Welcome to Michael Andrew’s Blog!

Photographer Justin Ng lives in one of the most light polluted cities in the world; Singapore. So how does he get such awesome images of the Milky Way? Well he shares just how he does it in a in a very cool tutorial. If you're like me and have always dreamed of photographing the beautiful night sky but maybe live in a busy city this tutorial is wonderful. He also included links to a simple app he made to locate the Milky Way if you can't see it with the naked eye. Follow this link to check it out.

In an extremely frustrating situation, a woman in Florida had her Nikon D3200 stolen out of her minivan. With the help of authorities she was able to track it down. However, the pawn shop that has it refuses to give the camera back to the rightful owner. They maintain that they legally do not have to return it to herd until an arrest of the man who sold it to them is made. Check out the video below.

[Source]

Digital Rev is know not only for his photography expertise but also for his great sense of humor. He kind of knocks it out of the park with this one. I'm sure many photo enthusiasts can relate to his list of '10 Things Non-Photo People Do That Annoy the Crap Out of Photo Enthusiasts'. Check it out below for a good laugh. [Source]

Been getting a lot of questions on how I am recording 4K video out of the Sony a7s. A few viewers even suggested it was not possible. Well, here it is: The Aja Ki Po Quad is impressive for what it does, but it is a little expensive and will be obsolete in about 2 months with the Atomos Shogun being released. Thank you to Bhphoto.com for sponsoring this test, and for the engineers at Black Magic and Aja Ki to help me figure this out!

Technology is improving our lives on a daily basis. Here's yet another product that has true potential in personal defense. The Defender is not only a pepper spray can it's also a camera. You can defend yourself against an attacker, snap a picture, and send to authorities all in one small device. Check out their promo below. The Defender - The First Smart Personal Protection System from The Defender on Vimeo.

Being that I've been able to pull 4K footage out of the Sony a7s I have been getting a lot of questions about how it performs in certain ways. One of those questions was in regards to moire, so we decided to record 4K out of both the A7s and the Panasonic GH4 and compare the two. In a very interesting result, it appears that the GH4 is strong incredible moire performance (trust me, it is much better coming out of the camera) at 4k and very poor performance at 1080. The Sony is the opposite, showing excellent performance at 1080, and not-as-good performance at 4K. The take home message here is that you could shoot at 4K on the GH4 and down sample in post and you will probably be ok. If you have a Sony and are shooting for a 1080 final product, it would make more sense to shoot at that resolution. A huge thank you to Bhphoto.com that made this test possible! My GH4 Crash Course Tutorial Training Video is already available, and the Sony A7s Crash Course is now under production, it should be ready in about 2-3 weeks.

Happy to announce that the Sony a7s Tutorial Training Video is well into production and we are expecting a mid to late August 2014 release for the download with the DVD coming about 2 weeks later. The video will be primarily aimed at new and intermediate photographers who might struggle with the Sony mirrorless camera. I have been shooting with the Sony A7s since it's release and want to tell you: it can do things with an image that I have never seen before , really truly astonishing ISO and low light performance. It can expose images at least 3-4 stops beyond what a human can see with the naked eye. Here is the cover we have selected for now (its possible it can change right before the release date):

We will be posting updates on the blog as well as my Instagram and FB pages about how the production is going and will update this page as soon as it is finished.

Here's another slick new gadget for the home; Sense. This aesthetically pleasing little device tracks one of the most important things you spend 1/3 of your life doing; sleep. After a night's sleep we all know how great or horrible we feel but what if you could know why. The little ceramic looking white sphere with a pretty cutout design tracks the essential causes of what makes for a good night's rest. It will glow a warm green when conditions are perfect for sleep. More importantly it can report to what what right, or wrong, via your smart phone. At 3:45 AM your neighbor pulled in their driveway and woke you. There was a high pollen count in the room. Somebody turned the bathroom light on. All of this and more is tracked to help you take action toward getting the possible rest each night. They've already smashed their Kickstarter goal but you can check out the promo below and decide if you want to contribute.