When I ventured into this photography thing as something more serious than taking snapshots, I started off, as a lot of people do, shooting nature subjects. Kathy & I would drive around with Kevin Adams’ Waterfalls of North Carolina book, looking for waterfalls and shooting anything we found interesting along the way. At one point it seemed like I had a knack for finding “magic moments” where the morning or afternoon light provided gifts of dramatic clouds, fabulous sunbeams and great sunrise and sunset colors. I was a Nature Photographer, and proud of it.
Padlock, Basseterre. St Kitts
I still find myself attracted to the mountains and to the woods, but I’ve also realized that there are photographs to be made everywhere. I’ve made photographs in small towns, large towns, on cruise ships, on Caribbean islands, at the beach, in the mountains, you name it.
The difficult thing is that it’s hard to break old habits. When I think about photographing fall colors I automatically think about heading for the mountains. Same with spring wildflowers, or sunrises and sunsets. But the seasons happen everywhere, and there are photographs of all kinds to be made in lots of places besides those we think of first. The challenge is to come up with new ideas. Fall at a bluegrass concert in Floyd, VA perhaps. Wildflowers at a park or garden in Statesville. The possibilities are endless.
God is Love, Basseterre. St Kitts
The thing I love most about photography is that it so personal. I can photograph whatever I want, wherever I want – within reason, of course! Rather than limit my travel to traditional photographic icons, I like seeking out subject matter wherever I am, in places where it is harder to find, and where I have to work a little harder to find something that appeals to me.
Red and White, Basseterre. St Kitts
Paul Lester recently wrote on his blog a post titled “Where I Connect” about reviewing his images in preparation for a critique session at an upcoming workshop. Paul wrote that he “connects” with nature and people. He and I are attending the same workshop and in going through the same exercise I’m finding that while I still do a lot of nature photography I have been connecting more and more with things other than nature, which is interesting since I have traditionally considered myself a nature photographer. I’ll probably come up with a mix of material, but it’s an interesting process. I don’t like labels anyway, so maybe I’ll just start considering myself a Photographer, without any prefixes. And I’m proud of that, too.
Fog Rising from the Bay, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska - Canon 20D
A number of years ago while living in eastern Ohio, I earned my private pilot’s license and enjoyed spending my weekends in search of the “Hundred Dollar Hamburger,” which was what we called a trip to a somewhat distant airport in a rented airplane for lunch. I now spend most of my weekends on the ground, and my equipment is, at least in theory, a bit less expensive.
One winter Saturday, a good friend and I started off on a longer trip to a much more distant airport in central Pennsylvania, hoping to hone our navigational skills on the 3-hour flight and to visit a little restaurant that we had heard good things about. After an hour or so of flying, we started getting into some winter weather. It was nothing heavy, but neither of us was instrument rated and it was just enough moisture to have us concerned about icing. My friend, who was flying the plane at the time, told me half-jokingly, “I think we ought to make a 360 and get out of here.” He was of course referring to making a 180, but I knew exactly what he meant and quickly agreed. We headed back to our home airport under sunshine and blue skies. We never did get to that airport, because soon after that I moved to North Carolina and I haven’t flown a small plane since.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I have been seriously contemplating a move to a compact camera system to replace my “aging” Canon 5D and associated lenses. The decision process has been far more difficult than the one I faced over western Pennsylvania those many years ago, and the answer is much less obvious. By comparison there are many more possibilities and many more acceptable outcomes than flying a single-engine airplane into a snowstorm. My primary motivation for making the change is that I would like to have a smaller and lighter camera, reasoning that I would be a lot happier taking a nice light backpack when I travel, as opposed to my overweight, carryon-illegal Think Tank bag that I can barely lift into the back of my car and that an airline would never let me carry aboard a plane. The second motivation is that I am running way behind in technology, and I reason that something newer will give me more up-to-date dynamic range and image quality. I really am due for an upgrade of some kind. The challenge is figuring out what to do.
In the last week or so I started making serious inquiries about what kind of jackpot I might expect by selling some or all of my gear or trading it in with a dealer. I have never bought or sold on eBay or Craigslist, and have no interest in making my debut by selling potentially valuable gear in a reputedly shark-infested market. I know a lot of people do it with no problems, but I’ve heard just enough horror stories to convince me that if I decide to “dip my toe” I’ll do it with something far more harmless, like some old NASCAR die-cast that I’ve been holding on to for too long.
The answers I have gotten back have been nothing short of depressing. Knowing how well my gear still performs, and knowing what I have invested in this gear over the last 8 years, the amortization has been pretty high, to the point where I am now convinced – again, for today, at least – to stay with what I’ve got for a while longer, perhaps looking to pick up a newer used body to get me closer to the current technology. And Canon’s got some Big News scheduled for this coming Friday, so who knows? Would I like a 5D Mark III? Perhaps. We’ll have to see.
Part of the reason for the angst is that Kathy & I have a big trip planned for May. Just like pilots have to be careful of suffering from “Get-There-itis,” I seem to be suffering from a related ailment called “New-Gear-itis.” We’re taking a 10-night cruise to Alaska from San Francisco, finished off with 4 days in California exploring Sonoma and the Russian River wine regions, perhaps with a visit to Napa. We’re more Sonoma people, we’re told, so we’ll probably stay on the western side for the most part. But I’d like to be able to do it with less gear, which is why I was feeling pressured – all internal, of course – to buy something new. But now I’m thinking that maybe I just need to look at my existing equipment and to just be a little more selective about what I take. There’s more than one way to take less stuff, right?
I’ve done a lot of thinking on this, and figure that anything I do is going to be a compromise. I’ve been looking at a Fuji X-Pro 1, and while it certainly has the size benefit over the Canon, the longest lens offered is a 60mm macro. There are more lenses in the pipeline but the 70-200 zoom is more than a year away. The cost of the body and 3 lenses would require that I sell virtually all of my existing gear. That’s more risk than I’m willing to take for a brand-new and unproven camera.
The new Olympus OM-D looks very promising and I think it’s going to be a great little camera. It’s more affordable than the Fuji, certainly has the size benefit I’m looking for and has a number of lenses available, so I could have all of the focal length I’m looking for. But again, it’s a brand-new camera and I’m not inclined to drop that kind of money for something that is unproven.
So where does that leave me? If I decide I just need to have something newer, I could quickly and easily pick up a 60D, a 7D or even a 5D Mark II. There are bound to be a lot of Mark II owners getting itchy over the Mark III. Maybe I’ll find a good deal on a newer used camera, then later on I can jump on the Mark III bandwagon once it’s been out and I’m sure it’s worth the money.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, and I’m sure these new cameras are going to be great. But I think that – once again – I’m going to just sit back and see what happens. The last time I went to Alaska I took great photos with my 20D, so I’m sure that whatever camera I go with this time will be just fine. And once I get to California I’m planning to spend most of my time drinking wine, so even if there is a difference I might not care!
I’m on an Alaska kick lately, and looking over some of my old photos has me thinking about going back. March is a month of transition here in the Southeast, while winter (or what winter has been this year) lingers elsewhere. While this photo was taken in August (believe it or not) it shows lingering snow above soaring mountains and deep blue water.
I hope you enjoy this journey into the archives, and I hope you have a wonderful March!
Kathy & I are spending the long President’s Day weekend (President’s Day for most banking-related employers except mine. Oh, well….) in Belhaven, NC, one of our favorite getaway spots. We enjoy coming to Belhaven because we can do or not do, as much or as little as we choose. It’s a nice little town on the Intracoastal Waterway, a little sleepy but there’s enough to do if you want something to do. We’ve got some good friends that run a B&B here, and it is nice to visit several times a year to catch up. After the hustle & bustle of The Big City it is a welcome change.
Saturday we visited Washington, NC, just down the road between Belhaven and Greenville. There’s a great wine shop there we like to visit called Wine & Words (‘Words’ because it is also a used book store). We go for the wine but I’ve also bought books there, once picking up a copy of Peter Turnley’s The Parisians for an amazingly good price.
Pink Building in Washington, North Carolina
I’ve been begging Kathy to let me try out her little Olympus E-PL2 for quite some time, and she decided that she wasn’t planning to do any shooting this weekend, so as long as I used my own memory card (so I wouldn’t corrupt hers!) I could shoot to my heart’s content. I didn’t shoot a lot with it, but I did get a chance to make some walking-around-town photos in Washington and worked a little bit around the Sunset Hour, although colorwise there wasn’t much to work with.
Looking For Antiques
Today has been wet and cold and rainy, so while I ordinarily wouldn’t spend time processing and posting photographs, it seemed like a perfect day to play around with Lightroom 4. I’m teaching a Lightroom class this coming Saturday and thought I probably should at least be able to discuss the upcoming update. I decided to just jump in without reading any tutorials, so now that I’ve spent some time with it I can look at some tutorials and figure out what I should have known before I started. Sort of like reading the manual after assembling the swing set, but I figure I can’t hurt anything. So far, so good.
2 Cool Dudes
A lot of the new version looks pretty much like the old one, although I’m obviously going to need to spend some time learning about the new Map and Book modules. There are some interesting new slider functions in the Develop Module, and that’s where I spent most of my time. It will be interesting to read about the changes and find out what I should have known before I started!
2 Cool Dudes 2
So anyway, these are a few images shot on an unfamiliar camera and processed with a partially unfamiliar program. I think they’re kind of fun, I had fun making them and fun working with Lightroom 4.
Pentax announced a new mirrorless camera today. A lot of the chatter I saw – on one blog, I don’t spend any time on the “forums” – was discussing the design, which depending on your point of view is either really cool or makes it look like it was built by Little Tykes or Tonka (one of the versions is actually bright yellow). Among the usual comments like “I’d buy it in a heartbeat if only…” was a quote from someone named Paul (hopefully not my friend Paul that frequents this blog!), who in referring to the comments about it being ugly, said:
“You’d think, in a creative hobby such as photography, that folks would be… you know… creative in other ways of thinking and seeing the world as well. The only thing I have learned from reading blogs and online photo forums is that photographers now-a-days are the most conservative, dull and uninspired group (of mostly old men) on the planet.”
Boy, doesn’t that pretty much nail it. There are exceptions of course, and I feel that I and anyone reading my blog qualifies as an exception, but I see that everywhere. A bunch of old dudes collecting expensive equipment and hauling it around in their PT Cruisers to a bunch of checklist places and taking cliché photographs of famous icons. Of course, no one reading this blog fits that definition so please don’t take offense! Although I believe that is perfectly OK if that is your goal. More than anything I want to make sure I don’t fall into that definition, and I’m trying really, really hard to avoid doing so.
Granted, a bright yellow camera and a field full of (mostly) gray and black does stand out, but you’d never lose it! I personally tend to prefer a camera that blends in, and you would do anything but blend in with a yellow camera! But I think you have to give them credit for thinking a little outside the box. And this actually looks like it might be a very nice camera. It’s got a nice, big APS-C sized sensor and it uses existing Pentax K-mount lenses as well as some new ones they are producing just for this camera. Interesting.
South Beach Marina, Hilton Head Island, SC - Fuji X10
There’s been a good-natured discussion going on over at Paul Lester’s blog. Paul rented a Canon G12 to try and compare with the S90 he currently owns, and several of us who have and shoot with the G12 chimed in with our words of wisdom. More recently Paul has been trying out a Nikon V1. I don’t think he’s planning to buy one but is interested in knowing what all the hoopla is about. In this day of disappearing camera shops and the inability to “try before you buy” I think renting a camera is a very smart way to go. And Paul’s a smart guy.
Of course I recently started shooting with the Fuji X10 and like it a lot. I still use the G12 and occasionally shoot with my “old” G9. I’m teaching an Intro to Digital Point & Shoot class this coming weekend and the next few weekends and will probably bring my mothballed G5 our of storage just to reminisce a bit. The G5 was my first digital camera, way back in 2004, and although I haven’t used it in a long time the files still look pretty good, albeit a bit small.
On the beach at sunset, Hilton Head Island, SC - Canon G12
On a recent weekend trip to Hilton Head Island, SC I shot with – at different times – my Canon 5D, my Canon G12 and my Fuji X10. I got good results from all three of them, but the best experience was using the smaller and simpler cameras. I especially enjoyed walking around shooting architectural details handheld. I even put the G12 on a tripod for a sunset trip to the beach. But when I went out with a backpack with the 5D, two lenses, polarizers and all the stuff to go with it, I just…didn’t like it.
There’s been a lot of anticipation lately about the latest and greatest offerings from Nikon and Canon, but every time I think about carrying around another one of those beasts my shoulders start to hurt. I could sell my car and buy the forthcoming 1DX and a 200-400, but I’d have to hire someone to carry it. I resisted the urge to upgrade to the 5D Mark II and have a passing interest in the expected replacement, but when I look at my barely-carryon-legal rolling suitcase that holds all my gear and compare it with my G12 or my X10 (Kathy won’t let me touch her Olympus!) I can’t help but long for the simplicity of my Mamiya 7 and 3 prime lenses. That, a box of 220 film and a fanny pack and I was good for the weekend! Not any more.
I’ve sort of had in the back of my mind – more recently bubbling toward the front of my mind – that one of these new compact systems is going to be the be-all and end-all for me. The image quality keeps getting better to the point that I think it will no longer be a compromise or a step down to use a compact camera as a primary camera. I’m trying to be patient, and buying the little cameras like the X10 – while certainly not cheap – give me the thrill of something new while waiting for the right system to come along.
On the beach at sunset, Hilton Head Island, SC - Canon 5D
All of this discussion is fine. Even-tempered, well reasoned and logical. What gets me shaking my head though is the people who get so fired up about the new cameras that they practically stop taking pictures while they wait for the new ones. It’s as though their existing equipment stopped working as soon as the new stuff was announced.
But hey, it’s a hobby and we can all spend our money however we want, right? As long as the mortgage gets paid and the kids have shoes, we can spend the rest on golf clubs, wine, cars or anything we want, including cameras. Does it make us happy to be the first person in the club with the new XYZ Pro 1000? Buy it! Have an itch for that new RRS tripod? Sign up!
The inner geek in me gets excited about all this stuff too, and even if I wasn’t seriously thinking about making a change I’d still be interested. It’s a little scary to me when I even think about being at the front of the line for a brand-new camera. I worry that I’m interested for the wrong reasons. When I go to Lowe’s to buy a new hammer I don’t get all warm and fuzzy comparing them. It’s a tool, and as long as it does the job it should be an impersonal and unemotional transaction. But a camera seems like another story. I guess it’s because our photography is our way to express creativity we tend to get a little (lot?) more excited about buying cameras than we do when buying a hammer.
Hopefully I can manage to watch and listed for a few more weeks at least, until we see what gets announced in early February. Then, perhaps armed with a few more facts instead of a lot of speculation, I can actually make a decision. Those of you who might be looking to pick up some good Canon lenses for a song, keep your money in your pockets. I don’t move that fast, and may just decide to keep shooting with what I have for a while. I might just decide to carry around a little less of it!
South Beach Marina, Hilton Head Island, SC - Fuji X10
Cars & Coffee at Northlake Mall in Charlotte, North Carolina on January 7, 2012
As many of you know I’ve been shooting with a Fuji X10 since early in December. There’s been just one problem. Amazingly, I’ve dropped it…twice…on the ground…onto hard asphalt. It still works!
I’ve never dropped a camera or lens before – ever – but for some reason I can’t keep this one from obeying gravity (it’s the law, after all). Both times were in almost exactly the same place doing almost the same thing. I’ve recently been using a wrist strap on both my G12 and my X10, and both times this happened I have been wearing gloves and was in the process of taking them off when the strap came right off my wrist with the glove despite my thinking that I had a good hold on the strap.
Cars & Coffee at Northlake Mall in Charlotte, North Carolina on January 7, 2012
The first time this happened I had the camera for only two days. I think it must have hit my foot or something because it got scratched in a couple of places. And just yesterday it landed lens-down and ruined my brand-new, very elegant lens hood that I got for Christmas. But I think that probably saved the camera. I may be able to straighten the hood and make it workable, but it is made of pretty tough metal and has pretty close tolerances, so I’ll probably be better off to buy a new one. Crap. But the camera lives on!
It’s obviously a durable little camera, since other than a few scratches – now a few more scratches – it has been working great. It’s a wonderful camera to use and I really like shooting with it a lot. The manual twist-zoom makes very precise for composition, especially compared to the little lever zoom thing on the G12. I had been looking forward to putting it on a tripod and doing some landscape shooting with it, especially when the lens hood doubles as a filter holder so I could add a polarizer. I’m not sure I can make that work now, it will just depend on how well I am able to straighten it out.
Since it’s “winter” here, I’ll probably be shooting with gloves on for the next few months, so I think I’m going to have to come up with a better way to make costume changes!
Cars & Coffee at Northlake Mall in Charlotte, North Carolina on January 7, 2012
After writing the last post I remembered that I left out a whole batch of photos that I classify in Lightroom as “Personal” and I forgot to include them when I made the selection of my favorite 11. That’s probably just as well, so this way I get to show a few more favorites, and I don’t have to explain to people why I picked a tree or something over a photo of them!
I get this look from women of all ages....Samonte triplets' first birthday partySamonte triplets' first birthday partyScott & Kristin's wedding at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Charlotte, North CarolinaScott & Kristin's wedding at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Charlotte, North CarolinaReception for Scott & Kristin's wedding at The Big Chill in Charlotte, North Carolina
Sunrise on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Laurel Knob Overlook
I’ve taken nearly 7000 photographs this year. That’s nowhere close to what a lot of people take, but compared with years past it’s a pretty large number for me. Seven Thousand…I’m sure glad that wasn’t film!
A lot of people think it’s cool to do some kind of “Best Of” gallery or a collection of Greatest Hits for the year. It seems a bit cliche to me, but I’m going to do it anyway. But first a disclaimer: Out of the 7000 or so photos I took this year I have only processed a very small percentage of them. So this is not necessarily my “best” or even my “favorite” images from 2011, but it’s a group of photos that pretty well represent what I did this past year. I’ve found it very interesting to see what I’ve done and compare it with what I’ve done in years past.
Most interesting to me is the choice of cameras. Of these 11 photos, 3 of them were shot with the 5D, 3 with the 20D (with Holga lens) and 5 with the G12. The X10 came along a little late, but I’ll be off to a good start in 2012 with it!
I hope you enjoy this little selection of photos. I don’t think there’s anything here that hasn’t already been shown somewhere before, but I think it makes a nice little collection.
I also hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable New Year’s weekend and starts 2012 off making more memories and more photographs.
Spring colors along US 276 in Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, North CarolinaMorning fog along US Highway 264 near Pungo Creek Road west of Belhaven, North CarolinaSunset along the Pantego Creek in Belhaven North CarolinaRandom photos walking around the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center in uptown Charlotte, North CarolinaRandom photos walking around the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center in uptown Charlotte, North CarolinaRandom photos walking around the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center in uptown Charlotte, North CarolinaNASCAR Hall of Fame, Charlotte, North CarolinaSteps in front of the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North CarolinaBasseterre, St. KittsRope and Cleat, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Random photos in uptown Charlotte on a chilly Saturday in December
Alan Ross recently posted an article entitled “Too Close To Home – Even for Ansel Adams” in which he discusses how he (Alan) rarely makes interesting images close to his home and how Ansel Adams had the same “problem.” Check it out.
It would be easy to read such an article and think, “Gee, I have something in common with Ansel Adams!” Not so fast. I agree that most of us do our best work in places other than where we live. But why is that?
Perhaps the biggest reason we don’t shoot close to home is that we have too many distractions at home. Whenever we’re home we have our “to-do lists” and other chores that make it hard to change gears and just go out and shoot for an hour or so. Maybe we’re too busy planning our next adventure away from home that we forget about what there is to shoot nearby.
I think shooting close to home can potentially result in excellent images, images that only those who take the time to know a place can make, because if we really get to know a location we can go there when the conditions are perfect for whatever we choose to photograph. But we have to work at it and be open to the possibilities because our subject matter is not as clear-cut as it would be if we were shooting somewhere “iconic.” And the great thing is that we have an opportunity to shoot someplace where no one else has photographed. True, it might not be Yosemite, but we can do some truly personal work in a place where you aren’t influenced by others’ photographs.
Why do we seem to make better photographs when we travel to new places? Think about it, and I think you’ll agree that it has to do with several main things: (1) when we travel to photograph we “give ourselves permission” to put our other obligations aside and just go shoot, (2) when we visit a new location we are usually excited, and shooting things that excite us generally results in more personal photographs, and (3) when we’re unfamiliar with a place, we work harder at finding things that interest us, because we have put our distractions (and our preconceptions) aside. There are many more, but I think those are the top three.
For many of us, we live where our jobs are. If we lived in the Caribbean or Alaska or the Rocky Mountains one would think it would be easier to shoot close to home. But that’s not necessarily the case. We get so used to things we see every day that we lose sight of how wonderful our home is. I used to work with a woman who grew up in Hawaii but always talked about how beautiful North Carolina is. She told me that since she had lived in Hawaii so long she didn’t think it was anything special. Wow, I can’t imagine that!
I’ve spent the last several years shooting on the greenway that runs through my neighborhood. It’s been a fun project, documenting the change in seasons in different weather conditions and different times of the day. But even when all I have to do is walk out my front door, it can still be a hard thing to do. For a while I tried doing a regular shoot there for some of my local photographer friends, but turnout was generally pretty low. Those who came out enjoyed it, and I had some regulars, but it’s just hard for people to get excited about shooting somewhere so close to home.
To be sure, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with traveling to other places to photograph, and I certainly do my share! We love to travel, and there is nothing better than going to a new place, returning to a place we haven’t been in a long time, or even going to a familiar place in different conditions or at a different time of the year. I’m planning to do my share of traveling in the coming year, too. But I think if we work at it we can see our home the way we see new places. Try it and see, and let me know how it goes!
