Upgrades To Consider

For those of us who remain committed to photography’s bleeding edge, there’s a new game underway – the mirrorless evolution.

I was on board about seven years ago, when I bought into the Nikon Pro V1 System, and couldn’t believe how a smart company, like Nikon used to be, would almost instantly upgrade what is a classic frame – the Pro V1, but … they discontinued it and “upgraded” the camera frame almost overnight (by old photography standards).

Finally, the entire line of mirrorless cameras from Nikon – pro to amateur – disappeared, and the misadventures of competing on the GoPro level took hold. Now that the losses of the Nikon 360 and 180 cameras, called KeyMission are an ancient nightmare, the small camera and optics company seems content to let other camera makers have the consumer compact camera market. I say good riddance, and with tongue in cheek, FOCUS.

NIKON Z

Nikon’s line of Z cameras, and dedicated lenses with new dedicated mounts, are complete game changers. With the Nikon Z camera body series starting at a very affordable (these days) entry cost, and lenses of varying capabilities that also echo the cost range of the camera bodies, NIKON has firmly planted their flag with photographers and VIDEOGRAPHERS who want a camera that they can grow into, or grow through on the way to learning more and increasing their visual abilities.

In future posts, I will go into what makes all this so great, AND the entry of AI into cameras thinking chips. Yes, Artificial Intelligence has entered the building and it’s not leaving anytime soon! Guess what? AI isn’t just a buzz word when it comes to photography and videography!

South Padre Island Photography

PortIsabelTexasLighthouseLighting

Yes, South Padre Island, Texas, has a new photographer temporarily on board. It is a crowded place for photographers, so I am doing the usual multiple income streams in order to cross-pollinate my bank account.

I have relocated my personal base of operations to better cover some business adventures in Port Isabel, Texas, and at the same time explore more photographic opportunities in a place I once called home – the Borderlands of the Rio Grande Valley.

Obviously, I am available to do offshore photography (above water right now), and that includes trips with fishing charters that need a photographer on board, leaving out of South Padre Island and Port Isabel, Texas. The Lower Laguna Madre is fertile ground for flats stories, with photography and the fly fishing is off the charts here! That will be running full-speed-ahead in 2023, and I have my skiff and drone so that I can cover a lot of water in the beautiful Bay.

I also am free to cover any photojournalism that pops up, as it always does on the Lower Laguna Madre and South Padre Island.

An example of the video services available would be this video, my first outing shooting video with the new Nikon mirrorless camera. If you go by the watch count, I would say it is a fairly successful first outing.

A few things have become apparent while watching the local news networks on TV the last few months. First, they seem to be operating with a skeleton crew. Sometimes you can hear the echoes (a bad thing by the way) inside the studio, and the lack of staff leads to some lack of reach. They never reach the Coast nowadays. A tsunami could wipe out the Island, and the news rooms would hardly notice. Second, the lack of personnel also leads to lack of response. That is something this old crust needs to get accustomed to – zero responses, especially in the Borderlands.

In one way, if I really want to “WORK” at photography down here, I will REALLY have to work at it! In another way? How about the freedom to create, and bring people a fresh perspective of the most beautiful spot on the entire Texas Gulf Coast? I think I may just choose the “other way” of dealing with my own presence in my homelands.

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