FritzImages 2018 Mar Blog
FritzImages 2018 Mar Blog
Outside of meeting with my accountant to review my 2017 Income taxes, March looks like a good month. It is my birthday month, spring is returning, and PPSNYS is having their convention at the end of the month. One of my favorite photographers, author, instructor, Vincent Versace will be presenting. The FocusNY event (Mar 24-26) is open to everyone so check out the link.
Professional Photographer Society of New York State (PPSNYS)
Vince Versace photo shoot
Spring is here
My definition of spring is when the ice that covers streams, brooks, and swamps are no longer rock solid frozen. In just the last ten days, I can no longer access some of my usual locations. Images created by scampering on ice layers will have to wait until next winter.
Berkshire Winter Pond
1) It’s Raining New Camera Bodies and Lens
It seems like every significant camera manufacture launched a new camera during the last two weeks. Personally, I am not interested in owning any one of them, as I am a fully invested in Nikon. I think it was a smart decision on Nikon to launch their new D850 back in October and not get lost in the fray between Canon, Sony, Fuji, and Panasonic. If you are a newbie starting in the business, there are a lot of cameras and formats to consider.
My ‘Buying a New Camera’ Advice
My advice, if you are an extreme element photographer, (ie making images in -14F, snow falling, or in +90F, in ocean surf/sand/desert, or in plummeting rain, or are a road warrior), then be sure to investigate the camera and lens ruggedness, warranty and what service is offered. If you are beyond basics and headed towards being a pro, then buy Pro gear.
The next advice is reviewing any proprietary software and how it works with Photoshop or Lightroom. The best place to check out what is the deal with new DSLR’s, is to go to:
2) Blog Master Info
2a) Fix a TOASTed YOAST
I spent the better half of Feb. trying to fix a broken SEO PRO plugin from YOAST. Numerous service calls, piss poor ‘canned response’ service across four separate and different service techs finally resulted in, ‘We can’t help you, you need to create a staging site.’ OMG, this action took 20 hours to compete, and no one wanted actually to help, from my hosting company to the Yoast guys. In despair and looking for support, I came across this youtube video, and it is exceptionally well done, I may consider using these guys (namehero.com) for my hosting some day. ejf test modify post
Link here: www.youtube.com/embed/QWgsfJtyG-c
YOAST All talk they Do Not Care
Once I set up my new staging site, I created an admin password for Yoast. This was when I uncovered what the fix was to repair the extremely broken Yoast SEO Pro plugin. I decided that after my SEO had been broken for 15% of the year, and that the fix was so simple and should have been determined by Yoast support, that I’d request to speak with Yoast himself. This took several email request’s, and I was finally sidelined to the head of tech support. I declined to talk with anyone but Yoast because I have been using the Yoast plugin since he was just a startup and once paid then $1k to review my site SEO. He should know that his empire is not fixing simple issues, that his service playbook needs another page and that my perception and reality is that he and his crew do not care.
How do I fix a Toasted Yoast? Click this Download for the PDF.
2b) Keep your Post and Pages Evergreen
I believe it is essential to keep dates used in your post and pages current. The time that the content was initially published can be retained. However, the last modified date should be relatively current. It is a concept known as Evergreen.
There is a lot written about Evergreen and its effect on readers and SEO. My modified post date is updated when I edit the content, and then it appears on my Post and Pages when you go thru my site (via another plugin). My issue is that some material may not be modified for years. Consider a page created and titled Portfolio Gallery, which I may have created three years ago. The page image content is updated via a taxonomy which does not trigger a page date modification. In essence, content is updated weekly. However, the last modified date is in 2017. If someone visits the portfolio page, they will think it has been years since the image content has been refreshed.
The lack of accessible EverGreen workflow has been bugging me for years. I have over 1,200 blog post and several hundred pages.
Today, when researching for this blog, I came across a new plugin which can be configured to manage the last modified date. I went ahead and sampled the plugin on some pages, and all looks well. At the moment, I am not sure what impact it will have on Google search SEO bots, so I’ll keep an eye on that.
Evergreen your Wordpress content
The name of the plugin: Post Date Time Change
3) Equipment Mischief
3a) Update: Kickstarter KUVRD Universal Lens Cap
I received my product in mid-Feb because I was an initial Kickstarter backer ($45 for three). The results, Meh…Don’t bother. This one is a fail for me. Most of the diameters of my lenses are 72MM, and I was scared to pull, the stretchy rubber/silicon designed for a 50mm lens, over my expensive front lens.
I thought I’d scratch front element
I did not trust these to use without the front lens cap on. When I tried the KUVRD, the Nikon front lens caps would detach as I pulled on the rubber. In short, they are a pain to put on and take off. They may have a specific use someday, but for now, I’ll end up using for my Nikon 16mm fish and maybe a tc14,17,20. They work excellent on the rear of the lens, but why bother when you have a rear cap. I will continue to look for applications, but at the moment they are resting in my equipment bone yard. If they made lens caps specific to 72mm diameter, then I’d reconsider.
3b) Update: Kickstarter Breakthrough X100 Holders @ $45/ea
It is time to let the cat out of the bag. I have not read any reports of the problem with these Breakthrough holders. The initial run of the Breakthrough holders was received from the manufacturer in China without the capability to use a ten stop filter in slot 1. How do I know? I reported it to their service on Jan. right after receiving my kickstart sample. There were some subsequent telcos. It finally was acknowledged that all Kickstarter’s recv’d the initial batch of the mis-manufactured product. That is also why you won’t see the Holder available to order on an online page. There was never a Breakthrough reorder of the Kickstart version and why it has been back ordered for three months. As a Kickstarter we take risks, and the dollar value was low, so not a big deal. Plus I still have my LEE’s.
Order at: Adorama, B&H, Breakthrough
Breakthrough will be making it right, and I was told that in March the retooled X100 and fixed slot one would be available to ship. There also will be an advanced design feature included which should be cool! I find the filter holder market cutthroat. It seems everyone is targeting Lee’s (high cost) holders and ring dominance. An increasing number of mfg’s are releasing filter systems and holders, even Germany’s B&W @ $95.
For the moment, I’ll still use a modified Lee and hope that the new Breakthrough will be released with a few advanced features as well as a revised slot #1.
For the record, I am total pleased with quality and color of Breakthrough Filters and have mothballed all my LEE, Singhray, Pro-Grey, Marumi, B+W, and Haida ND products.
