I’m Manny, a DFW-local photographer, short-film maker, and family-oriented, Micro-Four Thirds enthusiast. I use website to write about photography, video, and Micro-Four Thirds-related content. If you like any of the articles you see on here, leave me a comment! See you around!

I recently signed-up for a FREE TRIAL for Apple TV+, only to be hit with a charge the next day:

So the first thing that I did was call my credit card company to inform them of the charges. They were concerned about the fraudulent charges and immediately cancelled my credit card! I called Apple the next day and they told me they were legitimate charges!

I have several thoughts about this and here they are in order:

• The email receipt showed that I downloaded 2 iPhone apps… well, here’s a big problem: I’ve never owned an iPhone in my life!
• The 2nd app has some Chinese characters in the name. Isn’t this a dead give-away that these are scam charges?
• When I logged into Apple to view the purchase history, apparently this was a charge from 2017 – SIX YEARS ago!! And why wasn’t a notification sent from Apple – that this was going to happen when I signed up for a FREE TRIAL for Apple TV+ ?
• How did Apple even let these charges get into the account if there was no payment type set up at the time?

Even when I explained to Apple support that I never owned an iPhone device nor would I download Chinese apps, the support rep said the best they could do is submit a “request” for a refund. I mean, they were still trying to charge me and put the ownership on ME to get it refunded! LOL

I brought up that now my credit card was cancelled and it’s a huge hassle and the least they could do is provide one free month of Apple TV+. Nope. You think a company scamming me would give me a free $7.00 worth of service? LOL

So there you have it. The Apple TV+ scam. Buyer beware.

Update: I have my new credit card and I got charged for a full-month of Apple TV+. The refund is still pending.

Okay, so this isn’t a photography or videography post, but I don’t know where else to post about our trips to Mexico over the past couple years.

This was originally supposed to be one trip to the Bahamas at the Atlantis Hotel and Resort, but covid took that away. A year later, after being cooped up in the house, we decided to start traveling. The one Bahamas vacation turned into two vacations to Mexico. The first was to Grand Fiesta in Cancun and the second was Velas Vallarta in Puerto Vallarta. After these two vacations, I was hooked!

After visiting these resorts, I wanted to share my brief review in case others are interested. I’ve ranked them below:

1. Villas del Palmar – excellent food, great gym, great kid club, non-motorized water sports, okay entertainment, good room service
2. Hilton Cancun (all-inclusive) – excellent food, okay gym, great kids splash pad, nice entertainment, rocky beach
3. Grand Fiesta – good food, great gym, great kids club, we went during covid so there was 0 entertainment, great room service
4. Planet Hollywood -huge property, okay food, great gym, didn’t try kids club, good entertainment, nice beach
5. Omni Cancun – small property, good food, good gym, didn’t try kids club, hardly any entertainment, nice beach
6. Velas Vallarta – okay food, cardio room but not a gym, good kid’s club, no entertainment, great room service

If you haven’t done an all-inclusive Cancun vacation, you can’t go wrong with any of these! My favorite out of these is Villas del Palmar. Although if I visited again, I’d skip the all-inclusive package.

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Recently there was a question on Reddit about variable aperture zoom lenses. The answers given were correct, but I wanted to add a bit more details and context.

Question: “So, I’ve noticed that the max and min aperture for my G VARIO 14-42 lens reads f/3.5 – f/5.6. However, when I look at my camera body screen, the f-stop range reads f/4.0 – f/22. Please help explain what I’m getting wrong about the aperture/f-stop.”

Answer:

The f/3.5 – f/5.6 is a variable aperture range and it shows the minimum ranges. As you zoom the lens from 14mm, the minimum aperture (f/3.5) increases until you get to 42mm focal length (f/5.6). You can’t go below that minimum number. You can go larger, but not smaller. So you can go up to f/22, but you can’t go down to f/2.8.

What does the aperture mean: the smaller the f-number, the more light gets to the sensor. The f-number is also referred to as the “f stop”. Physically look down at the lens at f/3.5 and again at f/22. You’ll see the lens opening is smaller at f/22 than at f/3.5. Also, the more light on to your sensor due to lower f-stops, the lower your ISO and faster your shutter can be.

Does this variable aperture happen on all lenses: no. This happens on variable aperture zoom lenses only. There’s also constant aperture zoom lenses like the Lumix 12-35 f/2.8. From 12mm to 35mm, the minimum aperture is f/2.8.

What else? Aperture is also one of the factors when it comes to depth of field. When a photo can produce a blurry background. The other two factors are how close you are to the subject and the distance of background to the subject.

Photography can be a lot of fun, especially when you understand all these factors and apply them creatively to your work. Great to see that you’re on the right path. Keep going!