Scenic Bike Trail

A “typical” in-the-woods cache is a medium sized container hidden off-trail underneath a fallen tree and covered with local debris such as sticks, palm fronds or similar, depending on the area. Because the hides are often on the ground, they can be dirty. Dirt and camera gear don’t mix well. Plus, going off trail (bushwhacking) can cause damage to the vegetation and put you at higher risks of getting poison ivy and ticks. I’ve gotten both while caching. So far, all the munzees we’ve found have been able to be captured without leaving the trail. No need to get dirty digging around for the find.

Urban hides can be pretty dirty too because you’re usually “feeling” around for the container. Getting dirty is an accepted part of caching, and when holding expensive camera gear, I don’t want to do it with dirty hands.

If I’m playing a scavenger game to find neat places and take photos, I want the finds to be quick and clean. Once found, I want to log the find quickly and easily. When I get home, I don’t want to spend the evening writing logs. I want to fire up Lightroom and develop the photos I took during the day. To me, this is easiest to do while playing Munzee. I bet if you ask other photographers, they’d say the same thing.

Unfortunately, there is one glaring thing missing from Munzee, and it’s something very important to a photographer looking for places to search. Munzee currently does have any provision for photos to be uploaded to the site, and I’m not sure if they plan to implement that in the future. That’s one area where the geocaching.com site excels. Finders can upload photos to each cache page, so future seekers can look at them and see if it’s somewhere they want to search.

When I cached I used this feature extensively to look for pretty areas to visit, and I’d purposely head there because of that. I created a post in the Munzee forums to ask if they plan to add this feature in the future and will report back once I hear something.

Other than that, if you’re looking for new ideas and places to visit, give Munzee a try. It’s surprisingly fun and very addicting. If you try it, let me know, I’d love to hear what you think.

Glass Building, NYC

One of the concerns with geocaching is that all hides must have a physical container. In the woods this isn’t really a problem, but in urban areas, it can be. Once a geocache is found, the seeker must grab the container, sign the log and put it back. If a non-cacher sees someone doing this, they might get suspicious and call the police. There have been many cases of the police being called, only to find out it was a geocache.

For urban hides, munzees can be disguised as official looking sticker or kept undisguised as a standard barcode and hidden on a fence or anything really. Because it’s just a barcode, it doesn’t really look out of place. This gives munzees a huge advantage in urban areas.

To avoid raising suspicions, cachers often hide “nanos” or other super small containers, but because they’re so small, the logs are tiny and fill up quickly. Half of them we found had no spot to even sign in. At that point why even bother to grab the container and open it up. This is another plus for munzees. Just find the barcode, scan it and move on.

So how does all this relate to photography? Well, one of the things we loved about caching was that it brought us to scenic areas with great photo opportunities. We’ve only done a few munzees, but one of the hides brought us to a pretty boat launch along the Farmington River in Windsor, CT. See the photo on top of this post. We also passed some scenic tobacco barns (see photo at the left) and discovered a nice high point that would be great for sunset photos.

As you can probably tell, I really like munzees. Learn why I think they’re better for photographers in my final post of the series.

Trump Tower

I started geocaching in 2002 and did it for many years, but I grew tired of it awhile back and pretty much stopped. I liked how caching took me to neat places, but I got tired of stinky containers with wet logs and hides that had been re-hidden in the wrong spot, making it difficult to find. I recently heard about Munzee, and it seems exactly like what I’m looking for. It offers the same excitement of discovering new places and hidden items, but it does it in a more modern way.

There’s nothing stopping someone from hiding a munzee in a container, but I haven’t found many that are. If they are, since they don’t have a logbook, there’s less likelihood of mold forming. Most munzees are simply a barcode attached to or hanging from something. Barcodes are sealed in plastic so they don’t get ruined if they get wet. Once found, the barcode is scanned by a smartphone. This is called “capping,” short for capture.

With geocaching finders usually write a short note about their experience while searching for the cache, but some people write logs that span several pages. Others simply write TFTC, short for “Thanks for the cache.” A geocache can’t be logged without writing something in the log box. With munzees, the focus is on the numbers and not the logging experience. In fact, logs, or journal entries as they’re called on the Munzee site, are not even required. If someone writes an entry, it’s usually short, like, “Thanks” or “Had Fun,” something short like that.

I only started munzeeing this past Saturday, but I really like it so far.  We’ve found a variety of hide styles, from woods hides on trees to urban parking lots, which is pretty similar to geocaching hides. Geocaching has several different types of hides like a traditional, which is a container at the posted coordinates to a puzzle, which needs to be solved in order to find the coordinates.

Munzee has its own unique types. A mystery munzee is one where finders points vary from 5 to 50 points. One person can get 45 points, but the very next person will get 20. A virtual hide is one where a physical barcode doesn’t need to be scanned to make the cap. To log these, your phone just needs to be within 300 feet of the coordinates. These are perfect for places like airports or a rocky mountain top. Since there’s nothing there and the hide is truly “virtual” it’s unlikely that finding one will raise any suspicions since a finder will just be using their phone.

That brings us to some controversy. Check back tomorrow to see what it is…

Flowing Water

Munzee started in June 2011, and geocaching started in May 2000, but Munzee is coming on fast and strong. There are over 2 million caches compared to more than 400,000 munzees, but those munzee hides have come in less than 2 years versus almost 13 years for Geocaching.

A geocache is a container that holds a logbook. The cache is logged as a find by physically signing the logbook and then marking it found using either a smartphone or a computer. Your found count increases for each cache found. A munzee is simply a QR barcode that finders scan with their smart phone. They can be hidden in a container like a geocache or simply displayed by itself. For each munzee “cap,” short for capture, your score can increase by varying amounts depending on the hide type. The hiders score also increases every time someone finds one of their hides.

To me I like munzees more. Why? They don’t have wet logs, and they’re easier to log.

Groundspeak, the company that owns the geocaching.com website, has an in-depth set of guidelines or “rules” that must be followed. There are also volunteers who review each cache before publishing to make sure it meets the guidelines. The review process can take up to 72 hours. Munzee has a basic set of rules and trusts that munzee owners will follow them. The Munzee website is updated four times a day, so the longest someone will have to wait to discover a new hide is six hours.

Geocache containers range in size from several gallons large to the size of a finger tip. All but the smallest can hold “swag,” which are trade items. The idea is if you take something, you should leave something of equal or greater value. I liked this idea at first but quickly tired of it because most caches were filled with junk or kids toys from fast food restaurants. After a few months, we stopped trading and only signed the logbook, so container size didn’t matter to us.

With caching, finders are handling a physical container, and they may re-hide it in the wrong spot. At first it may only be a short distance away, but over time it can move several feet. Some have moved either by “cache creep” or by someone physically moving it more than 50 feet. If the hide is challenging, this can make it difficult for future seekers to find. Many caches include hints, but if te container is in a different spot, the hint will be useless.

Because caches are physical containers, they are susceptible to leaking, which ruins any trade items inside and turns the logbook into a wet, moldy mess. Here in Connecticut, plastic containers tend to crack, especially in the winter, and animals like to chew on them. Once damaged, water quickly finds its way inside, soaking everything. Cachers usually put the logbook in a plastic bag to keep it dry, but If the plastic bag isn’t completely inside the container, the seal will leak. If the log is damp from being found in the rain or even on a hot, humid day, it can get moldy inside the sealed, plastic bag. Opening the container can be quite a shock to your noise.

How do munzees avoid this? Check back tomorrow to learn more…

Seattle Forest

Munzees are similar to geocaching, but it’s also quite different. “What does this have to do with photography?” you may be asking. Well, munzees and geocaches (caches) are often placed at scenic and interesting areas, which makes them a perfect way for photographs to find interesting and new subjects.

Because there are already lots of reviews and comparisons between the two, I decided to write this from a photographer’s perspective and am including some photos of places we’ve discovered through our travels, but first I want to tell a quick story to show the fun that can be had from these electronic scavenger hunt games.

When people visit Florida, they often go to one of the big tourist attractions, which can be a lot of fun, but munzeeing and caching allows people to see things they might not normally see. One year on vacation we were in Merritt Island doing a cache near the water, and a pair of dolphins swam up right next to us. For the next 15 minutes or so they played around and then took off. At another cache, a large manatee swam up to the pier we were on and hung around for a few minutes, and at another cache there were a bunch of peacocks just walking around like they owned the place. That was totally awesome and something I never expected. You should have seen the excitement on my young son’s face. All of these were great photo opportunities available and just a little of the excitement we had.

Tune in tomorrow to learn more about this great game, or hobby, as it’s sometimes called.

All students must participate, and some show their musical skills by playing an instrument or singing, and others show their artistic skills with paintings, drawings or photos they’ve taken.

Matt doesn’t play any instruments or sing, so he chose to enter the one shown above. He took it on the pier in Clearwater, Florida and called it ”The Bird on the Beach.” It was taken using a good quality point and shoot that we gave to him a couple years ago. He’s always been interested in photography, probably because we are, and we felt he should have a good camera.

Photos had to be mounted on a plain, white mat and were judged by an official panel for one award and by students and attendees for another. They were judged on several categories including composition, quality, a write up by the photographer and a few other things.

It was a good learning experience, and he had a good time picking out which photo to enter and then tweaking it to his liking. He was 12 years old at the competition and will have lots of opportunities to improve his skills.

This is a good lesson for all of us, no matter what our age. We shouldn’t be afraid to put ourselves out there and show your photos. No matter what happens or what people say, it will be a learning experience that can help us grow. Plus, we got a new photo for a our wall.

Tamrac Rally 6 Main Storage Area

When I travel, I usually have just one body, a flash and two lenses, plus some extra gear and don’t need a big bag. Backpacks are great for carrying gear, but they’re not ideal if you want to frequently access that gear. I’ve been reading and checking out messenger bags, and they seem perfect. Unfortunately, most are pretty expensive, over $200, which is more than I wanted to spend.

While at the local Best Buy today I checked out the Lowepro Passport Sling and liked it, but there were things that concerned me. First, I wasn’t sure if it would be big enough to hold my gear, and I wanted something with more padding.

Tamrac Rally 6 Front Pocket

I ended up purchasing the Tamrac Rally 6, which was on clearance for a ridiculous $39. It’s roomy, well padded and very comfy. It can hold a full size DSLR (but not one with a grip) with a medium length lens about 6 inches or less attached, a full size flash such as a Canon 600EX-RT and a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. The flap has Velcro and a plastic clasp to keep it shut. It seems to work fine in normal use, but I wouldn’t trust it if there’s a chance the bag would get turned upside down. It’s not that kind of bag. It’s just a basic “satchel” that hangs around your neck and makes it easy to get to your gear.

Tamrac Rally 6 Side Pocket

The bag features a zippered pocket on the flap with divided pockets inside that are perfect for cell phones, batteries and other gear. There’s also a second pocket on the backside that doesn’t have a zipper but is perfect for maps and other papers. On the sides are two mesh pockets that can hold other gear. I use one of them for my Black Rabid but haven’t decided on what to us the other one for.

Here are some pictures showing the bag and some of its features. What bag do you use? If you could pick any bag, what would you choose?

Nancy & Matt in an Old Subaru

We went last year and had a great time, and the best part is that cameras and video equipment are allowed. Like most events, I suggest getting there early before the crowds. Touring the whole show takes a long time, and seeing everything in one day may not be possible, so plan carefully what you want to see.  Start with the things that interest you most because you’ll find yourself getting distracted by all the interesting things to see (lovely female models) and may not make it to the area you wanted to see the most.

Mini Display, Feels like London

The New York International Auto Show is the most attended show in North America, and auto manufacturers often announce new products here. Some interesting vehicles being revealed at the 2013 show are the Audi A3, Cadillac CTS, Chevy Camera SS, Mercedes Benz CLA 45 AMG, Toyota Highlander, and a 1200 horsepower Shelby Mustang plus others.

The show is held in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which is a huge glass building. It has four floors and covers 6 blocks between 34th and 40th Street on 11th Avenue. If you attend, be prepared for a lot of walking, and if you buy food at the show, high food prices.

Bugatti Veyron

Even though some refer to it as a “car” show, there are lot more than cars on display, over 1000 vehicles total. One whole floor is dedicated to trucks, with everything from off road type pick ups and SUVs to cargo vans that a delivery company would use. Another floor features motorcycles, and others have everything from million dollar exotic super cars like the Bugatti Veyron to “mom and pop” cars that a family would drive. There are also lots of booths with vendors promoting products that aren’t automotive related.

Matt Checking Out the Modern Warfare 3 Jeep

Because cameras are allowed, photo opportunities abound, but with over a million people attending the show during its 10 day run, getting people-free photos of the cars can be a challenge. Some of the displays, especially the exotic and concept cars, have ropes around them, and people tend to line up around the ropes. Usually, if you wait a minute or two, you’ll make your way towards the front of the display and have a good shot of the car, but because people come and go so quickly, you need to shoot quickly before someone comes into your camera view.

Matt Practicing his Driving Skills

Last year I brought a Canon S95 point and shoot last year, and it worked great.  An expensive camera isn’t needed, but something wide a wide angle lens is best since you’ll be relatively close to the vehicles. The show features all kinds lights, from the main lights in the convention center to the ones being used in the displays of the cars themselves, so I shoot on auto white balance, which is pretty accurate most of the time. I shot RAW and can adjust the white balance if needed in post.

Most of the displays are bright and super high ISOs are not needed, but a flash really makes the color pop. The display lights can create a lot of specular highlights and shadows, and the flash helps balance everything out. If your camera allows for it, I’d shoot in aperture priority mode so you can control depth of field.

If anyone is going to the show, let me know, and maybe we can meet up and say hi.

If you’re in the Connecticut area, I highly recommend going on a tour at the Bushnell. They’re free to the public and given by volunteers who have a love and knowledge of the facility. The Bushnell can be contacted directly through their website or (860) 987-6000. If you’re not in CT, check out the Meetup site and see if there are any photography groups in your area or join a photo walk or workshop hosted by a professional photographer. I’ve enjoyed all the events I’ve attended so far.

Below are some of my photos of the event, and here’s a link to the photos taken by others.

The photo above was one of the first pictures I took with the camera. I don’t really know much about the camera yet, so I took a quick picture of Nancy and bounced the flash off the wall to give it a better look than pointing the flash straight at her. I could have filled the shadow side a bit if I’d used a reflector, but I’m pretty happy with the results for not really knowing how to work the camera.

Those who’ve been following my blog know that I’d been using Olympus OM-D since December and may be wondering why I switched. Well, the Olympus is a great system and has a lot going for it. It’s light. The body is small, and the lenses are super sharp. Even with all that, I still wasn’t totally happy.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been shooting for a long time and think traditionally, but I really like bodies that have a lot of buttons on them. I’m not opposed to menus, but if I want to change something like white balance quickly, I prefer to push a button rather than go into a menu. The OM-D has buttons, but they were a little small and hard for me to push.

This may seem silly, but I prefer the 3:2 format of a traditional DSLR over the 4:3 format of a lot of cameras. The Olympus can be setup to shoot in 3:2 format, but it’s a cropped picture and not a native format. I prefer it to be native.

The biggest reason thing was the way Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop handled the Olympus RAW files. There are documented reports showing how the Olympus Viewer 2 software handles RAW files better than Adobe, so what I was doing was using Viewer 2 to convert my RAW files to TIFF then working on those in Lightroom. I could have edited the RAWs directly in Lightroom, but I wanted the best quality possible, and that meant using Viewer. For me, that extra step added too much time to my workflow.

Max with Flash Direct on Camera

The photo on the left of my dog Max was one of the first I took using the 600EX-RT. I don’t normally like to shoot straight on with a flash, but I didn’t have a good surface to bounce light off of. Plus, Max constantly moves around, so I snapped the photo while I had the opportunity.

So, after talking things over with Nancy, we decided to sell the OM-D gear and go back to a more traditional DSLR. At this point I had no system and was free to go with any brand camera I wanted. I looked at the Nikon D800 & the D800E but read that some had focusing and oil issues, and didn’t want to a chance with that. Plus, I liked a lot of the features the Canon offered.

Some of the things that were important to me was back button focus. This is huge and something I really like. If you have a Canon and haven’t used it, give it a try. Most Canons EOS cameras can do it. I also wanted high ISO capabilities, and the 5D is awesome in this regard. Other important factors I thought about was lens selection, manufacturer support and availability of third party accessories. Canon is great for all of these.

I started simple with just the body, one lens and one flash so I can see how the camera works and decide what gear I should get next, and while I haven’t figured everything out, I absolutely love the gear so far.

If you’re thinking of getting a camera or have any questions about the 5D Mark III or any other Canon gear, drop me a line. I’d love to share what I know.