Repeat visitors

 Photography  17 Responses »
Dec 052008
 


Paul B. must be around here somewhere!
First, I’d like to say thank you to my repeat visitors and to let you know that you are on my mind more than you might think.

The glory of the repeat visitor is that you get to know me and I get to know you. It’s fun. I thought about this the other day when I wrote about old equipment. I called a few of you buy name. It was interesting because I knew who had bought new cameras recently and pretty much what they had bought. I didn’t try to commit this to memory, intentionally, but it’s just like when you have repeated exposure to someone, you get to know a bit about their life, habits, likes, and dislikes, etc. Such is the nature of repeat visits here and my repeat visits to your site. I find it enjoyable.

As I was out for my morning walk today, in an unusual fit of photography ‘need’, I took my camera with me. After all, I hadn’t taken any pictures in … well, about 12 hours! :-) So, away I go. It was a nice, brisk 30 degrees or so and frost was on everything. When I started, the light was a bit low, so I didn’t take many pictures. Near the end of the walk, it was pretty light, the sun had come up, and I was on a roll.

Rounding one of the curves in the street, I saw the above pictured fence and felt compelled to take a picture of it. Why? I don’t do fences, but … Paul Butzi, for some reason, loves fences, and it reminded me of him, gave me the topic of a post, so there you have it! :-) Let us just say that the following things are etched into my brain as associations:

Paul B. – Fences
Anita J. – Horses
Andreas M – Bicycles
Gordon M. – Powerfully colored walls! (With people in front of them)
Doug S. – Roadside memorial markers.

What can I say? It’s great to know all of you. I’m always encouraged when I look at my Google Analytics and see that about 60+% of my visitors, on a daily basis, are return visitors! That’s cool!

 Posted by at 00:00

All ISO’s are not created equal!

 Photography, Techy Stuff  6 Responses »
Dec 042008
 


Sneaky shot! ISO 6400 + Live view. :-)

First, thanks to Mark Graf for pointing out this very interesting, at least to me, site. It’s called DxOMark. They compare digital camera sensors in terms of color fidelity, stated ISO vs. measured ISO, dynamic range, color range, etc.

I found out somethings that I didn’t know which will probably change, slightly, the way that I use my camera. For example, I did not know that a digital camera, such as the D300 was capable of recording a dynamic range of about 11 stops! Impressive! Back in the day, film gave about 5 or 6 tops. Now we get 11 and still want more! :-) I guess that we won’t be satisfied until the sensor can capture the same number of stops as our eyes do!

What I found interesting is that there is distinct, and steep slope of falloff in dynamic range as you increase ISO. For example, on the D300, you get about 11 stops at ISO 200, and and at ISO 6400, you are down to 6.6 stops! You’ve lost 5 stops of range. Perhaps, though, in thinking about it, if you are shooting at ISO 6400, you are probably well within that range anyway, save for the occasional street light. If you visit, make sure to move your mouse inside of the graph, then out. A picture will appear ‘under’ the graph. Then, move your mouse along the scale on the side. As you move up and down, it will show you the dynamic range changes on the photo. Cool stuff!

As I use a tripod most of the time and use ISO 200, and even ISO 100 (L 1.0), my camera is capable of capturing that range most of the time.

Kudos to Nikon for having the top 2 rated sensors. The D3 and the D700. The D300 came in around #11. I guess that that full frame sensor is a real peach, though I doubt that I could really tell the difference in two side-by-side pictures.

 Posted by at 00:00  Tagged with: , ,

You’d have to be seriously brand loyal …

 Photography  7 Responses »
Dec 032008
 


Egad! Lad! You took this with a 6 MP camera!

I’ve seen a number of places on the web where a number of people say that they are going to boycott the Nikon D3x because of the price. Hmmmm. I wonder if boycott is the right word, but it does fit. It means to abstain from buying or using something. So, I guess that all of us who do not use the D3x are boycotting it, in some form or fashion.

If one seriously wants to move up to 24 mega pixels, then more power to you! If you read Earl’s post, you’ll see what that entails. Basically, a lot more time and more drive space for, IMHO, little or no gain in image quality. Also, seeing what else is available and how much less it costs, makes me wonder how very brand loyal you have to be to pay a premium of $5000 more.

Mind you, I am aware that the cost of the camera, if you own another brand, is not simply the cost of the camera, but the cost of switching over, but I’m just comparing simple apples to apples. You could get a Sony A900 for $2999 and have 24.6 MP. Or you could opt for the Canon 5D MkII for about $2700 and get about 22 MP. Of course, if you are heavily invested in Nikon lenses, etc. then your only way to get to into the MP race is to dump $8,000 into Nikon’s pocket right now or wait for a while for the little brother model that’s bound to appear, or just let sanity have it’s way with you and don’t join in on the pixel orgy.

When it gets down to it. How many pixels do you need? I’ve gotten some really nice 13 x 19 prints out of my ‘lowly’ 6 MP D40.

Well, we do live in a capitalistic society. We’ll see what the market will tell Nikon about the price of their new flagship camera. It will be interesting to watch …

 Posted by at 19:01

Other accessories

 Photography  11 Responses »
Dec 022008
 


I just thought about a Brooks Jenson podcast that I was listening to some time ago. In it, he talks about non-photographic accessories that he caries around with him. Of primary importance to him was a step ladder, or small stool; I don’t remember which. He liked this item so much that, if he forgot it for some reason, almost no matter how far down the road he had gotten, he’d turn around to go back to get it! Periodically, I think that having a small step ladder would be a great thing to have.

I don’t know if I have anything, other than my cameras that I’d do that for, but it would probably depend on where I was going to shoot. There are a few things that are always found in the trunk of my car:

1) A pair of boots to go over my shoes and up to my knees. Great for splashing around in streams and muddy areas.
2) My hip waders. For those deeper streams! :-)
3) A can of mosquito repellent!
4) A large rectangle of heavy duty canvas. The type that you use as a drop cloth when you are painting a room. This makes laying on the ground a bit nicer.

Inside of my bag, I always keep a small LED flashlight handy. It is really helpful when you are setting out at dark, walking down a trail.

Two gadgets that I don’t have at the moment, but would like to have are:
Bubble level
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve come back with a picture that I really, really like, composed just the way that I wanted it, but the horizon was crazy crooked! Then comes the compromise. Straighten and re-crop using Photoshop :-) This mostly happens with my Tamron 11-18mm, as the horizon appears so far away, and I’m usually concentrating on the edges of the frame. I do make it a point to look at the horizon a lot of the time, but it takes a few tweaks to get it right, and when I’m reacting to the changes of the light, sometimes, ummm, I forget! A level would make this much easier. Also, if I took the time to put the level onto the hot-shoe, hopefully, I’ll take time to look at it. It’s a theory! Probably worth the $24.95 to find out.

GPS
I have a hand-held GPS and one in my car. I’m still at the point in my life where I can remember where I was when I took a picture. I’m thankful for that! :-) However, these are gross locations, a city, a national park, etc. The finer locations, like almost exactly where you stood, can be important.

When I went to New Mexico, there were a few places in White Sands National Monument that I wanted to come back to when I get out that way again. I marked them with my hand-held GPS and it is still there, but it would be nice have it reside with the picture. Of course, to go back to that place, you’d still need the hand-held GPS. I know that I could tag it after the fact, but … it probably “ain’t gonna happen”. Going back to a place like White Sands, which is continuously reshaping itself, and trying to find a location that could be quite different looking is challenging to say the least. Might as well have technology on your side!

So, my friend, Earl has a GPS unit that he is very happy with. Here is the link to it. I think that it would be a nice accessory to have, not for everyday photography, but for those special places that you’d like to share with others, or that you want to get back to one day. Also, for those places, I’d like to Geo-tag them so that you can go and discover them for yourself, should you be in the neighborhood!

Are there any that I missed? Any that you keep your bag that you find extremely useful?

 Posted by at 07:22
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