Zion – November 2010

A girlfriend and I share a passion for photography. I would love to spend more time taking photos, so when Insu asked me if I wanted to go to a photography workshop with her in Zion, I was thrilled. The workshop was led by Ian Plant. He is a wonderful nature photographer, and he takes some incredible photos. You can see his work here and even download some wonderful instructional e-books he’s written (they are really inexpensive, but full of good information). The e-books are beautiful to look at, and are also full of details on how to take better photos. In person, and in his writing, Ian is generous with his information and suggestions.

I periodically give myself “assignments” to go out and learn the functions of my camera, or focus on a particular kind of shooting (macro, fog, sunrise, etc.). The idea of a class where you are totally immersed in your subject all day, for five days sounded fabulous – and it was! And to have access to a bunch of other creative souls, who might want to share techniques and tips – that is the perfect way to take your skills to the next level quickly. I couldn’t wait to get started! (more…)

Testing the wide angle lens

So I’m pretty sure I want the Tokina 12-24mm f/4.0 ATX Pro DX Zoom Lens in Nikon Digital Mount. I go back down to Georges (LINK) and meet with Patrick. In my research I found several people mention the variation of lens quality in a line. I asked Patrick about this and he said it happens, but not that often. Since they don’t rent the lens I want to test, I bring my camera and laptop down to the store, to test out their two copies of the Tokina lens. (more…)

Researching a wide angle lens

I will be taking a workshop with Ian Plant in November and wanted to know a little more about his work and techniques. I downloaded his e-books; Chasing the Light, Five Landscape Challenges, and 10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Landscape Compositions (if you have an interest in landscape photography I’d recommend all three of these). I noticed some of the photos, where he used a super wide-angle lens, really draw the viewer into the photo. (more…)

What’s the right ISO?

When I had a film camera I bought 200 ASA Fuji film. I loved the color of fuji and I mostly took outdoor photos. (At some point I probably should have switched to slide film for better prints, but it was expensive, took longer to get back, and you had to view with a slide projector or loop.) If you knew you were going to be shooting indoors for a wedding or something you might buy a roll of 400 ISO. Now with digital you can change the ISO for every shot if you want to.

A good explanation of what happens when you turn up the ISO on your camera can be found on the dpreview.com website. (more…)

Buying and learning to use a tripod

I’ve signed up for a landscape photography class with a girlfriend. The class is with Ian Plant, in Zion, the first week of November. I love Ian’s photos and am hoping to learn how he gets such vivid intense colors in his images. I don’t normally use a tripod and I know that this is a necessity for shooting landscapes. So I bought myself a SLIK Pro 400DX tripod, and took it on our July trip to Yosemite.

I think the only way to buy a tripod – if you don’t already know what you want – is to go down to the camera store and play with them. Pick them up to test the weight. Hold them to see how bulky they are. Some of the bulky looking ones aren’t that heavy. Some of the skinny ones are really solid and heavy. Test out the legs and see (more…)

How do you show off all the photos from the trip?

OK, I don’t really mean all, but when you go through a bunch of images from Africa – they all look pretty exotic. It’s hard to narrow down what to show! I mostly use my images in the travel journals that I write about our trips. Occasionally I’ve entered a few contests (haven’t won anything yet, but it is fun to see what other people are doing and how my images compare). I had quite a few good images from the Africa trip, and it took me a while to decide which photos I wanted to make prints of – and where we wanted to hang them. In the end, the time I took (more…)

Buying my Nikon D200

I wanted to start a blog and discussion group on digital photography to share the joys and adventures of nature photography. I thought I’d start by reviewing what camera I bought and how I learned to use it. I’m an amateur and mostly take photos for the fun of being outside and sharing those images with my friends and family. Up until June of 2006 I had been using a Nikon FG SLR that I bought around 1980. I knew I wanted a digital SLR camera to replace it and was waiting for the prices to come down (they weren’t really coming down too fast). The Nikon D200 was the best amateur model for my needs at the time. Actually, I felt it was way more camera than I needed, but at this price point I wanted something I could grow into. And my first camera had served me well for 26 years – I was hoping for the same or better from this camera. A hope that my cutting edge technical friends thinks is hysterical – (more…)

Learning to use my new Nikon D200

I had a specific mission in mind when I took my camera out. I wanted to get good images on our safari trip that was coming up in just a couple weeks. I needed to get good shots of animals that might be moving, not too close, and in all kinds of lighting.

I went over to Torrey Pines Reserve every chance I had before the trip and took photos of the peregrine falcon on the cliffs and the shore birds in the surf. I set the camera to program so that I could focus on the most basic aspects of taking pictures – framing and focusing. I bought the Magic Lantern Guides: Nikon D200, to get some extra details on how some of the camera settings worked. I love this book and still take it with me (more…)