Site Sightings

Stan Tekiela is a wildlife photographer, author and the producer of several CDs of bird songs. He’s based in Victoria, Minnesota and has written a very popular guide to the birds of Minnesota. His website is NatureSmart.com. Be sure to check out his images of my favorite bird, the Northern Cardinal. I’ll be darned if I can figure out how he got that bird to pose in the Christmas wreath.

Leapfrog!

Nikon's new D300

What a game of leapfrog Canon and Nikon are playing this week. On Monday, Canon announced the full-frame EOS 1Ds Mark III and the 40D. At $7,000 the 1Ds was not on my shopping list, but at $1,300 the 40D was. I ordered one immediately and wrote about it below.

Merely two days later Nikon blew Canon out of the water with two cannons of their own. Today they announced the full-frame 12.1 megapixel D3. Of more interest to me, they also announced the 12.1 megapixel D300 priced at $1,799 and available in November. After taking a look at it, I cancelled my 40D order placed on Monday and ordered a D300 in it’s stead. Here’s why.

12.1 vs. 10.1 megapixels. All of the big boys are at 12.

CMOS sensor. Finally Nikon has moved away from CCDs. The much quieter CMOS sensor should be great for astrophotography.

Live View mode. Not one, like Canon, but two. And Nikon's AF system works with it.

Complete weather sealing. The 40 D is only partial.

Integrated sensor cleaning system. This is new for Nikon.

3.0” LCD. The Nikon LCD is 920,000-dot high-resolution. This is four times the area resolution of the Canon 40D, 1D Mark III and the 1Ds Mark III.

Uses the SB-400 flash. This is a wonderful little unit I really love.

Improved 10-pin remote terminal.

Given the release date of the 40D, I will still be able to change my mind after I “hands-on” it. That said, I doubt I’ll change my mind. Nikon has really out-done themselves with this release. Digital Photography Review has a preview with lots of images here.

Combined with Nikon’s excellent and hard-to-find 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR, what more do you need?

Cameras Without Borders

Photography has no boundaries. If you don’t believe me take a look at the excellent Slovenian website e-Photografija here.

Photography Is Not A Numbers Game

If you are serious about your craft, you sometimes get bothered when you aren’t out there shooting like crazy. I think this is normal and indeed a wise practice. I have gone for long periods without touching my camera. Usually, it’s because there’s nothing to photograph. Sometimes I just need a break. Like everyone, I have made lots exposures that turned out to be worthless and went straight to the recycle bin. When I hear that someone took a thousand or more exposures, I can only shake my head. They weren’t doing a very good job of editing in their heads, not to mention the camera. I would trade most of the images that I have made over the years for one really good exposure. Photography has never been about quantity. It’s about quality. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t happily settle to have every exposure be perfect. It’s not about exercising your shutter finger. It’s about getting that one great image. When I went up to the Boundary Waters after the Ham Lake Fire I was amazed by how few pictures I took. I discovered that I was doing a lot of editing in my head and using self restraint. Since then, I have tried to make every image count. Sometimes not snapping that shutter is the wiser choice.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

Buried in all the release hoopla today is the announcement of this new lens to be available in October for $199. On a 1.6 crop factor body it’s the equivalent of a 28-88mm which makes it a great “normal” lens for all around use. I probably wouldn’t dump my 50mm f/1.4 to add this since it’s a bit slow, but I like the focal length range. For wide angle shooters Canon’s 10-22mm zoom is the better choice and it’s just as fast. No IS though.

Canon EOS 40D

According to my web browsing I must be the last to know, but frankly the news is so exciting that I don’t care. Today Canon announced my dream DSLR, the EOS 40D, to be available next month. I immediately called my local camera store to make sure I was the first one on their list.

At only $1,299, this thing sounds like a dream machine and fulfilled every one of my wants, including better weather sealing and different menus. A few of the new features are:

10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor
3.0” LCD
Live View mode
DIGIC III processor
6.5 fps shooting mode
Integrated sensor cleaning system
Improved 9 point auto-focus
Auto ISO
Three custom user settings

As always, Digital Photography Review has the best preview with lots of images. Read all about it here and then pre-order it here.

In addition to the 40D, Canon announced a slew of other cameras, including the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, a $7,000 behemoth I’ll never own, but will enjoy reading about.

In Support of Support

Recently I’ve noticed a backlash against the tripod and I’m afraid some folks have buried the poor old fellow. After all, this is the 21st century. We have in-camera IS, vibration reduction and high ISOs. We don’t need no stinking tripods. Those are relics of a past age. I mean, Mathew Brady used a tripod for crying out loud. That was over a 140 years ago. Look around will ya. Travel and street photographers don’t need them because they need to be quick and unobtrusive. Digicams don’t even come with remotes so why they have mounting holes is a mystery to me. Some commentators have maintained that camera support is a thing of the past. Everyone, it seems, works hand-held these days. Well maybe not those sports-shooters with those unbelievably long lenses we see every Sunday. But they’re not normal.

Like the old reprobate that I am, I oppose this trend. I never attempt a serious photograph without some sort of support. I have hand tremors. As a result, I can never be certain how my hand-held stuff will turn out. Although they help a bit, high ISOs and IS hasn’t completely solved my problem. Although I’m not a sports-shooter, I do like to photograph birds, which requires that I use a long lens. Sorry, but I couldn’t possibly hand-hold my Canon 400mm. I also like support because it forces me to slow down and concentrate on composition and exposure. I have a tendency to snap-shot and using a tripod stops me in my tracks. If I have to get out the tripod I also wait for good images to present themselves rather than shooting a lot of junk.

I believe that most of the great images were made with a tripod. The photographers that I admire still continue to use camera support.

Finally, I quote from Dewitt Jones’ great column, Point and Shoot, in the August issue of Outdoor Photographer:

That’s the main reason I almost always use a tripod when I’m shooting landscapes. To get a truly great shot, you want to be able to look critically at your composition, walk away from the camera for a moment and return with fresh eyes, move to add a branch there, remove one here, tweak the composition until it’s perfect. The difference between a good frame and a great frame often is a matter of millimeters on a landscape shot. Point! Point! Point! Bring all your concentration and creativity to bear to make the composition perfect.

My perfect camera would be a digicam with interchangeable lenses and a 4x5 screen that I could mount on a tripod. Hey, maybe I’m on to something here. Until then, let’s raise a glass to the old three-legged stool! If you don’t, I’ll whack you with my monopod.

Bad Weather

Hurricane Dean, STS 118: Endeavour, 2007

Make-Over

Don’t like the way you look? No problem. Step One: Take a picture of yourself or have one taken. Step Two: Send it here. Voila!

Thanks to T.O.P. for finding this.

Creativity

There is a great essay by the landscape photographer Alain Briot entitled Exercising Your Creativity on Luminous Landscape. I have long admired Alain’s work and writings and this piece and the accompanying images are no exception. If you haven’t yet discovered Alain, now is an excellent time to do so.

Site Sightings

From time to time I will try to bring to your attention photographic websites that I find particularly excellent or interesting. You will find a running list of these sites to the right. While looking for an image of a California ground squirrel, I stumbled across two such places. Greg Downing is a nature and bird photographer whose work has been published in Birding Magazine, Outdoor Photographer and Birder's World. His work is excellent and you can see it here. Greg is also the publisher of NatureScapes.net a resource for nature photographers. It has some good articles on technique and is well worth a visit.

Welcome

Self Portrait with Leica, 2007

Welcome to Written By The Light, a journal about photography and digital imaging. I have been writing about this subject for several months, but I never felt comfortable with the direction I wanted to take. Although I am the son of a photographer and grew up around cameras, I am not formally schooled in the art form. My knowledge, such as it is, comes from practical experience and self-study. I can assure you though that I am both curious and passionate about the subject and feel that I have something to offer my readers.

Recently, I was reminded that “photography” comes from two Greek words and means “writing with light”. I was struck by that imagery and felt that I had hit upon something important. The phrase goes to the very core of what photography is. When we make a photograph we write with light. Hence the title of this journal, which reflects both the essence of photography and my two passions – writing and photography.

Although some have argued that photography is dead, I think it’s alive and well -- just different. Whether you call it photography, digital photography or digital imaging, picking up an imaging device -- aka camera-- is more popular now than ever before. My local camera shop is overflowing on weekends. Rare is the social gathering where one of the guests doesn’t have a digicam. Teenagers spend hours photographing themselves and posting the results on Facebook and MySpace. I think it’s a very exciting time.

I hope you’ll enjoy future offerings and return for more. Unless it’s quiet, I post frequently so please check back. Thanks for reading!

Christopher Lane