Histograms

Some histogram images from my ebook.

Lens apertures from my ebook.

Aperture depth of field and shutter speed relationship.

Some images from my ebook.

50mm F1.8 lens at various apertures.

Some images from my ebook. 

Valuebasket Buyer Beware! They are not local even if their site suggests so.

Update: The money for customs was refunded to my account almost immediately after copying and pasting this blog to their facebook page several times. Within half an hour of sending them a link to this blog I had a phone call from support to arrange the refund. Mission accomplished, but I wonder how many others have got their refunds?
I decided to let others know of my experience with the company. The site I visited I thought was local www.valuebasket.co.nz . A friend had bought two lenses from them over a few months with no issues except perhaps delivery taking a bit longer than expected.
I decided to take the plunge and bought two lenses for my Nikon at good prices - that's where I stop using the word "good".
After two weeks I got impatient and told them I was tired of waiting and wanted my lenses as soon as possible. A few days later I got a letter from New Zealand customs stating that some items I ordered were being held because they had false declarations on them and were listed as "samples".
I contacted valuebasket who kept reassuring me with suggary words that everything would be sorted out and thanking me for my patience and co-operation.
Eventually to cut a long story short they advised me that New Zealand customs would not allow them to make the payment of $137 required to clear the items and that I would have to pay it and then I would be "promptly refunded"
Of course I had serious doubts about that but knew I would not see the lenses otherwise.
Since then I have been contacting them and supplying invoices from customs, a receipt for my payment and asking when I get my refund.
The latest email confirmed that I will never see my money:
"I have just received an update from our relevant department, and they are asking if you could like provide a 2 separate invoices for the 2 lenses so we can refund each customs fees separately."
Two separate invoices for them to pay me the one amount I paid for both lenses? I know how this is going to end, they will insist that is the only way they can refund me, for some unknown and unexplained reason, and even if I do get two separate invoices they will find another way to frustrate my attempts knowing that eventually I will tire of asking and give up on them.
Of course if they do finally refund me I will change the ending of this blog but until then "Buyer Beware" Valuebasket will take your money and once they have it they will leave it up to luck as to whether you ever see the item or not and will not honour their listed price if other unplanned costs come up. Here are some of their flowery responses to my complaints:

"Thank you for your patience whilst awaiting the arrival of your goods.

I can confirm that your order has been shipped as of June 05. We understand that the cause of the delay is due to routine customs clearance check. This is not uncommon for international deliveries but did catch us off guard hence this slightly belated email.

For a timely release and resolution, we suggest if it's possible that you pay the customs fee first. We will reimburse you of the equivalent amount once a copy of the paid charges has been provided. We would like to offer you a free 3 in 1 cleaning kit. We appreciate this is just a small gesture given the inconvenience but we hope it goes some way in restoring your confidence in our services.

Note that we are actively working with our courier to ensure no further delays are incurred. We apologize for any inconvenience caused as a result of this routine check.

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

We are keeping active tabs on the situation. However, NZ customs would not allow us to pay for the fees.

I'm afraid that you would need to call NZ customs and ask for the invoice for both of your orders with us. Afterwhich, the fees should be paid first before the parcels gets released. This is not uncommon for international deliveries but did catch us off guard hence this slightly belated email.

For a timely release and resolution, we suggest if it's possible that you pay the customs fee first. We will reimburse you of the equivalent amount once a copy of the paid charges has been provided.

We are mindful of the impact this is having to you and are so very sorry for the inconvenience caused. 

Thanks for getting back to us.

We will look forward to hearing from you soon.

We apologize for the inconveniences.

Thanks for getting back to us.

Please confirm if you have paid this fee?

We do hope this is not of much inconvenience and look forward to hear from you soon.

Thanks for getting back to us.

I have already forwarded your concern to our relevant department. Once we got an update, will certainly notify you through email. Please be assured that we will reimburse it to you immediately.

In the meantime, should you have any further queries, do not hesitate to let me know. I will do my utmost best to assist you. 

Thanks for getting back to us.

Can you kindly confirm if this is for Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G Lens or for Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II LD Lens A16 (Nikon Mount)?

We do hope this is not of much inconvenience and look forward to hear from you soon.

Thank you for getting back to us.

I have referred your concern to our relevant department. Please allow us at least 1 working day to resolve this issue.

Meanwhile, please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any further clarification. 

Once again, your cooperation with this would be greatly appreciated. Should there be any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Thanks for getting back.

I have just received an update from our relevant department, and they are asking if you could like provide a 2 separate invoices for the 2 lenses so we can refund each customs fees separately.

I do apologize for the inconvenience caused.

We do hope this is not of much inconvenience and look forward to hear from you soon."

Keywords: scam, value, basket, valuebasket, buyer, beware, ripped off, fake, www.valuebasket.co.nz.

Another attempt at water balloons: This time I am trying to be more creative since I do tend to miss out on a lot of opportunites to be creative when I get engrossed in the science of the project I am working on. We have a very useful "batcave" under our house that is nice and dark and has soil for a floor so it doesn't matter what falls on it. This is my new 'studio' for water balloon photography :) That's the garage floor up above and a solid earth bank for the air rifle pellets to go into.

To add another element to the bursting balloons I decided to compare them to fruit. I got a glass display stand on sale and added some fruit from the wife's kitchen. Since these were going to be the test photos I didn't care too much about perfection. I had the camera on a tripod set at iso 100, F9 and 2 seconds exposure which gives me a pitch black background while the light from the flashes is all that illuminates the subject. I couldn't believe that I missed three times in a row at first. I would aim the air rifle with the laser pointer, hold it steady, press the shutter release, and then fire but I was so worried about hitting the glass display that each time the pellet just went above the balloon.

The one flash is fired by the sound activated flash trigger as shown on my blog, the other flash uses its optic sensor to fire when that one fires.

 Eventually I hit it but still too high which is not the effect I was looking for. Also the SB26 flash on the left kept going to sleep even though it wasn't in standby mode - I use older flashes for these experiments when water is flying eveywhere :) The subject was only lit from the right here and after reviewing the first 4 images on computer I realized it was blowing the highlights.

The next shot was also a bit high but the microphone was a bit further away so the balloon was totally gone when the flash fired.

My aim was improving, the mic was adjusted to the right position but I still shot high in the next shot once again while worrying about the glass display stand. Once again it was lucky I missed because the left flash had gone to sleep again. This taught me to do a practice 'clap' before each shot to make sure it was awake.

Another shot... they are starting to improve.

Here is the scene shown at wide angle. I found a can of air freshener and put a hole through it before filling some more balloons.

After filling some more balloons I went back to shooting too high again.

The beauty of this kind of photography is that you never really know what you are going to get - occasionally you get a mental image of it when the flash goes off and then there is the adrenalin rush when you realize you saw a decent split but not on this shot, though it did look interesting.

At this point I decided I had been too cautious and was not getting the results I wanted and determined that if I hit the glass then so be it - things improved from here.
I do need to remember to take a little more time to clean up between shots, and also get better looking fruit because that banana was very soggy and a bit green inside after getting blown off the stand each time by a water balloon bursting.

So, mental note to myself for next shoot: There is no point in spending two hours setting things up only to get 80% of the results I wanted when another 30 seconds of cleaning could make 20% difference to the shot.

Well the batcave is all set up now and I've ordered another 100 balloons so it's time to see what I can do with water balloons and perhaps throw in a bit of superspeed photography so see what I can accomplish :)

A few from Sunday afternoon, the next day.

Some of my work on National Geographic blog.