Apr 15, 2015 | Field Reports
Kalyn is a true Mammoth kid! Weather just doesn’t seem to phase them so when I came up with this shot, her bright eyes and smile were the perfect match for big snow. We’ve received a bunch on inquiries how I made the shot of Kalyn now appearing on Image Chaser (and some shock I do portraits). It was actually very simple keeping in mind the Inverse Square Law.
I went out scouting the day before a location that had two things going for it, curved slope background and wind. Why those two ingredients? I wanted the “air” to be filed with snow and to do that, I needed a background relatively close to bounce back some of the light into the blowing snow (you can see the after & before photos here). And the wind, to make the blowing snow. With the monster winds that can be on the slope as a storm comes in, I needed to use the Beauty Dish on the Profoto B1 so Sharon could hold it. A “cloth” light modifer would have been a sail and taken my bride far away! With the close background and wind, the shadow created by the Beauty Dish was greatly softened. So all I had to do was stand back with the D750 / 300PF with the Air in the Hot Shoe and shoot. It all took less then ten minutes to shoot. And that’s how it was done.
Apr 8, 2015 | Field Reports
Just up … my piece on the amazing 300PF, check ‘er out!
Apr 7, 2015 | Field Reports
The plan was hatched last fall, come to Minot to shoot a plane in snow with the full moon for a Christmas Card. Soonest we could match schedules was now. First day, nice and warm, no snow. Next day, enough snow to tease. Today, blizzard. Oh well …
Apr 6, 2015 | Field Reports
Thousands upon thousands have it on their iPad…You? It’s been updated and updated FOR FREE and has all you need and more to make your photography, your photography! It’s FREE, you have nothing to lose and everything to learn. Oh ya … it’s FREE!!
Apr 2, 2015 | Field Reports
I’m very fortunate to be the guest Mentor at Photo Forte for April. It was gratifying to be asked back again, guess that means I wasn’t too hard on folks images last time. The theme for the month are planes, trains and things that move. It’s going to be fun. If you want to join in, please do. The more the merrier!
Apr 1, 2015 | Field Reports
Got a gear question you want/need answered? I want to help and answer it. Send your gear questions to me at Gear Questions and I’ll do my best every Wednesday (use the search to check past answers). Keep in mind the answers are just my $.02 worth and you have to take what works for you and your photography and embrace it and ignore the rest. And if you want to comment, head to my FaceBook page. So here’s this weeks questions …. Oh … and you have NO idea how I wanted to pull a April Fools joke!
Moose,
thanks for all your fascinating publications and articles, pity I can’t meet you in London on your visit but I hope you enjoy your visit.Question: Later this year I will have enough money spare to update some of my gear. At present I have one each of Nikon D2X & D2S bodies. I would love to update the one of the D2’s to a D3/D3S…which D2 would you replace and which D3 do you consider the best Value for Money (VFM). Also I have a Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 WITHOUT the OS which I would like to upgrade to a Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR. The question is…which would be the best upgrade for VFM …… the body or the lens. My interests are wildlife/Landscape/Macro and some Still Life. Also, if I get the D3…where can I find your basic settings for the D3, which I seem to remember was published on your website but now seems to have disappeared.
Many regards and keep up the wildlife work
Brian (Scotland)
Brian … darn good and very interesting question I can honestly say, I’ve not been asked before. I guess if it were me, I’d stick with the D2x and go with the D3s. Now when it comes to body over lens, I’ll always select the lens. Sorry you can’t join us in London this month but we’ll be back. Thanks for the kind words!
Hey Moose. It’s Ron in Nebraska…again.
With both Spring and the Sandhill Crane migration finally full-on here in Nebraska, Cindy and I headed out to the Central Platte Valley yesterday to shoot ‘em up. I came back with 542 raw files on my D810, and therein lies the problem. I thought that daylight savings time would be over by the time my inexpensive card reader got them all onto my computer! I’m thinking I need to invest in some enhanced technology and see high speed readers etc. advertised but really don’t know much about this area. With these new, higher pixel count Nikons, do you have any thoughts or recommendations for getting images shot with these new models downloaded in a reasonable period of time?
RLJ
Ron … I’m on the Platt as you read this, such a wonderful place! First, Photo Mechanic is the fastest at sucking in images. Everything else is just slow in comparison. When it comes to readers, first choice is the Lexar Thunderbolt and second is their Multi Reader. If you’re using Lightroom to bring images in, there is nothing that will speed that up except using another program!
