Photography – Jason Dunn

A 📷 Tale

The following is a lightly edited version of the most epic Thread I’ve ever posted…with the addition of that hilariously awesome Google Gemini-created image above.

After editing hundreds of photos from my recent work trips to Malaysia and Thailand (amazing countries! 🙌), all shot on my @googlepixel 9 Pro, I was reminded yet again that tiny smartphone camera sensors ultimately still kind of suck. 😕

Yes, they are computational marvels capable of amazing feats of HDR, but the image quality in anything but perfect light remains hot garbage. 🔥 🚮 I uttered the words “That would have been a great picture if it was taken on a real camera” many times. 😔 But on a work trip, taking my Nikon Z6 III is a non-starter. I try to travel carry-on and even at its smallest my beloved Z6 is a bulky beast.

I started researching options for the smallest camera that had a big sensor and met my other needs. The list was sadly short: the fujifilmx100vi and Panasonic S9. Many reviews and videos later, I decided I wanted the Fujifilm camera. The problem? It’s perhaps that most in-demand camera on the planet right now, with wait lists 6+ months long. 😢

I searched online in vain, looking at all the places I’d normally buy from (@bhphoto, Amazon, even eBay). It was either not in stock or selling for 30-50% above MSRP in “valuable bundles”. 🙄 I wanted the camera, but I didn’t want to pay a stupid amount for it.

Then I posted a silly rant to Fujifilm USA griping about their lack of stock. The Threads algorithm did its thing, and a helpful reply from John Cessna encouraged me to try local stores. I’d tried everything else, so why not? I’m in Alberta, Canada right now, so I went into Google Maps and started contacting local stores via web chat and phone. The web site of the third store, Saneal Camera, said they had one in stock. I thought it was an error, but I called anyway.

The guy on the phone said they did indeed have one. 😲 He’d updated the web site 10 minutes ago; a customer pre-ordered then backed out. I said I’d come and buy it right away. 50 minutes later, I had this beautiful box in my hands.

The form factor and image quality of the fujifilmx100vi make for a very compelling combination. How much smaller is the X100VI than my Nikon Z6 III? This photo says it all. I’m very excited about taking this camera with me on my next work trip.

Here are a few pictures I snapped with the Fujifilm X100VI on a cold winter day in downtown High River, Alberta, Canada. 🇨🇦 Image editing done in Lightroom; I am still puzzling over whether I want to switch back to being a JPEG shooter and use in-camera LUTs, breaking free from the tyranny of raw post-production. 😂

A post for another day…

Explorations of Winter

Given the surprisingly intense snowfall we’re currenting getting in the Seattle area, it seemed appropriate for me to share some pictures of an even colder place: High River, Alberta, Canada.

*All photos taken with a Nikon Z-6 & Nikon Z-Mount 50mm f/1.8 lens*

Sony’s 128GB CFexpress: No Real Improvements For Still Photographers, And Yet…

I purchased my Nikon Z-6 in November 2019, and in hindsight I wished I’d pulled the trigger sooner. It’s had a marked improvement on my photography, namely due to the in-body image stabilization. To be blunt, it was a technology I needed for quite some time* as I usually shoot with prime lenses that lack stabilization. I was exceedingly grumpy with Nikon for not following Sony, Panasonic, and every other camera OEM’s lead (other than Canon) but I bought the non-stabilized D750 anyway. I swore though my next camera would have it. <shakes fist at sky>

This isn’t a review of the Nikon Z-6 though. What’s that? You want my review of the Z-6? It’s great, though I wish it had two memory cards slots instead of one QXD card slot. Buy it if you have an investment in Nikon lenses. If you don’t, look really hard at the Sony Alpha a7 III. I’d have probably gone with the Sony if I didn’t have my Nikkor f/2.8 lenses; I just can’t justify replacing them with equivalent Sony lenses. 💸

Pixel 3 XL Halloween Photos

Last night I took my Pixel 3 XL out Halloween trick or treating with my kids and decided to see how well it handled real-world low-light conditions. This is without the forthcoming Night Sight, which by all accounts is extremely impressive. The images below are shot in regular camera mode, JPEG (I completely forgot about the raw mode option) with post-processing done in Lightroom. Lightroom noise reduction was not used on any photo. I could have posted the unretouched photos, but I always do some sort of post processing, either on my phone or on my computer, so this is real-world for me. I’ve also added some additional analysis on each photo for those that are curious, and linked to the full-sized JPEG (most are somewhat cropped, so none are original size).

The TLDR version? This Pixel 3 is the best camera I’ve ever used in a smartphone, and it has impressive optical image stabilization. It’s still a tiny sensor and subject to the same laws of physics as any other phone though, so it can’t work miracles. I’m generally impressed with how well it holds up at high ISOs that would make many phone images fall apart.

Above: this scene was quite dimly lit, despite what the adjusted image looks like, and is reasonably sharp given the camera was shooting at 1/15th of a second (which is below what I can properly hand-hold at without stabilization). It had to push to ISO 2728 though, which is why the cloth robe is noisy mush. It’s an OK picture if you don’t look too closely at the robe because other elements look decent. Continue reading Pixel 3 XL Halloween Photos

Aerosmith Live: Concert Photos & Video…and the story of me getting ejected from the show floor!

Here’s the story of what I was doing in Dallas last fall, and how I was able to see Aerosmith live. A couple of photos and a link to the full gallery and video are below. But did you I know I got ejected from the show floor? ?

Continue reading Aerosmith Live: Concert Photos & Video…and the story of me getting ejected from the show floor!

Darius Rucker Live: Concert Photos & Video

In October 2017 I was invited to provide social media support for The Summit, an event put on by AT&T Business. Part of that event was world-class entertainment: the smaller entertainment event was a live show by Darius Rucker (yep, the “Hootie and the Blowfish Guy”) at the Glass Cactus in Texas. The larger event was none other than Aerosmith. Honestly, I was more excited to see Darius Rucker than Aerosmith because I never saw Darius perform live during his “Hootie” days! I’d seen Aerosmith in their prime during the 1990 “Pump” tour and…wait, that was 28 years ago? ? Thank you Wikipedia for reminding me I am getting old. ?

Below are my photos from the Rucker show – along with 20 minutes of live concert footage.

A few words about the video: on one hand I’m stunned at how amazing my Nikon D750 is at capturing videos when paired with a tasty f/2.8 lens (the original video looks better than what YouTube does to it). On the other hand without a tripod it was extremely hard to get a video with smooth pans and zooms – so pardon the sections where it looks like I was getting shoved – that’s just me trying to zoom in/out while freeholding a huge lens and camera. ? During the stable bits I am proud of how this turned out (along with my Final Cut Pro edits and colour tweaks). Can’t say much for the audio as that’s just the on-camera mic, but it’s passable (when it’s not clipping).

Back to Rucker: his voice is every bit as powerful as you remember, and since I actually enjoy country music now (something my 20 year-old self would be shocked at) I rocked out with his new music. It was also a great photography workout: I’d brought THE BEAST (my 70-200mm Nikkor f/2.8 lens) specifically to shoot the music concerts. I didn’t drag that heavy thing all the way across the country to not use it!

Being a former musician (I am, sadly, merely a bass owner now), I love seeing a tight band backing up a stellar vocalist. In addition to a mix of old and new music, Rucker added in some great cover songs, including She Talks to Angels and No Diggity. Genres be damned; good music is good music, right? ? Continue reading Darius Rucker Live: Concert Photos & Video

Zombie Apocalypse

Calgary Area Photography: Northridge Photography

My good friend Nate has launched his Web site for Northridge Photography, so if you’re in the Calgary or surrounding area and are looking for a talented photographer, get in touch with him. His growth as a photographer has been remarkable to watch over the past two years, and he definitely has the eye for photography – I was blown away when I saw his very first wedding photo shoot. He does wedding, children, commercial, travel, and band photography.

Photos From October 2009

October was a busy month from a photography perspective, so here’s a round-up of the photos…

First up, we have the family photo above taken by Nate Northridge from Northridge Photo.

That’s Auntie Chelsea holding Logan at Ken’s 60th birthday party.

Thanksgiving 2009 was when Logan got to meet his Great-Grandma, Jean Paniak, in Edmonton, Alberta.

October was also Auntie Cariann’s birthday, so we went to celebrate her birthday – and Nana Dunn and Auntie Cariann got to give Logan a bath for the first time.

Logan Robert Dunn, Birth to 48 Hours

I’ve finished processing all of the photos I took of Logan and the journey we’ve been through as a family in the first two days, and below are a few sample images – my baby is beautiful! From a photography perspective, I’m stunned at how superb the images turn out with my Nikon D300 and the 24-70 f/2.8 lens. That lens may be as heavy as a lead brick, but it’s worth carrying to get such beautiful photos. Now I just have to get to all those videos I took…and I hope regular readers of this blog will understand that for the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be talking a lot about little Mr. Logan Dunn.

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