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2001 Thought of the Month Archives |
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Get out and enjoy, take the camera and be merry!Don't let elements like cold, wind and snow slow you down. Use the passion of photography to heat you up and get the shutter firing! The tip of the month, is to read my article at Vividlight.com, it's all about the Magic of the Season! Get OrganizedI just had one heck of a week, if it could go wrong, it did! No wonder I'm a photographer, I sure ain't an office person! Part of this week involved some other photographers, those wanting to "become professionals." I try whenever I can, to help and encourage folks with this goal because I think, very biasedly, that it's the greatest job in the world. One photographer was a conventional shooter, the other digital. Both I have known for a while and have shot with in the past. They have the images and talent to make it in the business of photography….but…… There is one thing I've been saying for 20 years, "the only time you make money is when you're behind the camera." In other words, shoot, shoot, shoot and when you're done, shoot some more! Anything that prevents you or slows you down from this only takes money out of your pocket if you're in business! So these two photographers conversed with me, one in person and one via email. The first thing I asked both of them was, "how do you have your files organized?" They both asked, "is that really critical at this point?" I asked back, "at what point were you thinking of starting to get organized?" They both had no answer. This is what I explained to them. Without an organization of your images, how will you know what you have to offer a client? More importantly, how can you learn from your own mistakes to improve your own photography? How do you know what you've done well so you can work on other projects to expand your files? How do you know what you've done poorly so you can redo it? How, How, How, How……How? Organization of your files has everything to do with your becoming and being a better photographer more than just being organized! The digital photographer had just switched from the F5 to the D1X and after five months, because he wasn't organized, hadn't figured out that the viewfinder of the D1X was only 96% of the image he was capturing. That meant that all of his images had extra undesired "stuff" in the frame, be it twigs, leaves or empty space. If he had been organized and looking at his images, he would have figured this out! You've got to get your files organized whether you're going into business or not! Be it conventional or digital, the time to start is now! If you're shooting digital, the August issue of the BT Journal has an entire article on organizing your conventional files. If it's digital, there's only one option as far as I'm concerned and that DigitalPro. This is a software that I had creative input on and was engineered by a genius. It just doesn't organize your files, it's fun to use! The tip is this, you want to improve your photography, get organized and learn from you own successes and failures. The time to do it is now! Have FunIt's real simple this month. Have fun, enjoy photography and life, don't stress out over the little things and treasure each moment mother nature brings before your lens! We are So Fortunate!09.11.01 I'm just back from shooting in Alaska for a week, an incredible week of great photography, fishing and fun with five marvelous shooters! There were times when the bears, light and backgrounds lined up in magical proportions for incredible shots. There were times while even though this was not the case, some still celebrated being out in the wilderness of Alaska, unhampered by the pressures of life, by taking all the images their hearts dictated. And there were times when, even though all seemingly was going perfect, equipment failure robbed a photographer of those treasured moments captured with care. The six of us were so fortunate to have that opportunity! Take the time to say a prayer for all those affected by this day's tragedy. Say your thanks for the blessings that have and will come your way. Take each moment with your camera, your vision and passion and make the most of them even if not everything is perfect and take special joy in those moments that are. D1xA new piece of gear is on the market, the D1x and I really like it. You can find my first impressions in a review of the camera here on the web site. And while I make every effort to be as accurate as I can be, all the information doesn't get into my reviews. It doesn't get into anybody's review for that matter for any number of reasons. The first one being, reviewers are human, next is space and the really biggie is time. So where does that leave you, the photographer who lives and breathes by these reviews? If there is one thing that has been pounded into my thick skull, is to use common sense. This is especially true when reading reviews. Let me give you an example. I just wrote a lengthy review of the D1x that appears in the October issue of Petersen's Photographic. Within the 2000 words allotted to me, I squeezed in everything I felt someone needed to understand the D1x (note, I didn't say operational manual listing all the highlights and pitfalls). This review was written after just one week's shooting with the D1x, in June while the article is appearing in October. Do you think by the time the article actually appears, I might have learned more about the D1x that doesn't appear in the article? Or more accurately, can you imagine that some of the more technical things which would take pages of background info to explain, simply are not included? The review is as accurate as I found in one week and has info won't find on my web site, but it's still only 2000 words. Successful photography is the marriage of many components, one of the main ones is the gear you use to capture your images. This is a problem solving venture! We all have our own problems to solve and the way we choose to solve them makes us unique, and our photography unique. In reading a review then of some piece of camera gear, keep in mind that at worst, it is an enlightenment about something new and not the final chapter and verse. With all I've written about the D1 for example, all totaled it doesn't come close to the 80+ pages I've written in the D1 chapter of my upcoming book. It required that many pages to explain the how's and why's of the camera. No web site or magazine can devote that space to just one piece of equipment! The tip of the month, look at the problems you face and when you read reviews, see if that piece of equipment being reviewed solves any of them! Use you common sense, think things through an you will come out a winner. To this end, the next issue of the BT Journal has a complete article on selecting the right lens, for you! Don't ever think that I, or other reviewers have all the answers, because we don't. And if I'm lucky, I never will because that makes every day a learning experience! Stop Counting
The lack of consistent if not honest info on pixels baffles even me. It might be excused as there being two camps, those doing genuine work requiring massive files for their clients. These are not editorial clients though, but clients with very specific needs that the vast majority of us will never do business with. Some state and with some justification that they need big files to make big prints. The other camp I feel is comprised of the tons of articles and gazillions of posting on the web counting pixels simply because folks have nothing better to write about because it's certainly not the reality as I've experienced it. All I've been capturing since the very beginning with the D1 is a 1.3mb file, the fine mode. I've run into literally thousands of photographers who dispute this is what I'm capturing after they see my results (a great example of the confusion surrounding the truth). Often Photoshop is given the credit for the image quality. The cover you see here brought in a whole mess of emails again asking, "is it true, do I really need a big file?" "How many megabytes was this file?" "How much PS time did you spend on this image?" And when I tell the truth, disappointment that I can't tell the truth fills my mail box. This cover, along with the other dozen covers this past year and 400 editorial images I've had published from original D1 captures, were all made from a 1.3MB file! If you use the D1, Nikon optics, know light and simple things like proper handholding or long lens technique to capture a sharp image, there is no need for a large file. I've said this many times and folks still ask if this is true? I'm in the business of creating images for the market place. You think I would risk literally my livelihood for a medium that does not produce? What is the tip of the month? It's a plea again to photographers to put their time, energies and talent behind the camera and not in specs. It's a tip from someone who knows both sides of the equation and is trying to help you get the most from your photography. The quality of digital is more than enough for everything I do photographically and for business. Stop counting and get to shooting! Mount the Darn Camera!I was out this past Sunday walking at one of my favorite places, Bolsa Chica Reserve in So. California. I was out for sunrise, playing with the 80-400VR and just enjoying the salt breeze and the call of the birds that fill the air. There were a couple of other folks out there at the same time doing basically the same thing. It was a good morning. I was on my way back to the parking area a couple of hours later when I first heard and then saw a Belted Kingfisher. It was a female and it was "Ting" up some distance in front of me so I kept an eye on it while I kept walking. There was another photographer in front of me that I had seen but really hadn't taken notice of until the kingfisher landed just ten feet in front of them, perched atop a old piling post just four feet off the ground, frontlit with a beautiful blue watery background. All I could thing was, "what a lucky photographer!" Then to my horror I discovered when I put my lens on the subject, that the photographer was carrying his tripod under one arm and his 600mm lens in his other hand! He had no chance to capture this image of a lifetime! First, he didn't even see the kingfisher, eegads!!!! Then even if he had, by the time he would have set the tripod down (if the kingfisher would have stayed for that) and then get his lens set up (he was too close physically unless he had tubes) the bird probably would have died from old age! What a missed opportunity!!! It sounds really obvious and I've said it before, but you must be ready to shoot! This means not only practicing so everything is second nature, but covering the basics when you're out shooting. If you're out to shoot, shoot! Have the camera on and ready to shoot, make sure your flashcard or film is not on its last frame, lens cap off the lens, aperture preset at a customary setting, tripod legs extended and the camera mounted on the tripod! Much of wildlife photography has to do with being prepared to make the image. This includes not only the physical setup, but the mental. Keep the gear ready and imagination cranked up and you will make those great images! Experiment TimeWinter can be for most a really slow photographic time. Between holidays, work, the lack of light or money (after xmas) and a hundred other great reasons, not a whole lot of photography happens now. This is the time to get the creative juices flowing by experimenting! I'm not referring to grabbing the chemistry kit the kid got for xmas, but rather trying new camera techniques. For example right now I'm working at photographing kangaroo rats with the D1 and flash. Flash with the D1 is not as clean cut as it were with the F5, so the first thing I'm working on is getting the D1 as reliable as the F5 for macro flash photography. Next, I'm working towards making flash photography with the D1 better than the F5. With the extra time on my hands at the moment, I can afford to mess around with this to improve my photography. There are many things you can do. You could try venturing to your favorite locale at a different time of day to shoot. You could try putting out a new type of bird food or new feeder or move an old feeder to a new locale and see what it attracts. You could play with new film, filter or rent a lens you would like to buy possibly. During the long hours of winter night, you could even find a better way to organize your images! If push comes to shove, you could surf the net and find new ideas for your photography! Experimenting is where I learn a whole lot more about myself and where I want to take my photography. I tend to do more serious experimentation in the winter when a lot of the wildlife either holds up or goes away for the season. You might find that on these cold days, a good experiment could heat things up for you! HeatIf you hadn't noticed, it's been cold around the country of late. It was -8 at my home this am. Now when it's that cold, many photographers don't go shooting, justifiably I might add! But if you're a bit whacked like me, you bundle up and head out. While you the photographer might manage to function in the cold your camera gear might not fare so well. Here's a simple tip that I use all winter long. Keeping the batteries warm so they will function is a must! There are many options for doing this, I personally op for the easiest and cheapest. Ever seen those little packet in a sporting good store (they even sell them in our grocery store) that say they can make you warm? They go under many names, locally they are called Pocket Warm, but there is also Packet Heat, Heat Factory; you get the idea. These little packets can provide heat anywhere from an hour to three hours. They are small, cheap and very effective! Well, besides being able to keep you warm, they work wonders for gear with a little help. The problem with our gear is it is all metal or plastic which has no ability to keep things warm and quite able to freeze things up. By placing one of these heater packets next to the batteries, you can keep on shooting in the cold (the packet goes externally, not internally). The trick is to have the packet next to the batteries and then something covering the packet to somewhat insulate it. For example on my flashes, I have the top of a rag wool sock that I've cut to length to slip over the battery compartment of the flash. I then slip the heater packet between the sock and flash to keep the flash warm. Now there are other problems associated with working in the cold, static electricity, condensation, fogging eyepice, but for now, I just wanted to help keep the juice flowing! Noon!There is this real stigma about shooting at noon. I believe it's because writers with no better topic have written a thousand times, do not shoot at noon! Noon isn't the most ideal time to go out generally, but wildlife doesn't know how to read so they still go out at noon to eek out their existence. So with that, I'm out there too! But we are photographers and we do crave the best light, how do we make that work at noon? For nearly twenty years, all I have ever done was simply dial in minus compensation to take the edge off the hard highlights and continue to shoot. With conventional film, the results were satisfactory and it got the job done (I would dial in -1). There are many projects I work on when noon is the only time photography was possible, this was the only answer. (Yes, you can use flash fill but it better be really well done or it looks like flash fill.) Shooting the D1 and digital, my compensation for shooting at noon works even better! This is demonstrated best with the Photo of the Month. After being skunked by the endangered San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel for days, my first opportunity with one was at high noon on a clear day. I automatically dialed in -2/3 and went shooting. Well with digital and its five stop range, the dialing in minus compensation to take the edge off highlights worked better than ever! This is just another reason why digital is the best medium for me. On a side note for you D1 shooters, I now shoot with the white balance set to Cloud nearly 99% of the time. The fine adjustment of -3 is still plugged in.
NetworkingThere I was, reading emails when I received this very friendly one. It was from one of my young shooters I correspond with. Taylor, a 14 year old wildlife photographer who is already published, sent me two possible suggestions for the day shoot for our DC Walk Softly Seminar (which was a killer seminar!). We always scout our day shoot locales a couple days prior to the actual day shoot because no matter how well we know a locale, mother nature sometimes likes to play games with us. Well, a couple of days prior to our DC WSS, we headed over to one of Taylor's suggestion. Now shooting wildlife in DC is new to me, never done it before. When I saw the locale Taylor suggested was only 18 miles from the Capital, I had my doubts but off we went. What we discovered was the most incredible, beautiful and photographic locale you would ever want to find! I saw over 40 species of birds and photographed 16 of them! But that's not the point of this tip of the month. Shooting at Mason Neck State Park even in the rain (as we had in the morning) was not only new to me, but to 18 of the 20 day shoot participants! These are folks who live right there (one within minutes of the locale) who had never experienced the magic of Mason Neck! The magic of the forest itself intrigued me, the Redbud and Dogwoods in fresh spring bloom amongst the new green leaf sprouts filed near a whole CompactFlash card! And the birds, oh the birds! The point of this tip of the month that one simple suggestion from a young 14 year old wildlife photographer changed the lived of 20 adults! Mason Neck was so marvelous, that I even would have loved giving up a day or two of my DC touring just to go back and shoot there! Heck, I added species to my files that I had never shot before, all because of one suggestion! The one thing Sharon and I love about our Walk Softly Seminars is that we bring together a whole bunch of local photographers that quiet often don't know each other. That is until the end of the day shoot when new friendships have started and shooting buddies are made. One of the best tips I can ever give you is, network! |
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I wish I had a nickel for every email with the question, "do I really need a big file to make digital work?" Articles in popular magazines state that digital just isn't there yet (even though the month before they said it was), lecturers say it's five years out before they think big file cameras will fit there needs. And Nikon fuels the fire by bringing out the new D1X that captures really big files. And then there is me who keeps saying that you don't need a big file, flying in the face of hundreds of others. Who in the heck is right, when can we stop counting?!