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.

Canon 1D X Mark II – A High ISO King!

by

Regular readers will know that these days my camera of choice is the Canon 5D Mark IV because I love its versatility. It’s not as fast as the 1-Series cameras, and not as high resolution as the 5DS R series, but balance of these things makes it a great option for someone that shoots a very broad range of subjects. That said, I have a number of projects on the go at the moment which might benefit from a faster frame rate camera that’s able to capture the moments between the moments my 5D Mark IV is currently capturing. The …

Read more

A Reminder About Aerial Photography Tips!

by

There’s nothing quite like flying over incredible landscapes! I recently went for a flight over Whistler with Sea to Sky Air to get some photos and footage for a new project. I was processing some photos today and it reminded me of a hugely in-depth tutorial that I wrote about this topic a while back when I flew over the same area. You can find the giant aerial photography tutorial on Shutter Muse. Just a couple of months ago I also wrote a quick not here on my blog about the best lenses for aerial photography. If you can make …

Read more

Wow! Coolest Way to Store Photos?!

by

I had to post a couple of photos of this! The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD. I actually wrote about it a while back when it was first announced, but I just got my hands on one today and it was even smaller than I though it would be! It comes in 256GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB variations at the moment, and the smallest of those sizes is under $100 which is pretty amazing for an SSD. Now that these drives can use mSATA drives in them, they have taken a real fall in price in the last year. SSDs like

Thoughts on Canon’s New 70-200mm Lenses and Their Surprising Price

by

Canon unveiled updated versions of their L-Series 70-200mm lenses this week and since these lenses have long been among the most popular in their lineup, I wanted to write some thoughts – good and bad – about this launch. First let’s take a look at what has been changed from the previous versions of these lenses: Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS III That’s it. The Mark II version of this lens was launched in 2009 and is extremely highly regarded, so Canon have definitely taken the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality with this lens update. The IS

Gear Check: Best PFD for Photographing from a Kayak

by

Long term blog or social media followers of mine will know that I love to photograph wildlife from a kayak because it gives you such a wonderful low perspective. One of the challenges with photography from a kayak, or any small boat for that matter, is keeping gear safe, but also readily available. All of my larger photographic gear goes into a set of SealLine Bulkhead View dry bags, but there’s a few smaller items that are just nice to have on you at all times. Until very recently I wasn’t that sure how to accomplish this, but then I

Battery Grips: Canon Has Been Getting This Wrong for Years!

by

A battery grip serves a few purposes: Firstly it allows you to more comfortably and solidly hold a camera in portrait orientation. Secondly it replicates the main camera control when held in this position. Finally, it also allows you to go longer without having to swap batteries, because it allows you to have two in the camera simultaneously. That third function, the battery one, isn’t exactly life changing. I’ve often seen it written that battery grips are great “because they allow you to shoot for longer” but really, how long does it take you to swap a battery?  I can

Gear Check: Canon Drop-In Polarizer

by

Circular polarizing filters are used for cutting down reflected light from water, wet surfaces, foliage and the sky. Most avid photographers are at least aware of their regular usage in landscape photography, and smart ones have one in their bag because it can totally transform an image when used correctly. Polarizer usage doesn’t have to stop at landscape images though! On a recent wildlife photography trip I was reminded just how useful they can be in wet environments when the light is harsh and high in the sky. If your long lens has a regular filter thread on the front

Sigma’s New 105mm f/1.4 Price Revealed…Wow!

by

I’m just getting caught up on all the latest photo news after a few weeks on the road. One of the things that jumped out at me right away is the price of Sigma’s new 105mm f/1.4 lens. The lens is available for order now at only $1599. Now don’t get me wrong, that’s not a cheap lens by any means, but for a lens of that size and aperture it’s a pretty killer deal and Sigma has been knocking it out of the park with lens design recently. Canon users didn’t have a 105mm f/1.4 until now, and whilst

I’m Back! Rainforests, boats, bears, whales…

by

I must apologize that things went a little quiet for a few weeks around here while I’ve been busy on the road in a couple of locations around British Columbia. The first trip was to photograph the temperate rainforests of the Sunshine Coast, and a second longer trip saw me based in Tofino for a few weeks while I tracked down the incredible wildlife that lives in that areas. Just to give you an idea, in a single day I photographed black bears, killer whales (mother and son, transients), grey whales and a grey whale calf, eagles, harbour seals, stellar

Adding a Simple Circulation System to my Adventure Trailer

by

I know quite a few people are following along as I build out a small trailer into the ultimate adventure photography basecamp. If you aren’t caught up on this, you can find some previous blog posts in this section. This week I tackled the problem of poor air circulation in the Taxa Tigermoth trailer, which was leading to condensation trouble when sleeping in colder temperatures. Unlike most larger RVs and trailers, for some reason the older models of this trailer did not have any kind of roof ventilation. I believe they have fixed this for the newer models of this

The Best Lens for Aerial Photography

by

A recent aerial photography flight in Whistler reminded to tackle the subject of the best lens for this kind of work. Without a doubt, it needs to be a zoom lens because objects pass quickly and you simply can’t be wasting time switching prime lenses. For me the clear choice is a 24-105mm zoom with image stabilization, assuming you’re working with a full frame body. If you have a crop body of some sort, a lens with a 15-70mm zoom range or similar, will provide the same field of view. All the major brands offer their own lenses in this

I Found An LP-E12 Battery Case! (Also a GoPro Battery Case)

by

I recently wrote about the Canon M50s thirst for battery power, and the third-party Wasabi LP-E12 batteries that I have been using. With four batteries for my little Canon M50, I needed something to keep them in so I went rummaging around in my closet. For my Canon LP-E6 batteries I use the Think Tank battery holders, which do an excellent job. However, they are unnecessarily big for the much smaller LP-E12 batteries. As it happens though, an LP-E12 is very similar in size to a GoPro battery. I had a few GoPro battery cases from MindShift Gear kicking around,