Blue Pixel Musings

Luck or Skill?

2009-10-28T14:35:13Z

After shooting the Kansas City Chiefs game against the San Diego Chargers last weekend, another photographer and I were discussing the differences between luck and skill. Those are two things every good photographer has experience with.

We got into this conversation while talking about the state of camera equipment these days. Years ago you had to understand ISO, shutter speed and aperture, as well as develop a skill at manual focus, to be able to shoot quality photos. Today, thanks the the tremendous advances in camera technology, anyone can make high quality photos by simply pointing and shooting. That's had a negative impact on many working photographers, as they've found themselves competing with uncle Jim or aunt Gail. Those photographers who've remained successful have done so by showing added value in what they do.

Dave Black, one of the world's best sports photographers, recently told me, "My grandmother could make good pictures at an NFL game if I gave her a Nikon D3 and 600mm lens." And he's right. The technology of auto exposure and autofocus has gotten so good that just about anybody could. And that's where luck comes in. Anybody at any sports event with a good camera can get lucky and make a great photo. It's just a matter of having the camera pointed in the right direction and happening to hit the shutter at the right moment. I've been the benefit of that myself many times, and am grateful. But good sports photographers have more than luck working for them. They must, because they always seem to be in the right place at the right time.

Those photographers use a combination of things to make them better than the others around them. First, they know the game and the players. They anticipate what's going to happen, and that's 90-percent of being in the right spot and prepared to make the shot. They think ahead. They play the odds. They put themselves in a position to make good pictures. That's how I was able to get the shot of the blocked punt and resulting touchdown by San Diego. I was in the right spot and ready.

They also know their equipment. They know how to massage the autofocus settings to make the system perform the way they want. They keep a close eye on the amount of light and their shutter speed, adjusting the ISO when needed. They use pro-level bodies and lenses to have fast frame rates, fast apertures and dependability and toughness in cold and rain. At this game I used a Nikon D3 and 200-400 f/4 zoom, and despite a steady downpour during the second half, was able to keep shooting. Mainly because rain was forecast and so not only was I dressed properly, but I had Thinktank Photo's excellent Hydrophobia rain cover protecting my camera and lens.

Most important, they pay attention. If a team's got a good chance to score, they're near the end zone with several cameras, at least one with a telephoto and the second with a wide-angle. That way they're ready to make the shot whether it's ten or one-hundred feet away.

For twenty years I covered every season of the Buffalo Bills for my paper in upstate New York. Now most of my time is spent teaching and writing, and I shoot much less. Thank goodness for autofocus! I still know where to be at a game, and still have a fair amount of luck working for me. Those great sports photographers rely on skill and a bit of luck. Me, I rely on a lot of luck now. As an old friend says, "I'd rather be lucky than good!"

The Beauty of Blur

2009-10-21T14:28:40Z

There are two things that can ruin photos - blur and being out of focus. At times, though, blur can make a picture better. The trick to doing that is understanding how to use blur as a creative tool.

The most common time to try creative blur is when you don't have enough light to get the picture you want. That often means early or late in the day, or indoors. I recently led a photo workshop in Egypt, as part of the American Photo/Pop Photo Mentor Series, and as part of that we spent three days cruising the Nile. After sunset there was still beautiful light on the water, but much too dark to get a good shot without either a lot of noise (high ISO) or blur. I told the folks out on deck with me that this was a great time to start doing some creative blur. There were water taxis running back and forth across the river, and they made great subjects for a pan shot. Panning is when you shoot a slow shutter peed while tracking your subject. You try to keep them in the same spot in your viewfinder, and the movement of your lens tracking them creates motion blur in the background. With a little luck you get a part of the subject sharp, while the rest of the scene shows blur. The slower you shoot, the greater the effect. The downside is the slower you shoot, the more likely it won't work. My answer to that is, shoot a lot! This photo of the boat was made at 1/8 second, f/13 at 200 ISO. Obviously I could have used a higher shutter speed (with a wider aperture), but then the blur wouldn't have been as pronounced.

When we got tired of doing that, we turned our lenses to the feluccas sailing the river. They're small lateen-rigged sailboats, and one of the iconic sites on the Nile. Since we'd already been doing a pan blur shot of the water taxies, I suggested a different blur photo. This time we tried zoom blurs. Again, you use slow shutter speeds (usually 1/2 to 1/8 second when hand-held), but this time instead of tracking (panning) with the subject, you zoom your lens as you shoot the photo. There are a few tips I can suggest to make this work best. First, keep your subject in the center of the frame. That's the only place that will have a chance of staying sharp. Second, I find starting zoomed in (tight) and zooming wider to work best, though others may disagre. And third, start your zooming BEFORE you press the shutter button. That way you'll add less blur when moving the lens (starting the twist is more movement than continuing it). This shot was done at 1/4 second at f/6.3.

Finally, there are times when you have plenty of light, but still want to have blur. We took small horse-drawn carriages from the river to one of the temples. It was a bright sunny day, but I wanted to emphasize the action of the horses running. To do that I needed to get the shutter speed as low as possible, which I started by taking theISO as low as possible (lower ISO's require more light to make the exposure). Then I dialed my aperture (using Aperture Priority) to its smallest setting. For this shot I was at 100 ISO at f/22, which allowed my shutter speed to go low, to 1/20 of a second. Then it was just a matter of tracking the horse (panning) while firing off a bunch of frames. After all, I just needed one good one.

I like to say that you can make pictures anywhere you have light - it's just a question of what you do with that light.

Mastering Travel Itineraries

2009-10-15T23:47:42Z

Ever had someone tell you about some great new thing, and you promptly forgot about it? That's what happened with me and Tripit. Then about a year later I heard about it again, and wow, what a wasted year!

If you do any travel at all you know what a hassle it is keeping track of all the reservations. Air, car, hotel - you make them through different websites, get confirmation emails and then end up making a bunch of printouts and trying to remember where you put them. There's got to be a better way. There is, and it's called Tripit.

Tripit.com takes the hassle out of managing travel plans. You simply set up an account (it's free) and then forward all your confirmation emails to Tripit. The site then organizes it all by stripping out formatting, pulling dates, confirmations, addresses and phone numbers and putting them all together again, day by day. You can then access it through their site or through any phone with a web browser. If you've got an iPhone there's an app for it.

It's made my travel much easier since I started using it. And after all, isn't that what technology's supposed to do? Make life better? Tthis is one site that lives up to that promise.

Great New Softbox

2009-10-06T21:12:26Z

You know by now I'm a big fan of using strobes. Good light is so important to good pictures that I love being able to create and/or add it whenever I want. And I've always been a fan of softboxes as a way of controlling and directing that light. Now there's a new softbox that I just can't say enough good things about. But I'll try :)

In August I started hearing about a new softbox called the "FourSquare," made by Paul Peregrine of Lightware. A friend at Nikon first mentioned it, then Dave Black raved about it when we were teaching a workshop together. The two words I kept hearing were "multiple strobes" and "versatile." Paul sent me one to try out, and boy, am I impressed. I can easily find more than two words to say about it.

First off, you can use from one to four strobes in it. Yes, four. The advantage here is two-fold, First, each additional strobe doubles the possible power output, letting you work more easily in large spaces or outside in sunlight. Second, using multiple strobes means each one doesn't have to put out as much light, so you can get faster recycle time. Nice.

Next, it's got the most innovative speed ring I've ever seen. A speed ring holds the four struts of a softbox together, and usually is designed with an open center for the flash to fire through. Because of that, they're often fairly large. In this case, Paul decided to get rid of the center hole, so instead you have a compact, nicely machined block of aluminum that has points for the four softbox poles, four strobes, two umbrellas and two threaded holes (1/4 and 3/8-inch, to mount to accessories like lightstand brackets).

The softbox itself is a bit revolutionary too. Most softboxes have four poles that you flex to open the softbox and insert them into the speedring. The FourSquare does that too, but this time Paul got inventive by using two-section poles, that already have an elbow bend in them. That lets the poles be much shorter. The whole kit - poles, softbox and speedring - fit into an 18-inch bag and weigh about two pounds.

The strobes actually go inside the softbox, instead of the traditional spot outside. That allows you to point the strobes forward, into the diffusion fabric, or tilt them to fire into the side panels for even softer light. If you want to use it outside in the wind, you can remove the front panel and open the back, letting the breeze pass right through.

Using the FourSquare has been as much fun as exploring how it works. I've got a small softbox that's part of the portable lighting kit I use almost every week. My larger softboxes, though, get much less use because, well, they're big. And, the speedrings I have for them are for my AC-powered lights, meaning I don't drag them out unless I really need that power and can take the time to bring the extra gear. The compact size of the FourSquare (packed) means it can go with my portable kit, but its large 30-inch size means I get larger, prettier light out of it.

Finally, about a year ago I switched my portable kit to all Nikon Speedlights so I didn't always have to use PocketWizards (radio remotes) to trigger the strobes. And the FourSquare, despite its size and mounting of the strobes inside the softbox, still works great with Nikon's Commander mode and the SU-800 I've been using to trigger them. I've even had the box outside to the side and behind me, and by simply attaching the SU-800 to a SC-29 cord and hanging it over my shoulder, I could still trigger the strobes in the softbox.

The only downside I can find is that it takes a little longer to set up. Maybe a couple of minutes instead of the one minute my other small portable softbox does. But that's a very small drawback, and is far outweighed by its many advantages. It's been a joy to use, and expands what I can do by giving me a larger softbox in a smaller package. If you want more information on it, check out www.lightwaredirect.com.

A Better Camera Strap?

2009-09-23T13:23:38Z

Being a newspaper photographer for over twenty years has taken its toll on my neck and shoulders. I've grown to hate the weight of cameras around my neck, and am tired of trying to keep them from falling off my shoulders. One company looks like it has a good solution for me.

Last month a friend showed me a new style camera strap he was using. Made by a company in the northwest, BlackRapid (www.blackrapid.com) has a series of straps designed to change how we carry cameras. The basic one is called the R-Strap (latest version the RS-4) and you wear it across your chest, like a messenger bag. What makes it unique is that it connects to the camera using the tripod socket on the bottom. This lets it attach to the strap with a clip that slides, so when you want to pull the camera up to shoot, the strap doesn't have to move. This is the best part of the design - it makes it easy to pull the camera up, since it doesn't have to force the strap to slide around your shoulder. There's a buckle on the strap that you can adjust so that when you drop the camera to your side it stops at the right spot. And, the connection from the strap to the body is a carabiner-style design, so it's easy to remove from the strap. I used it to carry a D300S and 70-200 2.8 at a baseball game recently and was the most comfortable I've been with that kind of weight. When using one camera this will be my main strap from now on.

If you want to carry two cameras, a pair of these would mean one strap overlying the other, making it hard to use. For that they offer two solutions. The first is called the CoupleR and lets you use two of the standard straps, connected at the back. The other, my personal favorite, is called the Double Strap. There's a bit more hardware (fabric?) to it, but ergonomically it looked more comfortable and since I regularly shoot with two cameras, that was important. I wore it a lot at the Long Island photo workshop recently, and was really pleased. Then last week I was shooting out the open door of a helicopter, and used it with a pair of cameras, D3X with 70-200 and D300S with 300 mm 2.8. Normally I would have had them tied into hard points in the helicopter, making it harder to switch cameras. With the Double Strap I had both of them in my lap, and could switch cameras easily.

I only see two drawbacks. The first is that if you want to still be able to use a traditional strap at times (and I do), then you'll need to find something like the Domke strap that lets you remove the main section. Trying to tie a strap up to be out of the way is a pain. And secondly, The connector on the bottom ties up the tripod socket, so you have to remove it if you want to use a tripod (or add a plate that has a 1/4-20 thread hole). All in all, minor drawbacks that I'm happy to work around.

What I really want is cameras that are super-small with amazing quality, and a 10-600mm 2.8 lens that weighs less than 3 lbs :) In the meantime, I'll continue to look for comfortable ways to carry the gear I've got, and that means I'll be a customer of BlackRapid.

Model Performance

2009-09-17T11:59:04Z

Back in my newspaper days I volunteered at one time to do the food and fashion shoots. That wasn't really my kind of photography, but it was time to try something new. I ended up enjoying it, and learned the value of working with an experienced model.

When I started, the paper was too cheap to hire models, so the fashion writer would find friends to model the clothes. I'd find a location, deal with the lighting and then try to pose the person so they looked natural. The hardest part of the whole process was working with the volunteer model. I learned to keep a close eye on things like what they were doing with their hands, where their feet were pointed, and which leg they put their weight on. And I often had to work hard to cajole a smile out of someone who wasn't used to being in front of a camera.

Eventually the newspaper decided to hire students from a modeling school. What a difference! Not only did they know how to hold their body and smile comfortably, but better yet, they understood that a good model works with a photographer. That means they work through different poses, pausing at each one to let you shoot. It's a bit of a dance between the model and photographer, and can be a lot of fun. Suddenly I was able to concentrate on the photography - light, background, technical details like depth of field and focus - without trying to manage the model as well. And right then I understood that a good model was far more than a pretty face.

This past weekend I was in Long Island, leading a photo workshop for American/Pop Photo (part of their Mentor Series). There's almost always an opportunity at these workshops to photograph people in a controlled location, but normally they're not trained models. This time we did have someone with experience in front of the camera, and not surprisingly, it was a joy to photograph her.

I like to tell people that when I'm doing a portrait, I concentrate on finding a good setting (and background) and figure out what to do with the light, then add the person to the shot. After all, there's not much you can do about the subject other than suggest how they dress. But if you ever get a chance to work with a trained model, you'll get a treat. After all, it's far more fun to dance with someone who knows the steps.

Backup in my Pocket

2009-09-10T13:08:37Z

I'm in Long Island right now, getting ready to start a photography workshop for American Photo (one of their Mentor Series programs). And for the first time in a long time, I've left on a photo trip without an extra hard drive to backup my images.

One of the great advantages of digital photography is the ability to have as many perfect duplicates of an original image as you like. With film there was only one original, and every copy after that lost some quality. With digital, since the files are nothing more than 1's and 0's, you can have as many exact copies as you like. So the trick is to make sure you actually make those copies. My system at home does that automatically, but on the road I've always taken some type of external hard drive - USB, Firewire, iPod, etc. to backup my photos at the end of each day of shooting. Those days are over.

SanDisk has a USB stick called the Ultra Backup. No larger than most other thumb drives, it holds a whopping 64GB of data! To me that means several days' worth of heavy shooting of RAW files. In addition to the massive capacity, it comes with software that lets you identify certain files or folders you want it to backup, and then does that at just the push of a button.While the stick will work on both Windows and Mac, this particular feature only works on Windows right now, though SanDisk says it will have a Mac version of that software later this year.

If there's any downside, it's the price. It's expensive for storage, though I've seen it for as low as about $160. The savings in size and weight, though, are considerable, and there's the peace of mind factor. When working with computers you always have to remember that hard drives do crash (those tiny spinning platters can and do fail). And when traveling, computers can be stolen (and if your backup is in the computer bag, say "bye-bye" to it too). With one of these, you can have perfect duplicates of everything you've shot, can keep them in your pocket all day (and under your pillow at night if you like), and the device has no moving parts to crash. You can even carry it through scanners at airports.

I'm a big fan of devices that are smaller, lighter and make life easier. This new USB stick from SanDisk has earned a permanent spot in my pocket.

Loving Wireless Flash

2009-09-02T21:40:39Z

I've been a big fan of off-camera flash since I started using a Vivitar 283 and 15-ft sync cord in the mid-80s. Since then I've added many more strobes and some radio triggers/receivers to my lighting kits. The last few years, though, I've done most of my lighting with wireless flash built into my cameras and strobes.

Nikon started the trend with their "Creative Lighting System" and Commander mode capability in the D70 and the SB-600 and SB-800 Speedlights. Since then they've grown that functionality and added the SB-900 strobe and the SU-800 Commander module. What that means for photographers is the ability to do fairly complex lighting setups with a minimum amount of gear. I primarily use the Nikon gear, but Sony also offers similar capability in some of their cameras/strobes and Canon has a wireless mode too, though not supported through the on-camera flash (though that sounds to change with the introduction of the 7D).

In August I taught a photography workshop (Colorado with American Photo) with Dave Black, who's a master at this stuff. Dave showed a couple of neat tricks to enhance what he was doing with Nikon's gear. The first was utter simplicity, and involved getting more power to the subject. The easiest way to do that is adding a second strobe, and I've done that before with a bracket that holds two strobes. Dave made that even easier, by simply rubber-banding two Nikon SB-900's together. No extra weight, and simple to separate for two light sources. The second trick was to use one of Nikon's TTL cords (now called the SC-29) to get the SU-800 Commander unit away from the camera and pointed to the strobes.

I was thinking of all this yesterday while doing some photos for a local air ambulance service. Working inside a helicopter on a sunny morning, I needed to create light inside the chopper to either supplement the existing light or overpower it. In each case I used a pair of Nikon SB-900's and the SU-800 to trigger them. I put strobes on the floor, hung them from the ceiling and even had an assistant hold one outside the helicopter, firing in to simulate sunshine. Many cameras/strobes today also let you use a shutter speed higher than the regulation sync speed (around 1/200 second). Taking advantage of Nikon's FP sync mode, I was able to photograph the pilot at 1/2500 second at f/7.1, darkening the blue sky to make the photo more dramatic.

I used to put a flash in my camera bag only when I knew I was going to need it. Now I keep at least one flash with me at all times. Being able to add or create light in almost any situation lets me make photos that most other photographers can't, without dragging a case of lights everywhere. I've come a long way since that first Vivitar strobe and sync cord, and never want to go back!

Color Management upgrade

2009-08-26T18:35:20Z

Color management is a topic that every serious photographer has to tackle at some point. I've been using and teaching it for eight years now, and just had one of my best experiences yet with the printing side.

I tend to print in batches. Every month or two I'll fire up the inkjets and print everything that I've set aside up to that point. This week was one of those times, and I needed to print both 8X10s and a few larger prints. I also remembered that X-Rite had recently sent out a note that there was updated software for their ColorMunki Photo, so I wanted to give that a try.

As with most color management packages, the ColorMunki Photo is a combination of a hardware device and software. The hardware portion is a spectrophotometer, which is what you need if you want to create custom printer profiles. This package costs about $500. Less that that and you're working with a colorimeter, which is fine for monitor profiling, but can't do prints.

Monitor profiling is all that most people need, unless you do a lot of printing yourself, and are fairly critical of the results. Moving from CRT displays to LCDs brought many benefits, but one downside was the brightness of those LCD displays. It could be difficult to dim them enough for good monitor to print matching, and in the past we've often had to adjust the RGB controls (if the monitor even had them) to achieve that. I was hoping that someone like X-Rite would address that, and now they have.

There are a number of changes to this new ColorMunki software, but the biggest for me is its ability to better control that luminance. When running the software I chose the "Match my Printer to my Display" option, and then followed the instructions. After profiling the monitor, I continued and made a custom profile for the papers I was using: Epson glossy for the Epson R1800, Epson matte for the Epson R2400, Hahnemuhle smooth fine art and HP Satin for the HP 130NR. In every case I had some of the best monitor-to-print matching I've seen so far. In making about thirty prints, I only had two that I needed to make a second print of. Wow!

It also gives me the ability to further customize the profile based on the types of photos I print, and I'll work on that soon. The improvements in color management over the years haven't been fast, but they've been good. And this latest one is my favorite yet.

In Praise of Fast Lenses

2009-08-19T18:14:08Z

When photographers talk about lenses these days, it's mostly about the zooms. When the light's low, though, you can't beat a good fast fixed focal-length lens.

Twenty or thirty years ago if you wanted the sharpest possible photos, you avoided the zooms. That's changed now, and a good zoom rivals the fixed lenses in sharpness. Where the fixed lenses can beat the zooms is in their speed. And that's what I needed recently.

Some friends were getting married, and had asked if I'd do the photography. I was happy to oblige. The affair was going to be small, just a small group in a gazebo near a lake. At sunset. Or, more accurately, just past sunset. Which meant there wouldn't be much light for me to work with. Fortunately, I had just the lens for the job - the Nikkor 85mm f/1.4.

For most of my photography I prefer zooms because of their flexibility in range. It's great to be able to frame tighter or looser with just the twist of a wrist. And I have fast zooms, which are expensive but pay for themselves in helping me shoot in low light. My fast zooms, though, are f/2.8. Which means the f/1.4 85mm lens is two full stops faster. In photography, a "stop" is a full measure of light. One stop faster would let twice as much light into the camera, allowing the photographer to shoot at one full shutter speed faster. So that f/1.4 lens, being two stops faster, let me shoot at two shutter speeds faster. In low light that means the difference between getting a photo or a blur.

Using a Nikon D700, I could comfortably shoot around 1/100 second at ISO 3200 and make some beautiful images. Sure, some were blurry, as that's still a pretty slow shutter speed. But one great advantage to digital is that you can shoot LOTS of photos and just delete the bad ones (or in this case, blurry ones).

To wrap up the shoot, after the ceremony I took the couple to a nearby fountain. Shooting wide open, I used the f/1.4 aperture of the lens to blur the jets of water into a dreamy background for a kiss, while keeping the subjects in sharp focus. Which is why I often tell people to look at fast fixed lenses - that aperture lets you shoot faster shutter speeds and also gives you more control over depth of field (how the background looks).

Yes, I'm still a big fan of zoom lenses, and they're mainly what I shoot with. There will be times, though, where the best tool for the job is a fast fixed lens.

Moon Shot

2009-08-13T13:37:40Z

One of the questions I'm regularly asked at workshops is how to photograph the moon. With the recent anniversary of the first moon landing, I thought this would be a good time to talk about that.

On our camping trip to Colorado last week, my daughter Rachel and I were treated to a nearly full moon. It rose early in the evening and kept us company on our hike up Longs Peak from 2:30am to sunrise. During the days we were there, I took advantage of it to do a series of shots showing how to make pictures of it.

The first thing to think about is exposure. If you're photographing the moon in the night sky, remember that its illumination is coming from the sun. And, unless you're using a very long lens (600mm or more), it's going to be a small part of the image. That means it will be surrounded by a large area of blackness. Which will cause the meter to overexpose the moon itself. There are two ways around this. One, you could change your metering mode to Spot and meter just the moon. The easier way (and what I usually do) is shoot a series of tests using minus exposure compensation, from about -2 to -3, finding the one that just avoids flashing highlights (or a histogram that gets near the right edge, but doesn't hit it).

The second thing to keep in mind is that just a photo of the moon, in a large expanse of black sky, probably won't be that interesting. It's better if you can have something else in the frame as well. And the secret to that is to shoot your moon pictures before it gets dark. That's right, before it's truly night. Most good moon photos are shot at dusk or dawn, when there's still light in the sky. At those times you can use the existing (ambient) light to capture something in addition to the moon, like mountains or trees. If you tried that at night, the exposure difference would be so great that either the moon would be blown-out (no detail, overexposed) or the other area would be black. Having some light in the sky means you can add more to the photo than just the moon. Think about the photos you've seen with the moon that you really liked, and you'll realize they all include more than just the moon.

And finally, if you've got a willing volunteer (Rachel, in my case), you can add the human element to the photo. While a beautiful scenic with the moon is always nice, people like photos that have other people in them. We're hard-wired that way.

So the keys to good moon photos boil down to two key things: don't wait until dark to shoot your photos, and include something more than the moon. Do that, and you'll be taking one small step towards being as successful as Neil Armstrong was back in 1969.

Minimalist Approach

2009-08-08T00:06:36Z

My daughter Rachel and I are spending this week in Rocky Mountain National Park. We're camping and have a number of hikes planned, including Longs Peak, if we're lucky. So we're traveling light.

Camping and hiking aren't really friendly to digital photography. Digital's all about technology and power, and camping tends not to have too much of either of those. So I decided to make my kit even smaller than what I took on vacation a couple of weeks ago.

First off, I'm leaving the computer behind. Truthfully, I don't know that I could do that if I didn't have a smart phone. Being able to do email on the phone, though, means I won't be completely out of touch. Still not sure if that's good or bad :)

On the camera side, I'll bring along a small camera (either the Nikon D90 or D5000), a short zoom (16-85) and a long zoom (70-300). The short zoom is all I'll take on the hikes. And a bunch of SD cards for the camera, 4GB and 8GB sizes. I'm hoping to shoot some video too, since I never carry a camcorder on a camping trip, and both of these cameras will shoot video.

All that's left is a couple of extra batteries for the camera and a way to backup the cards. For that I'll take an Epson P3000, a digital wallet whose 40GB drive gives me plenty of space to download to from its built-in SD slot. And, if we get trapped in the tent by a big rainstorm, then we can always watch some movies I've loaded onto it. Now that's what I call roughing it!

Chasing Sunset

2009-07-30T03:52:00Z

One evening this week I decided to shoot some photos at dusk and was reminded there's a right way and a wrong way to chase a sunset.

Whenever we visit a National Park, we always try to spend at least one night in the main lodge. They're almost always wonderful old buildings in beautiful locations, with a warm and friendly great room and good food. At Crater Lake it's on the southwest corner of the rim near the trailhead to Garfield Peak. The first morning there we took the ranger hike to the top of Garfield, and I realized on the way back down that the trail would offer some nice spots to shoot sunset.

That evening after dinner I asked Sharon and Rachel if they'd mind me taking a walk to shoot some pictures. They were both quite happy to relax and read, so I grabbed my camera bag and headed off. The light was perfect - warm and golden, just before sunset - so I looked forward to some of the spots I'd scouted earlier. I didn't want to shoot the sunset itself, just use its light on some of those old trees and rock formations. The first spot I got to worked fine, but after that I realized I'd made a big mistake. Sharon and I had been relaxing and enjoying the view from the verandah, and I started too late.

I knew where the sun was going to set, but hadn't realized there were trees and rock outcroppings that might block its light from the areas I wanted to shoot. So each time I got to one of those spots, I'd already missed the light. Which meant I kept climbing and climbing, trying to get higher to where the light was as the sun kept dropping further. And failing.

The evening wasn't a total loss. For one thing, I had a nice evening walk (and the mosquitos enjoyed me). And, as I kept climbing higher, walking away from the sun, I noticed a great cloud formation above Union Peak. Which reminded me of something I often tell students: "don't forget to look behind you, there may be a nice picture there." So I didn't get the shots I was hoping for, but instead got something unexpected that I like even more. And that's not a bad way to end the day.

They shopped, so I...

2009-07-23T23:03:03Z

I'm not a big shopper. So when my wife and daughter decided to spend the first afternoon of our vacation shopping in Portland, I decided to take a walk instead. With my camera.

In June I led a photo trip along the coast of Oregon, and after telling my family about it, we decided to make the state our summer vacation. We have a nice itinerary planned, including Crater Lake, which our Southwest pilot was kind enough to show us from the plane. Taking early flights from Kansas City, we landed before noon. That left the rest of the day free to see some of Portland. So off we went to the Pearl District, an old industrial area that's alive today with shops and restaurants. For Sharon and Rachel, that meant shopping. I chose to go exploring with my camera.

Being vacation, I'm traveling light. One camera (the Nikon D5000) and a couple of lenses. My favorites for high quality in light packages (relatively) are the Nikon 16-85 and 70-300. At the last minute I also grabbed the Nikon 10-24mm, a new lens I haven't had much experience with. No strobes, no tripod, no big lenses, no filters. An easy kit to travel with.

I've always been more comfortable in the country than the city, and that's true when I'm shooting pictures too. There's so much going on in an urban environment that I find it difficult to simplify or control the scene. That means I often find myself shooting closeups, or looking for lines and color to work with. For me, finding that one piece of a scene I find interesting and isolating it seems to work best.

In addition to doing that, I always have a list of photos I need to get. One of the benefits of teaching photography is that I can produce my own material to use in class. It's also a great way to get me shooting. I'm continually looking for examples of good and bad framing, use of lines and texture, color, finding light and working with it and showing variations in exposure. As part of what I'm doing with light, I'm also looking for reflections, more abstract than mirror-like. And the streets of the Pearl District were great hunting grounds for all of these.

After a couple of hours we met for dinner. They'd found some great deals and I'd found some nice shots. Everybody was happy. Which, after all, is what you want in a vacation.

Extension Tubes

2009-07-15T15:00:47Z

For years I've struggled with whether to carry a macro (closeup) lens with me on trips. I love what I can do with one, but it's another piece of glass to carry. And if I'm not sure I'll need one, I often leave it behind. Now I've finally got a solution.

Macro (or micro) lenses have always been among my favorite lenses. If you want to shoot photos, but can't find anything interesting, all you have to do is get closer. Much, much closer, to almost anything. You can always find neat pictures when you start magnifying stuff.

Getting started in photography in high school, I bought a set of closeup filters and had a lot of fun with them. In time I was able to afford the better quality and usefulness of a real closeup lens. As I've gotten older, though, I'm less willing to carry a heavy bag of gear, so sometimes the closeup lens gets left behind. And that created my dilemma. Then I remembered extension tubes, and finally bought a set.

Extension tubes are pretty basic - they go between the camera body and the lens and "extend" the distance between the sensor (or film) and lens elements. In doing that, they allow the lens to focus much closer than normal. They come in different lengths, the longer ones allowing even closer focus. Because there's no glass in them they're fairly light. And that also means they're not very expensive. I bought a set of three by Kenko for under $200. I chose those, with 12mm, 20mm and 36mm tubes because they have the connections to allow my Nikon bodies and lenses to still communicate, so AF and auto-exposure still work. And, they can be stacked for even more magnification (which is what I did for this flower photo, stacking all three on my 70-300mm lens).

As good as they sound, they don't replace traditional closeup lenses. when you put one on a lens it limits the focus to a very small range. In other words, you can ONLY focus close now. And, there's some loss of light, so you have to compensate for that occasionally. Also, remember that when you get REALLY close on something, the depth of field can be almost non-existent. Be VERY careful with focus. The big plus is that they're small and light, so it's easy to keep one in the bag for those times you don't have a closeup lens with you. And, they can be used with a macro/micro lens for unbelievably close focus.

So now the 20mm extension tube will have a regular spot in my camera bag. When I know I'm going to do serious closeup work I'll bring my 60 or 105 Micro, but the rest of the time that tube will be there. You never know when a great closeup shot will present itself, and since I'm an old Boy Scout, I like to be prepared.