Bob Crum

"Musket Muzzle Blast" by Bob Crum.

Exhausted, I am so ready for a three-month vacation in Hawaii. Too much to do when big events happen close together. At such extravaganzas I tend to shoot a ton of photos... as you now know. But unlike film where every push of the shutter button cost money, it costs nothing to delete the crapola. Oops... is crapola a word?

Speaking of words, most emails I receive are technical questions. Occasionally I get taken to the woodshed. Mr. X, who didn't provide his name, wrote a scathing email rebuking me for using the word 'photoing' declaring: “there is no such word in the English language.” Well, there's golf'ing', fish'ing', bowl'ing'... so why not photo'ing'?

Merriam-Webster website reports, in part: “The Merriam-Webster.com dictionary has gotten bigger, this time by over 250 new words and definitions. As always, the expansion of the dictionary mirrors the expansion of the language, and reaches into all the various cubbies and corners of the lexicon.” Mr. X, 'photoing' will be next!

The worst part of his email was saying: “There is no such thing as mermaids. Grow up. I mean REALLY – mermaids??? C'mon man. Anacapa Island eh? Didn't you mean Seals Sea Lions?” I suspect the writer also does not believe in Santa Clause. But about the Photo of the Week, he said: “Nice cannon shot photo.” Thank you, sir!

Cameras! At the Wings over Camarillo air show last year, a Canon camera photographer friend was trying out Sony mirrorless cameras. This year, at the L.A. County air show my friend showed up with 'only' Sonys. Sold all his Canon gear!

His photographic expertise & experience gives credence to his persuasive counsel to seriously consider mirrorless cameras, in particular, Sonys. However, conversion is neither easy or financially palatable. I previously mentioned that you don't just buy a camera, you invest in a system: Camera, lenses & accessories. Accordingly, I have a sizable financial investment in Canon gear & related accessories. Unfortunately, none of it is worth much on the used market. Furthermore, I'm not thrilled with the present lens selection for mirrorless cameras.

Faithful readers know that my main gear, though heavy, is a Canon 7D MarkII and a Tamron 16-300mm lens. It's a great combo for photojournalist's but I'd like to lighten the load. The lens is not available in a Sony E mount or any other brand of mirrorless cameras. If preventable, I'd rather not regress to carrying multiple lenses to cover the same 16-300mm range.

This week's photo of the week, and one other, is again from Moorpark Rotary Club's Civil War reenactment production. These are unique photos because, luck aside, the subject is substantially challenging to capture. Hello burst mode.

At the recent L.A. County air show, aircraft are flying all the time, as expected. Had I shot in burst mode all the time, I'd need a 3TB hard drive to hold all the photos. Muskets fire intermittently so shooting in 'burst' mode is feasible. So I did. The challenge is anticipating exactly when a musket will fire. Missed most times! In these two photos, the photo of the week is photo #5 of 10. The other photo is #8 of 10. I was shooting slow burst... not fast burst which fires off 10 shots per second. Brrrrt... done! At that speed, I would likely miss the capture moment before the camera's buffer filled. Slow burst mode expands the time interval the camera fires. The rest is up to timing... and 'luck'. Be sure to check fillmoregazette.com for color versions of photos.

As always, send your comments, questions or suggestions to bob@fillmoregazette.com