Gear seen in video
D5
800mm
SB-5000
WR-R10/WR-T10/WR-A10 Wireless Remote Adapter Set
AS-10 TTL Multi Flash Adapter
Gitzo 5561SGT w/ Zenelli Carbon Fiber Gimbal Head
F-9 Flash Bracket for Wimberley Head Version II
It’s real simple, when you get a new camera body like the D5, be sure to set the ColorSpace to Adobe RGB. You can always reduce color in post, you can’t grow it.
All the photography we do at one point was totally new to us. Most of the time, it doesn’t start a panic attack. We know it’s part of the process, accept it, and we’re able to move on. There are times though when, be it either a new professional job, a personal project or for an important family member, we take on something new in our photography and the panic sets in. We accept the challenge for better or worse to make a photo that’s way, way, way outside our comfort range (nice of way of saying, we have no bloody clue what we’re doing). The panic starts because of the expectation placed on the final photograph and the unknown of how we’re going make that expectation even close to happening. Not that’s it’s any comfort, but you’re not alone! I for one have done this many, many times. And after the panic settles down, putting logic to the problem does find an answer.
Doing your homework is a HUGE part of your photographic growth. And when you get an A on that homework, the photograph turns out. The question is, how do you do that homework? Here’s where many photographers fall down, they simply don’t think the problem through to find the answer for their own photography. Prior to my first venture to Alaska to photography Grizzlies, I went to the zoo and watched them and photographed them, in good light and bad. How do they move, what is a cute pose, what does their pelt require in exposure compensation? Before I went to take my first pilot portrait for my project, I took my truck and parked it in a huge, empty parking lot and set up my lights, had Sharon stand there and worked out the lighting issues. How far down the truck does the light fall off? What does the light look like on the ground? What does the same light look like on the pilot? Those questions were answered before I ever showed up at the plane.
When I went to photograph the Palos Verde Blue Butterfly, a critter needing a DoD Clearance to access, a species thought to be extinct only to be rediscovered a decade later and I was the only one allowed to photograph it after it was rediscovered (no pressure here!), I made a paper blue life size cut out of it and worked out the lens, distance from lens to critter and the lighting to take its photo biologically accurately in the smog filled skies of So Cal before I ever saw it. I could fill up pages and pages of examples of all the “homework” I’ve done prior to the real shoot to work out all the bugs possible prior to showing up for the shoot. No, things do not always work out in real life exactly as the testing. But at least with the answers from the testing firmly in your mind (and written down for reference when you get flustered), when the unknown pops up, you have at least a starting point to figure out the solution to the problem at hand. Yes, watching classes online or in person help but it’s still up to you, the photographer to do the homework for YOUR shoot to produce the photo that’s tells YOUR visual story. That’s what photography is all about. So, put on your thinking cap and look at other photographs for ideas, do your homework, grab your camera and make it happen. Confidence in yourself and your camera is how you overcome the panic of the new.
Like many, my D5 has been shipped by B&H and like all, I’m anxiously awaiting its delivery (some have it their hands already, lucky dogs!). I was very fortunate to be apart of the Nikon Ambassador mini summit this past week. I was very unfortunate like some other ambassadors flying from the west to get caught in the blizzard that hit Denver so even with a red eye, by the time we reached the Summit, the majority of the D5 briefing was over (just missed the AF brief, dang!). So at this point, I’ve not even picked up a D5 let alone shot with it. The briefing we did hear though was so very cool! The “Pinch” screen and touch features of the LCD are really going to make a huge impact and speed up pixel peeping and Live View focusing. The SB-5000 Wireless system is mind boggling! The D5 has a menu system driving it if you’d like and my favorite WR-R10 is a trigger for the system. There is a little bit of learning to do but I’m so excited to dig into the D5 when it arrives this week. I have a BUNCH of shooting scheduled with the D5 over the next couple of weeks and as it unfolds and I learn more about it, I’ll share it. And at some point as always, I will post my settings on my Gear Page. mtc
It’s coming up in a few weeks, the incredible LA County Airshow! This year, headliners like the Blue Angels and my favorite, the Texas Flying Legends Museum will be there in the skies for two days. We’ll be there and hope to see you there! If you need some help planning or inspiration, you can check out this blog post or our Taking Flight iBook.
I see this all the time when folks post a comment to a photograph, “Wonderful composition”. And to be totally honest with you, I just shake my head and say to myself, “that’s how they relate to a photograph?” Is that how these folks relate to their own photographs? They sit there at their computer and say, “OH, that’s wonderful composition” or “OH, that’s horrible composition!” I surely hope that’s not the case. I have no doubt I’m stepping on some toes right now but I’m here to tell you that not once in my forty years has an editor said to me about my photographs, “Wonderful composition.” Now they have said simply, “That sucks” and from that many issues with the photograph are described in which the arrangement of elements is included. But commenting on just the composition, that just doesn’t happen. So I have to ask myself, why and where did photographers get so hung up on composition? Seriously, we could start a Composition rehab facility and it would be filled all the time!
I have had many a discussion with editors about storytelling and the arrangement of elements in a photograph and if it either helps or hinders the storytelling. You might think that we’re splitting hairs here in word choice but quite the contrary. Composition has well defined rules dictated in part by math and in part by handicap. Arrangement of elements strictly has to do with the unique elements in the frame and their play amongst each other in a particular photograph. And the biggest discussion in the arrangement of elements is the play of light. Light leads the eye through the frame, speaks of emotion and brings life to texture. There is nothing in composition that speaks to any element of light. And that’s where Moose and composition part ways at rock speed! The living photograph, the one that speaks to the viewer does so with light, not composition! It will be hard to do as so many speak in terms of composition, but I want to encourage you to stop thinking of composition, measuring with it, so your photography will grow! It will be much, much harder for sure to think of the arranging of elements and using light because there are no rules, no guides except your vision, your voice, your heart (and of course, self doubt that comes with that). There will be times when you will “feel” the photograph and others won’t and that’s OK. Stick to your guns, speak in your own voice and heart through your photographs and you will grab heart strings. And with that, your photographs can change the world!