iPad version of BT Journal is HERE!

Mar 30, 2012 | Field Reports

We are incredible excited to announce our iPad version of our BT Journal is now available! The BT Journal which has been in print for 16yrs is vastly expanded in the iPad version with 50% more photographs, 200% more captions, video clips, slideshows and a new feature, pg28 Photoshop Lesson showing how I finished one of the images in the BTJ and a whole lot more is included in the iPad BT Journal. And the first issue is FREE! All you’ve gotta do is click on the link and away you go! See if the waterfall fakes you out like it did me (Brent laid out lots of surprises) But wait…there’s more :-)

We actually have a number of more issues to release here in the near future. We actually have a number of issues ready to do once we were approved by Apple (got it on our 2nd submission thanks to Brent’s hard work). All the issues have the 50% more images, captions and video, slideshows, can’t wait to share them with you. In addition, our special D4 issue will be out in a month which includes more info then you can imagine and exclusive video interviews with Nikon! We’ve been working on this for year and so glad this day has come. Enjoy!

K&M Adventrues – Grand Canyon Winter ’13

Mar 30, 2012 | Field Reports

Yesserie…K&M Adventures is heading to the Grand Canyon, South Rim 21-24 Feb, 2013 for my first workshop ever at the Grand Canyon. Permit is in the mail, lodging is getting set up so I couldn’t wait a moment longer to pull the trigger to tell folks. I’m so excited to be doing this!!!! Now the first thing you need to ask is, why February?

Real simple, the GIANT possibility of storms! Clouds make the Canyon come to life like nothing else and the white stuff sets off the colors better then any digital darkroom technique. It’s simply gorgeous! I’ve shot at the Grand Canyon dozens of times over the decades but waited until now to take a small group to a favorite location of mine. The price is $1995 which includes instruction and transportation once you arrive in Flagstaff. You feel adventerous and wanna push your photography, camera & digital darkroom skills while having a ton of fun at the expense of sleep, then this is the place for you. Call today 760.924.8632 and register for your own slice of Grand Canyon Fun!

XQD…Really?

Mar 29, 2012 | Field Reports

“What’s XQD?” questions are filling my email box after this mornings D4 post since it comes with the Sony 16GB XQD card. To be real honest with you, I knew nothing about it until it showed up in my D4 box. Not that I’m thrilled with having it as one of my two slots in the D4 nor do I profess to understand the engineering reason behind its inclusion, I do know it works and works really well! First, it’s not as big as a CF card nor as small as a SD card. Next, the slot in the D4 for the XQD has no pins which means you cannot bend them rendering the slot useless until repaired. Lastly, the slot is spring loaded, you just have to push on the XQD to extract it from the camera. And with the speed I’ve already mentioned, those are the pluses to the XQD.

What are the minuses? The first one and a biggie to me is it requires its own reader. I already have a bunch of Lexar USB3 Dual Slot readers which rock! The Sony XQD cards and readers are expensive and at this moment, hard to find. It’s not like you can fill that slot with puddy and move on, you’ve gotta make work what you’ve got. What’s the answer?

This is the answer as far as I’m concerned, the Lexar 128GB 1000x card in Slot 2! I do not have this in hand yet but I know (don’t ask how) that the Lexar 1000x will be faster then the XQD and at 128GB, I doubt I’ll need a second card and if I’m that fortunate, I’ll just load another 128GB card. What about the XQD card? I’ll leave that in the camera and make it the “video” slot. Hope this trivia helps!

Where’s the D4 “Review?”

Mar 29, 2012 | Field Reports

I’ve had a whole bunch of emails asking just that, where’s the D4 “review?” I guess shooting with it for less then a week, “you should be able to write a review, right, others have.” Well first, I’ve not written a review for a long, long time. I have written field reports but to me, there is a huge difference. To me, a review is no more then reading the specs and writing a review based on those. Not really very helpful to anyone wanting to get the most from their D4. The field report on the other hand is no more then my findings shooting with just one camera body sample. But those with a D4 can test their body’s results against mine and make some conclusions. And shooting with a new body for less then one week is by no means a field report worth writing.

I’ve seen some “reviews” and here’s my first problem with them. We’ve been using a 1008 pixel based RGB system up until the D4. Now we are using a 91,000 pixel 3D RGB sensor. I might just be me, but that’s a feakin HUGE change! Besides being a bigger number, what does that mean to our photography? Well, I’m still trying to determine that but here is what I’ve found so far. The D4 does have a greater dynamic range then the D3. How much, I don’t have a number yet. How does that effect my photography (since I can only speak about my own shooting)? Well, in scenarios like the photos posted here, the clouds detail was not lost, there were no blinkies even though I was shooting at zero exp comp. Why is that any kind of a big deal? With the D3x, I would have dialed in minus comp to retain the detail in the clouds. Further more, so far, and this is just my gut feeling right now, the D4 when it has a greater dynamic range requires plus compensation to be dialed in. When the exposure range is back down to like four stops, I dial in minus like the “old” days. Now I have conferred with some other D4 owners and they have found the same thing but this does not make it carved in stone. But if this proves out to be true, it means we have a revolutionary tool in our hands that will require a little change in exposure thinking to take advantage of it.

Now I’ve had a number of folks moaning to me about the XQD card option in the D4 not really being an option as if I designed it. While I don’t understand why it’s there rather then a CF slot, so far I’ve enjoyed its speed. When you can shoot 74 Nefs in one burst and then suck those into the computer at radically fast speeds, I’m surely not going to complain. Is it the best option? Well, I don’t see as we really have a choice and since it works, I’m not complaining. Then there are the complaints about the battery. There again, my D4 and those I’ve shot with have had no issues or complaints. It just works and not left me in the lurch.

The biggest request though is for my settings. I just got another one figured out today to my liking so I hope to have them posted soon. Like they say, all good things come with time. Another common question is if the D4 is worth the money? I can answer that with a big, fat YES! Printed my first 24×30 prints and the results are gorgeous and comparing the D4 print to that of the D3s, the D4 was cleaner which to me is very important. Now if you don’t have the money for the D4, what do I suggest? I would pick up a used D3s and if you don’t have the money for that, a D3. But when it comes to choosing between a D4 or D3s, D4 wins for me already in my first week of shooting with it. There will be more to come, but my gut suggests it will only be more good news….

In the Bag
• D4
• 24-70AFS

The Fear Factor

Mar 28, 2012 | Field Reports

Photoshop World to me is the greatest event to ever come along and twice a year a celebration of what it is to be a photographer! It is also the scariest venture I know about. One of the miracles of www is a world getting to know me without meeting me personally. One of the worst things in the world is everyone getting to know me through the www without every meeting me personally. I often talk about reality and perceptions of photography and my huge fear is that the reality of Moose doesn’t match the perceptions. This comes to a head when I have a class to present at PSW. There is some bloody amazing talent on stage at PSW, much of it very young and explosive. Take Jeremy Cowart…wow! Then there is me and my critters, landscape and avaition photos.

So when you have a class that starts at 08:15 when the parties ended at 02:00 you just gotta wonder, will anyone show? I like to get to my class early, I want to be all set up, make sure everything is running long before the first person shows up. I walked past Dave Black’s room and see folks lining up outside and it’s almost an hour before class time. Wow! I walk past Russell Brown’s room and I see folks streaming in. Yikes. I get to my class and find the first set of doors locked. I walk to the next set of doors and they are locked…not a good sign! I get to the third set and they are open. I walk in to find at least 30 folks already sitting in chairs in front of the screen at 07:20. I was not only feeling very honored, but then very nervous. I walk up to the stage and top photo is my view. It’s very intimating! Then I started to play a couple of videos of San Joaquin Kit Fox before my main show just set the stage for my presentation. I can handle all of these presentations, they are in my public speaking comfort zone because I’m telling stories, both verbal and photographic and I feel real safe with that. While I never fill the room, the couple of hundred folks who do come are passionate and that makes it all worth while to me.

It’s the Art of Digital and closing ceremony presentations when my stomach migrates up to my throat. That’s when the fear factor hits me. Now there are two thousand folks in those chairs and some did not come to see my work or hear me speak, but came for one of the other amazing presenters I’m so honored to be panaled with. It’s then when I have to put out a short presentation that not only gives me credibility as a photographer to be seated on this stage, but also an opportunity to touch a new heart with my images. That’s when I’m so nervous I can barely speak. And this time to push my discomfort zone even further, Scott asked me to present a aviation piece at closing ceremony rather then my traditional landscape piece. Fear Factor on steroids! And in the end, it all seems to work out (even though I never say what I had rehearsed in my mind) and from the amazing response we have received, that’s the whole point. It’s you, the folks who come to PSW who I do it for and who in the end tell me that what I presented was alright. When ladies come up to me (even a few guys) with misty eyes and then after a few moments need an embrace because my images so moved them, I know my fears were worth while. I just want to thank all of you for telling me the perceptions and reality of Moose’s work. It’s always enough to screw up the courage to do it all again in a few months. Thank You!