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Pentax K-7 Review on TOP

I just thought I'd let you loyal readers know that Mike Johnston over at The Online Photographer has published the first of a three-part review I'm writing on the Pentax K-7. If you're wondering why I didn't publish it here it's because he has a much larger readership. He therefore has more access to companies interested in loaning equipment. I encourage you to check out the review but remember to visit here for non-equipment related postings.

The Challenges of Vacation Photography

This is a companion to the photo in my previous post. Trust me: When the Virginia sun is beating down on you at full strength, a hat like this, even if you're the most manly of men, looks mighty tempting.

I imagine that most photography enthusiasts look forward to the times when they can sling their camera bag over their shoulder and leave home for a week or so for a much-needed vacation. Think of all the new sights you'll see! Think of all the things you can photograph and all the wonderful pictures you'll come back with!

As someone who recently completed just such a vacation I can tell you that it doesn't always work out that way. First of all, many of us rarely have the freedom or the desire to travel alone. We travel with girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses, children and relatives who, more often than not, could not care less about our obsession with photographing anything that does or doesn't move. This means we have to work in fits and spurts, in-between time-wasting activities such as meals, conversations, and sleep. It also means that we frequently find ourselves obliged to photograph the previously-mentioned companions from time to time so as to maintain the illusion that we are interested in them rather than collecting more images for our photo project on men with bad toupees.

Are you beginning to detect a theme? This was an actress playing the role of a servant (a.k.a. slave) in 17th century Virginia. The pop-up flash on my camera added just enough fill to keep her eyes from being hidden in shadow.

And then there are the physical challenges. Who can resist the temptation of cramming every portable piece of photo equipment we own into a large camera bag so that we can be "ready for anything"--including back spasms and hernias?

Of course it's all worth it once you get home and sort through all the hundreds of photos you've taken, all shot raw, all needing some degree of adjustment and conversion to JPEG or TIFF for printing or uploading to the web. And you'd gladly do it, if only you had the time. Unfortunately, vacation is over and it's back to work. Maybe you can get to it during the next holiday weekend--or better yet, your next vacation....

Can you believe it? After all the trouble I go through to document our vacation, whose pictures do my sons Clay (left) and Cole want to see? My wife's. And so it goes...

I'm Back--And Still Grouchy

This might look like an easy shot, but two seconds after I shot it a gust of wind blew the hat off the railing and onto the ground. The owner picked it up, put it on his head and walked away. Lucky for me I was prepared and my camera didn't get in my way--at least not this time.

I leave for a week-long vacation with my wife and kids and what happens? Canon, Sony and Panasonic introduce new cameras, that's what. Yet despite all these startling new developments, the sun still rose in the east and set in the west, the other manufacturers kept selling cameras, and those of us who already own cameras kept using them.

I was certainly using my Canon EOS 30D while I was away. I could have brought one of my film cameras, but the 30D's ability to store several hundred images on a single memory card made it the more economical and convenient choice for an extended road trip. My lens choices were a Canon 28mm f/2.8 and 50mm f/1.4, mostly because they're small, light and sharp.

You might think that after three years of owning the 30D I'd be used to its foibles. If so, think again. The three things that drive me nuts about its design continued to drive me nuts during the trip. The first thing is that the front dial controls the aperture in aperture-priority mode but controls the shutter speed in shutter-priority or manual mode. As a consequence it's hard for me to remember which dial controls what whenever I switch between exposure modes.

Annoyance number two is that when I cradle the camera in my left hand for a vertical shot the pop-up flash button presses into the web of my hand and causes the pop-up flash to... that's right--pop-up. Although it doesn't happen every time it happens more often than it should.

The final annoyance is that the an on-off switch also switches on the rear dial, but only if you move the switch to a second detent just beyond "On." If you don't--and I sometimes forget to--the rear dial will spin without any effect on the exposure. That's good when you want to avoid accidental shifts while you're carrying your camera. It's bad when you're trying to grab a quick shot and you discover the rear dial is unresponsive.

And yet I still managed to capture a decent image or two. As the saying goes, "It's the poor carpenter who blames his tools." So we use the tools we've got and we do the best with them that we can. So, what about your tools? Is there anything about your camera that you find annoying?

Away for Vacation

This is to let you all know that I'll be leaving for an 8-day camping trip beginning tomorrow. I'll be returning two days before Labor Day (September 7), which for you European readers is an American holiday. It originated in Canada and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers--many of whom are now chronically unemployed because of current economic conditions. But I digress...

The point is that I won't be close enough to a computer and the Internet to post anything. I do, however, plan to take lots of photos. Whether this actually happens or not will depend on how quickly I develop an eye for nature photos. I'm a city mouse, you see. Drop me off in a concrete jungle and I'm ready to rock and roll. Deposit me in a forest and all I see is trees.

Then again, it's been decades since I last went camping, and that was in northern Arizona. For all I know the campgrounds these days offer grounded electrical outlets and wireless Internet access. Either way, it's bound to be an adventure. I'm sure I'll return recharged and ready to entertain, amuse, and perhaps inspire. Stranger things have happened.

In the meantime, feel free to browse through my past posts (oldies but goodies) and if you really can't help yourself, drop a buck or two into my tip jar. I'll be sure to thank each and every one of you when I get back.

Photograph courtesy of and copyright Disfarmer/Peter Miller

Obsessives and odd-fellows are no strangers to the ranks of photographers. Consider the story of Disfarmer. Born Mike Myers, he decided to change his name, which means "dairy farmer" in modern German, to "dis-farmer" to disassociate himself from his family and farming background.

But that's not what so interesting about him: It's his photographs. He produced hundreds of black and white portraits of everyday people in his studio in Heber Springs, Arkansas. This was back in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, when a portrait sitting was no doubt a luxury. Disfarmer sometimes spent up to an hour posing his subjects and adjusting his lights before taking a few exposures on glass plates. (And you thought film photography was primative!)

Mike Disfarmer himself is now long gone, as are most of his subjects, but his photographs live on, mostly because of a quietly haunting quality. This quality was strong enough to motivate jazz guitarist Bill Frisell to create an entire album inspired by Disfarmer's photographic legacy. Although you don't need one to enjoy the other, watching and listening to them together is quite an experience.

Don't take my word for it: Pay a visit to Disfarmer.com and browse through the gallery. It serves as a poignant reminder that almost anything can be wonderful if photographed and viewed by a wonderous mind.

Canon Announces G11 Compact Digicam

Just when you were about to give up hope for the prevailing trends in digicam specs, Canon has announced a new camera with fewer megapixels than its predecessor and significantly improved low-light performance. This comes dangerously close to being rational. What next, a usable optical viewfinder?

For those of you who live for this sort of thing, Canon just announced that the G11, the successor to the G10. The price should be just under $500. Aside from the flip-out screen in the photo above, what's most interesting about this camera is that Canon has reduced the pixel count from 14.7MP to 10MP. They apparently did so in the interest of improved low-light performance.

You can find more information from the source here. If you click through to the link, notice that someone named "Vonskie" has already written a glowing review. Considering that the G11 isn't due to arrive on shelves until October, one can't help but be suspicious as to the source. Let's hope the G11 lives up to (or lives down) the hype.

The Film Underground

This gentleman was enjoying a cigar while reading a digital book device. I was enjoying my Nikon FM3A.

This past Saturday, as I was taking pictures near Independence Park in Philadelphia, I noticed a photographer who was using a camera that looked almost identical to mine. I was using a Nikon FM3A with a 35mm f/2 AF Nikkor, loaded with Fuji Reala 100. When I inquired about his camera I discovered he was using a Nikon FM2 with a 28mm f/2.8 AF Nikkor, loaded with Kodak BW400CN, a black and white film that's developed in color negative chemistry. His name was Mohammed and, like me, he was out enjoying a warm, sunny day and beautiful light with his camera.

We had more in common: He prefers to shoot film because it's easier to find compact cameras with excellent viewfinders and lenses small and light enough to slip into a pocket. He likes having a camera with simple, direct controls that are non-model. (In other words, an aperture ring is an aperture ring and a shutter dial is a shutter dial, period.) He also mentioned that, in his opinion, having "only" 36 exposures per roll forced him to be more thoughtful about what he was shooting.

Lest you think he was a completed Luddite, he was shooting BW400CN because it's easier to scan with his Nikon Coolscan than standard B&W films. He shoots color too, and quite well. If you'd like to see samples of his work, check out his photostream on Flickr under the screename of Tamesguida1965. 

And lest you think this was just one freak occurrence, a similar thing happened when the barrista at a local coffee house noticed the FM3A on my shoulder. (Yes, I carry it that often.) It turns out he's a photography student who owns a--you guessed it--Nikon FM2. We struck up an instant rapport that resulted in my getting a cup of coffee on the house. How often does that happen to you digital-only shooters?

I'm not trying to convert anyone here. Anyone who's been a steady reader of this blog knows I'm a live-and-let-live kind of guy. There's room enough for all of us at the table of photography. This is just a reminder for those of us who still shoot film that we're not alone; we're not even all that uncommon, so wear your film cameras with pride. Who knows? You might just meet a kindred spirit.

If Hardly Anyone Prints Anymore Then...?

I had to throw away half of the original pixels to re-size this photo for this post. If this is the only "print" I ever make, then so what?

In a previous post I asked whether anyone prints anymore. Some of us still take great pleasure in doing so, but a surprising number of us don't print much, if at all, and apparently don't feel the need.

This fact prompts the following question: Why then are so many of us so fixated on the number of megapixels a camera can cram into an image? Even a 30-inch diagonal LCD monitor is capable of displaying only 2560 x 1600 pixels, which is the equivalent of roughly 4.3MP. A more common 19-inch monitor would display 1680 × 1050 pixels, give or take a few dozen pixels or so. Unless you size your photos to cover the entire screen you'd need even less than the maximum--so why the thirst for megapixels?

I can understand the desire for high-resolution if you're shooting landscapes and you're making poster-sized prints, but otherwise, why collect oversized files that consume hard drive space and become a pain to archive? Am I missing something here? If so, please enlighten me.

Discovering vs. Assembling

These are banana peppers I grew in a pot next to my driveway. They were lit by a large, north-facing window two feet to the left. The background is a well-used pizza stone. And speaking of pizza...

Banana peppers are delicious once they ripen to a red color and are placed on top of a pizza along with chopped pieces of grilled chicken and mozzarella. The lighting is exactly the same, but this time the background is a pizza peel.

There are two broad categories of photographs: those you discover and you assemble. (I was tempted to use the word "create" rather than assemble, but I believe discovery still counts as a creative act.) The two aren't mutually exclusive of course. You can discover something and then photograph it in a way that is more interpretive than documentary. For a sample of my previous musings on this, visit my Right Brain - Left Brain post.

Most of my photos tend to fall into the discovery category. I discover something interesting happening and, assuming I have a camera with me, I photograph it. With luck it will be as interesting on screen or in print as it was in life. It might even be more interesting. One can only hope.

Assembled photos are the type that illustrate or realize an idea. Painters do this all the time: They start with a blank canvas and eventually cover it with an image they had formed in their mind. This approach is just as valid as working in discovery mode. In fact, if you place a high value on control when you shoot this will your preferred approach.

As I said, I tend to work more in the discovery mode--but that doesn't mean I can't assemble a decent photo from time to time. You might want to try it yourself. Simply collect objects, fabrics and background surfaces that have photographic potential by themselves but even greater potential when combined in interesting ways. Look for complements and contrasts (but not too many contrasts, otherwise the combinations start to look chaotic).

If you don't have studio lights, set everything up next to a north-facing window. The benefit to this approach is that what you see is what you get. You can use reflectors to lighten the shadows or black cards to do the opposite.

As a final tip, try to come up with a composition that's strong enough to hold a viewer's interest for at least a minute or so. Since you're putting everything together from scratch, you should be in no hurry to release the shutter. You can take days to assemble your composition if you want to. Odds are, the more thought you put into it, the more thought someone will put into looking at it. If you choose the right subject you might even get to eat it when you're done.

You Are Becoming Unnecessary

You knew it had to happen. It started with automatic film wind, then steadily advanced to auto-exposure, auto-loading, auto-flash, auto-focus, auto white balance, and auto-ISO. Now, with Sony's recent announcement of the IPT-DS1 camera dock accessory for its Party-shot digicams, we have reached the ultimate stage in automation: a camera that will frame, focus and  take pictures automatically, without the aid of a photographer. Once attached to the IPT-DS1 dock, the Party-shot will be able to pan 360 degrees and tilts 24 degrees, automatically detect faces, adjust composition and take photos for you.

I must confess the news has made me mildly depressed. I suspect it's only a matter of time before some tech company creates a machine that will automatically write blog posts and do a better job of it than I can. Until then, I'm going to remove all the batteries from my cameras, just to be safe. You never know...