Colorado Aspen – Last Dollar Road
How big a print can you make from your digital camera and still have good image quality? That’s a common question. I received an e-mail today about camera file size and quality 8×10 inch prints. The question and my answer follow.
Sunset, “The Window”, Chisos Basin, Big Bend National Park.
I prefer cool breezes, mountains, pine-scented air, and cold mountain lakes or streams, so I was totally surprised when I fell in love with Big Bend National Park. Located in the hot, Chihuahuan Desert in southwest Texas, it is the opposite of where I prefer to be, both personally, and photographically – or so I thought. But my first trip to Big Bend changed all of that.
Wildlife Location Guides
The first step to photographing wildlife is finding wildlife. In the case of common wildlife, that’s easy. If you are looking for squirrels you may not need to look any farther than your own back yard. But if you want to photograph something a little more exotic, like Chachalacas or Green Jays, you need to know where to look for them (the southern tip of Texas).
The great thing about teaching photography is “watching the light go on” as the photographers in the class, workshop, or field trip discover new ways to create great photos.
It is a bit surreal to send out a book to be read by people I will never meet, because I don’t get to see the “light go on” as photographers read the book. About as close as I can come to that is reading what photographers say about what the book did for them.
It is not a good thing to have your lens refuse to work when you are on the trip of a lifetime. It was a pretty desperate phone call from a good friend who was vacationing in Hawaii.
I went through all of the usual things to do that will usually bring a lens back to life. He tried them all and none of them worked.
Electronic Lens Mount
It is an unhappy thing when a lens quits working normally, or stops altogether, complete with some kind of error message on the camera body. The good news is that you can usually bring your lens back to life and it only takes a few seconds to a few minutes to do. Details are here.
Pink Ladyslipper Orchid Metered Using a Gray Card
A simple $12 accessory will do most of the work of a $300 incident light meter. Hard to believe? Keep reading.
Navajo Sandstone Stripes. Photo © Linde Waidhofer
I’ve been a fan of Linde Waidhofer’s work ever since I came across her book, Stone & Silence with gorgeous images from the Southwestern United States (see one example above).  So I was pleased to learn she has a new book out, Unknown Patagonia, Chile’s Secret South.
Looking for a small, mountable, “ideal for sports and action”, inexpensive ($179 – $299) high definition video camera with a waterproof housing and image quality that Lucasfilm (the Star Wars people) calls “amazing”? Take a look at this amazing video footage (with skiing, snow boarding, surfing, cliff diving, motocross, auto racing, jet piloting, base jumping, and parasailing). Then keep reading! This camera will go anywhere and mount just about anywhere.
For several months on various “outdoor” TV networks (National Geographic, Discovery Chanel, Animal Planet and others) I’ve watched some remarkable video footage from a very small, mountable HD video camera. I didn’t recognize the brand or model so I’ve been searching for the camera and finally located it. It is the GoPro HD HERO which can be mounted on helmets, cars, motorcycles, surfboards, and about anything else you can imagine. Imagine mounting it on a pole with some bait to record the bite of a shark from inside the sharks mouth ( it was the “inside the shark’s mouth” video sequence that got my attention and started me on my search for this camera).
Traveling by plane severely limits the amount of camera equipment you can take with you. As lots of photographers will attest, take everything with you as carry-on gear, NOT in your checked luggage. The airlines will NOT reimburse you for lost or damaged photographic equipment (see my comments toward the end of this article). If your checked luggage goes astray, everything you need should be with you in your carry-on luggage. And you need a backup plan in case something quits working.
My new photography store (powered by Amazon.com) is at my Web site here, and as a stand alone site here. It has some of my favorite photography books and photo equipment. Ordering, payment, and shipping are all taken care of by Amazon’s safe and efficient system. If the feed from Amazon to my photography store doesn’t show up right away, just refresh the page.
UPDATE: I wrote an expanded version of this article and posted it October 5, 2018.
I just received an e-mail from one of Mike Baroli’s cousins with the sad news that Mike passed away December 19, 2010. The memorial service was yesterday at Spring Creek Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.
I met Mike behind the sales counter in a camera store, but Mike was more than a salesperson, he was a Photographer with a capital “P”. Our meeting came about quite by chance (or – looking back – maybe not by chance), but he transformed my photography.
With 12 books and hundreds of magazine articles to his credit, digital photography expert Tim Grey really knows his stuff. If you love digital photography and you aren’t on his e-mailing list, you should be. More about that later.
In his Elements Weekly eNewsletter for today (January 10), Tim makes the following book recommendation:
*** *** ***
Book Recommendation
As you know, I tend to focus most of my energy on helping photographers with their images after the capture. I do lead a variety of field photography workshops, but my focus tends to be more on what happens after the picture is actually taken. When it comes to the actual capture, the most common questions I hear from photographers relate to exposure. I’ve recently discovered a book that helps photographers truly understand exposure, and that knowledge can dramatically improve the quality of your digital photos. The book is Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies, authored by Jim Doty, Jr., and published by Wiley. This book provides you with everything a photographer needs to know in order to truly understand exposure and how it affects the original capture.
If you’re interested in learning more, or perhaps purchasing a copy of this book, you can learn more through Amazon.com here.
*** *** ***
Kodak Instamatic Camera and Kodachrome 64
I finished my last two rolls of Kodachrome slide film today and shipped them off to Dwayne’s Photo in Kansas, just in time for the deadline.
Photographer Using an ExpoDisc
There are a lot of advantages to using an incident light meter, and you can read about them here. But what if you don’t have an incident light meter? Or you are packing light and don’t want to take your incident light meter with you? There are several less expensive alternatives.
Snow glistens in the last light of dusk.
Distant clouds glow with the fading light from the sun, long since set.
A chill fills the calm night air.
Stars twinkle in the deepening winter sky.
The crunch, crunch, crunch of gravel on the path.
Lights come on in the distance. Warm and inviting.
Home. Family. Friends. Dinner and the opening of gifts.
Christmas!
Incident Light Meter. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.
There’s no question that in some complex metering situations, it can be tough to figure out the best exposure with the meter in your camera. An incident light meter can be quicker, faster, simpler, and more accurate in some of those same situations.
Metering Tools
Taking charge of exposure is one of the best indications someone is getting serious about the quality of their images. Learning the ins and outs of the camera’s reflected light metering system is a great way to start.
Kodachrome 25 Slide Film
Dwayne’s Photo, the last lab in the U.S. (and so far as I can tell, in the whole world) to process Kodachrome slide film, will quit processing Kodachrome at the end of this month. This is the end of an era. Your film must be in by noon on December 30. After that date, it will no longer be possible to process Kodachrome slide film. If you want push processing, the deadline is December 23.
I have no idea how Michael Freeman can be a well traveled, international photographer and still find time to write so many terrific photography books. But somehow he manages to do both. I suspect he never sleeps. I imagine him creating images and writing books 24 hours a day, stopping only to eat once or twice a week!!
Is it a great deal? Or is it a rip-off? You are searching online for a good price and you come across a terrific deal. Are you about to get burned? There are ways you can tell.
Observers with clear dark skies can see up to 100 meteors per hour. Best viewing and photography will be in the hours just before dawn on Dec 14. Details follow.
Ansel Adams: Half Dome, Blowing Snow. © Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust
I have no idea when I was first entranced by the photos of Ansel Adams.  There is a wonderful, luminous quality to his work. Small wonder he is America’s best known landscape photographer. Collections of his work would make a worthy addition to any photographer’s library. This is also the time of year that Ansel Adams calendars pop up like snowstorms.
The best advice I can give you is not to buy any collection of Adam’s work, either book or calendar unless it is published by Little, Brown and Company, or by NYGS (New York Graphic Society, which is also published by Little, Brown).
Why?
Brainard Lake, Damaged File
After I work on a group of photos, I back them up by burning them to DVDs and transfer them to external hard drives. I always set the DVD burning software (by NERO) to “verify” the contents of the DVD. It takes more time but it is well worth it.
After burning some photos to a DVD today, NERO told me the verification process had failed because some of the files were “different” from the originals, and provided a list. I opened the photo folder on the DVD and all of the thumbnails looked fine. So I tried to open one of the “different” files in Photoshop and received this ominous message.
I’ve been reading Jeff Wignall’s books for over 20 years. When I grow up, I want to write like Jeff! His books are clear, fun to read, and helpful. He did a lot of writing for Kodak and he was involved in the Joy of Photography series which was both inspirational and practical, and many of the Kodak photo guides.
Star Trails, Rocky Mountain National Park
Interested in getting into astrophotography? Here’s my advice.
The list that follows has the highest rated SLR, hybrid, and fixed lens cameras for the last 12 months.
Canon EOS Rebel T2i (550D, Kiss X4)
Every once in a while, I post my answer to a question that I receive by email. This one has to do with choosing between two camera bodies: the Canon T1i and T2i. When I am thinking about buying a camera, the first thing I do is to check out some trusted online sources. These are sites that do this kind of comparative thing all the time. I checked two of my favorite sources before answering the question below. Although the question is about choosing one camera or the other, I also cover the issue of upgrading from the T1i to the T2i.
CAmera, nodal slide, and panning clamp
If you are using an Arca-Swiss compatible quick release system, which I highly recommend, two simple pieces of easy-to-carry equipment can put you in panorama heaven. Get the full story here.
Arca-Swiss compatible "L-bracket" and tripod head
Mounting a camera onto the screw on top of a tripod head is time consuming. Doing it in the dark when your hands are cold is annoying. Once the camera is mounted, if you flop the camera over to the side to take a vertical photo, the camera tries to rotate on the screw. To provide a solution, all kinds of “quick release systems” have been created. Some of them work quite well, some not so well. Most systems have a weakness of one kind or another.
One system has become the defacto standard for serious photographers. It is arguably the best. If you are tired of the nuisance of screwing your camera onto your tripod head, or if you’ve grown weary with the problems created by an inferior quick release system, it is time for a change. Go here.