Nick Erwin | Photography & Blog

On May 10, 2013 by Nick

How to create your own vanity URL for Google Plus

One of the main complaints about Google Plus I have is there is not an option to have a vanity URL unless you’re a business or a recognizable person on the internet. Like for an example the CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer has a vanity URL (plus.google.com/+Marissa Mayer) probably because her account is verified (yeah Yahoo). Normal people like me and you may not have the ability to become verified unless someone is trying to become you or your a internet super star like the famous YouTubers (or work for Google, or even Yahoo apparently).

With all the social networking websites out there, almost every one of them have some sort of vanity URL like Facebook or Twitter for an example. But when it comes to Google Plus, you have to use this really long URL that you just can’t possibly remember.

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On April 19, 2013 by Nick

Lens Stool

How many times have you wished someone made a super large lens that you could sit on? I’ll admit it, I haven’t thought about it before, but someone on Etsy did. Sandra Díaz/Mónoculo Shop from Spain created an almost exactly replica of the Canon infamous 8-15 EF fish eye lens, right down to the focus window. Only if they made a Nikon version of this stool.

The lens stool is made of ayous wood and is completely hand-made. It features a red soft seat top which you can remove to store things inside of the stool.

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On April 18, 2013 by Nick

Sigma Announces 18-35mm f/1.8 Lens

For many years f/2.8 has been the standard aperture for many of the professional lenses such as the 24-70 2.8 and the 70-200 2.8 seem to be the most popular lenses among professional photographers.

Sigma just raised the bar and announced the Sigma 18-35mm DC HSM with a constant maximum aperture of f/1.8. This is BIG news. You typically only get these f/1.8 f-stop in prime lenses..not zoom lenses.

The Sigma 18-35 1.8 isn’t a full frame lens, it was designed for use on a APS-C size sensor in DSLR’s like the Nikon D7100 or Canon 60D. It has a equivalent field of view of 27-52.5mmm, just making it a little shorter than the typical 27-70 2.8 full frame lens.

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On April 16, 2013 by Nick

Samsung 840 Pro 128gb SSD Review + Benchmarks

I decided to go ahead and order my first SSD (solid state drive for those who do not know). I chose the Samsung 840 Pro 128GB over the Kingston HyperX 3K 120gb because the Samsung had the 3 core MDX controller while the Kingston has the Sandforce controller, which is still good by the way. The kingston HyperX was only $100 versus $150 price tag of the Samsung.

The $50 higher price tag was well worth it because the Samsung 840 PRO SSD’s seem to be the most reliable right now, and who doesn’t want a reliable drive? Also the speeds of the Samsung 840 Pro was quite faster than the average speed of the Kingston. But don’t go by the advertise speed..its never exact. Make sure you do your research before ordering a SSD drive.

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On April 12, 2013 by Nick

ITS RAINING ICE!!

Well its that time of the year in Vermont, Spring. Its mid April, well close to it anyways and its about 32f today. The temperature should be normally around 55f this time of the year. Last night the weather report said we may get around 2-4″ of snow and of course by morning there was still no snow and well they just got the weather again.

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On April 10, 2013 by Nick

Backyard Buddy Lift

My dad has always wanted a car lift for the garage to make life easier working on cars. We did ton of research on the internet to find out what the best lift we could get and we came to the conclusion that the Backyard Buddy four post lift was the best. The Backyard Buddy is a free standing 7,000 pound car lift, it doesn’t need to be bolted to the floor. It uses 4X4″ american made steel for the columns which makes this thing really rugged, and let me tell you..it is rugged! This lift is amazing..you can read more about it here.

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On March 30, 2013 by Nick

Ziva the Maine Coon

I tend to take a lot of pictures of my cat..well I like cats and there’s a lot of photographers out there that would agree that cats are awesome subjects for photography.

I was working at my desk and my cat, Ziva, a full blooded maine coon, decided that she wanted some attention and walked all over my keyboard and then jumped up on one of my speakers next to my monitors to look like a queen. The sun just happened to come out at the exact time and put the PERFECT amount of natural light on her face.

My camera is always sitting on the desk next to me with the 17-55 2.8 because you just never know when a photo opportunity will present itself.

Here are some shots I’ve took of my cat sitting pretty on my speaker.

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On March 17, 2013 by Nick

Conway-Portland Road Trip

One Sunday morning, me and my father was bored so we decided to take a trip toward Conway, New Hampshire through the white mountain range and we ended up at the coast in Portland, Maine. Though it was really cold outside around 16f in the mountains and around 35f in Portland, I did manage to take a few shots on our little road trip. The drive was very nice, lots of scenery and lots of things to look at on the way.

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On January 25, 2013 by Nick

No more food photography in restaurants?

I’m sure most of you have read the article at The New York Times on the food photography ban in upscale restaurants. Photography has exploded in the last year, everyone is buying DSLR cameras because they have become a lot more affordable and especially with the entry level full frame cameras out there (D600, 6D) that a lot of people are started to get involved more into photography.

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On December 31, 2012 by Nick

6 New Year’s photography resolutions for 2013

Happy New Years everyone! Since everyone has been making their New Year’s resolution, I’ve decided to come up with my own photography related resolutions and while these are resolutions for my self, I hope they can help you out as well.

1. I will take more pictures

This is the number one thing that I want to improve on. I don’t nearly take as much pictures as I’d like to. A lot of photographers out there will shoot about 200+ photographs per DAY, now, I know that sounds like a lot and probably wont be taking that many.

I need to take my camera with me often and every where’s I go, because you never know when a photo opportunity is going to show up and you’ll want to be ready by having your camera with you.

I also need to get out of my house more and go to different places, travel a little further, discover to places to photograph.

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