So It's June

Whoa, April and May blew by, and now it's June. Time for some updates.

April included trips to Summit Point and Monongahela National Forest. It was good to break the 1D Mark II out to shoot racing again. I'd lent the camera to my dad to take to Africa, so this was the first time I've really used it since. It didn't miss a beat.

Of course, you don't need a 1D to get shots like the ones below. I was going for a speed/blurring effect on the first shot, which was taken at 1/13 of a second at f/20, ISO 100. It takes several shots to get it right, since no one can track and pan perfectly. When you get it really right though, it's awesome.

Monongahela was also fun, though the Smoke Hole motel we stayed in left much to be desired, especially for the cost. In any case, we visited Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia, as well as Dolly Sods, a tundra-like expanse that bears great resemblance to areas way up in Canada.

May included a trip to Shenandoah National Park. It was a chance to try out the Xpan since I got it back from an aborted repair down in DC. I'm still waiting for the film back on that one, but we also hit up Luray Caverns, which I haven't been to since I was a child. For the caverns, I thought it would be a good chance to shoot wide with the 17-40/4. It hasn't gotten much use since I got the 24-105/4. Unfortunately, I don't think my idea panned out. The pictures you see below are thoroughly cropped, so I probably would have done better to bring a fast 35/2 or something instead. I'm sure there are impressive, wide shots to be had, but the tour group was moving along pretty quickly, so there wasn't a ton of time to try every angle of composition. In the end, most of the wide shots I got were too cluttered. Photographer or not, I do recommend Luray Caverns though.

I also finally took the time to cut all my film from the past couple years with the Xpan. I couldn't let the lab cut them, since the shots are panoramic. I have this recurring vision in my head of a beautiful panoramic shot in E6, sitting on the light table, cut right in half. Painful.

While tedious, cutting film and seeing it on the light table through the loupe is one of the simple joys of photography that I think a lot of people miss out on. I've heard that with a really good loupe, your slides can look so good on the light table that it's enough to make you quit your real job to become a full-time photographer. In other words, the light table and loupe can be dangerously awesome.

Vice Moderation

Is film photography a vice? I was reading an article on Luminous Landscape about slide film yesterday, and the author's conclusion got me thinking. He said he couldn't imagine going back to slide film, especially from a cost perspective. Certainly, film does have more recurring costs than digital. But film photography is something to be cherished and appreciated. Some might call it a vice. The key for any vice though, is moderation. So shoot that roll of film, knowing full well what it's costing you in money, and what you're gaining in enjoyment.

What does the Great Wall have to do with this message? Nothing, other than the fact that it's the exact opposite of moderation. But who cares? It is truly a wonder of the world, and well worth the long trip to get there. I was lucky enough to take my new Leica M6 and 35/2 Summicron along last month. In spite of the cold, the Leica never missed a beat. And the Tri-X flowed.

Perhaps a Leica is an example of moderation in itself. No frills, no excess, minimal design incarnate.

Where does the 747 fall in the continuum of moderation?

That First Roll

There's a lot to be said about the first roll of film that comes out of a new camera. Simultaneously bringing all your experience to bear on a new photographic tool. The feeling of uncertainty that comes with film, followed by the satisfaction of getting that first roll back from the lab. It's completely intertwined with the act of photography itself.



Occasionally it results in disappointment. The first time I went out to shoot with my Xpan, I completely botched the film loading process. After walking all over downtown Baltimore to finish a whole roll, I opened up the back of the camera only to find the film lead just sitting there. In the end, I simply had to write off the whole thing as a "scouting opportunity" and move on. It wasn't until just a couple months ago that I returned to some of those places for a do-over:



Of course, the real reason for this article is my first roll through the Leica M6, which I acquired about a month ago. This thing certainly lives up to the name. The meter only worked for about the first half of the roll before the cold killed the batteries. No matter though, because this is a fully mechanical camera. As long as you can set the shutter speed and aperture, it will gladly keep shooting.

I'll admit, eyeballing the exposure was a bit intimidating at first, growing up in an automatic age. A little practice with a free Exposure-Mat and soon I was memorizing f/8 exposures for all kinds of situations.

I was also afraid that the pictures wouldn't have enough contrast since I didn't have any E39 filters. I almost always use a 49mm Orange(G) filter on my Xpan to add contrast. Lo and behold, the legendary Leica lenses came through, adding their own creamy contrast.



The sheer simplicity of it really is mind-boggling. And nothing else in photography feels quite like the smooth, manual action of winding the film crank on a quality camera. Just wow. Need a Leica alternative? Fear not, the winding action on the venerable Nikon F3 is extremely impressive as well.

But I digress, this is supposed to be about photography, not mechanics. It's that clean, featureless simplicity that allows the photographer to focus on being a photographer.

Here's to another amazing tool in the toolbox.

Camera Porn How To

Product photography is a curious thing. For instance, here's a picture of a Leica M6 with a dual-range 50/2 Summicron with ugly goggles, an uglier strap, and tape all over it. Yet you still want it.



Sometimes it really is the object itself that you want, and it doesn't matter how good or bad the photo is. However in most cases, people have probably never actually touched the object, so all they have to go on are some pretty pictures and reputation/cache/speculation/marketing (cough X-Pro1). Curious.

Anyway, here's a little how-to for creating your own camera porn for the masses. It's pretty straight forward. All you need is:

• A semi-long lens (100mm+)
• A soft light source (indirect light from a large window, or a softened off-camera flash)
• A clutter-free background (any plain wall will do)
• Oh yeah, and a camera

For these shots, I used an old Nikon SB-28DX flash triggered from my 5D with a low-end Pocket Wizard. The flash fired at 1/4 power through a Westcott umbrella, which softened the light.

Initially I tried using my trusty 50/1.8 lens, but quickly discovered that this was not long enough to keep the background clutter out of the lens's perspective. I switched over to the 24-105/4 (at 105mm), which did the trick of narrowing the perspective of the background, removing unwanted junk from the scene.

I also wanted to make the object stand out, so I had to make sure that there was enough light fall-off between the object and the background, so the object would be much lighter. To do this, I had to keep the light source close to the object (about 2 feet), but far from the background (about 12 feet).

In order to kill any ambient light in the shot, I used the fastest shutter speed I could. The 5D syncs at 1/200, so all the pictures were taken at 1/200 at f/11.

For more information on general product photography, I highly recommend you go check out Strobist. And now back to our regularly scheduled camera porn...

Gearing up for Southern Africa

The following is a guest post from my good friend, Tom Hennen. He and his wife recently returned from a three week trip to southern Africa. I've asked them both to share some of their experiences in a series of blog posts.



One of the first things I learned about Amy, my wife, was that she wanted to go to Africa. So it was no surprise that six years after we’d met we were finally on our way. What was a surprise was how long we’d be gone, three weeks. Three weeks of scrambling over the tops of waterfalls, game drives and walks, death marches to the bottom of large ravines, ostrich riding, exploring caves, harassing penguins, and petting lions.

Knowing that Africa might be a once in a lifetime trip I wanted to document the trip and take some excellent photographs. When we planned the trip, the little photography experience I had was limited to framing photos with our point and shoot. I didn’t know anything about f-stops, ISO or crop factors. Luckily I had about a year to prepare so we purchased a Sony A580. In order to get comfortable with it I started work on a Photo-a-Week project. Each week I’d post a photograph with a different theme. Many of the early weeks were rough, but I eventually got the hang of it and really learned how to use the camera.

When I started the project I was using the kit lens (Sony 18-55 3.5-5.6) and a telephoto zoom (Sigma 70-300 APO 4-5.6). Between the two of these I was definitely getting the range that I wanted, but I didn’t find it very flexible when walking around. I’d often find myself seeing a great shot but having the wrong lens on. To top it off, walking around with both lenses made for a heavy bag. I knew changing lenses on the trip wouldn’t work since there are so many fleeting moments on game drives. I also knew weight would be a problem since I’d be carrying the camera and equipment around all day. With that in mind I wound up buying a super-zoom, the Sony SAL18-250 3.5-6.3. It’s not quite as long as the 70-300, but the flexibility it afforded was well worth it.



Another concern was how I was going to carry the equipment. Theft is always an issue, no less so in southern Africa. Many camera bags scream “steal me” and since we were going through so many border crossings I thought it was important to have something inconspicuous. After searching for a while I chose the ONA Union Street bag. It had plenty of room for my equipment and other essentials like bug spray and sun screen. Most importantly, it doesn’t look like a camera bag.

With the lens and bag issue settled I had my packing list: camera body, 18-250 lens, charger, spare battery, lens cloth, lens pen, dust bulb, and bag. The only remaining question was if I wanted to bring a tripod...