Dan Carr

Founder of Shutter Muse, full time photographer and creative educator. Dan lives in the Canadian Yukon, but his wanderlust often sends him in search of images all around the world to meet the needs of clients and readers alike.

Think Tank Hydrophobia 70-200

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NOTE: This version of the Hydrophobia has now been replaced my a new, and much improved version which you can view here. Think Tank Photo today announced the long awaited Hydrophobia 70-200. Purchasing the Hydrophobia through this link will allow you to claim a free smaller Think Tank bag when you check out. Press Release Rain Cover for 70-200 and Smaller Lenses Released! To help you get the shot in even the harshest conditions, we have released two water-resistant, seam-sealed rain covers for 70-200 and smaller lenses: the Hydrophobia® 70-200 and the Hydrophobia® Flash 70-200 with built-in flash protector. It …

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What’s been happening…. in BC

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It’s been a bit quiet on the blog in the last week as I have been hard at work. Winter is in full force here in British Columbia and that means i’m busy every day with one thing or another. Last weekend I headed north to the remote township of Bralorne. Bralorne is an old gold mining town high up in the mountains north of Whistler. At this time of year the best way to get there is with a snowmobile and a 2 hour sled up the Hurley pass from Pemberton meadows. In the middle of the winter the …

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New Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VR II and 2x Teleconverter

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Nikon today announced a brand new version of the AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II. This new version includes a 4-stop image stabilization system where the last version was only a 3-stop. At the same time , a brand new 2x teleconverter has been announced that contains new aspherical lens elements for greatly improved optical performance. These 2 new additions to the line will be available in January , just in time for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver where I would expect to see a lot of these lenses in use with the new Nikon D3s. Amazon already has …

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Ikan Cheese Stick JR & Articulating Arm

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Sometimes you stumble across something you wander how you ever did without; something that has so many uses that it instantly deserves a tiny piece of the valuable real-estate in your rapidly filling camera bag. These two accessories from LCD manufacturer Ikan are two such items but before all you stills photographers switch off, thinking this is just for video applications, think again…. and read on. The articulating arm and Cheese Stick JR are 2 separate products which on their own are quite useful, but it’s when the 2 are combined together that you really get sometime cool. The arm …

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RED Scarlet update December 09

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Almost exactly a year ago I posted some information about the RED Scarlet Camera. Since that time there have been a number of “announcements” from the company but most of them have said more or less the same thing. “The cameras are delayed , but here is some more computer generated graphics of something that might possibly look like the camera when it finally arrives”. I would imagine that Jim Janard and his crew at RED have had to re-think a few elements of their designs in an attempt to combat the surprising success of Canons DSLRs in the video …

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Snow Photos 101 – Part 3 – Introduction to flash photography

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Flash photography can seem like something of a dark art to begin with. Pop-up, hot-shoe mounted, remote, fill and bounce; there are many ways a photographer can use flash to control the exposure and look of a photo. It is more complicated than ambient light photography so before you begin experimenting, make sure you have a good understanding of all the basics of exposure; shutter speed, aperture and ISO. In ski photography, flash is used in two key ways. Firstly, as a substitute for ambient light for instance shooting rails at night, or tree skiing on a cloudy day. And …

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Hyperdrive Colorspace UDMA review.

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This past Autumn I was in Mexico on holiday. I took my newly purchased Canon S90 camera with me and was having a great time snapping pics with that little thing. The quality of the shots coming out of that tiny thing was really blowing me away. I wasn’t traveling with a laptop computer so my photos remained on the camera’s memory card. Unfortunately, on the fifth day of my trip, my camera was stolen while I was in a restaurant. This was the first time I have ever lost photos and I was truly gutted, more so than I …

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Snow Photos 101 – Part 2 – Which Camera and Lenses Should I get?

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Continuing on with my Snow photos 101 section, by far the most common question in my in-box is “what camera or lens should i get?”. You can view the equipment that I use HERE, but this doesn’t mean that you need all of this to make some great ski or snowboard photos. Lenses A professional ski photographer will own lenses that range from a 15mm fisheye all the way up to a 300mm telephoto lens. Different shooting situations require different setups and they aren’t necessarily all carried at the same time. By far my most used lens is my 70-200mm …

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Snow Photos 101 – Part 1 – Exposure basics & Composition

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Readers of SBC Skier in Canada this year will have seen my series of ski photography tips. I have decided to put together a new section on my blog which initially starts off with the beginner tips featured in SBC Skier and then moves on further to more advanced information for readers looking for a a little more in-depth info. Every few weeks I will add a new section to the tips until I have covered the things that most people ask me about. Hopefully by the end there will be a good collection of information for people to reference. …

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Record breaking start to the winter

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Since the beginning of November Whistler has received 493cm of snow, and it’s still falling. This has smashed the previous record for November with 10 days still to go. Originally the mountains were due to open next weekend on the 27th but with the heavy snowfall early in the month, Whistler Blackcomb pulled out all the stops to get some lifts turning for everyone a few weeks early. Thanks for all the hard work guys! A couple of days ago I headed up the mountain with Jeff Thomas from Poorboyz, Mike Henitiuk, TJ Schiller and Riley Leboe as they begun …

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External monitor use with the Canon 5dMKII, 7d and 1dmkIV

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This post is sort of a prelude to a review that i’ll be writing in the next couple of weeks. Recently the folks at IKAN sent me one of there v5600 to test out while I have been shooting some video with my 7d and 5d. When I started to take down some notes I realized that there are a few things to be said about using external monitors with these cameras and some of them are characteristics of the cameras and therefore independent of the type of monitor you are using. I found myself trying to figure out what …

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Max Hill – SBC Skier Cover

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A nice surprise in my mail box this morning. I knew about this for a couple of weeks but today was the first time I have seen the finished product. This is my 8th cover but my first one in N.America so i’m really pleased with this one. Max Hill is the man on the cover and the shot was taken last April in Whistler, BC. I had the idea for this shot about 3 years ago but that year at the time we didn’t have the snow for it. Last year there was plenty in the spring time so …

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