Download the free Manual for the AlettA Stabilizer Generation-II

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

Hi Photographer friends,

Download the free Manual for the AlettA Stabilizer Generation-II and see what it's all about. We have only a few dozens Stabilizers left in our inventory that are guaranteed to arrive at your home before Christmas (USA only). Our next shipment will arrive in January. What a great gift for your beloved photographer. Check it out: alettaphoto.com

This weekend is my maiden trip with my renovated travel trailer. Going with all my Pentax cameras.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

 Hi Photographer friends.

This weekend is my maiden trip with my renovated travel trailer. I will be going to Mojave River Forks campsite, here in California. This is a highly secluded site and the perfect place to try it out. I'm equipped with everything I could need, including a small generator, solar power, computers, food, water, etc. I am self-sustained. I transformed this Travel Trailer to a home away from home and it has all of the computing accessories for me to write on this blog and has access to the Internet no matter where. 

I also have my 12 gauge shotgun in case someone decides to invade my privacy, inside the trailer. You never know who you will meet in the backwoods or in the middle of nowhere. I used to do the same when I was tent camping with my old Jeep.

This weekend will be the perfect time for me to try and complete my new e-book for the Pentax Q and the operating manual for the new AlettA Stabilizer Generation II. I will upgrade my e-commerce store site so that photographers can purchase the newer Stabilizers. I've listened to all comments and suggestions from the photographers that purchased the Stabilizers Generation I and I have incorporated as much as I possibly could in this new Generation II. Most of the upgrades will work with the Generation I and current owners will be able to purchase the upgrades at a discounted price.  I will publish  all the details next week. I am very excited about this new Generation II and my beta users all had positive comments and reviews.

The best upgrade to the Stabilizers is that they are now Universal and that any and all DSLR cameras will fit on it. An available attachment allows Portrait or Landscape photography, and is compatible with Arca-Swiss Quick Releases and other brands..

I will officially launch the new AlettA Stabilizer Generation II and accessories early next week. Come check us out.

Thank you,

Yvon Bourque

Las Vegas at Night...still one of my favorite place to photograph.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

Hi Pentaxian friends.

We took some time off work last week and headed down Vegas. We stayed at Planet Hollywood, and had a good time.  I ventured out around midnight to take some pictures. I love taking photographs of Las Vegas at night. There's no place like it.

All the images were taken with my Pentax K-5 and using my AlettA Stabilizer for every shots.

Vegas has changed quite a bit this last year. There were more homeless people and beggars than I had ever seen. I could have taken pictures of those lost souls, but I decided that their livelihood was sad enough that I didn't have to make it worst by publishing their pictures all over the Internet. I gave money to some of them, and frankly, I don't care about what they were going to do with it. I could be me in their shoes or even you...

I'll stop now...I don't want to lecture anyone. It very sad when you think that we are supposed to have the highest standard of living and yet...people are sleeping in the streets.

Thanks for reading,

Yvon Bourque

I just purchased Silver Efect Pro 2 made by Nik Software. It's really as good as they claim.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

Hi Pentaxian friends.

About a week ago, Nik Software reduced the price of Silver Efex Pro 2 from $199.00 to $98.00 for a limited time. I've been wanting that software for a while but couldn't bring myself to spend 200 bucks. At $98.00, my impulse was too great to pass that offer. I bought it and downloaded it immediately.

It may be a little hard to appreciate the images from my blog, but as I look at them, full size, on my 27" monitor, I'm really impressed. I'm not a  fan of  "real" Black and White, but Silver Efex Pro 2 lets you add hints of color. In all the example above, I chose light sepia.

There are so many tools to manipulate the images, that it will take a while to perfect the results. It has a range of borders that you can apply and you can see some of them applied herein.

There is just something about monochrome pictures that people like. I will just have to enlarge and frame a few images. If I'm lucky, my wife will let me put one in the living room, and if not...it will be the garage or my bathroom!

Thank you for reading,

Yvon Bourque 

I must be crazy...my Stabilizers now selling for only $79.95.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

Hi Pentaxian friends.

I must be crazy, but I have reduced my Stabilizers to a ridiculously low price. Why?

Because I want you to have one. Once you have one, you'll wonder how you got around without it.

Available for all models of Canon, Nikon, Pentax, etc.

Actually...there is a Stabilizer that will  fit your DSLR.

Only $79.95*

$99.95 for Customized Stabilizer.

*At that low price, the handgrip is optional. 

Watch Video: http://youtu.be/09ooVpaLfbQ

http://www.alettaphoto.com/

My Blogsite of the day. "The Hidden Realm".

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

Hi Pentaxian friends.

I found this Blogsite tonight and I just had to feature it as my "Blogsite of the day". I know his name is Dave and he lives in Dorset, United Kingdom.  Some people just have an eye for photography, and I certainly think that Dave has a good eye for photography. My goodness...he's only been shooting since March of 2010.  He shoots with a modest Nikon model  (We won't hold that against him, he has talent and he would have taken equally good images with a Pentax K-5.) Dave, give up your day job and make a career switch, I believe in you. Click on the image below to visit his site and see more of his great images, and think to yourself  "This guy has only been shooting for a little over a year."

My preferred images are, and have always been, images that convey movement. These are usually taken with the camera held steady in one position while moving objects get blurry. Those images are worth a thousand words.

"I am a 42-year old Scorpio, a husband to my loving wife Eng, and a father to my beautiful daughter Ysabelle, aged 7. We live in the picturesque town of Poole, Dorset, UK. I was an avid computer gamer and DOF, F-stops and the like, were foreign to me until my wife introduced me to photography. I consider myself an accidental photographer. It all began on March 16, 2010 when my wife decided to buy herself a Nikon D5000. Due to her workload she asked me to read the camera's manual and study its functions. After a week of reading and experimenting, I found myself endlessly capturing photos. I had started to see a different perspective around me, I quickly became hooked to photography and ended up buying my own Nikon D80. I started this blog to share my journey and to learn along the way. I would like to say hello and thank you to all who have taken the time to visit. Special thanks to my wife who encouraged me and to all my friends in Blogosphere who shared their knowledge and taught me to further this craft."

I'm pretty sure a tripod was used for all of Dave's pictures. An AlettA Stabilizer would help anyone take pictures like these. AlettA Photographic.

 Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

AlettA Photographic - Who we are and what we do.

You can email us at brqyvn@gmail.com

For many years, I hauled a clumsy and heavy tripod with me, almost every time I went somewhere to take pictures. We all know that if you want blur free pictures, a tripod is the best way to achieve good results. The problem is that a solid tripod is big and heavy, even if it's made of carbon fiber. It's hard to carry one everywhere you go, it takes time to set it up, and some public places won't even allow its use. It is difficult to travel with one. The problem is even bigger when you use a telephoto lens, like 300mm and above. Modern DSLRs have Shake Reduction systems, but the keyword here is "Reduction". If you want to eliminate shake and not only reduce it, you need a solid tripod or something else. It's the "something else" that has bothered me for a long time. Companies came out with bean bags, clip-on units, different tripod designs, monopods, flexible legs tripods, etc. The problem is that they all come from designing inside the "box"...using the same design with variations. I started thinking outside the proverbial box and I came up with my Stabilizer.

I wanted something light and small that could fit in my camera bag. I wanted something that would protect the camera's underside when resting on any surface, flat or irregular. I was fed up with my camera tipping over when a big lens was attached. (I scratched or broke many lens shades because of that). Finally it came to me. What we need is a gizmo that attaches to the bottom of the camera, with adjustable legs, one that keeps the camera from tipping over and one that can be leveled on any surface. It should also fit in my camera bag while still attached to the camera. It should not add more than 12-14 ounces to the overall weight of the camera and should be ideal for the traveling photographer. It should be made of aircraft aluminum and CNC machined in the USA...no cheap plastic here. It would be nice to incorporate a hand grip and some kind of anti-slip material between the camera bottom and the top of the gizmo to keep the camera from shifting. I would like it's finish to be durable and matching the finish of my DSLR.

Well...we designed such a gizmo. We called it the AlettA Stabilizer.

AlettA Photographic came about after I designed the Stabilizer for my own use with a Pentax DSLR. After years of favorable comments from friends and other photographers, I decided that I should share the Stabilizer with the rest of the photographic world. It took a while...but the gizmo has mutated to "The AlettA Stabilizer" and is available for purchase.

It is custom designed and manufactured for many of the most popular DSLRs, but can also be fitted to just about any camera. The current line includes the Pentax K-5 and K-7, the Nikon D7000, D700 and D300S plus the Canon EOS 5D and EOS 7D. Note that the Stabilizers are designed to fit to the contour of the preceding DSLRs that are equipped with their optional battery grip. The battery grip gives that extra vertical space that accommodates large diameter lenses. However, it will also work without a battery grip installed.

We hope that you search this blogsite for additional information, images, videos and description of our products. We invite your comments and questions.

Thank you for giving us some of your valuable time. We appreciate you.

Yvon Bourque

AlettA Photographic is trademarked and The Stabilizer patent is applied for.

AlettA Photographic video

Visitors to this page also like "Recommended Reading" on the right column. Email: brqyvn@gmail.com Hi Pentaxian friends.

The iPhone is incredible. Using the iMovie, downloaded for $4.99, I was able to make a half-decent video presentation of my AlettA Photographic Stabilizer.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

Hi Pentaxian friends.

This past weekend, we were relaxing in Palm Springs, like we do about once a Month. Believe it or not, our favorite Hotel is actually called "Hotel California". "We can check out anytime we want but we can hardly leave.

We hiked in the Indian Canyon area and took some pictures. The main purpose of that hike was to use my AlettA Stabilizer and put it to the test. I know my opinion is certainly partial, but I just love this little gadget. I don't have to carry a tripod, it stays attached to my camera and I can set it up just about anywhere. We all know that the best way to take a blur free picture is to use a tripod or stabilize your camera somehow so it won't move.  The Stabilizer does just that. You can set it up on a rock, on the ground, on a fence, on a mailbox, or just about any hard to medium hard surface. 

I like to use it as much as I can and I also use the remote shutter so the camera doesn't move at all during exposure. Yes...the on board shake reduction system is great, but nothing replaces a good solid setup.

Anyway, using my little iPhone 4, I was able to shoot some half decent footage of the Stabilizer set up. Take a look at this Youtube video.

I'm so tired that I will have to go to bed now, but this simple video has got me all excited, when I think of all the possibilities. My future post will likely include videos clips to help get my points across. What a wonderful era we live in.

Thanks for stopping by,

Yvon Bourque

Dust bunnies. Unless you live inside a clean room environment, you will get some on your DSLR sensor.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

Hi Photographer friends.

Dust bunnies:

Some things are sure to happen in this world. We're all going to die, we're are all going to be taxed to death, and if we own a Digital SLR, we will get dust bunnies. The dust bunnies multiplies like rabbits, they live in small dark places, they are a pest, they are hard to eradicate, they jump into your photos, and they serve no useful purpose. 

What are they?

If you get these kind of bunnies, they are good bunnies, but still leave you in the dust.

If what you have on your sensor look like these above, frame the image and sell it to the Smithsonian museum. These are extremely rare.

The image above shows the kind of dust bunnies you are likely to have.

Here is a close up of what they look like...

and here's a close up of the close up. Can you see them now?

How to get rid of them?

1. If you have several spare DSLRs or time to wait and the money to spend, send the DSLR back to the manufacturer for a professional sensor cleaning. It's guaranteed work and the safest way to clean your sensor. 
2. If you're like me, you don't have enough time to do half of what you'd like to do everyday but you don't want to spend your money for camera maintenance. You want to spend your money on lenses and camera equipment.

What I do first is activating the built-in dust removal system and repeat the operation at least twenty or so times in a row. On most Pentax DSLRs, you can set the dust removal system so that it activates each time you turn the camera on. You can also do it repeatedly when you want to. The Dust Removal feature is accessible from the  (C) menu. When activating it, it is always a good idea to place the camera face down so the dust can fall away from the sensor.

If that is not enough try to blow the dust away from the sensor surface, I use my Giotto blower.  Blow toward the sensor vigorously, making sure you don't hit the sensor. I found that holding the blower with three fingers and my thumb, while my index finger is braced against the camera lens opening, works best and keeps the blower tip from hitting the sensor. Check your results by using the manual focus function, and photograph a cloudless sky or white piece of paper, with the lens set to the smallest aperture. Take a few pictures and inspect the images on your computer.  Dust bunnies might  be hard to notice on your cameras LCD.  Repeat this step until they are gone. With luck, that will be all you need to do. However, if the dust  has been there for a long period of time or if humidity got in, they might have become stickies. These won't go away with the two methods described above.

I think that Giottos makes the best blowers.





Blow the dust with the camea facing down.



The wet cleaning method:

This is the best cleaning method, but it is also the most apt to damage your sensor surface. Are you sure you want to go through with this? If you don't have a steady hand, don't do it. If you don't have any mechanical aptitude, don't do it. If you have the money, let a professional service technician do it for you. He's probably messed up many sensors before becoming a Pro at it.

Seriously, almost anyone can do it, but it's your choice.

Sensor Swab™ and Eclipse™ - Eclipse/Methanol is the chemical of choice by the engineers and optical specialist of Pentax, Nikon, Fuji and Leica and other brands. You use a swab of one type or another, put a couple (2-3) drops of chemical on it and wipe the sensor. Actually, you wipe the low pass filter which is in front of the sensor.  The eclipse kit comes with instruction on how to clean the sensor. The Internet is full of sites showing the steps to clean the sensor with a swab and methanol. Just Google Digital sensor cleaning, and you will have dozens of sites showing "step-by-step" instructions. I particularly liked this site:  http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/cleaning.html

Read over and over until you are comfortable with the steps, then go for it. What have you got to lose other than your DSLR sensor?

The above shows what I use. It does a good job.

 Thanks for reading and happy cleaning,

Yvon Bourque

From Cambridge in colour, Photo Stitching Digital Panoramas, Part 3: Panoramic Image Projections

mail: brqyvn@gmail.com

Hi Pentaxian friends.

Here is the third and final lesson on Photo Stitching Digital Panoramas, all found on Cambridge in Colour.

An image projection occurs whenever a flat image is mapped onto a curved surface, or vice versa, and is particularly common in panoramic photography. A projection is performed when a cartographer maps a spherical globe of the earth onto a flat piece of paper, for example. Since the entire field of view around us can be thought of as the surface of a sphere (for all viewing angles), a similar spherical to 2-D projection is required for photographs which are to be printed... Click here to continue reading on Cambridge in Colour.


Thanks for reading and check our new e-commerce: http://alettaphoto.com/

Yvon Bourque

AlettA photographic will launch its e-commerce store in the next few days. Accessories for Pentax, Nikon and Canon will be available.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

Hi Pentaxian friends.

If you follow this blog, you already know about my current endeavor "The AlettA Photographic". If this is your first visit,  AlettA Photographic is a new business that is offering accessories for  Pentax, Nikon, Canon and other DSLRs. Although the introduction of AlettA Photographic was mainly concentrated around our new Stabilizer, other products will be offered as well.  

AllettA Photographic Stabilizer, available custom-made for Pentax K-5 and K-7, Canon EOS 5D and EOS 7D, Nikon D7000, D700 and D300S.  Generic Stabilizers are also available for all DSLRs. Just let us know your camera model and make.

 

A few weeks back, I did a survey on daily visits to blogsites like mine and forum sites as well. I was under the impression that traffic had slowed down, not only on my site, but on all internet sites in general. My counter registers how many visitors I have everyday, but since more and more people use RSS feed and other ways to follow someone's blog, the counter showed a decline in visitors. With iPhones and other Smart phones, in addition to the new trend in tablets such as the iPad, more and more people are surfing the Internet from their mobile devices. They don't actually log onto blogs, but receive RSS feeds that emails them the blog sites they are interested in, and that every time something new is posted.

I believe that sitting in front of a PC, using a big qwerty keyboard to surf the net is on its way out. Smart phones and Tablets are on their way in. Most are using 3G and 4G  (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and others) to stay connected to the Internet all day long and Wi-Fi connections are available almost everywhere. Just about everyone is on Facebook and Twitter. In fact, my blog is transmitted to Facebook and Twitter automatically every time I post something new.

...back to AlettA Photographic, I wanted to launch my e-commerce store so that it would reach the greatest amount of people possible, (after all I believe that my current and future products will be well received by photographers all over the world). I found the solution in a company called http://mybigcommerce.com/.

In a few days, my e-commerce store will open, with shopping carts, photographs of available items, videos, detailed descriptions, reviews and comments, and secure purchase capability with all major credit cards. What's more, it will simultaneously be broadcast in a mobile devices compatibility mode for iPhones, smart phones and tablets. Everyone will be able to visit my e-commerce store, window shop, purchase items, leave reviews and comments,all  from their smart phones and on the fly. The internet is going through some changes and I am lucky to live in such an era. Of course, you will also be able to log on using your PC or iMac as well.

Check the e-commerce store in the days to come. http://www.alettaphoto.com/

This is what the e-store will look like on a regular PC or iMac.

This is what it will look like on smart phones, in this case, my iPhone.

Every available items will be displayed in an easy to see form.



You will be able to shop and add items to your shopping cart.



Reviews from users will be available and you will be able to review the many availkable items you purchase.

Additional images and videos will be accessible directly on your smart phone to help in your decision making.

  

Window shop, purchase, pay with any major credit card, and receive your item a few days later, all done from your PC or smart phone. Aint technology grand! 

  Thank you for your visit and don't forget to check http://www.alettaphoto.com/ in the next few days.

Yvon Bourque

Using the Pentax K-5 and K-7 with my new DA* 300mm and the AlettA Stabilizer. Terrific combination.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

Hi Pentax friends,

I spent the afternoon trying my new Pentax DA* 300mm with the Pentax K-5 and the Pentax K-7.  Most of the pictures were taken with the K-5 while I was using the K-7 with the DA 16-45mm lens to take picture of the way I was shooting the images.  As you can see below, The stability of the camera was important, as shooting "hand held" with a large telephoto is difficult. I didn't have a tripod on purpose since I also wanted to test my stabilizer as well.

Both performed very well. The DA* 300mm lens is a dream lens. Before getting it, I was using an older Tokina 400mm (soon to be on EBay or you can email me if you want it) which is good enough, but not comparable to the new Pentax DA*  300mm. The 300mm is a bit faster, with a maximum aperture of f/4, and the glass is optimized for today's DSLRs. If you look at the images below, you will see the water droplets very clearly. Of course, the images are small for this blogsite, but the full size images are stunning.  I will certainly have one or two enlarged for display and for selling.

The stabilizer was also instrumental in getting the right shots. It held both, the camera and the heavy lens, motionless like a brick, all without using a heavy and cumbersome tripod. The camera was atop the hood of my truck and some pictures were taken from the roof of the truck.  I even took some pictures with the camera sitting on an old rusty mailbox.

Today, I toot two horns...the Pentax horn for producing such a good lens...and my own horn for coming up with the idea for the stabilizer. I just love it, and if someone else would have designed it, I would have purchase one from them. Actually, it would have been much cheaper. Thus far, until I sell enough of my gizmo, I am in the hole for  thousands of dollars. Go ahead and check how much attorneys charge for a patent, a name registration and a trademark, not to mention forming an LLC company for my own protection. The first few units had to be custom made by a machine shop...just for me. These shops charge about $250.00 to enter the coordinates in the CNC machine the first time, and $75.00 per hour for actually machining the part. I had to rework the design four times before getting it right, but that's okay, because in the end, I got what I wanted. I just paid too much.

All the images of the Sprinklers were taken with the stabilizer set on either the hood or the roof of my truck. The shutter was released using the 2 second timer.

The image below was taken from this old mailbox position.

All four legs set at a different elevation.  It does a lot more that just keeping the DSLR / lens combination from tipping over when resting on a flat surface.

If you are lucky enough to own a K-5...you're lucky enough! As a bonus, the camera has an electronic level indicator which renders the task even simpler.

Thank you for visiting. Please come again,

Yvon Bourque