As always when shooting fireworks, it’s good to have a sturdy tripod, and to sort out your camera settings before the show starts. I usually go with ISO 100, f/8 and 2-4 second exposures. But given the unpredictable nature of the subject, luck helps a great deal too: This shot started out in the reject pile as a “miss”, but it’s growing on me.

The fireworks themselves were some of the most impressive I’ve seen. They were big, bold, and went on for a good quarter of an hour over the Waitemata Harbour.

The crowds on Princes Wharf were duly impressed, and burst into spontaneous applause at the end of the show.

I’ve had my Canon EOS 20D for five years. I’ve shot over 50,000 frames with it, lugged it around several continents, and subjected it to endless abuse: It’s been splashed with freezing meltwater on glaciers in New Zealand, covered in mud on remote tracks in Western Samoa, and fogged up inside and out in the syrupy humidity of southern Vietnam. It has been one of my most dependable gadgets, and it has captured many of my favorite images over the years.

But despite its tank-like build and indisputable utility, the 20D is sometimes infuriating to use. The viewfinder is small and crops out a significant chunk of the image. The autofocus system has poor tracking of moving subjects and is very slow in the dark. Images turn into a soup of red and green noise at high ISO settings. The noisy shutter release never fails to attract unwanted attention from human and animal subjects. And the camera is just a little too small to hold comfortably. So when Canon launched the EOS 7D in early October, it was finally time for an upgrade.

Detailed reviews of the 7D are available from all the usual suspects. If you’re interested in the gory details, check out the write-up over at the Digital Photography Review. They dive into, measure and rate just about every aspect of the camera. And like most reviewers, they wax lyrical about the big viewfinder, the new AF system, the movie mode and all the other headline features.

Surprisingly, though, there is very little mention of what it’s like to use the 7D in practice. I haven’t seen anyone discussing the little delights and annoyances that you discover when you start using the new camera in the field. So below, I have summarized some of my observations, from the perspective of someone upgrading from the 20D.

Starting with the highlights:

• The AF system does a great job of tracking moving subjects. It’ll happily lock onto a small target—such as a bird in flight—against a cluttered background, despite erratic camera movement. This is a far cry from the 20D and even the 5D Mark II, both of which are essentially useless for anything that moves. In addition, while tracking a subject with AI Servo mode, the viewfinder is constantly updated to show the currently selected focus points. Again, this is a huge improvement over Canon’s older AF systems, where there was nothing at all to indicate that the AI Servo was even operating.
• Every time you depress the shutter button, the AF system selects another set of focus points. I actually don’t know if this is by design or by chance, but it works great in practice. If you’re not happy with the first set of points selected, just let go of the shutter button and hit it again. This is usually far quicker than manually selecting a focus point, or locking focus and recomposing the shot.
• The CF card door locks much more securely into place than it did on the 20D and friends. So if you pull the camera out of your bag by the grip, the door doesn’t have the same tendency to flip open. This used to be a constant frustration for me, so I’m very happy that Canon finally sorted it out.
• In difficult lighting conditions, the 7D errs on the side of a slight overexposure. This is great news for those of us who are used to the chronic underexposures of the 20D. And assuming you are shooting RAW, the higher exposure generally means more information to extract in post-processing.
• For those of us with large hands, the 7D has fantastic ergonomics. Squeezing the grip feels like squeezing a slab of steel. There’s absolutely no give, and not so much as a creak. The moulded grip is natural and secure, and the textured surface has just the right amount of friction. With the 20D, I would always wind the neck strap around my hand while carrying the camera. But with the 7D, I haven’t even attached the strap, despite the extra weight. Incidentally, because the 7D is so heavy, it is also almost perfectly balanced with the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens attached.

But I’m not thrilled about every change that Canon made. Here are some of my pet peeves with the 7D:

• I think I speak for most potential customers when I say that I would happily trade the flash for a full frame sensor. I shot 50,000 frames with my 20D, and I used the built-in flash for literally about 10 of those. In fact, when I tried to pop up the flash on the 20D a few weeks ago, I discovered that it had rusted shut.
• Canon has implemented various technologies to keep the sensor clear of dust, and it works great. But instead, the viewfinder is an absolute dust magnet. Every time you change lenses, new bits of dust and debris attach themselves to the underside of the prism. This is compounded by the fact that it’s very hard to reach inside to clean this area. I find viewfinder dust spots very distracting, but it looks like they will be a fact of life with the 7D.
• Switching between AF modes is awkward. You have to first press the AF point selection button, then the Multi-function button until your desired AF mode is selected. And some AF modes are only available through Custom Functions, which means you have to make a roundtrip to the menu. If you’re in a hurry, you have already missed the shot.
• When reviewing images, you can’t easily turn on or off the flashing indication for blown highlights. Unlike with the 20D, this operation now requires a roundtrip to the menu. While I like the blown highlight indication in most circumstances, there are times when I intentionally overexpose an image—and when I do, the flashing is just a distraction.
• Ok, this one is covered in other reviews, but it’s so stupid that it needs special mention: The Direct Print button. There’s a dedicated button on the back of the camera to print an image directly to a compatible Canon printer. And because that feature is unlikely to ever be used by anyone in the 7D’s target market, the button now has a secondary function, which is to switch from RAW or JPEG shooting to RAW+JPEG. This is ridiculous and annoying: Whenever you accidentally hit this button, your shooting settings are changed, with no immediate indication of what just happened.

I have now used the new camera for six weeks. And as you can probably tell, the little positive surprises far outweigh the annoyances. Overall, the 7D is an absolute joy to use—and it’s been years since I had this much fun taking photos.

I’m back from the US, and I’ve just posted some photos from the trip over in the Photography section. Keep in mind that you can click the “View Slideshow” link on the gallery page for larger versions of all images.

Above, foam vortices in the Niagara River, just below Niagara Falls. Or is it an image of star formation in some dynamic nebula, millions of light years away?

I’ll be traveling in the northeastern US until early October. As always, photos will be posted and emails answered on my return.

Stray dogs are a common sight in most Argentine cities. And while many of them look pretty ragged, you can often tell that there’s a beautiful animal under all that tousled fur. The one on the right was our favorite. And the heartbreaking thing is that she totally knew it: She followed us around for a long time, clearly doing everything in her power to get herself adopted.

The photo was shot in central Salta, which is a lovely little city in northwestern Argentina. I fired off a few quick frames at knee level, to capture a dog’s eye perspective of the world. Because the image is taken at point blank range, with a wide open aperture, almost everything is out of focus. But her eye, with that deep gash—maybe from a fight with another dog—is tack sharp, and becomes the focal point of the image.

I’m not sure if it’s the injury that gets me, or her expression of guarded hope, or maybe just the sense of isolation from the blurry locals in the background. But this is one of my favorite images from Argentina.

Funnily enough, as this dog was following us around, she appears in quite a few other photos. In this slightly more cheerful image, she is hovering patiently while I’m trying to find a good angle on an inside-out magazine stand.

It took me a full seven years in New Zealand to realize that we have redwoods. But once I found out, it didn’t take long to organize a hiking trip: Whakarewarewa Forest is just three hours south of Auckland, on the shores of Lake Rotorua.

The result of a commercial forestry experiment started in the late 1800s, Whakarewarewa Forest has a selection of exotic trees—some planted by prison labor. There’s Douglas fir, Mexican cypress, Oriental plane tree, Japanese cedar, Australian eucalyptus and many more. But the main attraction is unquestionably the beautiful stands of California redwood.

Wide walking paths meander through the most prominent groves, offering easy access to the biggest trees. But as you set off on the half-day or full-day hikes, the paths soon peter out into steep, muddy tracks, with thick vegetation on all sides. Here, the already lofty redwoods seem even taller, even straighter as they emerge from the chaos of native ferns.

It may be a far cry from stunning Sequoia National Park in California. But the curious juxtaposition of California redwoods with the almost impenetrable New Zealand rainforest makes Whakarewarewa Forest a very worthwhile hiking destination. Below, some photos from my weekend outing to the forest.

Travel companion Sarah patiently waits for the shutter to close.

Closeup of a mature California redwood. Because of the high humidity in New Zealand, these trees don’t bear the scars of forest fires so often seen in California.

HDR image of a stand of redwoods.

A cluster of redwoods reaching for the sky.

I get my best ideas at night. And not just in the evening: I actually wake up at 3 a.m., suddenly wired, head buzzing with thoughts of new creative projects, or solutions to gnarly work problems, or the perfect comeback for a snarky remark someone made twelve hours ago. Unfortunately, I can never remember any of it in the morning. So when inspiration strikes, I need to get things externalized, pronto.

To this end, I have always kept a Moleskine notebook and a pen by my bedside. All ideas get written down, graphed, or illustrated—often in the dark—so I can go back to sleep, mind at rest. But I’m pretty calligraphically challenged at the best of times, and the fact that I’ve jotted something down in the middle of the night doesn’t mean I’ll be able to read it in the morning.

So when Apple released version 3.0 of the iPhone OS last month, I was thrilled to discover the new Voice Memos application. Voice Memos does away with the note taking altogether, and turns your iPhone into a good old-fashioned dictaphone. Better still, it’s so simple that it can be operated with the limited motor skills and cognitive abilities of someone who has just surfaced from deep sleep.

Here’s how it works: You tap one button to start your recording. You tap another button to stop. And … done! Your thoughts have been preserved for posterity—or at least for the morning. The rest of the interface is made up of an analog volume level indicator and a very large image of a microphone to look at while talking. There is also a list of saved recordings, with basic playback and editing features. It’s just enough to be functional; no less, no more.

My only complaint? The input levels are a bit low, so you have to hold the phone close for audible recordings. That, and you have to suffer through the embarrassment of listening to your own voice. Still, it gets the job done. And it sure beats getting your pen and paper out to scrawl unintelligible notes to yourself in the dark. So if you haven’t yet upgraded to iPhone OS 3.0, and you remain unconvinced by all the marketing hype about copy & paste, MMS and Spotlight Search, perhaps Voice Memos is the killer app that will seal the deal?

Voice Memos is included with iPhone OS 3.0, which is a free upgrade for all existing iPhone users. It works on all versions of the iPhone. For a list of other new features, check out Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 page.

Tomorrow, I’ll be packing my camera, flip-flops and snorkeling gear for a short trip to Port Vila. As usual, I expect to have limited access to the marvels of modern communications. Emails and phone calls will probably go unanswered until July 15. But while you wait, here are some tropical island images from Bora Bora, Western Samoa and Fiji’s Yasawa Islands.

On a whim, I teamed up with good friend Sarah and headed down to the Coromandel Peninsula for the weekend. The idea was to do some hiking in the lush Coromandel Forest Park, and maybe circumnavigate the peninsula. But we should probably have checked the weather forecast first: The lady at the Coromandel Department of Conservation office shook her head and pointed to a whiteboard with ominous-looking radar images and heavy rain warnings.

So instead, we did a couple of short forest walks, and marveled at the pea soup that blanketed much of the area for the entire weekend. Below are some snapshots from the trip.

A hiking trail winds through dense native forest, packed with tree ferns.

Carefully crafted steps on a hiking trail in the Coromandel Forest Park.

Typical Coromandel vegetation: Lush, green, dense and varied.

Sarah takes a break to get her hair under control.

With summer heating up in North America and Europe, this is a time when avid skiers and snowboarders are starting to suffer some serious withdrawal symptoms: The season ended months ago, and it’ll be months before the snow starts falling again. There may be hiking, or mountain biking, or even indoor skiing on hand, but frankly, it’s just not the same. For anyone who can’t wait to get a proper fix, the snow in New Zealand’s stunning Tongariro National Park beckons.

Located smack in the middle of New Zealand’s North Island, Tongariro National Park sports a trio of active volcanoes: Flat-topped Tongariro, cone-shaped Ngauruhoe and towering Ruapehu. New Zealand’s two largest ski areas—Turoa and Whakapapa—occupy the slopes of Mount Ruapehu. The season here runs from July to October. During the first few months, the weather can be unpredictable and the trails tend to be hard-packed and icy. But as New Zealand’s spring approaches, the fierce sun turns the snow into a grainy slush, which makes for fantastic backcountry riding. In a good year, the ski areas open for summer skiing as late as December, and the snow gets progressively more buttery, until the ski season segues perfectly into the surf season.

More than anything, though, skiing in Tongariro National Park is about the nature experience. In winter, the rugged, volcanic landscape around Mount Ruapehu’s peak softens out into swooping ridges and smooth bowls. Both ski areas offer expansive views of New Zealand’s North Island, and intrepid riders can hike to 9177ft Tahurangi Peak for glacier skiing and plenty of crisp, fresh air. Even the access roads are beautiful, winding first through lush, native forest packed with ancient trees and giant tree ferns, then a barren landscape of black, jagged boulders—some of which were launched from the crater during volcanic eruptions.

I’ve spent several seasons skiing in Tongariro National Park, and I’m in love with the altitude, the wide vistas, the soft spring snow and the unique terrain of a living, breathing volcano. It’s a remarkable place to experience, and for travelers from the Northern Hemisphere, the chance to do some off-season skiing is icing on the cake.

For ski area information, trail maps, weather reports, volcano safety guidelines and more, visit the Mount Ruapehu website. And for additional photos, check out the Mount Ruapehu gallery.

High Dynamic Range photography, it seems, is still considered a bit of a novelty. That’s a shame. The technique has uses far beyond creating surreal, painterly images for the Flickr HDR Pool. And if you’re a travel photographer, it has double appeal: It allows you to take photos on the road, in impossible lighting conditions, with absolutely no extra gear required. (Nope, not even a tripod!) The only catch? Tedious post-processing.

These days, Photoshop has support for merging multiple exposures. And there are a number of third party applications available for the same purpose. But that still requires a round trip out of your favorite photo management application, which, with my limited attention span, I find highly disruptive. Creating HDR images shouldn’t be any harder than doing regular RAW processing in Aperture. And now, thanks to the Photomatix HDR Tone Mapping Aperture plugin, it isn’t.

Here’s how it works: I found a gorgeous tomb in Buenos Aires’ venerable necropolis—the Cementerio de la Recoleta. Because the necropolis is arranged in a north-south direction, noon is a great time to take photos, with hard but symmetrical lighting. For this shot, I wanted the sun in the frame, hidden behind the cross on the roof. I also wanted the tombs in the background well lit to add depth, while properly exposing the main subject. As you can see below, the automatic exposure on my trusty old 20D was not quite up to the job.

To create an HDR image, I shot two more frames, overexposed and underexposed by two stops. A tripod helps at this point, to make sure the images are perfectly aligned. But I’m not a fan of lugging one around, so all three frames were taken handheld. A handy tip here is to use continuous drive, to grab all frames in quick succession and minimize the alignment errors between them.

Back in New Zealand, I selected all three images in Aperture and fired them up in the HDR plugin. If you haven’t used a tripod, the plugin will align the images. It also offers to reduce chromatic aberration, which can be handy in high contrast images like this one. I found that the plugin generally does a great job of the alignment, but not so much of the chromatic aberration. More on that below.

Next up, the actual tone mapping. If you are the impatient sort, the Photomatix default settings do a pretty good job of many scenes. But you can probably get a much better result by making some small adjustments. If there’s a lot of blue sky involved, for example, I like to dial down the “Saturation Highlights” a bit. This keeps the blues from getting too overpowering. For the tomb, I also reduced the “Microcontrast” and increased the “Micro-smoothing” to achieve more natural texture detail in the stonework. As always, experimentation is the best way to learn about the various settings: Crank the sliders up and down to their extreme values to see what effect each parameter may have on your image.

At this point, I was pretty happy with the result, so I clicked Save and let the plugin generate the blended image. However, taking the loupe to the end result, it was immediately obvious that I had to do something about color fringing. Even with chromatic aberration correction enabled, many of the high contrast edges had cyan and magenta halos. In this case, I was lucky: Because the tomb itself was almost gray, I could use the Color brick in Aperture to select first the cyan, then the magenta areas, and fully desaturate both. To finish off, I also added a small amount of saturation to the stonework, lightened up the shadows, and added a very subtle vignette.

That’s it! From raw footage to fully processed HDR image in less than two minutes—plus travel time to Argentina.

The Photomatix plugin does have a few glitches. In particular, resizing the user interface can wreak havoc with the controls, and even make some of them inaccessible. And I’d like much better control over the preview image, which is currently of limited use for making detailed adjustments. But this is more than made up for by seamless Aperture integration, easy-to-use tone mapping controls, and great results.

HDR photography may get a bad rap for being overly gimmicky. But it allows you to get usable shots in difficult lighting conditions, at very low cost and with a minimum of hassle. And perhaps with an Aperture plugin now available, more photographers will add this useful imaging technique to their bag of tricks.

The Photomatix Aperture plugin is available from HDRsoft for $79. There is also a Lightroom version available, as well as a standalone application. And if you’re not ready to pony up the cash just yet, you can download a fully functional trial version and take it for a spin.

As you can see, peciva.com has had a slight upgrade. (Reading the news feed? Take the site for a spin.) Among the improvements: Integrated photo galleries, integrated Twitter feed, and much less blue and orange.

A few things to look out for: In the new Photography section, you can now hit the “View Slideshow” link in any Gallery to enjoy higher resolution images. If you know what you’re looking for, you can Search for specific images. And if you’re an image buyer, you can now sign up for a free PhotoShelter account, create lightboxes and purchase rights managed licenses, all without leaving the site.

For the blog, the new widescreen format should allow for bigger photos and better formatting of content. The idea is to publish slightly beefier blog posts, while moving the quick updates to Twitter. Don’t have a Twitter profile? No problem: My Twitter feed will also appear on Facebook, and in the sidebar on all blog and Archive pages.

That’s just about it. Take the new site for a spin, and please let me know what you think!

Oh, and the photo shows a rugged section of the Andes, halfway between Santiago and Mendoza.

Yes, yes and yes: Starting now, all new photo galleries will be hosted by the good folks over at PhotoShelter.

Go on: Check it out! Browse my galleries in a browser of your choice. Click the Slideshow link for gorgeous fullscreen slideshows. And by all means, go ahead and purchase a few rights managed licenses for your commercial or editorial project.

For now, there are two galleries available. However, I’m working to move all my galleries to PhotoShelter over the next few weeks. Over time, I will also be adding lots of new content that has not yet been published anywhere. So watch this space for updates—or just subscribe to my PhotoShelter RSS feed. Did I mention they have RSS feeds?

Any comments or suggestions about the new gallery solution? I’d love to hear from you.