Archive for
August, 2008
Published
August 27th, 2008
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It’s Saturday evening (August 23rd). All day long the clouds are keeping me guessing and finally at 6PM they let loose in a downpour. That’s about the time I am getting ready to head to the Fish Ladder in my hometown of Grand Rapids to meet a group of shooters for the Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk. Before I leave the house, I grab a light rainjacket - a piece of apparel that I haven’t used in years.
When I reach the meeting place no one is in sight and I’m thinking that the photo walk is cancelled. It’s not raining so I walk the 50 yards from the parking lot to the river. I spot four others standing there, all armed with photo gear. Yes, these must be the photo walkers, so I introduce myself. The rain starts again so I run back to the car for my rainjacket.
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Published
August 26th, 2008
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It’s quite obvious that digital cameras are pervasive. You can hardly walk around town without seeing pedestrians snapping away. They may be using their cell-phone camera, a point-and-shoot or more sophisticated and expensive equipment. But there’s no doubt that picturetaking is the trend - and a little bit trendy too.
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Published
August 22nd, 2008
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Waterproof and rugged are two adjectives that usually apply to outdoor gear such as my hiking boots. When I’m in the woods or on the slopes, I want to wear equipment that can stand up to the harsh treatment that I’m likely to encounter.
Here, I’m going to describe a different type of gear that I’ve used in the outdoors to record my adventures. I’m referring to several “ruggedized” cameras that I’ve had in past years. Actually, waterproof is too mild a word to use since each of these cameras can be used underwater. While not suitable for scuba diving, you can use them for taking photos in shallow water. My goal is to share my experiences with you in case you have a need or desire to record your own similar adventures.
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Published
August 22nd, 2008
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I just finished reading an interesting camera-related press release from JD Power & Associates, an organization that built its reputation reporting about product customer satisfaction. The press release sites statistics that suggest that the more that you pay for your camera, the more photos you’ll shoot.
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Published
August 21st, 2008
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| I remember very clearly when Dad would pull out his large twin lens reflex camera, usually around a holiday, birthday or family event. He would lower his head and look into the lens hood while his hand would reach down to grasp the knurled knob on the camera’s side. I would see the bellows move back and forth as he zeroed in on his focus. Then he’d snap and the shot would be done. We’d wait weeks, sometimes months, to see the results. After all, a full roll of film had room for 12 negatives! |
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| When the film was finally developed, we were thrilled to see the results. Here are two photos, one from the 40’s and another from the 50s, but they both share the same “feel” - the subjects are dressed up for a special occasion, some of them are posed comfortably and others more stiffly, but always in full black and white. |
Aunt Emma, Aunt Millie and Mom circa 1940
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 I took this family picture as a youth circa 1957
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| In the 50’s, color photos were reserved only for special occasions - owing to the higher expense. While Dad sometimes shot color, the cost of the film and print processing was too extravagant for normal use. But for those special times when he did use color, he would send the exposed film to one of the discount processing services to save money. The downside: developing by mail took an additional week to complete. |
| I cut my teeth on Dad’s older twin lens reflex (TLR) and a Polaroid Swinger. Using the twin lens reflex was an exercise in patience. With only twelve exposures to a roll of 120 film, you made sure that you had a good shot before you released the shutter. With the Swinger, it was a blast to see instant photography. With today’s digital we’ve come full circle; we have another form of instant photography again. |
| As a youngster with sparse earnings, I made do with Dad’s second TLR and the Swinger that served as my equipment. I came into luck when I found that Uncle Tom, who was in the Air Force at the time, agreed to buy a camera for me at a huge discount on the Air Force Base PX. A lesson in patience: I’d to wait a whole year until he returned from service overseas to get my hands on a state of the art Canonflex RM SLR camera. |
| In the mean time, I learned to develop film and make my own prints. A small corner in the basement became my darkroom. I covered the windows to keep out the light, fashioned a processing area from discarded planks of wood and used Mom’s washroom sink to provide water for the chemicals. I spent many nights mixing developer, stop bath and fixer; processing film and making black and white prints. I started with a basic Testrite enlarger and later graduated to a fancy Durst 606 enlarger with a built-in color filter drawer. I was so immersed into this hobby that soon I learned to make my own color prints. It would take take three hours of preparation to make the first color “test” print and perhaps six hours to get an acceptable “final” color print. I can hardly believe that I had so much patience back then. |
| To further my interest, something wonderful happened. Mom arranged for me to get a part time job with John Margotta, an old acquaintance who happened to be a professional photographer. For three years, after school I would head to John’s studio to learn the photography business. In the studio I was his assistant. I would hold lights and set up equipment for weddings, bar mitzvahs, anniversaries, birthdays, modeling shoots, funerals (yes, funerals) and more. I learned about lighting techniques, portrait techniques, posing techniques, action techniques, view camera technqiues and wedding cake cutting techniques too. And of course John taught me many darkroom techniques. Of course, I used most of my earnings to purchase more equipment. |
| My photographic education continued. During high school I proudly served on the yearbook staff as one of the three student photographers with access to sporting and entertainment events. In the following examples, you’ll see that we continued taking black and white photos since the cost of color was prohibitive at the time. |
The friendly cheerleading squad of
New Rochelle High School circa 1967 |
Motown’s Four Tops performing
at New Rochelle High School circa 1966 |
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| During my college years, I completed my formal photo training by working at two different high end processing labs servicing the Madison Ave advertising agencies. In the 60’s, a process called “dye transfer” was used to make photographic reproductions for the high quality magazines like Vogue and Harper. Here is where I learned processing from the ground up: making color separations from the original transparencies for printing using cyan, magenta and yellow dyes. Despite commuting between my home in New Rochelle and the photo labs in New York City and the long working hours, I thoroughly enjoyed the job as I continued to learn about photography. |
| At college I taught at the photography club and introduced my girlfriend to darkroom techniques. By the way, Kris is now my wife and hates the darkroom. I was a staff photographer for several university organizations and earned extra cash by photographing fraternity and sorority events. |
| Following college, Kris and I were married and shortly thereafter, photography took a backseat to raising a family, putting bread on the table and becoming involved in the software industry. Although I took and accumulated thousands of photos during this period, the bulk of these were of family faces and of the scenic vacation variety. |
| Skip forward 30 years to the mid-1990s. Our company Abacus, is involved with flight simulation software and I’m taking more and more aviation related photos. I now find myself dabbling in the new world of digital photography. The stars are finally aligned and I’m ready to marry two of my long time interests: photography and aviation. With digital, the equipment and processing techniques are radically different from conventional film photography. |
| Lucikly, I’m finding that most of the basics that I started learning 50 years ago are still relevant. After all of these years, I remain very excited and passionate about my love of photography. |
Published
August 15th, 2008
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In the past week, I’ve continued to explore the low light capabilities of the Nikon D700 after the sun has set. After all, the early evening is one of the times when the D700 with its high tech light-gathering sensor should be very useful. And isn’t the big draw of the D700 its “advertised” high ISO performance?
To help satisfy my curiosity, I made a few simple, inpromptu tests. Here’s the first:
- Choose a colorful subject: how about a red children’s wagon?
- Wait until it’s fairly dark outside: after 9PM Eastern Daylight Time
- Use a quality, high speed lens: the Nikor 50mm f/1.4 fits this bill
- Vary the ISO setting and shoot
- Shoot jpeg, fine quality images
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Published
August 7th, 2008
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My wife says that I’m a “techie”. Judging from some of the things that I buy, she’s right.
My latest aquisition is the Photo Trackr. This gadget is a miniature GPS device, just slightly larger than a 35mm film canister (do you remember what this is?). Turn it on while you’re picturetaking and it records your location to flash memory as you move from place to place. Later, after you download your images to the computer, simply add the location data from the Photo Trackr and you’ll have a recorded diary of your shooting itinerary. Pretty nifty!
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Published
August 5th, 2008
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The single feature that attracted me to the Nikon D700 was its proported low-light capabilities.
I had read several positive reports about its big brother, the D3, and believed that the large light gathering sensor of the D700 would be a big help to me as I practiced my long-lens, wildlife photography. I’ve been using the new D700 for less than two weeks, but I’ve already started exploring its high ISO settings.
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Published
August 2nd, 2008
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Each year we make a 350-mile journey from our home in Grand Rapids to attend EAA’s AirVenture - more commonly called the Oshkosh Air Show. This year is much the same in the past - we awaken at 4AM for the five hour car ride. The big difference this year is that I’m lugging a new Nikon D700 with me.
I’ve had the camera for only three days. To tell you the truth I’m not very familiar with its features and controls. Furthermore, as a long-tme user of Canon cameras, I’m not very familiar with the Nikon system. I promised myself that I wouldn’t read the manuals; I would learn the features the hard way so that they would stick in my head easier afterwards. I’ve already decided that I’m going to put the D700 through its paces even if I have to fumble around with its buttons, dials and menus.
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When I reach the meeting place no one is in sight and I’m thinking that the photo walk is cancelled. It’s not raining so I walk the 50 yards from the parking lot to the river. I spot four others standing there, all armed with photo gear. Yes, these must be the photo walkers, so I introduce myself. The rain starts again so I run back to the car for my rainjacket.
