Etikettarkiv: Photography

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Getting your SB-800 speedlight to work again

I recently brought out my trusty SB-800 speedlight but could not get it to work. To be honest it has been sitting in my camera bag for a while unfortunately so with the batteries in, a definitive no-no when it comes to camera gear – always remove batteries when you put the stuff away for more than a day or two.

So I replaced the old dead batteries and found one connector that had corroded a little. Not good, but with some rubbing alcohol and patience it cleaned up nicely and I got a good electrical connection. Unfortunately that did not help much the flash refused to start anyway.

So I started looking around, not noticing anything in particular and I was prepared to ask Nikon for an RMA when I did a quick google on the problem. Turns out that several people have had problems with SB-800 and SB-600 when they have been sitting collecting dust for a while and then they don’t want to start up.

The solution was simple. Hold down the power on button while twisting the top back and forth as well as shaking the whole thing. I could not believe it, it started right up and now it is working fine.

I have no idea what was going on there but the twisting-shaking motion definitely brought it back to life.

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Photosafari at Eldgarnsö

Five of us set out on the photo walk arranged for by fotonen.se to Eldgarnsö and with cameras at the ready we got quite a few pittoresque Swedish summer pictures there. We had vary varying weather but not rain to speak of, and the landscape on this island is very interesting and varying, from naked cliffs down by the waterline to pine and spruce forest to oak and other such nice trees.

It also boasts a farm in the middle of the island and some other houses where people still live and this makes for open fields and a very nice general area.

See all photos here.
See a slideshow here.

 

 

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Favourite track – in spring

It smells like ldaybugs outside right now. Today was a little warmer again but later it got back to the chilly spring that we are having. Some years we could go swimming (and enjoy it) in mid May but I am certain it won’t happen this year. But springtime is here and all the dreadful snow is melted away now. Not even the north facing hills on my track had any snow now (which they had last sunday).

The starting point

 

Toward the cottage "Slammertorp"
At the crossroads
Water from the snow that is now gone...

The old fields close to Slammertorp cottage
This is the best part of the woods, the one I always look forward to when struggling up the hills at the other end, this is where it pays of and you can just enjoy the woods
The open fields - but from the other direction actually. The track goes around this field.
The finish of the first part of the track. You can almost see the starting point way up ahead - but not quite. There is about 1/2 km to the finish from here if you cut it short... wich I did not tonight...
Starting on the second part of the track. It is very much uphill from here now just beyond the part you can see here is one of the toughest hills on the track now.
Also a nice part of the track but it is steeper than the picture shows...
The setting sun makes it all worth it. But now it also gets colder, good there is only about 1 km to go from here
Some playthings for strenthening your abdominals, back and arms
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Phishing attempt or real?

2 kommentarer
Edit: As you can see in the comments below the email was actually legit.

I recently got an email from what appears to be the manufacturer of an app I am using on my Android phone. The app in question is the GeotagPhotos Pro, which records GPS locations and time to a database, then when you take pictures using your digital camera (not the mobile camera) providing the camera’s time is set to the same time the GPS has it will then be able to geotag your pictures after you have downloaded them from the camera.

I have used this software for a few months now and out of the blue I get the following email from what appears to be a legitimate email from the manufacturer:

Dear Geotag Photos Pro user,

recently, we got information from Android Market / App Store about all licences of Geotag Photos Pro. When mathed with users in our database, we were unable to find valid licence for your account. This can be just bug in licence database, so that please if you are sure, that you bought our application officially, please send us your order id. You can find it in orders history in Google Checkout (for Android) or in iTunes (for iPhone). We apologize all legal users for this inconvenience.

If you downloaded our app from another source, than official store (Android Market or AppStore), please consider of buying  official full version. To help you with this, we will make ”licence amnesty” this Wed, April the 6th, when Geotag Photos Pro will be offered with 50% discount – for $1.99 instead of $3.99.

Please contact our support staff, if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Jindrich Sarson
CEO of TappyTaps

I find this deeply disturbing. All the signs of a bad phishing attempt is here, the bad spelling (however the manufacturer is a Czhech company which may explain that in part, but the idea of sending payment credentials from the Android Market and Google checkout is deeply disturbing to me.

I have contacted the manufacturer to ask them to verify that they actually are who they claim to be but if they, as they claim, have a problem with their licencing database they should be able to verify the data with the raw payment data from Google Checkout that they as a seller receives.

There is also no information about this problem on their home page and this leads me to suspect foul business and that this is not legitimate. Otherwise I should think that there would be at least a mention about this…

We will see what comes back…

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Google is documenting Swedish ski slopes

Google snowmobile, Photo: Pontus Johansson

Google Sweden has a specially designed snowmobile that they are using with the google camera technology to creat a first person view of all the ski slopes in Sweden. The snowmobile has been spotted in several different ski slopes, large and small, documenting the whole slope.

You can expect an integration in ”StreetView” with the swedish ski slopes soon. Something that I believe ski enthusiasts will be happy for. You can virtually visit the ski slopes before you pack your bags and go there in person. Very handy…

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Singapore

I recently went to Singapore for the TETRA World Congress, a congress where users, providers and others related to the communication standard TETRA for land mobile communication meet and share experiences. I had been invited as a speaker to the seminar speaking on special coverage since my involvment in the Stockholm Metro underground coverage system.

But that was that and here are some of my pictures from Singapore, an interesting place for sure but I have been to some far more interesting places in the far east. For business however Singapore is *it* especially in the telecoms business.

Progressive Builders Plt.

Malaysian workers on their way back home across the border from Singapore again after a full days work on some construction site. It caught my eye because of the difference from us riding a grand tourist coach out to the Singapore Zoo in the evening for the night safari which was really great, more about that later.

Raffles Hotel

Raffles Hotel

Raffles Hotel

Raffles hotel is well known for the invetion of the drink ”Singapore Sling” which they can make you here for about three times the price anywhere else in Singapore. However the feeling of sitting at the Long Bar is worth the extra money, isn’t it?

Buisiness Centre

The Modern City

The Singaporean business centre with it’s high-rise buildings where most of the banks, stock market and other such things resides.

Casino Boat

The Casino Boat

This casino does not float on water, instead it is floated atop three high-rise buildings complete with spa, pool, and childrens activities.

Fruit Bat

Fruit Bat upside down

Went on the night safari at the Singapore Zoo and this fruit bat caught my eye. It was difficult to photograph here because of the limited light, it is just moonlight basically, and therefore it is a little bit grainy and blurry.

Spotted Leopard

The spotted leopard is an endangered species and very beautiful. This one fast asleep after a good meal. You may notice there are not fences or bars or anything, that’s because at the night safari the animals are out, there are no barriers between you and the animals which is quite and experience in itself.