14 Powerful TED Talks by Photographers

I picked up this link from a newsletter that I get and wanted to post it here.

For those of you who don't know what "TED-Ideas Worth Spreading" is, you can check it out at this link.

Recently on TED they posted a series of talks by leading photographers, and a website called Peta Pixel gathered them together at this link called "14 Powerful TED Talks by Photographers".

Great stuff! Check it out...

Thank you! 60 countries and almost 1,000 visits!

Pretty cool stuff!

Since I started this blog, it has gone global and has now been visited almost 1,000 times by people in 60 different countries! Click on the ClustrMap at the top right side of the main page to see the details.

The map indicates that repeat visitors are coming back to read the blog more than once, which is also good news. I'm glad people find this interesting enough to return!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to send me an email at photolife@comcast.net. It was fun to hear people's thoughts from various parts of the world.

Let's knock this over 1,000 visits! Enjoy!

Favorite photography books

I like to read photography books, specifically those about techniques that I'm interested in. I find the photos, stories from the author, and general discussions very valuable.

The thing with photography instruction, concept, and technique books is that if you don't relate well to the author's writing and instruction style then the book quickly becomes a big bore and not worth reading. Those books quickly find their way to the bottom of my bookshelf...

I'm glad to say that over the past year or so, I've found seven books that I can highly recommend to anyone looking to improve their photography. Some of these books focus on specific techniques, but don't let that put you off if that particular technique is not what you're interested in.

The reason I say that is because the general discussion in every one of these books is valuable regardless of the technique that they're focused on. For example, take Michael Freeman's book "Perfect Exposure". While this book is definitely about mastering the art of exposure and how to use exposure to express yourself more creatively with your photos, it also has very valuable general discussions about light, photo design, and "seeing your subject". Regardless of what Freeman is trying to teach in this book about exposure, those discussions are worth the cost on their own. So you really get two benefits in one!

These authors all have different writing styles for sure, and they all succeed at driving home their points with interesting stories and good photo examples.

So...Here is my list of some of my current favorite photography books that I think anyone can benefit from:

- "Perfect Exposure" - Michael Freeman
- "The Photographer's Eye" - Michael Freeman
- "On-Camera Flash" - Neil van Niekerk
- "The Hot Shoe Diaries" - Joe McNally
- "The Moment It Clicks" - Joe McNally
- "Take Your Photography to the Next Level" - George Barr
- "Night & Low Light Photography" - Jill Waterman

D-Town TV

Scott Kelby's name is synonymous with photography and photography instruction. Many people own his photography and Photoshop books, read his blogs, attend his seminars, etc.

What I didn't realize is that Scott has significantly streamlined his online presence in recent months, and I stumbled across two things to share here.

First, this is a link to his main Kelby TV web site. This site contains all of Kelby's online videos across a wide range of photography, software, and instruction topics.

Second, and more specifically geared towards DSLR shooters, is this link to his D-Town TV web site. The explanation of D-Town TV from the site is: "D-Town TV is a fresh approach to teaching camera tips and photographic techniques to today's digital photographers with Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski as its hosts. No matter what the skill level or interest, each episode covers a wide variety of topics".

I've found the D-Town videos to be interesting and helpful. Take a look through the latest episode and archives to see what you can get out of it. It's an interesting resource!

Canon AF micro adjust

Most of the latest wave of high end digital SLR's from Canon come with an auto focus micro adjust feature. This feature allows you to tweak the operation of the AF system when a particular lens is attached to the camera to (hopefully) improve AF performance for that lens if it has a problem.

Many of the popular photography web site forums are buzzing with discussions about lens calibration and AF micro adjust, so I wanted to post a link here to what seems to be the most popular technique for performing AF micro adjust on your lenses.

Here is the link to the Northlight Images web site article with the adjusting technique.

It takes some time (and adequate distance for long lenses!) to run through this procedure, so set aside enough time to complete the process start to finish. It requires some patience but it seems to pay off in the end for many people...

Local photography - Explore your home area!

I live in a nice area of New York state. There are trees, hillsides, country roads, etc here. Despite that, I have never felt like it's a particularly photogenic area except for certain times of the year when the tree colors are turning or there's a nice winter storm. Consequently, I don't do much local shooting close to my house. It's certainly no Yosemite National Park here...

Unfortunately, that way of thinking shut down my drive to explore my local area more for nice shooting situations, and also stopped me from extending my definition of "local" to also include 2-3 hours from my home. Basically, I got lazy when looking for good photo ops...

Some things have been driving me to explore my local area lately (including 2-3 hours out), and I wanted to share them here in case you're also stuck in a creativity rut like this.

First, look around! Take out a map or some mapping software and explore the areas around your house on the map within a few hours drive. Landmarks, lakes, waterways, parks, bridges, beaches, coastal communities, interesting architecture, a major city, etc. Whatever your type of photography, this is probably a good place to start to get your bearings and get some initial ideas.

Second, look up local photography clubs. If you're not interested in joining one, at least take a look at their web site to see where they've taken some field trips in your area in the past or are planning others in the future. If they interest you, add them to your list of places to explore.

Third, explore the web sites of local photographers (many of whom exhibit at local craft shows are have local galleries). They photograph all over the place and you might be able to get some ideas there. Note that I'm not saying to go out and copy anyone's previous shooting. I'm suggesting this just to get an idea of nice locations to explore on your own. A perfect example of this is referred to in this post of mine about the web site of Robert Rodriguez Jr., who specializes in photography in my area.

Fourth, explore the web sites of the major photo magazines like Outdoor Photographer, Popular Photography, Shutterbug and others. These web sites often have galleries and forums where people discuss shooting locations and post pictures of them.

The main point: Don't get lazy like me and get into a creativity rut. Set aside the time to explore your local region and get out and shoot! The spark of seeing new things feels good!

Perfect Exposure

In a previous post, I reviewed a book called "The Photographer's Eye - Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos" by Michael Freeman. I think this is an excellent book that any person looking to improve their photography should read.

One of the keys to a successful photograph is proper exposure. I won't get into an endless discussion about what the "right" exposure for a given scene/subject is, but we all tend to "know it" and "feel it" when we see it.

In addition to composition skills, learning to go beyond the 'Auto' exposure mode on your camera and get creative with exposure and lighting is another big step most photographers need to take. This is the subject of another book that I'm reading by Michael Freeman called "Perfect Exposure". It's another must-read from Freeman! Here is a video about the book.

In this book, Freeman discusses how to move yourself away from Auto exposure mode and get into expressing yourself creatively with exposure. As with his "Photographer's Eye" book, it seems like a lot to digest at first but if you start at page one and work your way through then it all makes complete sense.

Freeman opens the book with some exposure basics to level set the reader and prepare for the following chapters with a discussion of the concept of "key tones". In Chapter 3 called "The Twelve", which is the heart of this book, he then dives into the twelve most common exposure scenarios with examples and case studies that contain great discussion about how to recognize and handle these various scenarios.

The good thing about the book is that Freeman doesn't slide into the mode of telling the reader "what" to do. He's merely trying to help the reader recognize the most common exposure situations so that you can react to them creatively and let yourself run with them using effective metering techniques to achieve your photographic goals.

I'm currently on a quest to take my photography to the next level using creative exposure and the concept of key tones, so I discovered this book at just the right time. It's fantastic, and I would highly recommend it to everyone who wants to take their photography into the next creative realm.

21 Signs You’re a Real Photographer Now

I found this post today and it gave me a really good laugh:
21 Signs You’re a Real Photographer Now

I answered "yes" to many of these, so I guess I'm a real photographer now! :-)

I found #20 particularly amusing...

Sanity prevails!

I posted earlier on this site about the Cape Cod wind farm project, and how I thought it was a great idea that should be approved. Today, I'm happy to follow up that post with this additional article stating that the project has been approved and could be generating power by 2012! Great!

Article on MSNBC: U.S. approves Cape Cod wind farm

Article on CNN: Nation's first offshore wind farm approved for Nantucket Sound

Sanity prevails over people looking to protect their views! And the U.S. government gets a backbone and steps in to resolve the controversy.

Let the wind blow!

Canon AI Servo AF Custom Function & ISO Speed Settings Guide

These days, DSLR cameras are getting so complex that the manuals that come with them can't possibly do full justice to exploring the deep capabilities of these cameras. They tell you what the functions are and what they do, but don't necessarily have the space to provide real world examples of when and how to use some of the more complex features.

The newest Canon auto focus systems are a perfect example of this. The new AF systems on the 1D Mark IV and 7D are fantastic, but they are also so complex that you could probably write 50 pages just on this one feature of the camera alone....which is just what Canon did!

In order to expand on their manuals and help photographers get the most from their cameras, Canon often publishes supplementary white papers that provide a wealth of knowledge on the given topic.

Although this guide, the Canon AI Servo AF Custom Function & ISO Speed Settings Guide is written for the 1D Mark IV, almost all of it is also applicable to the 7D. If you own a 7D, you'll know which parts don't apply to you.

I hope you get as much out of reading this helpful guide as I did. After reading it, I changed a few AF custom function settings on my 7D and was instantly able to capture better action pictures at my son's soccer matches.

Since these guides are often hard to find on the Canon USA and Canon Europe web sites, I'll post those that I find helpful here on my blog in the future.

The people-problem with progress - "Wind farm fight splits Cape Cod"

Although my blog at www.johnolszewski.com is typically about photography and I try not to soap-box, I couldn't resist commenting on this story on CNN:

Nine-year wind farm fight splits Cape Cod

The U.S. just went through our worst economic downturn in decades. People were complaining about our dependency on foreign oil, the high price of gas, we use too many fossil fuels, how are we going to solve this problem, this is the worst it's been since the 70's, oil is really why we went to war, my SVU uses too much gas, etc, etc, etc.

Everyone made a big deal about the energy crisis. It was a major presidential election topic. We pledged to use alternative energy. We elected a forward-thinking president. Then what happened? Very little...

But in my opinion, what makes this situation a lot worse is when mostly acceptable solutions like solar power and wind power stare the U.S. and other countries in the face and we turn our backs on them again and again. Many other oil-guzzling countries do the same thing...

Why can't the U.S. learn something from the successes that other countries have achieved with alternative energy?

An example of this problem is this Cape Cod wind farm situation mentioned in the article above...

Even considering the minimal (in my opinion) impact to a limited percentage of ocean views from certain points of Cape Cod, why would reasonable people object to an energy solution that could supply cleaner power to 75% of a major chunk of the Northeast US?

The U.S. needs to learn some lessons from other countries that have embraced alternative energy and the differences that it has made. I saw this first hand on my recent trip to Germany where there are wind farms on top of the peaks of many of their remote valleys powering the small towns down in those valleys. They don't look intrusive. In fact, they look kind of cool. Like giant sentinels protecting and watching out for the towns below...

The U.S. has a real opportunity to make a showcase of this Cape Cod wind farm and how successful it can be, and we're blowing it because people are concerned about a small impact to their views.

This is the people-problem with trying to make progress. People often can't see the forest for the trees and major progress gets held back because of that. It's time for the U.S. to put up or shut up with regard to alternative energy. This project is a prime example of how we can move forward and demonstrate how effective a completely acceptable and feasible large scale alternative energy project can be.

So John, where are YOUR pictures?

So John, where are YOUR photos on YOUR photography blog at www.johnolszewski.com?

A good question, to which I have a good answer!

I've been spending a lot of time on my photography lately and I was trying to decide on a way to begin to include some of it on this blog. To that end, I've decided to start a Photo-A-Week project.

The goal of this type of project is to spend some time each week deliberately thinking through the process of taking an effective, expressive, creative picture....and then taking one! It's a fun process that reinforces all of the things that I'm learning and trying to do with my photography, and at the end of the year I'll hopefully have 52 good photographs to show for my efforts.

Of course, the other interesting thing is to make it compelling enough for people to want to stop by briefly once (or more) per week to check out the latest entry in the project. I hope I succeed there.

So...The project will be coming shortly and will be linked to off of this blog, so stay tuned!

Thanks,
John

Camera shake and motion blur, be damned!

Camera shake and subject motion blur have become a little bit of an issue for me lately when shooting with long focal lengths on my new Canon 7D. I’ll explain why further down in this post, but suffice to say that the reason surprised me.

Camera shake is precisely why I buy and use Canon Image Stabilizer (IS) lenses or use a tripod whenever I can. All manufacturers have a different name for their image stabilization technologies, but they all have them.

There is absolutely no doubt that IS lenses improve the sharpness of all of my photos. If you have any doubt about the capabilities of this great lens technology, try them for yourself to see the difference. Buying IS lenses is worth every penny of the extra cost.

I thought I had a pretty steady hand-holding technique, but when I see my hand-held IS images versus my hand-held non-IS images on a computer screen, the difference is clear. The images taken with IS are always sharper. Maybe I drink too much coffee that causes me to be jittery??!! Maybe I just need to improve my hand-held shooting technique a little bit…

But even with IS, some issues with camera shake and motion blur are still around. The point of this post is to make people aware of a simple factor that might be playing into your photography.

So what surprised me?

The APS-C sensor is the type of imaging sensor used in almost all DSLR’s except the pro level models.

Camera shake and subject motion blur are magnified even more on higher megapixel APS-C chips (e.g., 18 megapixels) than they are on lower megapixel APS-C chips (e.g., something like 12 megapixels). This is something that I was previously unaware of. Even Canon states this in their own technical white paper documentation.

In other words, as you go up in megapixels on an APS-C sensor, steadying your camera and using higher shutter speeds to prevent subject motion blur become increasingly important to achieve sharp photos.

The above statement from Canon (which applies to other manufacturers as well) is one of the reasons that I’m against pushing APS-C sensors up toward 20 megapixels. I think it creates many more problems than it solves and most people would be happy with 10-12 megapixels on an APS-C sensor in a DSLR. But camera manufacturer marketing mayhem prevails, and I can only expect the megapixel ratings on APS-C sensors to continue to increase because they think it’s “what the people want”.

So what does this mean in everyday use?

Well, for me (and I suspect other people using other cameras in the megapixel class of the 7D) it means that I can no longer reliably handhold a lens like my Canon 70-300 when it’s zoomed all the way out to 300mm using previously appropriate shutter speeds. On the 7D, the 300mm end of that lens is really 480mm due to the 1.6x crop factor of the APS-C sensor. Combining that long focal length with the 7D’s 18 megapixel rating on the APS-C chip, and suddenly I have a problem with camera shake and motion blur that I never had before on my old 8 megapixel Canon 30D camera. Nothing with me has changed. The problem is that it’s technically inherent that higher megapixel APS-C cameras magnify the effect of camera shake and motion blur more than lower megapixel APS-C cameras. Bummer!

So what can you do about camera shake and motion blur on high megapixel APS-C cameras?

1) Shoot at higher ISO’s so you can raise your shutter speeds even farther than you normally would...

2) And/or use IS lenses or a tripod...

3) And/or improve your hand-holding technique...

4) All of these things...

The basic point is to get the shutter speeds way up and steady the camera with IS or a tripod when you're shooting in conditions that may result in camera shake or motion blur with a high megapixel APS-C camera.

Moral of the story: Don’t be too quick to blame a camera’s auto focus system or a lens if your hand-held images are frequently blurry. I read posts on camera web sites from people complaining about the blurriness of their hand-held photos all the time. These days, it might very well be caused by a combination of your hand-holding technique and shooting on an APS-C camera with a high number of megapixels.

Try the four points listed above and see if your images get sharper. I bet they will!

Why do I take photographs?

I take photographs for many reasons.

Capturing interesting images is a fun hobby, a good creative outlet, and certainly I enjoy sharing my vision of the world around me with other people who might be interested in "what I see". It's also a great vehicle to get outside and do things whether it's traveling, local day trips, a simple hike, a vacation, or whatever.

Then there's the aspect of photography that involves capturing and preserving family memories with images. Major events, minor every day things, funny things, etc. The memories of a lifetime that make us all who we are.

I've never really thought of expressing that aspect of why I take so many pictures of my family, but then I stumbled across a blog called "Little Moments Frozen In Time" which is authored by Kelly Bigsby Lederhouse. It's a family blog that shows some of their life's moments with nice images.

On the front page of her blog is the statement below which perfectly reflects why I, and I'm sure many other people, enjoy taking family photographs. The statement "...Memories that are brought back to life every time I look at one" is very true. Upon seeing any of my photos, I can almost instantly recall what the picture is and where/when it was taken, and a flood of small memories associated with the image come back to mind. It's an enjoyable experience every time it happens....

That is the essence of photography for me...

Kelly Bigsby Lederhouse:

"A picture. A memory forever frozen in time. A second of my life captured in a photograph for me to treasure for all of time. Your children and their children can have this memory that was once yours. A second of your life, with the click of a camera, forever captured in a picture. A single moment that no longer exists is now yours to keep. How amazing is that?

You can look at a photograph and take a look back into time. Children grow and life changes. Moments come and go, and moments are sadly forgotten. But attached to each and every photograph is a memory and a feeling that will now be remembered for all time.

Life goes on, but those moments stay behind. New moments are constantly being created, and sadly moments are forgotten. My favorite photographs are in this blog. Each one I took and each one holds a special place in my heart. Memories that are brought back to life every time I look at one".

Robert Rodriguez Jr. Photography

This is a short post to point you to an amazing photographer specializing in the Hudson Valley area of New York, which is where I live. His name is Robert Rodriguez Jr.

Robert's images are truly terrific. He also has a great web site and blog that I encourage you to visit. Not only can you see and buy his photography there, but his site and blog are filled with a lot of personal information, stories about the photos and Robert's journey as a photographer, information on his workshops, etc.

Check out this truly great local photographer and enjoy his work!

Canon 7D kicks serious ass!

I've been using my new Canon 7D for a few weeks now. I've given most of the features a good workout and I can surely say that this camera kicks some serious ass.

Having worked my way through several Canon DSLR's over the years, I've always felt that there were things that Canon could have done better. The 7D is finally the one high quality camera that I've always been waiting for to fit all of my needs in one device. Well worth the money!

I've customized the camera for my shooting style and found that it frees me from fumbling with settings and buttons to get to the features I want. It allows me to shoot and have fun, get optimal images straight out of the camera, and not have to spend time screwing around with its many settings and options.

More specifically, the auto focus system is excellent. I mentioned the AF improvements in my previous post, but now that I've given them a good workout in all kinds of static and dynamic situations, I can see the genius of this system. Great!

Check out this quick video on the 7D's versatile auto focus system.

This post is about supplemental material available on the web to help people learn more about the 7D, what it can do, and how to get under the covers to make it work for you. These web sites go beyond the material in the official 7D Manual and present it in a more user-friendly way.

Here goes...

Canon Digital Learning Center - Shooter's Insight: EOS 7D, featuring David Stoecklein
All of the 'Episodes' on this site are worth watching, but also spend some time going through the 'Product Tour' in the navigation. Nicely presented information that shows what a powerhouse the 7D is.

Canon Digital Learning Center - EOS Digital - 7D
The Canon Tips, Product Info, and Tutorial sections are the tabs to pay attention to here. There are many videos about the 7D and its functions, and also helpful articles like "Harnessing the Power of the EOS 7D’s Video System". Unfortunately, and strangely, this information is also mixed in with generic photographic articles like "How to Take Pictures of Holiday Lights", but it's worth going through the list to find the info about the 7D and its features.

I hope you find this additional 7D information useful. I'll update this post as I find new things.

And he gets his Canon 7D

I've been waiting a long time for digital SLR (DSLR) cameras in the class of the Canon 7D and Nikon D300s to come down to the $1,500 price point while still having all of the features that I find most important for my photography.

It took many years, but that time is here! This week I purchased the Canon 7D after a lot of angst over shelling out that much money for a new camera body. I'm glad that I did! I've been shooting with my Canon 30D since 2006 and it was time for a technical upgrade to start taking advantage of the great new features available in the high end DSLR's these days.

I plan to offer my initial impressions of the Canon 7D in this article. This is not meant to be a technical or holistic review of the 7D. If you want that type of review then you should also visit these great sites to see them (one of which is a review in video) because they're better equipped to do that type of review than I am:

1) Canon CPS Europe information on 7D

2) DPreview.com review of 7D

3) RobGalbraith.com review of 7D

4) Imaging-Resource.com review of 7D

5) Steve's Digicams review of 7D

6) Gizmodo.com review of 7D

7) DigitalRevTV on YouTube - Video review of 7D

History:

Canon and Nikon have competed head-to-head in the film SLR camera market for quite a long time. When things turned digital, however, Canon led the DSLR race from 2000-2007 with their state-of-the-art technology and image quality.

Nikon, tired of being second in this race, flattened Canon beginning around 2007 with the surprising release of the D3, D700, and D300 in a short space of time. These three cameras showed that Nikon was seriously back to have their share of the top end market again, and it was good news because it drove Canon harder and everyone benefited from the resulting great new technologies in 2009/2010 (as well as price drops). As of March 2010, Canon and Nikon are both pretty even again with regard to their technology and having competitive cameras at all levels.

Initial impression:

The 7D is a monster of a camera (I mean that in a good way!). As with most DSLR's it can be set in point-and-shoot mode for when you have to hand it over to someone other than yourself for a quick photo without explaining things. Or, it can be operated in full manual mode with a ton of custom options and capabilities. And anything and everything in between!

I can't stress enough how much this camera can be customized by the user. Everything from the metering, to the auto-focus, to the movie options, to the menu system, and even the buttons on the camera itself can be set up to suit your needs. Dare I say that if you buy a 7D and can't find a way to make it work effectively for you then you'll probably never be happy with any camera from any manufacturer. The 7D is that good.

As the other reviews mention, this camera is a tank. Sturdy, solid in the hand, and no "plasticky" feel. It's definitely a class above the Canon xxD line below it.

The important stuff:

The new metering, flash metering/management, and auto-focus systems are terrific. The exposures of my test photos are more consistent from shot to shot than with my older 30D. The flash exposures are much more consistent and achieve a significantly better balance of flash with the available light for a given shot. Canon seems to have done very well on these subsystems after taking a beating from Nikon in these areas in the recent past. Canon needed to come up with better systems, and they did.

The auto-focus system is so flexible and customizable that it's almost overwhelming at first. Canon has thrown the "auto-focus kitchen sink" into this camera, and now the user has many options to make the system work effectively for them for any given circumstance.

In my test shots the auto-focus was perfect and fast. The new 19-point format (all cross type) has clearly paid off. I will put it through its paces with some sports and other action shots in the coming weeks and will edit this article if I find differently then, but I doubt that I will. It seems like Canon nailed its new premium focus system.

The other in-camera image enhancement features (Auto Lighting Optimizer, Peripheral Illumination Correction, etc) all work as advertised. Nice and clean with good results when you need them. These features will hopefully save you time touching up photos on your computer.

And the video:

The video options on the 7D are great to have for casual video. I should state up front what my goals are for video in a DSLR. My main goal was not to have to haul around a DSLR and a video camera everywhere I go because I don't shoot a tremendous amount of video. A clip here and a clip there of important events is really all that I need. Of course I want them to be in full high definition. The 7D can handle these needs fine. No issues. When I need more than that then I'll carry my video camera.

However, it should be clearly stated that people should not expect any DSLR with video (i.e., Canon 7D, Nikon D300s, etc) to substitute holistically for a dedicated video camera, because it won't. If you have heavy duty video needs, you'll still need a video camera.

The quality of the video is not the issue here. In fact, the quality of the video from the 7D is terrific.

The current Achilles heel of DSLR's with video is the auto-focus speed, and it probably always will be until a new method is designed to address auto-focus for video in a DSLR. Using a DSLR auto-focusing system designed for still photography to also try to handle auto-focus for video is going to be slow and basically almost unusable for practical purposes just because of the physics of the components involved.

Am I complaining? No. I knew this was the case before I bought the 7D and I still wanted video for the reasons mentioned above. The 7D (and I would imagine the Nikon D300s and other DSLR's with video as well) fill the need fine. However, to consider video (and auto-focus for video) a true usable option on a DSLR, the manufacturers will have to design their way out of this Achilles heel. It will be interesting to see what they come up with...

Image quality:

And finally....the most important thing....image quality! I can state up front that I'm not a pixel-peeper who examines photos on a computer monitor for hours at 100% size looking for flaws. I look at "real world" image quality. If you want pixel level information about the 7D, the folks who write the reviews at the links above are very capable of providing sophisticated technical reviews of this camera.

That being said, the photos that I'm getting out of the 7D are very nice. Great tones, great colors, great sharpness, you name it. The pictures I'm getting have eliminated my fears that a ton of noise would result from Canon cramming 18 megapixels onto an APS-C sensor. Would they have been better off from a noise perspective leaving things in the range of 15 megapixels? Of course. But even with that being said, the noise on this camera is not an issue for my needs. If you're worried about it, try one out before you buy it to ensure you like the image quality.

If you do try before you buy, I would recommend shooting at all ISO speeds in a controlled environment. Shoot first with the noise reduction system completely off (it has multiple strength settings), and then turn it on to see how it helps the situation. That way you can see what the camera does natively versus with noise reduction turned on.

Some tips:

1) Everyone is not kidding when they say you need a more recent and high powered computer to handle 1080p high definition video. My Dell Dimension 4600 from 2003 with Pentium 4 and 2-gig of RAM can't keep up with the video from the 7D. It plays back with skips and long pauses. For now, I'll just have to hook the camera directly to my Samsung high def TV via HDMI when I want to watch the video. Which leads me to my second point...

2) After buying the 7D, I discovered that it uses a mini-HDMI jack instead of a regular size HDMI jack. This means that you either need to buy a special 'HDMI to mini-HDMI' cable, or a regular HDMI cable and a $5 connector for one side to reduce that side to mini-HDMI. I'm going with the latter route because I already bought the regular HDMI cable.

3) You're going to need bigger memory cards if you're planning to be active with video! Full 1080p video gobbles space on the cards, so I would suggest picking up a few high speed CF cards in the range of at least 4 or 8-gig. Many people are even opting for 16-gig cards these days. Prices are falling rapidly so buying high capacity cards is not as big of a deal as it used to be. But be warned....2-gig cards are not going to cut it if you shoot video.

Summary:

In summary, I'm very happy with the 7D. It completely blows away my older Canon 30D in absolutely every respect. Other than the issue mentioned above about auto-focus during video (which everyone already knows about and I'm sure Canon and Nikon are working on for future cameras), I have very little (if anything) negative to say about the 7D.

Is it perfect? No. There are a few things "missing", but the things that I think are missing would cost more money and then the camera would be driven out of the price class that I needed/wanted it to be in. If I had a wish list, I would have liked to have seen:

1) Dual memory cards slots with the ability to send video to one card and pictures to the other.

2) On-board GPS capability to tag photos.

3) A built-in stereo mic would be nice. The holes for the mono mic on the left side of the camera are so tiny that it makes me wonder why they couldn't squeeze in an additional mic on the right side of the body to make built-in stereo sound recording possible. Even though the quality wouldn't be fantastic, it would still be in stereo and this (in my opinion) would make the built-in audio for the video much more useful without having to attach an external stereo mic.

4) A built-in auto-focus assist light!!!!! I don't know why Canon stopped putting them on their DSLR's years ago, but the concept of using the pop-up flash for focus assist in dark situations is completely ridiculous. Come on.....what could that stupid little light possibly cost?!

But....these things would make the camera cost $1,700 and then I wouldn't have bought it, so I'll take what I can get! :-)

As I said above, it's a monster of a camera that takes terrific photos and offers you many options to do things the way you desire to achieve better technical results in your photography. If you decide to purchase a 7D, enjoy! It's a hell of a good camera for the money.

National Geographic

Being a photographer, I'm always interested in good photography web sites that tell about the world, its people, places, experiences, travel, etc, in a compelling way...along with great photography!

Well, as we all know, this is the very mission of National Geographic. To open our eyes to the world. The magazine has been around since the 1800's, as this great DVD box set will show you. However, when they first launched their web site years ago it certainly didn't do justice to the legacy of the magazine. It was disorganized, hard to work your way through, etc.

Recently I came across the newest iteration of the National Geographic web site, and I was blown away by how much it has been improved.

If you have any interest in our world, its people, places, things, technologies, music, etc, pay a visit to this site. Not to mention that there is fantastic photography all over it! I got lost in the site for hours the other night and walked away from the computer feeling better for it.

National Geographic is not about the "news". I can get that from CNN, MSNBC, or any other news site. National Geographic is about "the world".

Check it out...I'm sure you'll find something compelling that will interest you and have you walking away from your computer wondering more about the world around you.

Watch the Olympics (with your kids!)

If you haven't yet noticed, the Olympics are on! Many people who don't ordinarily watch sports still watch the Olympics. It's hard not to get caught up in the pageantry, nationalism, competitiveness, and uniqueness of it. Come on....Who doesn't swell with a little bit of pride every time their country knocks out a medal?

In addition to checking out all of the unique sports yourself, I encourage you to encourage your kids to watch as well. In two weeks they will get exposure to all kinds of new sports that aren't typically on TV and they'll get a kick out of it. All kids like the snowboarding, girls like the style and grace of the figure skating, boys like the action of skiing, hockey, and ski jumping, etc.

Whatever sport they find interesting, let the Olympics be their gateway to experiencing the world coming together for sport and national pride. Let them stay up late to watch the amazing closing ceremonies. Enjoy the games together!

Flash done right

Today's DSLR's are better than ever at managing flash exposures. Whether the flash is your primary source of light or being used as a fill light source, things are getting easier and better all the time because of the increasingly sophisticated flash exposure algorithms used in each new generation of cameras.

However, even with these advances, taking flash photography to the next level and truly achieving expert results can be difficult. I say this with the goal in mind of achieving a "perfectly" balanced combination of flash and existing light in a flash photograph (with "perfectly" being a somewhat subjective term).

Sometimes I’ll take a flash picture and apply some of my knowledge about managing the way flash works and come away with an awesome picture that leaves me feeling pretty good. Then the very next shot will be less than optimal because I was in a rush or forgot something or let the camera make a bad decision for me. Such is the demon of electronic flash...

I’ve been on a mission lately to learn some additional techniques to get more consistent and effective flash photos. Practice, practice, practice. Clearly, the photographer needs to take over (and always will need to take over) to achieve the best results by controlling what the camera is doing with flash and how it's doing it, instead of leaving it to its automated modes.

I’ve found three fantastic aids in my effort to handle flash more effectively:

1) Neil van Niekerk's "Tangents" web site at: http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/

2) Neil van Niekerk's book called "On-Camera Flash" available at book stores and Amazon.

3) The "Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras" web site

Neil's web site is a treasure trove of flash and exposure articles and expert guidance to achieve better results very quickly. Neil takes a straight forward and practical approach and fills his articles with useful examples to drive his lessons home. As an example, here's a link to his "Top 20 List of Flash Photography Tips".

Neil's book was worth every penny. It takes the best concepts from his web site and expands on them with new writings and plenty of examples. He often uses multiple examples to drive home the same point and this is an effective technique because one of them is sure to resonate with the reader and stick in their head. Note that this book is written in the context of wedding and portrait photography because that's Neil's profession, but the principles apply to any type of flash work.

The Canon EOS flash site is a slightly older resource but will definitely help all owners of Canon EOS cameras to understand what the hell their flash is doing when you seem to be getting confusing results. Reading that web site gave me many "Ah ha....." moments. The various Canon flash modes are doing different things at different times, and these pages clearly explain when and why.

In the near future, I will post some additional thoughts about #1 and #2 above that really stuck with me and immediately AND consistently improved my results. Stay tuned...