I’m still taken aback with the power and performance of the Z 9 “sized down” into the package we now know at the Z 8! Having now shot a little with it, I find it just to be a lighter Z 9 which is a cool thing. When I went through the settings, I found few changes making the Z 8 incredibly familiar from the start. mtc

Black & White photography caught my imagine and ignited my romance from the very start of my photography in high school. My love for its power and inspiration has never wavered but sure has been challenged in the digital age. The Z changed all of that making it literally a simple click from vision to image. Many ask about it, some have really complicated ways to get to it and for a lot, it’s too scary to even attempt. I’d like to help on all accounts.

Here is a simple PDF on how I approach B&W. It has all my camera setting all the way through finishing in ACR. It’s all here step by step and for free! Photography is all about grabbing heart strings and nothing is more romantic than a well done B&W photograph. My hope is simple, you go out and tug at someone’s heart with your visual storytelling. The world needs more romance!

Why the Pro Max? I have the M1 iMac and really have enjoyed its performance so there was no hesitation to go M2. I went with the Pro Max for a couple of reasons. The biggest was speed when working with video editing with Premier when away from the office. Next was dealing with big uploads / ingests. For example last week in FL & LA with Snail Kites and airshow, 24:33 for 9096 Nefs. Then filing them to external 8TB SSD drive, with 40MPBs cable, blistering speed. This is the only way I know I can buy time and time is as essential to me. What’s loaded in the Pro Max?

• 2TB SSD storage
• 96GB unified memory
• Apple M2 Max with 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU,
16-core Neural Engine
• 140W USB-C Power Adapter
• Three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI port, SDXC card slot, headphone jack, MagSafe 3 port
• Accessory Kit
• 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR display

I went with the 2TB rather then all the way with 4TB to save a little coin but more importantly, it’s all the space I figured I would need. The size SSD permits me to shoot for a day, ingest all those images and then if the worse happens, have enough to rescue a card. Well, that exact thing basically happened. On my last day of my Snail Kite shoot, the external SSD crashed during the backup. I had the backup from the day before so nothing was lost but I had to “rescue” the shoot from the current day (using ProGrade Recovery Pro) and edit the days shoot again. The Pro Max did a killer job and no images were lost. Phew!

The Pro Max is a tad heavier and a tad thicker but it no biggie. I didn’t have to buy any new accessories which was nice. I did get a Mag Cable for on the road and so happy Apple has gone back to that for power. I have gone through all my cables to make sure I have nothing but 40MPBs speed. I’ve gotten the latest ProGrade CFexpress cards reader for max speed ingesting and with that, I’m all set for speed. And with that, I have a new best friend and travel companion that I really enjoy!

Note: I did do a complete clean install of all apps rather than using the very convenient and effective “move” that copies old Macs to new. The reason … this was my 5th MacBook and thought it was time to do a clean install. It was real simple so glad I did it!

I’m a huge fan of the Z 30! It is with me all the time, on my side or in my briefcase where I can quickly take those EDLs, selfies and make videos. Its small size, quality and versatility fit right into the kit making it an essential tool. Many don’t know though what ease the Z 30 can be used as a webcam. I am talking ease on a scale you didn’t know what possible. I use the Z 30 / Z16-50 and their are mounted on the Platyball/Platypod Extreme right in front of my iMac monitor. The Z 30 is connected to the iMac via a USBc/USBc cable with the Nikon Web Cam Utility making all the connect as simple as turning on the Z 30. Using the settings I have posted here, that’s it! It literally permits me to jump on the web and talk with folks in seconds which happens. The beauty of this is when I’m on the road and need to jump online, rather than using the camera in the MacBook so everyone can see up my nose (I hate that view) I can turn to the Z 30 as it’s always with me. It’s just one more problem solving feature the Z 30 brings to the table.

Here’s my list for calibration:
warm up monitor
plugged into power in the wall
turn off energysaver
turn off Automatically Adjust Brightness
turn off True Tone
Turn off Night Shift
I use PFS Phosphur
I use D65
I set to 120

and there ya go … exposure and color you can learn, finish and print by!

You good folks have sent in a bunch of great questions about the Profoto A10, mainly asking, “Why have I evolved into the Profoto A10 flash?” A blog post just didn’t do justice to all the great question so I created this video. Like my Telephoto Flash video, this one is a tad lengthy to cover all the answers to all the great questions. I had fun filming the video, I hope it answers all your questions and helps you incorporate flash into your photography.

The Products you see in the video are:
Nikon Z 9
Nikkor Z50f1.2
Profoto A10 (3x – 1 is the light for the video)
Profoto Connect
Profoto Air Remote
Profoto Clic Octa
Profoto Clic 1/2, 1 CTO, 20′ Grid
Profoto Clic Snoot
Profoto Clic Dome
SmallRig Light Stand

I purchased all my Profoto gear directly from Profoto who provide great service!