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Remember To Update Your Camera’s Clock

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Yesterday (March 8) was the start of Daylight Saving Time (DST) here in the US, so I thought it’d be a good time to remind everyone to update your camera’s clock.

It’s helpful to keep the clock very accurate (down to the second!), so you can better review your photos later. Sometimes the best way to learn is to constantly review old photos and revisit your thought process of creating those images. So, knowing the exact time the image was shot can help you check other things (like where was the sun at that time?).

Having an accurate clock also helps you stitch two scenes together if you’re using multiple cameras to photograph the same scene. [Read more…] about Remember To Update Your Camera’s Clock

How GPS Can Help Your Photography

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GPS DeviceI just recently started hiking with a handheld GPS device to log my hikes and so I could have elevation data wherever I go. But, I’ve also started using it as a tool for photography. Here are a few ways it’s helped me:

#1 – Keep track of good spots for landscape images

This probably happens to you a lot: you’ll be hiking on a trail and come to this amazing vista or perfect rock formation and you realize it would make a great landscape image if the weather or lighting conditions were just a tad bit different. Maybe you just want some of that nice sunset light shining on a mountain peak, or maybe you want a nice puffy cloud to hover over a particular rock.

Well, a GPS device can help you keep track of these spots, simply by adding waypoints. Then, once you get home later, you can write some notes about that particular spot (e.g. “come back in April when there’s more flowers in bloom” or “come back at sunset in winter, when the sun will be at the right angle to shine on this mountain peak”). [Read more…] about How GPS Can Help Your Photography

Why You Should Keep Your Camera’s Clock Accurate

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When I first get a camera, I always set the right date and time, but then I usually completely forget about it. A few daylight savings time changes go by, and of course I forget to update the time, so for half the year, my cameras are an hour off.

But, there’s also a few other problems: when I first set the clock, I’m usually pretty lazy about it (if a nearby clock says 7:34 PM, I’ll just set the camera to 7:30 PM). Also, a lot of digital clocks lose seconds over time, so with a camera that’s a few years old, my clock could be off by 5-10 minutes (plus any adjustments for daylight savings).

Why does this matter? [Read more…] about Why You Should Keep Your Camera’s Clock Accurate