MooseNewsBlog

This has been a common question of late, “what about flash and the D3?” and it’s a darn good question. What about using iTTL flash with the D3? What about using flash with the 600VR? What about using flash with wildlife? All darn good questions that I’m trying to produce new content as quickly as I can to help answer. I have two of the three answers up for you now. We’ve just posted TWO NEW videos on D3 flash. You can find them here. I’ve posted a new paper on the basics of using iTTL flash in the D3 and flash in general you can find here.

Hopefully while I’m on the road the next couple of weeks (in part filming Wildlife Photography videos for Kelby Training), I can get some content written on flash for wildlife. Flash for wildlife is different from what you’ll learn from the greats, the Strobist or Joe McNally because we have no control over our subject so it requires a little different approach.

What you see pictured here is the flash set up I use with the 600VR (which you’ll notice is wearing its “coat“) when photographing birds. The 600VR is mounted on a Whimberley Head with the Whimberley F-9 Flash Arm holding a SB-800. There is a shortened SC-29 cable connecting (using this) the flash to the D3. There is a SD-8a powering the SB-800 with a BetterBeamer (to increase DOF) attached to the SB-800 head.

There are days when you know there is snow waiting for you on the drive to move, it’s blowing out and the thermometer is trying to break 20. Near the end of winter, these kind of days like we had this past weekend (4′ of new snow in 36hrs) just don’t stir one to get out and shoot. Then, there are the rest of the mornings and the view out the 1st floor window is like this

and beautiful light greets you. It’s then I run out the door with camera in hand looking for subjects. Many subjects are created in the darkness of night as winter freezes, bracing in its attempts to hold on one more day against the warming spring sun. One subject that seems to elude me quite often are icicles. The biggest problem is being able to work them so you have a clean background. That just ain’t easy. Well, today one grew long enough during the night so on my explorations I just happened upon it before the sun had reached it or the background. It turned out purty cool…whatja think?

Now my neighbors have always thought, rightfully so, I’m nuts. But today I think I cinched it as I hung out my 2nd story office window with one leg in the air photographing over and over again ice dripping. But to me, it was a glorious find!

Photo captured by D3, 105VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

With two new feet of snow on the ground and more falling, it’s a great time to think of the warmth of summer, AND the great opportunities there are for photography. Sharon & I already have our plans so now it’s time to do the homework so we’re ready to go. One of the projects this summer involves Griz and as you all know, it’s a long time favorite of ours. One of the things I do to prepare is go through my old images to see what I’ve captured in the past, the images that work, those that don’t and how I can improve. At the same time, I think about what new camera gear and techniques I have to bring to an “old” subject to make it a “new” subject.

For example, looking through my old griz images, I noticed I don’t have many horizontal head shots. Lots of verticals like this bruin at Brooks Falls, but very few horizontals. Something to put down on the list to do. My collection of battle wounds, close up shots, is pretty slim as well, something to further investigate. Both of these shots mean getting tighter on the griz so that might mean taking the 600VR rather than the 200-400VR. I don’t know, it is a decision I’ll have to think about in the months to come. But that’s the benefit of looking at what I’ve captured so far so I can improve on what’s to come. Make those plans now, so you’re photographically ready to make the most of them when they’re in the viewfinder!

Photo captured by D1, 400f2.8AFS w/TC-14e on Lexar digital film

5:32PM, I head out the door to check the sky, no clouds in the east, there’s a chance. Headed out at 6:15, no hint of the moon. Out again at 6:45, still nothing. I knew the eclipse would be totality at 7:01 so went out one more time at 6:55 and there, in the trees on the ridge was a slight orange edge. The 600VR was sitting on the walk so I grabbed it, got Sharon to come out to direct traffic (I was standing out in the middle of the road) as I made a couple clicks.

This is the combination of two images. I wanted to use the double exposure feature of the D3 but had to move twice for vehicles. The lower image is when the moon just appeared over the mtn behind our home and the 2nd is at 7:08 after the moon had cleared the ridge and was past totality. The images were shot at ISO 1600, f/5.6, spot metered and combined in Photoshop. Fun way to use that new, big lens

Photos captured by D3, 600VR w/TC-14e on Lexar UDMA digital film.

Oh my, we’ve gone and finally done it, joined the online video craz (remember, I was hesitant to get into the blog craz too). The first two of our D3 videos are now posted. They cover the AF operation of the D3. Learning Premiere actually turned out to be the easiest part of this. Did you know that SB-800s don’t work with video? I’ve got new lights coming because I’ve got to improve the lighting but at least the information is still there.

Working on the next two videos right now on D3 flash, hope to have them up in the next week. Enjoy!

With winter on its way out (technically speaking) and with spring not too far in the future, this is a good time to hone your bird biology skills. This is a great time with the trees striped of their spring finest to find old bird nests. They are easier to find now while trees are bare compared to purt near impossible to find when trees and shrubs are all leafed out. Nests like this cup nest of the Western Wood Pewee is a good example. Nests might be no more than tatters right now depending on how well they were built and the severity of winter. But they’re darn easy to find now and that’s how you develop your skills in finding active nests in spring.

Once you find that dried up, beaten, abandoned nest, how to you know who once lived there? You get yourself a copy of Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North America or a Bird Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of Britain and Europe with North Africa and Middle East and you do some homework. I find it kinda fun, a bit of a challenge to be sleuthing around now but I get anxious waiting until spring comes along to have an answer. That’s all part of the game though.

I’ve only been able to safely photograph a Western Wood Pewee nest once in the last decade though I find many of them each spring. But it’s one of the things I truly look forward to each spring, the challenge of finding a nest I can photograph and then, tell its story in a click. Can you tell someone is getting fed, and very happy to get fed in this single click of the action? There lies the challenge and one of the many rewards of wildlife photography!

be posted

We’ve just announced our fall Wildlife Photographer’s Base Camp, Oct 27-31, 2008, Yellowstone, MT. Since there is nothing like Base Camp on the planet and it has two, what folks think as strange requirements (must have a 400mm or longer lens and passion for wildlife photography) to participate, we receive a lot of calls asking us to explain what Base Camp is all about. To be real honest with you, until you attend will you really understand what it’s all about.

We shoot but it’s not to make the world’s best photograph. We practice a number of skills that you’ll have to continue practicing long after you’ve gone back home. We open the doors to the business of wildlife photography, but you have to walk through the door. You’ll leave with no question unanswered about wildlife photography, but you will have new questions the next day. We’re talking 18hrs days filled with my biggest passion, wildlife photography and sharing just what it takes to be successful in every aspect. If you think you’re up to the challenge, come join us.

For more info, you can head here or simply call the office 760.924.8632. (we only have 1 & 2 openings for our SD & AK Base Camps)

At every DLWS event, I demo the power of Capture NX numerous times. That’s because it’s an important tool in my finishing of images. The makers of Capture NX, Nik, have now brought that power, U Point Technology, to Photoshop in a pluggin called Viveza (a name that rolls off the tongue). Your digital darkroom time has just been cut to nothing!

Here’s a photo of Chatham Lighthouse in MA in the Viveza UI inside of Photoshop. You can see in the lower right corner the before and after of the roof. The vibrant color on the right comes from the Control Point I’ve dropped on the tile roof and than yanked over the slider on Saturation, Brightness and Contrast. This is the exact same thing you can do in NX working on a Raw file (NX can also so this to a Jpeg & Tiff) but now in Photoshop.

I actually dropped a total of three points on this photograph. One on the roof to make it pop, one of the green window casings to make them darker and a third on the sky to make it darker, stormier. And in less than 30 seconds, without selecting, masking or brushing, I was able to take this image from bla to colorful to say the least.

as you can see in this comparison, it’s quite a difference (the roof color from the UI isn’t accurate, not sure what was going on with the screen captures).

As I see it, Viveza brings the power of U Point technology to a whole lot more now, especially Canon users (a common question at NX demos). Personally, I still prefer NX because I can make these changes (plus others) to a raw file, but I won’t hesitate to use Viveza if I miss something in NX. Viveza should be available pretty darn soon, like in April. You can pre-order it or get even more information from the Nik website and sign up to be notified when it is available. And yeah, it will be demoed at DLWS now that we can talk about it.

Oh yeah, the 600VR II is very sharp! And it focuses nice and close. This is a photo of a Clark’s Nutcracker perched outside my office (photo taken literally from my desk chair) as it was grabbing a bite of suet (a “here it is” shot). Shot with a 1.7x attached and focused at its MFD, the lens performs very sweetly. The majority of the 600VR II write up is done, should be posted Thursday.

While I have real problems with some of the unreal imbellishments of global warming and its cause and effect as seen on TV lately, being an arctic traveler and witness, I have no doubt things are changing and not for the better. Those in the endangered species business know that what typically causes a species to become extinct is some small coup de grace able to take advantage of a weakened system. For some arctic species, the handwritting is on the wall of a coup de grace a comin. I’m not saying the sky is falling, but many of its support beams are buckling, severely. Become educated and voice your opinion one way or another. It is your wild heritage!

This photo was taken a couple of summers back at the end of our ANWR float trip, it’s what’s left of the ice pack in June in the Beaufort Sea. We saw five Polar Bears, way off in the distance, one was a family group with spring cubs. We never saw though any of their main food source. There’s way too much open water in this photo.

I thought I would start the weekend with a little teaser. You’re staring down the barrel of my 600f4G ED AFS VR II lens. I’m about half way through my initial testing (official sounding term for playing and lusting) period and I have to tell you, I’m impressed. The connoisseur of fine glass, Joe McNally, had told me months back it was well worth obtaining (he shot with it during his shooting for the D3 brochure). Just the closer minimum focusing distance gets your attention, real fast. The VR focuses down to 15.7′ (MF) compared to the AFS II’s 18.7 (MF), a huge improvement! That three feet makes a world of difference with small dickie birds for example. And to obtain this closer focusing distance without using extension tubes is to me in itself, well worth the price. In the next week or so, I’ll have the new page with pics and trivia up so you can make the right choice for your own photography. Until then, I’ll be out testing (playing).