LED lights have come so far in design and down so much in price! The new Genaray Square Sun is a great example of both. I wrote about the Genaray LED Bi-Color Light kit which is a killer portable kit. But when you want studio power and I mean power and flexibility in an LED, the Square Sun is gorgeous! This bad boy weighs in at 13lbs with its 15″ by 15″ LED light on a massive yoke for ultimate stability. Its 100watt output is scalable with the dimmer switch with color temps from 3200k to 5600k (photo below). The Square Sun has built-in DMX512 technology. This allows you to control the light’s settings remotely from a DMX lighting control console.
You can buy the Square Sun by itself or in a kit (great value) which is what I highly, highly recommend! It comes with AC power supply but can run off batteries as well. It’s meant for heavy use so have a built-in fan. The barns doors can come off and other light diffusion added. I find that from the get-go, it produces a pretty nice light. Why am I growing out LED light locker? It’s a great, portable and easy to use light source for video.
You have three basic ways to power the D850, the single EN-EL15a battery, the MB-D18 (with its battery options) or the AC EH-5c/EP-5B. Many have been asking how I’m powering my D850? The vast majority of the time I use the EN-EL15a battery which I find, even in extreme cold, does a great job. When doing the all night time lapse, I turn to the EH-5c/EP-5B but that only will work when you have AC. That leaves the MB-D18 with its battery options as the long time lapse portable option. I’ve not received a MB-D18 yet as I ordered it really late in the release but my good friend Igor has it just for this purpose which to me makes sense. Using the MB-D18 all the time for me or the team just doesn’t make sense as we want a smaller camera than the D5, not the same size. So like everything else I do in photography, I have the tools I need to solve the problems I face.
Lighting for video can be a challenge, especially if you’re a one-man band. The Genaray LED Bi-Color Light kit from B&H Photo can make your life not only simpler but more effective and video more handsome! The kit I have contains (the link above):
The quality of light by themselves that the Genaray create is pretty nice but not perfect. The built-in barn doors help you control the light as does the remote and the LEDs flexibility. To truly make the Genaray beautiful light just like a flash, you want to use a light modifier. But it would be easy to introduce it to the mix and then you have magic. Check out the video and watch all these marvelous lights can do!
Coastal Grizzly Bear captured with D2H / 400f2.8AFS
Each time the photographer picks up their camera, they are challenged by the creative process. Yes, there is the technical side which for many, they never get past what they perceive as a huge wall. And getting past that wall you smack right up against the creative. Then if you’re like more photographers, you spend in between time on the web looking at other’s photographs, often in the hopes of inspiration. That’s when the “grass is always greener” pops up as we think is only we …. Using myself and the emails that pour in, there is the very real perceived idea that I live the life my mom told her friends I was living when I became self-employed in late 1990, “Oh my son has retired and just travels and take pictures.) The perception many get from their search for creative inspiration when seeing photographer’s social thread is just that, all they do is take pictures. That perception is barely anchored in reality just like the photograph itself!
Spitfire & Hurricane captured by D5 / 24-70VR
I’m often asked how much time I spend in “the field?” I’m not sure if folks are asking how much I travel or how much time am I behind a camera. The answer to the first is too much and the answer to the second is, not enough. The reality is I’m in the “office” about half the year, six months doing the work thing that supports the other six months traveling. But twelve months of the year, 365/24/7 there is work to do to create those images I’m so honored so many of you say inspire you and that’s the point!
We tend to be our own worst enemy in the creative process by the assumptions we make looking at others work. We say “I could do that if … if I had that lens, that body, that money, that time, that opportunity” assuming that what we’re looking at was made just that simply. There is nothing simple about photography, nothing! And one of the big roadblocks is self-imposed, the perceptions we assume are realities. There is one thing you must keep in mind at all times when it comes to photography, you must keep it fun! That’s the one sure way I know of moving past, the grass is always greener!
Moose’s Favorite D850 feature summary
D850 Highlights – Stills – 5yrs after the intro of the D800
* 45.7mp FX camera sensor is 35.9×23.9mm (35mm = 36x24mm)
D810 was 36.3mp
* Nikon designed BSI (back-side illumination) sensor w/o Low-pass layer on Optical Filter
this lets light more efficiently reach photodiodes
* Powered by Expeed 5, the D850 has amazing autofocus. That’s because it’s the same as in the D5, which is legendary AF performance. It can focus with a 6x & 2x Polarizer!
*At the same time better Dynamic Range than D810
* This extreme resolution and AF performance operates at 7FPS / 9 FPS with MB-D18
* Native low ISO64 – 25600, lowest of any digital camera
* And does this with a 51 frame consecutive buffer and nearly 50% better battery performance than the D810
* This is all housed in a magnesium-alloy body that is wx & dust resistant. Bigger and heavier than the D810, the D850 has no pop-up flash. That space has been maximized with a 0.75x optical viewfinder, the widest and brightest ever for Nikon
* Dual slot – XQD & SD (going into the door on the right side)
* 3.2” 2359k dot, touch operable (shooting & Menus), tilt monitor
* Button illumination
* 3 Nef (Raw) file sizes
* Wireless flash operation
* New Negative digitizer
* Focus Stacking
* 1:1 Square image format
Highlights – video
* D850 does full frame 4k 30p video
* @1080p can do slow motion 120p
* High ISO – low noise performance
* Focus Peaking in 1080p for manual focus
* 2 Zebra striping modes
* Native 4k time-lapse movie w/”Silent Shutter” / 8k time-lapse possible (w/3rd party software)
exposure smoothing / extended low-light metering range
I’ll be in Palm Coast, FL talking Birds of Feathers Fest and would love to have you join us! I’ll have in-class presentations as well as field trips. You want to have a ton of fun, up your bird photography and enjoy hanging with like-minded bird photographers, can’t wait to see you there! And if you’re on the west coast, don’t forget
Come join us at the Winter Wings Festival ’18 where talk about all things birds! I’ll be there doing workshops, field trips, and keynote and would love to see you there! Click on the poster above for more information.
