Trump for President!

I knew this would happen eventually because Donald Trump has been appearing on a lot of political TV shows in the U.S. recently.  CNN.  MSNBC.  You name it, he's on the air.

Check out this interview with Donald Trump about running for President in 2012.

Say what you will about Donald Trump and whether or not you like him, but his blunt talk about the economy, war, oil, and some of the things the U.S. is doing is great to hear!

He talks specifically about other countries who have said repeatedly that the U.S. leadership is a complete joke and what they're able to get away with when negotiating with the U.S. is unbelievable.  We are viewed as weak in the eyes of the world, and I don't think this is a big secret...We've dug ourselves a huge hole over the past fifteen years.

Listen to the logic he uses about the wars in Kuwait and Iraq.  It makes perfect sense.  Listen to what he says about one of the greatest cities in the world, New York City, and how our infrastructure is completely crumbling while we spend money and time to rebuild other countries.  Listen to him ask:  Why didn't Kuwait pay us back for saving their country?  He's right!  Why didn't Kuwait pay us back for going in there, liberating their country from Iraq, and handing it back to them???  They could surely afford it!  Pay us with money.  Pay us with oil.  Whatever, just give us something for the billions that we spent over there!

All of it is true.  Keep an eye on this one.  Trump could rock Washington and perhaps put this country back on the right track.

Like I said, love him or hate him, a lot of what he says makes perfect sense and nobody else in the political arena is willing to say the things that he does.  I'm curious as to whether or not he could turn it into action, or if he would immediately alienate so many people that he would get nothing done as President.
 

Guerrilla Travel Photographer

I ran across these two posts today on the Digital Photography School web site and I got a good chuckle out of them because much of it is true for all of us guerrilla photographers out there.

There's enough good info in these posts to be helpful to all those moms, dads, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc, out there who are trying to grab pictures while their families or significant other are saying "Come on, let's go already"!

Actually, the comments at the bottom of the posts from the other readers offer even more good advice.

Why You Need To Be A Guerrilla Travel Photographer – And How To Become One (Part 1)

Why You Need To Be A Guerrilla Travel Photographer – And How To Become One (Part 2)

Lost America - Night Photography of the Abandoned West (by Troy Paiva)

I've always been fascinated with great night photographs.  Keep in mind the word "great", because mediocre night photography is just that....mediocre in quality, boring in presentation, and not inspiring to look at.  I've seen some night photography books where I was left wondering, "Is this the best they could do?", when I was done reading them.  Not worth the time...

However, keeping in line with the word "great", you have to check out Troy Paiva's "Lost America" web site at this link.  Wow!  I don't need to tell you his night photography work is great....check it out for yourself!

In addition to looking at the galleries, I would strongly encourage you to take the time to read the content of Troy's web site as well.  He goes to great length to explain his techniques and how he got to where he is today with his work, which indeed seems to be a life passion.  He also tells a story behind some of the pictures. 

When you first view these photos it's tempting to quickly think that Troy simply Photoshopped his vivid colors, but that's not the case.  These are true long exposure night photos which Troy enhanced with various hand held light painting and flash photography techniques.  His control of light is terrific.

Enjoy this site!  I was lost in it for hours...

Cuba: The Accidental Eden

This link is to a great episode of the PBS Nature show and it's called "Cuba:  The Accidental Eden".

For anyone who has even a passing interest in nature and ecology, this is a great episode to watch.  Because of Cuba's political history, I'm sure many people are unaware of much of the content in this show and how untouched Cuba's ecology actually is after decades of being isolated from the rest of the world.

The description from PBS:

Cuba may have been restricted politically and economically for the past 50 years, but its borders have remained open to wildlife for which Cuba’s undeveloped islands are an irresistible draw. While many islands in the Caribbean have poisoned or paved over their ecological riches on land and in the sea in pursuit of a growing tourist industry, Cuba’s wild landscapes have remained virtually untouched, creating a safe haven for rare and intriguing indigenous animals, as well as for hundreds of species of migrating birds and marine creatures. Coral reefs have benefited, too. Independent research has shown that Cuba’s corals are doing much better than others both in the Caribbean and around the world.

Photography video sites

In this Adobe TV post and this post about D-Town TV, I mention two of my favorite video-based web sites for photography information.

Let's face it....You can only read so much.  Sometimes it's better to just sit back and watch some discussions about interesting photography topics while you drink a good glass of wine or beer.  You have to do nothing except watch and relax!

With the proliferation of DSLR's that shoot video, it's not surprising that many more of these video-based photography sites are popping up because shooting studio quality video and getting it up on the web is so easy now.  And a picture is often worth a thousand words!

Two that have caught my attention lately are:

1)  Silber Studios TV which contains a wide variety of insightful videos on everything from Photoshop techniques with Ken Rockwell to tips from commercial photographers.  Good stuff...

2)  Fine Art Photography TV which contains a series of interviews with top photographers like Michael Reichmann from The Luminous Landscape.  More interesting stuff...

Both of these sites are worth a visit for some good information.  So sit back, grab your beverage of choice, and soak up some insightful information that can help you improve your skills.

Hmmm.  Perhaps I'll have to start shooting videos for this blog too!

Photo Carousel #2: "Portrait of a Lighthouse"

"Portrait of a Lighthouse"

This is the next entry in my Photo Carousel series....It's an interesting photo to post for people to check out because most of the feedback that I've received on it to date before putting it up here has been negative.  People weren't quite sure what it was or what the perspective and viewpoint were.  I would be interested to hear what people here think...

I climbed to the top of Fire Island Lighthouse in New York on a recent hike out there. Taking a 360 degree look around from the top for possible photo opportunities, I was struck when I turned around and saw this shadow portrait of the lighthouse. Serendipity strikes! A unique photo of a lighthouse without even having the lighthouse in the frame!   In addition to the shadow, I was also struck by the myriad of different green trees below with a touch of blue pine in there as well.

From a learning perspective, I composed the shot to have the wooden walkway cutting through the picture in an interesting way and exposed the picture carefully so as to not blow out the detail of the whiter boards on the path.  I knew the darker foliage and lighthouse shadow would cause a straight forward meter reading to overexpose, so I dialed the meter reading back by 2/3 stop.

Even though not many people like this photo, I stick by it because it has an interesting element to me.  The feedback I've already received was interesting and will make me think about some other possible options the next time I try this type of shot. 

Any feedback that anyone has is welcome....Thanks!

Lens buying guide

Last year, I put up this post regarding buying lenses for your digital SLR.

There are two reasons why lens buying advice needs to be updated:

1. There are many new lenses coming out these days, more so than I can remember in the recent past.
   
   
2. The dedication by manufacturers such as Canon and Nikon to the DX format APS-C image sensor used in most consumer and pro-sumer DSLR's seems to be here to stay.  More and more lenses are being built specifically for APS-C and they fill a void left in many manufacturer's full frame lens line-ups for use with APS-C cameras.  What does this mean to you?  If you want a true wide angle lens for your DX format APS-C DSLR, you're going to need to buy a lens built specifically for APS-C sensors.  In my post mentioned above, I said that you should avoid these lenses unless you have a specific reason to buy them, and I still believe that to a degree.  But I believe that these days there are more reasons to buy them and the lenses have gotten much better, so I've softened my stance on this a little bit.

All of this being said, I was about to write a new post for my blog on this topic when I opened up the DPreview.com web site this morning and saw their shiny news Lens Buying Guide located at this link.  I read the article and it's well written and accurate, so to save me a heck of a lot of typing and repeating a lot of what they said, I will simply refer you to their excellent guide to start your lens buying research.

From my perspective, my original advice from my original post on this still stands:  Most serious photographers will be quite happy with a lens collection that includes a high quality wide zoom (approximately 17-50 mm), a medium range general-purpose zoom that will probably be on your camera most often (approximately 28-135mm), and a long zoom (approximately 70-300mm).  After that  you can buy specialty lenses for specific purposes if you need them.
 
Enjoy, and happy shooting (or should I say "happy shopping")!

Photo Carousel #1: "Slam Allen"

"Box of Tricks"

This is the first image that I'm posting as part of my "Photo Carousel" feature.  I'll occasionally grab an image that I've recently taken and put it up here with an explanation of what I was trying to achieve, and how.  Through this process, I hope to communicate important tidbits of shooting knowledge that I've accumulated over the years.  If you like the photos, please comment.  Thanks!

I call this picture "Box of Tricks".  When I was on a cruise recently, the Slam Allen Blues Band was playing each night in a great little blues club on the ship.  When I took my camera one of the nights that we went to see them, I decided to shoot a series of "concert atmosphere" photos where I took pictures of the musicians, what they were doing, and their instruments but didn't include any faces or large sections of body.

In this shot, I wanted to emphasize the lights on the Marshall amplifier, the guitar, the pedal board at Slam's feet, and most importantly the little box in the left side of the frame in the orange light.  I was not interested in exposing for the shadows because I wanted them to go dark, so I metered off the light parts of the scene and let the rest go almost black. 

Every time Slam reached into that little box and pulled out a new pick or slide, he sounded like he was playing better than the song before so I called it his "Box of Tricks".

This photo is intentionally dark and you have to look at it to see what's going on, but that's precisely the point.  My goal was to highlight the equipment and make you wonder......."What's in that little box"?  This is a good example of using exposure to control what the viewer looks at in the image.

Small Animal Channel

Here's a nice web site with information about all kinds of small critters.  The information for gerbils that's here is largely repetitive to most gerbil books that I've seen.  We picked up a book from the Animal Planet series called......"Gerbils", which is at this link.  This book contains nicely presented sequential information about preparing for and owning gerbils.

Pathways #1: Skip the auto-everything!

This is the first in a series of articles that I plan to write called "Pathways".  These posts will be about specific things that I've done to improve my photography over the years.  Sounds simple, right?  Some of the things are indeed simple, and on the other hand some of them take years to master.  But that's part of the photographic journey that all of us are on....to find our vision and the best ways to get there!  We need to find our pathways...

To start with, in this first post, I want to talk very briefly about cameras...

Today’s compact digital cameras and digital SLR’s (DSLR’s) are modern marvels packed with technology that enable people to take great photos without having to think about the technical aspects of operating the camera.  Assuming the essential elements of a good photo are present (subject, lighting, etc), no matter how complex your camera is, it can be set to its “Auto” mode and under a large majority of circumstances you can just point the camera at your subject, shoot, and a technically good photo is the result.

This is truly a remarkable thing. It has done much to bring photography to an ever-increasing number of people precisely because it’s so easy. But to those who are interested in taking more than snapshots, who really want their photography to leap off their computer screens and prints, there’s a much bigger world out there. It involves taking your camera off “Auto” to reach it…I encourage you to try it!

Over the past few years that I’ve been developing the creative aspects of my photography, I’ve learned a lot of techniques that helped me realize my vision. Many of the techniques are directly tied to understanding and using the many non-automated features of my DSLR.

The whole principle of advancing your creativity is about skipping the auto-everything modes to instead use the Shutter, Aperture, and Manual modes to achieve a desired creative result. It’s about utilizing other metering modes besides evaluative or matrix to creatively meter a scene to emphasize the lighting and color that you want for your subjects, not what your camera wants.

The theory behind why Shutter, Aperture, and Manual modes exist in cameras is actually very straight forward. These modes allow you to take charge of your photographic results. Period.

In their Auto mode, cameras are all about averages. Left to their own devices, they choose average shutter speed and aperture combinations to ensure a balanced photographic result. They’re designed to produce an averaged brightness level throughout a given scene (e.g., in evaluative metering mode the camera meters an entire scene before it and averages it out to obtain what it thinks a “correct exposure” is for a given subject).

There are caveats to this averaging though…

Have you ever taken a picture outside in the snow and then viewed it later to see the picture looks dull and the snow looks gray? You were the victim of averages…

Have you ever taken a picture at a party where your subject turned out perfect and the room they were standing in with all the nice lighting was reduced to almost total blackness behind them? You were the victim of averages…

The question then is: Can you take control of the camera to do a better job at fulfilling your vision than its Auto mode does? The answer in most cases is…..yes!

In future posts in my "Pathways" series, I’ll address some of the steps that I took down the non-Auto path to achieving more effective photographic results. My progress over the years has been the result of developing my personal photographic vision, or what many photographers refer to as their “eye”. I’ve developed the skills to imagine what I want a scene to look like in a completed image, and I understand how to use my camera to fulfill that vision. I've also practiced a lot and read many great books and articles to help me along the way.

It’s a fun and challenging journey! More to come...

Welcome, Charley and Cheerio!

Our family has officially taken the next step in pets!  We've had two nice aquariums for over a year that are doing very well, and my kids are now also showing an interest in something a little less, um, wet.
 
So....I thought:  gerbils!  When I mentioned this to our kids they said, "Yeah Daddy!  Yeah!  When can we get them?!".  Well, here are the first few pictures of our boys!

Charley (left) and Cheerio (right)

 Cheerio

Cheerio in his first dust bath

We chose gerbils because they're cool, fun, very clean, easy to take care of, and kid-friendly.  Forget about cats and dogs (for now)...They're obviously great pets, but our family (or should I say...me) is not interested in any major long-term (10+ years) pet commitment like that at this point in time.  

Thus began the effort on my part at the American Gerbil Society (AGS) web site to research the best way to go about this.  I say "the best way to go about this" because anybody who does even casual research into buying a pet will often find out that a pet store is the last place to get them.  Some more obscure things like fish, birds, lizards, etc, you almost have to get at a pet store.  But cats, dogs, gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, etc, can all be obtained from local breeders instead.

The reason to go the local breeder route is because the animals are typically much better cared for and healthy at a dedicated breeder.  Take a look at the gerbils in a gerbil cage at the pet store.  Not looking too good, huh?  Then try going to a breeder and looking at the nice setups they have for their animals and the way they care for them.  The animals are cleaner and look and act healthier.  The breeder is definitely the way to go.  Enough said on that...

By using the AGS web site I was able to find Autumnglory Gerbils, which is located very close to my house.  Christina from Autumnglory had some pups available for take-home in early September and that suited our timing perfectly after vacation, so we adopted them.  Christina was very helpful in answering my initial questions and is a wealth of knowledge about gerbils.  It was great speaking with her when we picked them up to learn all of the important tips to get us started.  She clearly did a good job in raising them from when they were born and getting them ready for us.

Charley and Cheerio are already making themselves quite at home.  They love their new 15-gallon tank that has been outfitted with all the essential gerbil gear.  A nice wheel, a box for them to tear to pieces to make their home, paper towel rolls for them to tunnel in, aspen chips for bedding, paper towels for nesting, and of course their water bottle.

They're both already clearly exhibiting their individual personalities.  Charley is the work horse, and he initially did a lot of the work to set up their tank, munched the holes in the box, moved things around the way they wanted, etc.  Consequently, he was initially pretty tired from all his work.  Cheerio, on the other hand, is the "class clown".  You can see that he's the more feisty of the two.  He loves to fool around, jump up for attention when we pass by, and is more than willing to come out of his cage to explore.  Over the past day or so, Charley is following Cheerio's lead and is becoming more bold and comfortable with us.  Now they both stand up for attention when we say "Hi guys" as we walk past their cage and seem very happy with their new surroundings.

Since I've handled many small animals before, I have a pretty good sense of how to handle them comfortably.  Both of our guys hop right onto my hand when I put it in the cage and are eager to come out for me.  The kids are still mostly picking them up using a small cup to make things easier for them.  The gerbils will be used to them with a little more time and will soon hop into their hands too.

So our journey with these little guys begins!  I'll occasionally post updates here with the label 'Gerbils' in the left column of the site to separate the gerbil-related posts from my photography stuff.

In Remembrance of 9/11

I don't need more of a title than that for this post.   It pretty much says it all.

I open this post offering my best wishes to anyone and everyone who was negatively affected in some way by 9/11 and the events of the subsequent years.  Whether it's someone who experienced the death of a loved one in the attacks or subsequent wars, a soldier who is in the wars and away from his family and missing them, first-responders at the attack sites (like my sister), friends and family members of those affected, etc.  You know what I mean.  Anyone affected by 9/11....my best wishes are with you.

Above is a photo that I took at our family's church earlier this year of a 9/11 memorial stone.  My simple photo here is dedicated to everyone mentioned above.

I've never written anything about my experiences that day.  Even after all these years, I still don't think I've entirely mentally processed all of it.  While I was not injured in any way, I was in the middle of the events in an ancillary way and it was all very disturbing.

This is what I remember...

The day for me started as a beautiful one as far as the weather was concerned.  I was headed down to New York City to meet my business colleagues to catch a 7:30am flight to Washington DC to go to a meeting for work.  We left LaGuardia Airport in New York City right on time and made the big circle over Manhattan before heading south to Washington.  The city looked amazing and the sky was very clear.  In fact, people sitting around me were all specifically commenting on how nice the World Trade Center buildings looked in the bright early morning sun.

The flight was standard.  No problems.  While on the plane we had no idea what happened in New York only one hour after we flew out of the area.  However, upon landing at Reagan National Airport in Washington we knew something strange was going on.  It was a weekday morning in one of the busiest airports in the country and almost nobody was in the terminal...except for police and a few people walking around.  I was surprised by this and was left wondering to myself, "What did we walk into here?".

I'm guessing that the terminal had been mostly evacuated or something by that time and all taxis and limos were prevented from driving up to the front of the direct terminal.  When we went outside we somehow connected with our driver on some small driveway above the main terminal driveway, so we walked up the hill and got into the limousine still wondering what was going on.  I recall that the driver was silent.

The TV in the car was on and we saw our first images of the World Trade Center towers burning.  We were in shock.  We were all saying, "We were just there a little over an hour ago!  Is this a movie or something?".  As we watched the pictures we were silent.  We grabbed our cell phones to call home to let our families know we were OK.  My wife, who had cartoons on the TV for our son, had no idea what happened.  She was shocked to hear the news from me.  I said I would call her back later to let her know how things were going, and we hung up.

Our car took us to our meeting at Digex Corporation, which at the time was a major web hosting and telecommunications company in the eastern part of the US and it's located fairly close to the Pentagon.  Upon entering the building, which has a control center that looks like NASA, we saw that they had the news coverage up on their giant central monitoring screen that was about 40 feet across on the whole front wall of the room.  We stood and stared at the coverage from New York City.  By this time I believe the towers had fallen.  I remember looking at the TV picture and saying, "Hey, that's Church Street.  But if that's Church Street, the World Trade Center should also be there".  The buildings were already down...

Around then, I seem to remember that some kind of a fire/security/alert alarm went off in the Digex building and our representative there told us that a plane had also crashed in Washington and that for our own safety they recommended that we didn't leave the building.  They were locking the front doors.  I was in complete disbelief upon hearing this.  I simply could not comprehend what was going on.  We quickly got our wits together and my colleagues who I was traveling with all said "We want to leave...now"! 

I was getting worried about my family so I started making some phone calls.  I was especially concerned about my sister because she was a Captain in the New York City EMS (Emergency Medical Services) at the time and would certainly be right in the middle of the situation with the first responders to the World Trade Center scene in New York City.  I called her phone and it wasn't working.  Not good...I knew she was there. 

I called my wife to let her know that I was OK.  Then I called my Dad, who was noticeably shaken on the phone.  I asked him what was wrong.  He apparently got word from my sister and she said she was OK.  She was at the base of the first tower when it collapsed and ran for her life with her EMS co-workers and everyone else.

As a senior person in EMS, it's my sister's job to get to situations like this and set up a center of operations and a command post for the EMS personnel and their operations.  This was done right at the base of the towers because in a building situation that's usually the safest place.  The lobby of the building.  Nobody in their wildest dreams thought that the towers were going to fall.

My father's voice was trembling.  He asked me where I was.  I told him that I left New York City right before the attacks and I was now in Washington.  He almost dropped the phone.  He said, "You're WHERE"?  He was distraught to learn that two of his kids were in the middle of all this, in two of the cities being attacked.

We then called our office back in New York.  We told them to find a way to get us the hell out of Washington.  All roads into New York City were closed by this point in time so they told us to rent a van for the team and drive south to Virginia Beach where arrangements would be made to eventually get us home.  We said, "No!  We want to go home".  Someone put the wheels in motion to get us a rental van...I don't remember who did it for us.

After we calmed down for a few minutes, we thought a little bit about why we were there and a bizarre sense of responsibility hit us.  We started to think that since we went all the way to Digex for a specific meeting and we had a way to get home in the works, we should try to go through the motions of conducting the scheduled meeting anyway.

We quickly discovered that nobody was paying attention to the meeting, so this effort was cut short with everyone admitting that they couldn't concentrate on what we were there for.  We stopped the meeting and got ready to leave.

More phone calls home followed.  I told my wife our plan to get home and told her that I probably wouldn't have cell phone service out in the countryside where we would be driving so I would call her whenever I got a chance.  We hung up.

The rental van arrived.  The guy literally showed up at Digex, got out of the van and gave us the keys, and jumped into another waiting car and left.  Clearly he didn't want to be there either.

We got into the van and stopped at a gas station to buy a map.  Since the roads into the New York area were closed and the traffic situation would be a nightmare, we figured that we would drive west from Washington to the first major north/south highway that we could find and head straight north to avoid any travel problems.  That's what we did.

By this time, all US air traffic had been grounded.  Trains were not running into New York City.  Nothing.  Transportation into and out of New York was completely frozen.

My memory is a little fuzzy, but we were somewhere in Pennsylvania when we found out that another plane crashed.....in Pennsylvania!  I honestly don't remember much of what we all talked about on the long car ride back home, but I remember that when we heard this news on the poor quality AM radio in the van, I just went numb.  Everywhere we went, a plane was coming down.  New York.  Washington.  Pennsylvania.  People dying.  It was all very surreal, and I think everyone in the car felt a little like a rabbit trying to find a hole to hide in.

On a somewhat odd and I suppose humorous note, at one point while driving through very rural Pennsylvania a black bear (yes, a bear!) ran across the highway not far from our van.  I remember thinking to myself, "A bear?!  What the hell is going on around here"?  

We drove for eight hours on a very roundabout route to get back to New York.  We listened to the radio the whole way home to grab bits and pieces of news, but we had little idea of the full picture and did not understand the full depth of the situation until we got home around 8:00pm that night.

I walked into the house and sat down on the couch with my wife to watch CNN.  My baby son was sleeping upstairs.  That coverage on CNN late in the evening was the first comprehensive coverage that I had seen all day and I think that seeing it just pushed me further into shock.  I could not believe what I was looking at.

At the end of the day, I was glad to be home and also obviously relieved to hear that my sister was OK.  She could have very easily been killed.  She told me later that at one point when she was running through the ash cloud from the collapsed tower that she almost passed out in the complete darkness of the ash that was choking her and succumbed to death.  I can't even begin to imagine or communicate what she went through.  It's impossible.  What I went through is absolutely nothing compared to what she went through.  I was just an ancillary emotional victim.  She was a direct physical victim.

My first reaction to this over the next weeks and months was, "We have to get the bastards that did this".  Eventually, that's what we and our allies tried to do in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world.  I'm certainly not going to comment in this post about the long and wavering journey that the decision to go to war has taken us on as a people and a nation.  That situation is what it is and hopefully it will come to an end soon...Maybe I'll comment on that another time.  

My sister was asked to write a chapter for the book "Women at Ground Zero", which she did.  Reading it again today on the night before the anniversary, I'm reminded of the complete unbelievable nature.....still.....of what happened that day.  To me, something about it is still incomprehensible.  

The weird thing about all of this for me initially was that I didn't cry.  I watched all of the coverage on TV, heard all of the stories, watched the 9/11 tribute shows on TV, watched the anniversary coverage, watched us go to war over it, etc.  For some reason, probably shock, my brain simply didn't try to purge itself of the emotion through tears.  My eyes were dry.

I didn't cry until one day in the future when I was completely overcome while at home by myself reading a book.  This is how this story ties to photography and how photos have the immense power to move people.

It happened when I was reading the book called "Aftermath" by the famous photographer Joel Meyerowitz.  For those who are interested in 9/11, this is an absolute must-own large format picture book with photos and stories about the cleanup of the World Trade Center site starting in the days immediately after the attacks and going out over the next year or so.  You must see this book.

What made me break down was a photo on page 195 of the book.  The photo is of the inside of the World Trade Center child day care center in WTC Building 5.  It was a simple picture of some toy cars on the floor, but the toys were all covered by thick ash from the collapse of the towers that had blown in through the shattered windows of the day care center.

That simple picture of those ash-covered toys instantly sent a million thoughts through my head about how scared those kids must have been during the collapse of the towers and then my brain extrapolated out from there to thoughts of all the other people who were scared or killed and I completely broke down for almost 30 minutes of tears pouring down my face.  Sobbing uncontrollably.  That one photo somehow crystallized the whole event for me.

On the 9th Anniversary of the attacks, fortunately for me I feel better and more "healed" than I did back then because some time has passed.  But I expect that there will always be some part of me that will remain dramatically affected by that day, never to fade with time.  Maybe that's the way it should be.  

I have nothing else to say about 9/11.
 

Is the DSLR "revolution" over?

The Canon 60D was announced the other day.  You know what my reaction was?  A yawn...

Nikon announced some new DSLR's recently as well.  More yawns.

I remember back in the "early days" of the Canon DSLR's when the Canon 10D, 20D, etc, were being announced about every 16 months or so.  Each new camera typically brought major new useful features to improve DSLR usability and image quality and the announcements were met with feverish excitement by photographers who pre-ordered anything and everything that Nikon and Canon released.

From 2004 - 2007 the changes became evolutionary in nature instead of revolutionary and focused primarily on improving image quality and high ISO shooting.  Each camera became a smaller and smaller incremental improvement over the previous one.  Instead of people saying "I have to get the latest and greatest!!!" they began saying "Maybe I'll hold off until the next model comes out".

Then came the Nikon D300, D700, D3 and the Canon 5D MkII and 7D between 2007 - 2009.  These cameras returned us to revolutionary improvements and completely raised the performance and quality bar even higher than it already was.  They were a big step forward, not an incremental step.

Among many other things, these new cameras arrived to the market with:

1)  New excellent auto focus systems.
2)  In-camera image and lighting enhancements (i.e., Nikon's Active D-Lighting and Canon's Auto Lighting Optimizer and Highlight Tone Priority, etc).
3)  Lens flaw correction algorithms in the camera.
4)  Lightning fast burst speeds.
5)  Huge buffers.
6)  High speed processors.
7)  Dual-card slots.
8)  Off camera flash control built into the DSLR body.
9)  High megapixel counts.
10)  Very high ISO capability.
11)  Incredible noise reduction technology.
12)  The capability to modify the camera operation to the shooter's preferences.
13)  Etc, etc, etc...
14)  And the big one we were all waiting for......high definition video!  Finally!

Wow!  That's a lot of technology that was packed into these few new revolutionary cameras.

But revolutions have to end some time and progress has to settle in... 

With cameras like the 60D, we're now back to smaller evolutionary changes again and I think that's the way things will stay for quite a while.  The current high end DSLR's from Canon and Nikon (D300, D700, D3, 5D, 7D, etc) are absolute monster machines that can pretty much do anything that a photographer would want to do. 

Having owned my 7D for many months and putting it seriously through its paces over a recent two week vacation, I would have to say that it's a near perfect camera.  Understanding how to use it properly and when to turn on which image enhancing function resulted in so many technically stunning images from my recent trip that I was blown away.  From a creative aspect some of them weren't that great because many times I was in a rush, but from a technical perspective, wow!  Sharp, clear, properly focused, properly exposed, fantastic looking photos time after time.  Even when shooting at very high ISO, or in full auto mode, or when using long shutter speeds.  The 7D just kept producing technically great photos.

The state of the art is here!

So where do we go next?  My thought is that the major focus for the camera manufacturers will be in two areas:

1)  Improve the integration of high definition video into DSLR's to make it easier to shoot and post-process.  DSLR video is still an immature technology that's great, but has a way to go before it's easy to use.

2)  Continue to improve image quality through better sensor design.

Seriously, where else is there to go?  The top end DSLR cameras do EVERYTHING!   

I would seriously recommend getting a top end DSLR like the Nikon D300 or Canon 7D and holding onto it for a long time.  Save your money on camera bodies and buy yourself some good lenses instead.

Happy shooting!

Gone? No!

It's been quite a while since my last post, but it was for a good reason.  Vacation! 

We just got home, and along with all of the other "welcome home" chores (lawn cutting, laundry, etc), I also unloaded almost 20 gig of photos and high def video from my Canon 7D memory cards.  I can't wait to go through all of them!  I can see just from the thumbnails on the computer that I got some good shots...

I've been doing a lot of reading while I was away and I also practiced some effective techniques while shooting on vacation, so I'll be putting up some interesting and useful posts in the coming days.

So, never fear!  I'm back and will be posting again shortly.

The complexities of shooting DSLR video

I got my Canon 7D a while back hoping that it would replace the need for me to carry around both a DSLR and a dedicated video camera everywhere I go.  The 7D has indeed done that for most of the casual video that I shoot.  However, DSLR video is still in its infancy and the supporting structure for it (software, plug-ins, etc) has a long way to go before shooting and managing DSLR video is "easy" (or maybe I should say "easier") for the average photographer.

Here are some of the complexities that I've faced in my adventures so far with DSLR video on the 7D.  I'm sure this applies to other DSLR's that shoot video as well.

First, you need a powerful computer and video card to play back, edit, and manage DSLR high definition video.  This is something that I didn't have a true understanding of when I bought my 7D, so I learned the hard way.  Digital video is all about computer power and speed.  If you don't have it then you're going to be stuck with a bunch of video clips on your PC that you can't do anything with.  I can't even watch the clips from my 7D on my older Dell computer because it doesn't have enough CPU power to play them back without skips.  Bummer!   A computer upgrade is needed! 

Second, get ready for some lens issues.  As I questioned in this thread on the photo.net photography web site, using variable aperture zoom lenses when shooting DSLR video introduces some visible artifacts in your video as you zoom the lens and it moves past the points where it stops down.  There seems to be no way around it.  I even tried shooting in manual with a set aperture, and I (and others) have confirmed that it doesn't work.  This means that you'll have to put up with flicker in your videos if you zoom while shooting with variable aperture zooms, or, you need to buy expensive constant aperture zoom lenses to eliminate the problem.  Bummer! 

Third, you need special software to edit the video segments together.  And, depending on what you're trying to do with your video, you might need to first convert the video files coming out of the 7D into another video format.  Yikes!  Fortunately for me, any simple editing that I need to do can be done in the native file format that Canon uses, but others doing sophisticated editing are not so lucky and they first need to convert the files to a format more suitable for editing.  Software that I've been investigating to meet my simple needs of stitching together a bunch of clips to make a single video to burn to DVD include:  Pinnacle Studio Ultimate, Cineform Neoscene, and Adobe Premier Elements.  I haven't picked one yet but will post about it when I do.

Fourth, not being able to auto focus easily and quietly while shooting video is a pain in the butt.  You can work around it, but I would rather not and instead I hope that this "issue" is solved in future iterations of these cameras.  People are used to auto focusing with their video cameras so DSLR's are going to need to evolve more in this area.

Fifth, you're going to need a better source of information than the standard Canon user manual for the 7D.  I would imagine Nikon users are in the same boat.  Fortunately, Canon has posted many informative videos on their Canon Digital Learning Center web site and other web sites like Cinema5D.com have been created to fill the gap.  I've also mentioned some other links in this post from this blog.  There is a ton of good information out there and once you gather a few key tips for shooting DSLR video you'll always remember them and you'll be on your way to successful videos.  It's not hard to shoot the videos......the issues come afterward but fortunately they can all be resolved.

Some other issues that you might face if you're shooting on a more professional level can be found in this article on the Popular Photography web site. 

This might sound like a lot of complaining about an otherwise great technology, but it's really not.  I'm just trying to say that it's not as easy as it first seems when you consider the end-to-end process and I imagine that most other people shooting casual DSLR video on any Nikon, Canon, etc, camera are going through these same issues.  These are simply growing pains for this technology.

Clearly, from looking at the sample videos on Canon's DSLR video web sites and the fact that major TV shows and commercials have been filmed with the Canon 5D and 7D, spectacular results are possible with the current technology.  It just takes some doing... 

I still firmly believe that the benefits of shooting video and stills with the same camera outweigh all of the negative stuff that I mentioned above, especially when both the stills and video look so great.  It's very convenient to fulfill both needs with one camera and that will keep me at it until I figure out the best way to manage this stuff.  I just need to get a proper post-shooting setup in place.

As DSLR video and post-processing evolve, eventually it will be more sophisticated and easier to use.  For now it's a somewhat thorny topic that requires some effort on the part of the shooter to make it all work out right.

Apple goes rotten!

I like Apple's products.  I only own an iPod, but I've used their laptops, desktops, iPad, etc, and they're all extremely well designed and powerful.  Good stuff.

I won't get into the debate here on whether or not Apple's products are worth the premium in price that everyone pays for them over other comparable products.  That's for each individual to decide on their own, and since Apple's products sell very well, obviously many people believe they are worth the extra cost...

The point of this article actually has nothing to do with Apple's hardware.  It has to do with their iTunes digital music service and what's going on there. 

I was in iTunes shopping for an album the other day, and I noticed something astonishing.  Apple has raised the price of many of their popular digital albums to $16.99!  This is a dramatic jump in price from their previous level, and is now far higher than their online competitors like Amazon.com's MP3 service and the cost of comparable physical CD's!

Apple has gone rotten.  Not only is this an awful move from the perspective of their customers, but it's also completely unrealistic.  Here's my viewpoint on this...

Physical CD's still sound better than digital music files.  This is something that's feverishly debated on the Internet, but the truth is simple:  CD's sound better than digital files.  If you want to see for yourself, take a CD and a well ripped MP3 file of the same CD, get yourself on a good stereo, match the volumes of both recordings, and play them back switching between the two sources at high listening volume.  You will clearly hear that CD's sound better than digital files because digital music formats drop too much data during the compression process.  You'll hear it in the clarity of the low and high end of the recording.  Enough said here...

So back to the pricing thing...Apple has now raised the price of some of their digital albums higher than the physical CD of the same recording!  Yes, you are paying more for an inferior music format!  I have to ask myself why people would pay more for something that's less, but I'm sure they will because.......it's Apple!

There's a few problems with this...

First, CD's still sound better, so why pay more for less?

Second, Apple's AAC file format can't be modified in any way to optimize their music files.  I have found many times that the volume setting contained in the header information of Apple's digital files are set far too high.  When they play back with any EQ on them, they distort even on Apple's own devices!  Bad!  You're much better off buying MP3 files so you can use a simple tool like MP3Gain to reset the volume setting on your digital files to the right level with one click of a button.

I could go on about why iTunes is slipping, but I don't want this to become a technical article...

Bottom line:  If you're buying digital music files, get them from Amazon.com's MP3 service instead.  The data rate on the files is higher (meaning, they sound better than Apple's AAC files), they are MP3 format which can be modified to suit your needs, and the big one.........Amazon is half the price of Apple!  Yes, half the price!

Apple.....Wake up!  The iTunes service and the digital files within it, although very popular, are far behind the times when considered from the viewpoint of a serious music fan.  Even though I like Apple, I can only hope that users of iTunes see this price increase as a huge slap in the face and stop purchasing from Apple in droves.  That will hopefully drive Apple's digital music prices right back down to realistic levels.

Where have I been?

It's been a while since I put up some new posts.  You might ask "Where have you been?", and my answer would be "IN HELL"!

Yes, hell.  There's nothing like having your central air conditioning system fail in the middle of a New York heat wave in July, but that's what happened here almost two weeks ago.  The upstairs of the house maxed out at 92 degrees one night, so we moved all the mattresses downstairs and have been sleeping on the Living Room and Dining Room floors for the past two weeks because the air conditioner downstairs is working fine.  It's a good thing that I built this house with two AC zones!

This was fun for a few days because the kids got a kick out of our "camp out" downstairs, but now I think we're all getting pretty tired of it and are ready to get back to finally using the upstairs half of the house again.  Thankfully the repair guys are coming next week, and after I drop $2,800 dollars on this crappy situation we'll be back to a cool house.  This has been occupying a lot of my time lately.....

Other than that we've been having fun!  We're doing some family trips (pictures coming soon!), we've gone to the beach, we went to the Rush concert the other night, we went to a NY Red Bulls soccer match, and I've been watching some good Formula 1 and IndyCar races on TV.  We even went to the Indy race in Watkins Glen, NY over July 4th weekend.  Fun!

This has not left much time for photography or writing new posts for this blog, but I've been squeezing in some nice shots on our trips and I have some good upcoming posts in mind.

My most pressing photography issue right now is getting a handle on how to process digital video.  When I bought my Canon 7D, one of my goals was to use it on our trips to capture quick video clips here and there instead of using a dedicated video camera.  Well, this was a good plan, but I've discovered that I don't quite have the pieces in place yet to make this work from end-to-end. 

For starters, I've discovered that my old computer from 2003 is nowhere near powerful enough to play full high definition video from the 7D.  Strike one, I need a new computer.  You also need special video editing software to view, play, edit, and montage the video clips.  Strike two, I need special video editing software.  I'm fearing what strike three might be, but for now I need to get a handle on how to technically handle this new digital format in my house.  This will be the subject of a post in the near future...

Until then, enjoy your summer and there are more posts coming soon!

Zinio

I wanted to pass along word about a great application that I've been using lately called Zinio.

Zinio is an e-reader application for electronic magazines and books.  I used this application many years ago and it was just in its infancy then so it left some things to be desired.  However, the newest version is great!  Fully featured, flexible, and easy to use.

Chances are that if you read a magazine, it's probably offered in electronic version on Zinio at or below what you pay for the paper version.  The benefit of Zinio, of course, is that it's digital and it's cross-platform.  You can build a nice digital library with no use of physical space, it's fully searchable, etc.  You can zoom in on your content for a better look, email content, bookmark, etc.  The magazines are the exact same versions you get on the newsstand.  They are not stripped of anything, like you'll find with some other e-readers that strip content to make it fit their device.

There are versions of Zinio for the iPhone and iPad, Windows computers, and Android devices.  It's a great evolution for this application.

Give it a try!  You might find yourself reading and enjoying your magazines and books on your laptop, iPhone, iPad or other device more than you ever did with the paper versions.

Canon EOS 7D Custom Functions

Here is a link to a good write-up on the Canon CPS web site about the Custom Functions on the 7D.  It goes into a little more detail than the manual and I found it useful for tweaking a few of my settings.

Cape Wind

In my previous post on this topic, I spoke about how surprised I was that the Cape Wind project in the US has taken so long to get off the ground and how it has received so much backlash from the local communities where it will be located (off shore and mostly out of site!).

The opposition to this project continues to amaze me, especially in light of the total disaster going on in the Gulf of Mexico with the oil spill. It's truly shocking that even an ecological disaster can't sway people to support this project.

For those of you with open minds and a desire to do something right, read about the Cape Wind project at this link and support it however you can.