All posts by James O'Keefe

Into the Woods

December 29, 2022 James O'Keefe

I attended the Somerville Highlander Theater‘s performance of Into the Woods in early December. As is my custom, I photographed the performance.

I decided to try something different and photographed it with an anamorphic lens so I could get more of the actors and stage. You can tell from the occasional lens flares. I cropped only a few of the images.

A big congratulations for the crew, cast and orchestra for a wonderful performance.

You can view all of the images in this album:

Unfortunately, the latest Lightroom update decided to change the default to exporting the small versions of the photographs and not the originals. If you would like a copy of the original, email me.

Photography

Don’t Get the Glorich EN-EL25 Power Adapter

November 2, 2022 James O'Keefe Leave a comment

This post has been sitting here and since I don’t have another post ready, I will just publish it.

I occasionally live stream. My Nikon Z 50 allows me to turn off sleep mode, but changing batteries is a pain when live streaming. Unfortunately, Nikon decided that the Z 50’s USB port can only charge the battery, not power the camera. Unlike the Z 6/7 (which uses the D850 battery), there is no battery adapter to power the camera via external power, such as a wall outlet.

I needed something to deal with this, albeit minor, issue. So back in February, I ordered and received a Glorich Z50 AC power dummy battery adaptor from Amazon.

This is my review. TL;DR I sent it back.

It didn’t come with a manual. I connected it to my Z 50 and closed the battery door. I then plugged it into an outlet, and turned on the camera. The camera did not turn on.

I tried to unplug it from my surge protector. It didn’t want to unplug. It was stuck part way in. After some work, I was finally able to wrestle it out. I repeated the same process with a different outlet. Still did not turn on. Getting it out of the socket was still difficult. Inspecting the plugs showed scratches in them. Have never seen this behavior with a plug before, but it is likely due to the circular holes in the plugs catching on something in the power strip socket.

Tried plugging it into a wall outlet and inspected it for a secret “on” switch. Didn’t find one. The power box has a green light on it that seemed to have a faint glow, but the product still didn’t power my camera.

Getting the dummy battery out was a bit of an ordeal, but once I placed the Nikon battery back in and turned on the camera and it worked just fine.

I filed for my refund that day and returned it the next. I did not bother getting another one to try. If the first unit refuses to work, then it must be of such poor quality that a working unit would likely fail just after I can no longer return it.

At least it didn’t kill my camera.

I won’t bother with the other two models since I doubt their return policy will protect me if the product fails. Also, my guess is that the AliExpress product is the same as the Glorich product, based on the photos they show. The F1TP version is also likely the same as the Glorich product.

I ended choosing another solution I am satisfied with, but not happy with, but that is for another post.

Fun, Photography

Elf Land

May 11, 2022 James O'Keefe Leave a comment

The photos of Elf Land, a neighborhood space in a to-be developed lot in Somerville, I have seen tended to be at human level and not elf level. As such they didn’t do Elf Land justice. Before the big storm in January I set out to change that. Here is the result:

You can find all of the photos at this album:

Fun, Music, Photography

Art Beat 2021

July 11, 2021 James O'Keefe Leave a comment

My son and I attended this year’s Art Beat. It was lovely to be out after a year of lockdowns and event cancellations. Here are some of the photos I took.

Singing robin

April 19, 2021 James O'Keefe Leave a comment

I recorded a brief video of a robin singing in my backyard.

I have a bunch of photo edits to post. Hopefully soon.

Nature, Photography

Birds and the Moon

February 19, 2021 James O'Keefe Leave a comment

I had the Sigma 150-600mm Sport lens so I found other uses for it. It was probably excessive to use it photographing birds in the backyard …

… but I got many good photographs of the moon that I hope to try focus stacking. In retrospect, since I used a tripod, I should have used a slower shutter speed. One unfocus stacked image:

Photography, War

Warship Wednesday: DDGs LBJ & Inouye

February 17, 2021 James O'Keefe Leave a comment

Over the summer I planned to head up to Bath, Maine to photograph the USS Lyndon B. Johnson. I planned to take the Maine Maritime Museum’s Shipyards & Lighthouses Cruise just as I had when photographing the USS Monsoor.

Due to the pandemic that was not possible, so I instead rented the Sigma 150-600mm Sport lens from Hunt’s Photo Video. My son and I drove up and tried finding locations to photograph from. The land across from the Kennebec River is filled with private houses and offered no outlet from which to photograph the USS LBJ. We ended up starting on the US Route 1 bridge and traveling down to the Doubling Point Lighthouse:

The Sigma 150-600mm Sport lens is a very heavy lens. Hand holding it seemed a recipe for blurry photos so I put it on a sturdy tripod. It worked well though the walkway to the Doubling Point Lighthouse vibrated when people walked on it.

From the US Route 1 bridge:

From the Doubling Point Lighthouse:

From where on the Doubling Point Lighthouse I photographed the LBJ. Taken while on a previous boat cruise.

Art, Photography, Pirate Party, Privacy & Surveillance

Worcester Walkabout

February 11, 2021 James O'Keefe Leave a comment

Back in October I walked around Worcester mapping surveillance cameras at a Pirate Party outing. Got a chance to photograph some of the murals and other sights in downtown Worcester.