May 22, 2019 | WRP Ed Zone
450 Stearman
captured by D5 / 70-200f4
Basic Handholding is an essential tool EVERY photography must master, period! Just worked with a photographer who used LiveView and held their camera like it was an iPhone when they asked, “why are my images not sharp?” Seriously, we can do better!
This is something you need to practice EVERY DAY for five minutes so when you are out shooting, you don’t even think about it. It’s just is. It starts by cup the lens in your left hand so gravity forces the rig DOWN into your palm. Next, bringing your elbows into your sides, grasp the camera firmly with the right hand and learn to roll the finger to first activate the camera and then to fire the camera. Use an eyecup and pull the camera into your face. My buddy Adam captured in this photo of me during an air to air so even with feet off the ground, proper handholding is a must if you want the tack sharp image. The photo above, the shutter speed was 1/40 and there was no gyro attached. Practice, practice, practice every day until it’s second nature. Then practice some more!
(c) Adam Rohrmann
May 14, 2019 | WRP Ed Zone
Proper Long Lens technique is an essential technique (video). It’s not something I invented but was passed to me at the beginning of my career. This age old technique assures the sharpest possible image when using any lens that attaches to a tripod via its tripod collar. Used with proper Handholding Technique, you will capture the sharpest possible images!
First and foremost -you must rest your hand on the lens barrel above the tripod head! (you can also put your hand on the bottom of the lens barrel if you’re pointing the lens down) You rest your hand on the lens just like you’d rest it in your lap. Vibrations are what causes images to be out of focus, vibrations that normally start at the camera. These vibrations travel as a wave to the front element and if they are not stopped, they travel back through the lens to the film plane, causing images to be out of focus. The simple resting of a hand on the lens barrel stops this wave before it reaches the front.
Second – use an eyecup and press you eye against it! This again is another way to minimize or eliminate any vibration that might start with the taking of the photograph. If you can’t remember to press against the eyecup like I did in the beginning, put a sticky note on the back of the camera to remind you.
Third – roll you finger when firing! Too many photographers poke at their shutter release to fire the camera, causing all sorts of unwanted movement. You want to rest your finger on the shutter release at all times and then slightly roll it unto the shutter to activate the camera and then to actually fire the camera. This takes practice, but makes a big difference!
Fourth – practice, practice, practice! You can’t expect this to be second nature or remain second nature if you don’t do it all the time. Whether shooting for real or just staying in shape, take the gear out and practice so you don’t have to think about it when you’re out shooting.
Apr 30, 2019 | WRP Ed Zone
Yes, way!!! The new Z14-30 is simply a brilliant lens!!! It is small, light, compact (14-24f2.8AFS is now in mothballs) and wicked sharp. In the old days, that’s about all you could say about a 14mm lens, but not no more! I’m so excited that now we can talk about FILTERING a 14mm with a screw-in filter! Hot dang!!!
Waco QCF-2
captured by Z7 / Z14-30 / No Polarizer at 14mm
The new Z14-30 has an 82mm filter thread and can accept amongst other filters, a 82mm Polarizer! I depend on polarizers for removing reflections and having that power at 14mm makes me one happy photographer. You can see above how the polarizer removed the reflections on the sides of the fuselage that you see in the lower photograph that was not polarized. Even better, you can see that there is NO vignetting with the polarizer attached at 14mm. I love that Nikon is going with 82mm as all my favorite lenses, 105f1.4, Z24-70f2.8 & Z14-30f4 all accept that size. This is one happy camper!
Mar 28, 2019 | WRP Ed Zone
Printing, I love printing and even more, sharing those prints with others like these I’m getting out to the pilots of my last air-to-air photo mission. We are incredibly fortunate, us photographers! We are able to take our passion for the world and capture it, bringing those memories back home with us to relive over and over again. I strongly feel that we have a responsibility to not only improve our visual storytelling but to share it with others to effect a change in our world. We can do both as we print more and master that realm of our photography. I want to encourage you to do that which is why I have Print Lab here for you for free. To answer the most common question, what printers do I use, they are the Epson P7000 and Epson P800. How much do I love to print? Give a listen.
Mar 1, 2019 | WRP Ed Zone
Heat shimmer, it can occur over nearly any surface from sand, snow, water, sage, and so much more. The transfer of heat from a surface to the atmosphere is a naturally occurring phenomenon that we normally don’t see or take for granted. When you start shooting with lenses greater than 200mm though, you can start seeing it. When you get to 500mm and greater, it’s an issue you must be aware of if you want sharp images!
Many photographers though don’t recognize it when it’s in the viewfinder. That’s because it’s a moving “gas” that comes and goes with the air. Last week when shooting on the beach, we had no heat shimmer for the vast amount of the time. It wasn’t until near the end that it rose. If you look at the top photo of the Purple Sandpiper taken with the Z6 / 800mm, you can see the eye and legs are sharp. The shot taken at the end of the shoot of the Purple Sandpipers, you can see that those two elements are just not tack sharp. While critically focused on the eye, the heat shimmer creates a curtain of shimmer. When I called it out, some in the group didn’t recognize it at first. But it got so bad that the AF system which was grabbing on to subject readily, would no longer grab focus. So if you have images that you know, you swear were sharp but turn out soft, there is the real possibility it was heat shimmer causing you a focus issue.
Feb 14, 2019 | WRP Ed Zone
Who hasn’t seen a sunrise or sunset, grabbed a camera and gone rushing towards it? You don’t need to be a photographer to have the flaming orange ball in the sky wrapped in color to stop you cold in your tracks. With our audience of ur images already having a personal reference to great sunrises and sunsets, our photos at the very least have to match that perception of grander. If you remove all elements from the photo but the red-orange color, what do you have? Just color, no story nor emotion. So this means the foreground is really important, perhaps more important than the sunset itself.
Here are two photos of the same subject, just including more or less of it. “Hit or Miss” is a great subject by itself but when you have those skies, the old girl comes to life. But with that color, what do you include or not include to tell the story? Is there a right or wrong answer? I personally don’t think so. I think that simply there might be a better or worse answer. Now which image here do I think is the better of the two? Knowing all the angles I took, I like these two the best and I do have one favorite. Which, well you’ll have to make that call for yourself. Especially your next sunset when you decide what to put with that color.
