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2000 Thought of the Month Archives |
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SHOOT!The best teacher is experience itself and the best way to gain experience is to be out behind the camera. This means shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot and shoot some more until there is nothing left. Want to get revved up about photography? Go take some great images. Want to learn what's the best lens or film? Go take some great images. Want to expand your files or capture a new critter on film? Go take some great images. Want to learn is the advise other photographers is any good? Got out and shoot and find out for yourself who's giving you the straight poop! A lot of time is spent discussing photography when more time should be spent actually on photography! That goes for me as well. I spend way too much time behind a computer and not out working on my craft. And my family can tell you when I've not been behind the camera for a couple of days, I'm a grumpy person to put it nicely. The only way I am able to generate the pages of this web site, the BT Journal, books and articles is from being behind the camera. Life's experiences and those obtained when behind the camera are what I learn from and write about. I'm not unique or special, every photographer can learn the same way. And if photographers share what they learn, we can all learn, grow and become better photographers, better communicators! The best piece of advise I was ever given about photography I'm going to pass on to you. SHOOT! TIME!The only time you make money is when you are behind the camera. You have nothing to write about, publish, print, talk about or show in a slide show without that image! This concept is what I stress to all those who participate in our weekend marketing seminar. This very important principle I hold myself to all the time! This is the main reason I'm in the field as much as I can be, why I don't answer most emails happily when the answers are all ready on our web site TIME! You could take this principle and tone it down a step for those who are not in business. The only time you learn and better your photography is when you are behind the camera. You have nothing to learn from without that image! I truly realize that many photographers have a very limited budget and so, rely on others especially when buying lenses. And nobody wants to reinvent the wheel. And there are many opinions floating about out there including mine. But it seems to me that a lot of time is wasted on opinions and concepts. In all honesty, isn't the proof in the pudding? If you can't see the original image taken by a person testing a piece of equipment or film, isn't the test invalid? There are so many variables, how do you know the tester knows what they are doing or, that the variables for the tester are the same as yours? The images you see on your computer monitor are by no means a valid means of judging the quality of a lens or anything else. I'm not taking aim at anyone or anything, but rather, trying to rattle the cages of photographers to spend more time behind the camera! If for no other reason than a very selfish one. There is no way in my lifetime I will be able to experience a fraction of what this grand world has to share with me. I DEPEND on the experiences and photography of others to entertain and enlighten me about these wonders I will never personally experience. But if photographers do nothing but debate what's the best brand or what's the sharpest film or lens, I'm missing out! TIME, it's a very precious gift. Just ask someone who has had a loved one pass away, they can tell you. I'm challenging you all to share with me what I can't see, or photograph. Get out and take those images, write the articles and share with me and the world the grandeur that belongs to us all! NeighborsI'm just back from a really fun and cool personal appearance at Camera Mart (a really cool camera store) in Pontiac MI. I truly enjoyed working with the staff at Camera Mart and meeting and talking with their customers who kept me busy as well as entertained. Upon first arriving and setting up to present my multimedia show on wildlife photography, one of the attendees promptly said, "there is no wildlife around here to photograph." And just minutes latter, another attendee said, "there's tons of wildlife to photograph around here." To say I was a little confused was an understatement. So, I asked the store manager at Camera Mart. The store manager told me in a matter of moments a number of places I could go shoot at within minutes of the store. One locale, Kensington Park sounded like a killer of a spot I want to go back to and work personally. But my point is this, it seems to me that many photographers don't rely on their neighborhood camera stores like they should. I know, the locale camera store doesn't have what you want in stock, or, they cost more than buying stuff mail order. Or, and the one that burns me is, "they don't know nothin!" With my background as camera store clerk, I think the resources the local camera store can provide goes way beyond simply providing camera gear. Sure, there are some jerk water stores out there, but there are also some killer ones like Camera Mart where folks can provide you the service you require to achieve the greatest success from you photography. I can think of fifty+ stores around the country really quickly who are top knot, great stores! When I say service, I'm not just talking about providing gear, but helpful information on lots of things including ideas of where to go shoot. Let's face it, if you had all the answers you wouldn't be reading this, you'd be writing it. And I know that I had two questions when I walked into Camera Mart and I left with then both answered with new goodies in my case. If you think you have all the answers, you'll never make it in photography. You get what you pay for in this world, and if you want to improve your photography, which requires more than just buying bodies, lenses and film, you need to visit and get to know you the folks at your local camera store. I think you'll find they have a lot more to offer you than just a price! Thanks Camera Mart! IS - Is It?I can't tell you if the new Canon IS in their long lenses is the greatest thing since sliced bread as I've never used it. I can tell you I hope Nikon never comes out with such a marketing gimmick because it really makes photographers look really silly. Since I've never used this technology in binoculars or lenses, let me explain why I say this. The purpose behind IS technology as I understand it, is to "stabilize" or freeze the image that might otherwise be moving because of photographer movement. IS does not stop subject movement, but neutralizes and movement in the lens/camera created by the photographer in the process of taking the photograph. Naturally, this movement is seen the most and causes the majority of problems at slower shutter speeds (the same time when subject movement makes trouble). So IS technology is making up for bad technique, is it not? It's fixing pilot error as I like to say. What pilot error you ask? Proper Long Lens technique - it is a simple technique that's been around since the days of the very first telephoto, a technique I stress all the time for capturing tack sharp images. This is where one rests their hand on the top of the lens barrel (when using long lenses on a tripod) just like you rest your lens on your lap. At the same time using an eyecup, you press against it when shooting. That's it! A technique known to lenses designers since they put the focusing ring at the correct physical locale for this technique, is all it takes to minimize or eliminate any movement created by the action of taking a photo. Now this is a technique you must practice, practice those days when you're shooting and those days you're not so it's second nature. This technique is what I and thousands of other photographers have been using to capture tack sharp images without IS technology for decades (there has been sharp images prior to IS). Now though, you have the option to spend the money if you don't want to do this, to upgrade or switch brands to own Canon IS. It's up to you! Can I point out one other small point of IS many seem to be overlooking, metering! Lets say that I'm all wrong about IS and it is the only thing that can capture sharp images, what about correctly exposing for that sharp image? Sorry, but there is still nothing out there as accurate all the time for exposure as the F5! I shoot with many a pro who shoots Canon and I know for a fact the hoops they must jump through to get the right exposure, hoops I don't even see shooting with the F5. It's a heck of a lot easier to concentrate on proper long lens technique then figuring out exposure, at least for me it is. There is a reason to buy the new Canon 600f4 IS and it has nothing to do with IS. The new 600f4 IS as I remember it, weighs a couple of pounds less and more importantly, focuses three feet closer. Now that's a reason to buy the lens IMHO! Now if you own IS and it works for you, then what I have to say here doesn't matter one hoot, does it! (& don't write to tell me otherwise, please) All I've put forth here is my two cents worth and as long as I have the images to back what I have said, I don't see my changing my mind anytime soon. It seems to me that wildlife photographers are all too eager to jump on the new to solve problems when they can make all the difference in the world in their photography having the best possible tool behind the camera, the photographer! Happy Holidays to one and all around the globe! May the new year bring with it all the dreams your imagination can conjure, and may they come true! Drivers WantedHere's the scoop, drivers wanted! I'm not looking for drivers for a safari, not even for a delivery van, what I'm looking for are those photographers not willing to be passengers anymore but take over the driver's seat! What bug have I got now you ask? I just saw a Volkswagen commercial (no, I don't see much TV) where they suggest that they are looking for folks not wanting the normal drive, who don't want to just see the scenery pass by, or even go by the beat of the common drum. They want more, I want more! I'd love to see a photo manufacture say the same thing in big print, PHOTOGRAPHERS WANTED! I don't know about the rest of the world, but I love a challenge! I love the learning process that goes on in pursuit of that challenge and I love seeing when the images are back from the lab at just how well I succeed in chasing that challenge. That's the kind of photographers we need, I want you to be! What got me started was just seeing in a national publication the 10,000th article on shutter speeds and f/stop! Oh man, when will they get some new material! Yes, I understand that, and bless them, new photographers get sucked in, I mean romantically enthralled with photography. We need all the new blood we can get and these folks just starting out need these basics to get going. But the number of newbees compared to seasoned photographers going on their second lens is a huge gap. And as you add another lens to the camera bag, the gap keeps growing. What all of us who understand what a f/stop and shutter are craving I think are real, sink your teeth into, make you want to run out and shoot at midnight in a blizzard, articles on photography. But why isn't that what we're getting a vast majority of the time? May be for one, as consumers, we're not demanding such information. May be that as consumers, we're not even aware that such information exists (you should check out our BT Journal). Where does such material come from in the first place (and why isn't coming from you)? It comes quite honestly from only those photographers who are constantly out shooting. I'm not talking about shooting some resolution chart to do a lens test, but out in the field in real life situations solving the problems to be an effective communicator. I receive probably twenty or more emails a week with one central question, "where do I come up with all the new material I write about all the time?" It comes from my constantly shooting, and shooting and shooting. For example, I stated today at 4am, driving to a special place for sunrise, shooting with my new filter and D1 doing some exploration, returning to the office at 11:30 to look at my results. Just that short time in the field, I learned something new that will appear shortly in the Winter Issue of the BT Journal. It takes really that little, or should I say, that much to learn. I'd really love it if folks could take all the information that's available on this web site, make use of that which pertains to their photography and then become so prolific that they don't need to ask me which lens is better, or which brand is better. Not so they stop bugging me with the like, but so they have the knowledge and confidence to demand only the best. Demand the best of other photographers by challenging them to create a better image. Demand the best of editors to present materials that challenge and inspire us all to go out and shoot. In short, Drivers Wanted! Keep It Clean!In this day and age of prevalent electronics in our cameras and lenses, keeping our gear clean takes on a whole new importance. In the good old days (seems like a few weeks ago) all we had to worry about were the front elements of our camera's, but now we have a ton of electrical "things" we really need to stay on top of in order to capture the image when we press the shutter release. There's nothing worse than to be out shooting in the sun, having just smeared yourself with sun block, and then to accidentally touch the front element of your lens. Yuck!!! This greasy smear can ruin a perfectly good shooting day! One method I've always recommended for cleaning front elements, fogging it with one's breath, doesn't cut the goo factor of sunblock or even basic skin oils. Well unless you want to shoot through a fog effect filter all day, you've got to clean that junk off and not damage the glass. I ran into this problem all too often a two decades ago. An outstanding repairman and technical advisor to my book, Nikon System Handbook, introduced me to a magical pink fluid when I first brought him my mess. It worked so well I asked for some of what he called, his "secret sauce". That liquid gold has cleaned my worst messes for a decade and as a wildlife photographer, I couldn't imagine using anything else to get the great outdoors off my equipment (it's cleaned everything from sap off the front element to sticky adhesive off a lens barrel). The precious fluid that cleans up my act is called Lens Clens. What makes this lens cleaning solution so good? Heck if I know! The chemical components making up the magical pink fluid is a mystery (actually a trade secret), but the results are not. The high evaporation rate and zero residue of Lens Clens makes it the perfect lens cleaning fluid. More importantly, it's perfectly safe for the multi-coatings of our precious lenses. The other lens cleaning fluids I've tried tend to either just move the mess around the glass or worse, leave their own film to be wiped off by some other means. I've tried many different lens cleaning fluids in a pinch, but for the past ten years Lens Clens has been the one I depend on. The cleaning of lens elements seems to be a constant process when you're out in the field. Usually left out of the cleaning process, but just as important, is the camera body and all other equipment surfaces subjected to the natural oils of our hands (especially when we've cornered that great photograph and the adrenaline starts running) smear across their metallic surfaces. More important than ever with modern electronic cameras, these surfaces need to be kept clean. An important and effective method to keeping all these surfaces clean and operational can be maintained with Lens Clens. At the end of each shooting day, I believe cameras and lenses that were used should be cleaned. The oils from our hands (with or without sunblock) leave an oily film on our equipment. If not wiped off, this oil will attract and adhere dust to our equipment. This in turn will work its way into our camera gear in the form of oily dirt that can potentially cause shorts in our electronics or large dust spots on the internal surfaces of elements in lenses. Either case means repair bills and lost shooting time which could have been prevented. The process starts with the dirty equipment. No matter what's used, you want to avoid having to clean the front element, as often as possible. It's going to need cleaning enough without you doing it every time you shoot. If a simple burst of air doesn't clean off the element and there's a finger print (now how did that get on there?) or other stain on the surface, a drop of Lens Clens will do the trick. A drop of Lens Clens on lens tissue wiped in a circular motion, working from the center of the element out, will clean off the worst stain. The last thing you want to do is place the liquid lens cleaner directly on the lens element. Not that the liquid will hurt the surface, but you want to avoid the possibility that liquid will run down into the internal workings of the lens or camera. Lens Clens comes in a 1-3/4 ounce spray bottle that puts a controlled amount of solution on a surface. But as long as Murphy is always around, it's better to be safe than sorry. When it comes to lens care, cleaning the front element is only the start, not the finish. All the surfaces of the lens barrel are subject to being smeared with the oils from our hands. To see if I'm telling the truth, put a small amount of Lens Clens on a clean, white, cotton cloth and rub the focusing ring of your lens. I did this recently at a workshop and the mouths of the participants as they dropped tells of the results. Receiving an unproportionate amount of skin oils is the camera body itself. The grip, shutter release and camera back receive the brunt of this oil slick. These areas are critical areas to get clean as dust attracted to them soon migrates into the workings of the camera itself. Once again, a couple drops of Lens Clens on a clean, white, cotton cloth rubbed around the entire body will reveal the worth of your efforts. The camera back itself is a major area to keep clean as dirt from it often migrates onto the film back and opened camera, then transferring to the film and causing scratches. Lens Clens was developed twenty years ago for cleaning of optics in their own manufacturing process. It's nothing new to thousands of professionals in the optical business, just new to the user of those optics. They manufacture four different formulas of Lens Clens; I use No.1 though not recommended for use on plastic. A 1-3/4 ounce bottle sells for just $4.35 and lasts a long time (years!). (The government charges a HAZMAT tax on shipping, minimum of $7.00, so you might want to order with friends to help defray the cost.) They also produce cleaning kits called Clens KitT. For more information on this lifesaving (and equipment saving) product, write: General Production Services, 883 S. East Street, Anaheim, CA, 92805 or call (714) 535-2271. One last piece of cleaning advice and it concerns just the D1. The CCD in the D1 can get dust on it and this translates into dark fuzzies in your photograph. Read very carefully your D1 instruction book on how to take care of this, it is very, very important unless you want to spend a lot of time in Photoshop removing dark splotchies! If you take good care of your equipment, it will take good care of you! The PolarizerWith thousands of Moose filters out there in the wilds of world in use, I'm receiving more and more emails about how to exactly use the Moose Filter, or more correctly, how to use a polarizer. Let me explain how I use a polarizer so you might better understand and use this important tool. The Polarizer is a tool to remove reflections, not create blue skies! In old Nikon catalogs, they would demonstrate the polarizer by showing a photo of a store front window with a reflection in it and then apply the polarizer to remove the reflection in the next shot. The most common reflection wildlife and nature photographers are trying to remove is the blue from the sky which is reflected on our subject. While our eye might not see this, are film sure does! This blue tint mutes the colors that we want to capture which is why we need the polarizer. Well if we can't see the blue, how do we know when we've removed it with a polarizer? When I'm using a polarizer, what I do is look at the ground and find something brown, such as dirt. I then rotate the polarizer until the brown becomes a rich, chocolate moose brown. Then I know I've removed the blue from the scene. I don't look at the sky and turn the polarizer until it's blue. And when you've proper removed the blue reflection, the sky doesn't necessarily go darker. When I have the drop-in Nikon polarizer in my long lens, I look at just the subject and rotate the polarizer until it's blue. I don't use a polarizer with birds, just mammals so there is always brown to be found as a visual clue I've polarized correctly. The polarizer is a thing of physics, which means it will work on surfaces that are 90 degrees to the film plane. If photographing a field of grass for example, not every blade will be at ninety degrees to the film plane, so not all of the grass will be polarized. If photographing a hillside of aspens in fall color, the same thing. How much you polarize or don't in such situations is a personal taste thing, you're the photographer with the vision, share it with us! Modern camera's TTL meters take care of the exposure compensation needed when attaching a polarizer. I personally dial in +1/3 comp whenever I use a polarizer, not because the meter is being fooled, but because of personal preference. I want the polarizer to just clean up the blue reflection but I don't want that polarized look to my image. SO I dial in +1/3 for that reason. I don't use a hood when I shoot with a polarizer for many reasons. The most obvious is because my fingers can't fit into the hood to rotate the filter. But also, I stopped using hoods a long time ago and learned to look at the front element of my lens and if sun is striking it, I just use my hand to shade the front element. It's just one less thing I have to carry into the field. We received what seems like hundreds of love notes about the Moose Filter and how the polarizer has made such a big difference in the users photography. We're very happy that we came out with a product that helps photographers not only enjoy photography more, but get more out of it. If you want to learn more about the Moose Filter, head for our page. In the meantime, hope this little tip helps you get more out of your polarizer and photography! Traveling with FilmIt's summer, time when most wildlife/nature photographers take those "big" trips somewhere exotic to shoot. I can always tell when trips are close at hand, because my email fills with questions about how to get equipment safely to various points on the globe. If you want info on carry on or how I travel with my gear, please head to the Carry On pages which provides with the info on how I travel. But right now, I just want to talk about traveling with film. I like to travel with as little hassle as possible which is why I ship the vast majority of the film I'm going to shoot to my final locale by Fed Ex. For example, I'm taking off to Nome, AK in a couple of days and I just sent to my motel in Nome 200 rolls of film Fed Ex. Prior to shipping, I call the motel and tell them I'm sending a package. I mark on the outside of the box I'm shipping, "HOLD FOR GUEST." Knock on wood, but I've never had any problems doing this over the past ten years. I always CMA by taking along with me 20-40 rolls of film to get me through a day or two in case the film I've shipped is slow in arriving (but like I said, this have never happen yet). The reason with shipping film is to get it safely and without hassles to my destination. The hassle comes from going through security at the airport. You NEVER check your film, you must carry it on I take with me a Fed Ex airbill, Fed Ex box and processing envelope for my lab because at the end of my trip, I Fed Ex back the exposed film directly to my lab from the airport, I don't carry it back on. If I have more then 20-40 rolls of unexposed film, I will Fed Ex that back to my office. Since all of my hard work and joys is contained inside those metal canisters, I take great care to get it back as safely as I can to my light table Now I only travel within North America so have no experience and so no advise to offer for traveling over seas. Many do it all the time, but I hear plenty of horror stories so if you're heading off to Africa, you'd best do your homework to insure you film arrives, and arrives safely. I wish you all a great summer of exposing lots of frames with great images! Going StraplessSome might think I've gone to the dark side with a title like this, but actually, I spend lots of time there. In all seriousness, getting close to wildlife and using optics to isolate is a very critical elements in wildlife photography as far as I'm concern. Getting close physically is a whole other school of thought and learning that does take time. But there is one simple technique you can do to get closer to subjects especially shy subjects and that's go strapless! Now you guys, get your minds out of the gutter! What I'm referring to are camera and lens straps. You know, the ones you use to hang your camera off your shoulder. What's with the straps and why remove them? Wildlife tend to look for linear line movement, it's how they look for predators. Not that they interrupt this movement in any special way other then to use it to alert them that something is coming, possibly danger. If that thing coming is you and you want to get close physically, you might be shooting yourself in the foot! So, simply remove the camera and lens strap (and dangling cable releases can have the same effect) in so avoiding this possible problem and effect. You might have more linear lines then these two obvious ones as well. If you have chrome tripod legs, those make incredible linear lines. If you're picking up your tripod and moving closer, those three, bright, silver lines might just scare away your subject. If you have arms (I'm assuming you do) and you move them about in the process of changing film or a lens or swatting flies, those too are linear lines that might just keep a shy subject at bay. Learn to move your arms in front of your body rather then the side just to prevent possibly moving your subject away. This isn't earth shattering rocket science. This is simple basic stuff that can, especially with a shy subject, get you in closer to that shot you want. Happy 4th!! Worst Trip Ever!I'm just back from an incredible two trip to Alaska. I spent my first week at my favorite place, Silver Salmon Creek Lodge. It's a marvelous place to photograph grizzly bears up close and personal (it's where I take folks for on safari, we had 19 bears this week) and always rewarding. I then ventured over the second week for my first visit to Brooks Lodge and Brooks Falls. Shooting with my very good friend Kevin, we spent days amongst these salmon fed giants. The first two days of the trip, the sun was out, the salmon were running and the bears were feeding. I shot with the D1 and 400f2.8 AFS most of the time filling up flashcard after flashcard. At night in my tent, I would power up the notebook and download the day's images and see the fun all over again (flashcard space and notebook power took on a whole new meaning this trip). In just a few days, two more gigs of grizzly bears images found home on my hard drive. It was all new, each image a great experience in photographing our wild heritage, that of the grizzly bear. The third day the rain came, the salmon started to slow down and so did the photography . By the forth day, the rain had stopped and so did the salmon, my last trip to the falls, only one bear stood atop the fall in an attempt to catch a jumping salmon. Even though the shutter was not clicking, my mind was as I took in the incredible wonder that was before my eyes. Watching the bears as they negotiated the falls, the salmon and being with each other, the whole spectacle was more then the perceptions could translate. Later that evening, sitting in the lodge reveling in the joys of the week, I heard another photographer flatly say, 'worst trip ever!" I personally wanted to shake the living daylights out of the guy! On that given moment, there were no more then two hundred souls in all of Brooks Camp who could reveal in the wonders of the place! No phones, no TV's only grizzly bears, over fifty of them roaming the forest, river and meadows, to be watched all day if one wanted to stop and just watch. And all the photographer could do is moan because things weren't "picture" perfect for one day. What is it about "the" image the makes some crumble to the point of missing the point all together just how darn lucky we are to be in the wilderness in the first place? Some push the limits in ethics and care of the subject, just for "the" photo. True, our goal is to capture "the" image, but isn't also the fact that we're out in the wilderness and not in an office working? Getting to Brooks Camp is no cheap feat (there'll be on article on this in Nov '00 BT Journal in the future). Those lucky enough to afford such a trip are already way fortunate then most of the public (only 28k made it to Brooks in 1999). To be at Brooks and be able to shoot under perfect conditions to capture "the" perfect image puts them in a small, extremely fortunate group. What does that old bumper sticker say, 'Worst day fishing beats the best day in the office?" Hey, when you apply photography to that saying, it goes hands down! Yea, I want to come back with the great image as much as the next guy. But the amount of time I spend in the field and get skunked is more then the days I hit pay dirt (I know a group who can testify to that). But I'm still thankful for even those days in the field because they are sure better then being in the office in front of this computer writing the tip of the month. My tip of the month is real simple after all this soap box lecture, be thankful and enjoy the time you're in the field, it's a lot more then most folks ever dream of or realize! What's Next!What's next? Subject matter for the eager wildlife photographer, one who wants to capture lots of images, can sometime seem to dry up. The photographer sometimes shoots so much of their own backyard, they can't see past those images. In the business world, this can be the kiss of death when your files are full of the same thing. One other problem is that your photography style, capabilities and abilities don't grow, also a kiss of death. This all feeds on itself and it's one reason why we loose good wildlife photographers who end up hanging up their cameras simply from boredom. I know some of your don't think this could ever happen to you, but I already know some to whom this has happened. Keeping those creative juices flowing, it can be a challenge. When the subjects aren't happening, where can you find new ideas? Well, if you're in the business or not you need to start receiving want lists from photo buyers. You can go about receiving these many ways, but it all starts with you. You can finds these online even. What do these provide you? Well you might get a photo sale out of it, but if you're like me, you use them for photo ideas. Case in point. I've been shooting and camping in the coastal Redwoods for nearly twenty-five years. You would think that I would have that subject pretty well covered by now. Each trip I always explore a new grove but recently there's been calls for a photo from the redwoods I didn't have, but should. In many places in the national and state parks, you can find a redwood round with plaques attached to different growth rings showing different famous dates that occurred during the life of the redwood. I've seen them for years but have never photographed them. I don't know how many sales I've lost lately because I didn't have that photo, but on my recent trip, I was sure to add those images to my files. This simple recognition of a shot I needed came from want lists! This is a very simple example, but it explains what I mean. Receiving want lists, you can see what holes you might have in your own files and might need fill. It gives you subject ideas of photographs you can capture, possibly in your backyard or next trip. It provides you with ideas of what the other guy doesn't have in their files as well since they are looking for that image. These want lists will fuel your idea fire with subjects to go after! The subject could be something you already like doing such as wildlife, or it could turn you on to a totally different area of photography. The goal is to keep your shooting growing, your talent flourishing and your abilities maturing! You don't want your files, especially if you're in the business, to be full of the same dozen faces and places. You must have diversity not only for your business but for your own sanity. Get those want lists and read them not just for the potential sale but for the potential photo idea. Make the question a positive one, what's next!!! Peak of Action!In this day and age of modern electronics taking over photography, there are still a lot of basic concepts that hold true from the dark ages, one of them being Peak of Action. While many folks enjoy great results from them IS or VR technology, I still receive many emails asking why even with this technology being used images are not sharp. And while these technologies might help the untrained shooter hold still, it doesn't do a thing to make the subject hold still. A slow shutter speed is a slow shutter speed. Peak of Action is an old technique for getting a sharp image of a moving subject even when the shutter speed is slow. Peak of Action is best described like this. If you are out bouncing a ball, the ball travels up and down, to and from the ground. As the ball is traveling up, it stops, if just for a mere second, before it starts to travel back down again. This momentary pause is Peak of Action. This momentary stop can be found in many things and critters, if you train yourself to look for it. A bird on the wing has less Peak of Action then saw a Sea Otter floating on the ocean, but they both are governed by this simple law of physics. Taking advantage of this requires looking for and understanding the principle and, not being shy to depress the shutter release. The fact is, by the time we see Peak of Action about to occur, we squeeze off a frame and go on, we've missed the photo, we're just not that fast. Instead, you must learn to anticipate Peak of Action and learn to fire off the shutter just prior to the action itself in order to capture it. With a fast shutter speed, there is no doubt you'll have a sharp image with this technique. And with practice, you'll have the same confidence when shooting at slower shutter speeds. As I've always said, wildlife photography to be successful is a combination of biology and technology, and never forgetting where it is we came from. Some of those "old" techniques work great with our "new" technology. Go make it a good one! |
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which is why you're dealing with security. Getting through security with no hassle just takes a couple of steps. First and foremost, arrive early and with a smile on your face. Present the film (I travel with my film in its canisters but out of the box) in an easy to open container for hand inspection. I use the