, they may cause brain damage to me." He happily chose the mouth swab. At this point he had symptoms as well, and found out that his son had Covid at home. If he had left on his original flight and not left early, he would have tested positive in Scotland and never left the country,

Later that first day, he told me that he was likely being moved from his hotel room to one of the quarantine hotels. And that is exactly what happened.

It was pretty late at night when they came to transport him to his new living quarters.

He said that his current location "seems like an old hotel that had been abandoned for a while" and the conditions are not so good. His view of the outside consists of a high fence to make sure that nobody gets in or out without permission.

I asked him how the food was and he sent me this photo. He said "there is enough food for three people, but all of it was hot at one point, but delivered cold."

He also told me "good news and bad - numbers are moving in the right direction but also learnt that when I eventually leave this place I have to isolate in my original hotel room for a further 7 days!"

This means that Ian may miss the entire Olympics and stay in a small room the entire time. I hope that is not the case. It is Ian's exact situation that kept me from making the trip to Beijing!

I have to say that Ian has a much better attitude than I would have in this situation. He is taking it all in stride. I check in with him at least a couple of times a day to try and keep his spirits high. He is posting images from his quarantine room on his Instagram account. You can follow him here. Let's make sure to comment on his posts and help him get through all this.

I will keep you all up to date on Ian's journey. I also know other photographers who have made it through the Covid net and are working the Olympics. I will try to share their stories and images as well.

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