I took up potography when I was about 9 years old.
My father bought my mother a Oplenflex twin lens reflex (TLR) camera, but she hated it, being too intricate to use, and she never used it.
So when I showed some interest in photography, I could borrow this camera for indefinite time, and on my next birthday I got a 12 exposure black-and-white 6x6 film roll, which cost a small fortune in my perception.
After graduating from highschool I bought myself a Praktika Super TL 1000 single lens reflex (SLR) camera with, such luxury, a built-in exposure meter.
It used 35mm film, making my hobby much more affordable.
Over the years I collected a suitcase full of lenses and accessories.
Then I took up kayaking, and met my first Bittern.
I was determined to get a picture of a Bittern.
My Praktika was far too clumsy to use in the kayak, so I bought my last analogue camera, a Pentax Optio 35mm compact camera with a whopping 3x zoom.
I did manage to get a picture of a Bittern, but in my excitement when I saw it standing in front of a reed bed, I forgot to zoom in... the Bittern was hard to find on the 10x15 print.
In 2003 I bought my first digital camera, a Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart 850.
It had a 4 Mpx sensor, and its 16 MB SD-card could store 6 images at the highest quality setting!
It featured a built-in zoom lens with a 0.75 .. 6x magnification (zoom range 8x).
It was a good and light-weight camera, and its weight made me carry it around wherever I went.
Although quite soon the lid of its battery compartment had to be kept in place by duct tape and aluminium strips, I was really pleased with this camera... until I found a hotspot for red squirrels... after way too many squirrel tails at the edge of my photographs, I decided I needed a faster camera.
Enter Canon EOS 350D DSLR camera, in 2005.
The 350D was a fine beginners SLR, and I enjoyed its capabilities.
However... when in 2009 I booked a photography trip to Poland, to photograph Sea eagles, it dawned upon me that the 350D wasn't the best equipment to photograph fast flying birds overhead from a rocking boat.
The successor, a Canon EOS 50D, accompanied by a Canon EF 100-400mm lens, arrived just in time for this trip.
I got some great shots of white-tailed eagles with this camera in Poland.
A photography trip in 2010 to the grey seals at Donna Nook (UK) resulted in beautiful pictures, but also in sand and (salt) water penetrating camera and lens.
For a stiff amount of money this coud be repaired, bet when this happened again on the next trip to Poland, it was time to start saving some money for a new camera.
I got me a Canon EOS 7D.
I enjoyed using this camera for many years, and even traded it for a younger second-hand version of the same type after several years.
February 2012 I noticed smooth newts in the new pond of the Botanical Garden Zaandam.
So I purchased a waterproof camera, a Canon PowerShor D10.
After about one year this underwater camera was stolen
I replaced it with a Pentax WG-3, which performs much better at really close range.
Both EOS 7Ds were heavily used for several years.
When a friend bought herself a used Canon EOS 5D Mk III, I obtained her Canon EOS 7D Mk II.
An enormous leap forward compared to the EOS 7D!
A perfecte match with the Sigma 60-600mm lens.
To edit my photographs I use the following software:
| Software | Purpose | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Sigma Optimization Pro | Sigma lens calibration | requires Sigma USB dock hardware |
| Reikan FoCal | lens calibration | improves autofucus accuracy |
| Canon Digital Photo Professional | brightness, contrast, color balance, saturation, etc. | open raw image (CR2), save as 16-bit TIF |
| Topaz DeNoise AI | remove noise, enhance sharpness | alternative: Topaz Sharpen AI (generates more artefacts; corrupts EXIF data, which can be fixed with ExifTool) |
| Corel PaintShop Pro | rotate, crop, contrast | open JPG or 16-bit TIF |
| Image Composite Editor | join multiple photographs into a single (panorama) photo | all EXIF data will be lost; use ExifTool to restore it |
| ExifTool by Phil Harvey | restore EXIF data corrupted by Topaz Sharpen AI or Image Composite Editor | commandline: exiftool.exe -TagsFromFile myimage.cr2 myimage.jpg |
| CaptureDate | set file date and time to date and time of capture | commandline: capturedate.exe *.jpg /s /y |
| BirdName | translate animal species' names | Windows only |
| Merlin Bird ID | Find the name of any bird in a photograph | in English; for Android and iOS |
| AirRegGUI | find an aircraft's make and model by its registration code | in English; Windows only |
Below you'll see a screenshot of BirdName, a program I wrote to translate animal names to and from almost any language.
Below you'll see a screenshot of Topaz DeNoise AI at work.
The left hand side of the screen shows a part of the original photo at 100%, the right hand side shows the effect of the automatic noise reduction.
The column on the far right contains the controls to manually adjust the noise reduction settings; these will rarely be needed.
