MooseNewsBlog

I want to thank all who made the click and took the poll posted a month ago. 4632 of you clicked and it was ~very~ interesting to me to see the results. I did the poll because to be honest with you, looking at the stats prior to and after the poll, I can’t tell why folks come to the blog. While 36% of you indicated Wildlife Photography, the MooseCams centering on wildlife have less viewership than boring ones like Packing da Bag which falls under the General Photography in which 26% of you say why you come to the blog. Now why is any of this important?

You probably noticed that I’m giving away all this content, the knowledge I’ve had to gain and the pain I’ve paid for is here and on the website free of charge. I have no problem with that obviously because I keep doing it (I’m not quick to learn somethings). On the other hand there is this time thing and time is getting more and more precious, less and less coming my way to do what I need and want to do with my photography.

I was hoping the poll would help me make the most of the time I put into the material I present here on the blog. I’m still uncertain on that account. The reason for this blog posting, like most, because I receive emails asking why I took the poll. Now you know the rest of the story.

We want to thank all you  fans of our MooseCams and videos. We understand that watching the videos here on the blog can be at times frustrating for folks. The video pauses, spinning thingie appears and my beautiful voice and killer grammar and tips go on hold. We truly appreciate folks wanting to see and hear the videos and understand there is this issue for some. If the videos weren’t watched so much by so many, pushing the videos through the pipeline to your computer would be easier (140000 views in just a couple of months). Many emails arrive asking what can WRP do to make the viewing more seamless for you.

This free content comes at a price to you the viewer, I want to maintain a certain level of quality.  That quality makes the videos larger than what you find on uTube. You have a couple of options, view at off peak hours, let the whole episode load before viewing, faster internet or the podcasts (which go up the same time as the video on the blog). Hope one of these options helps those who have the viewing problems.

I want to thank the 478 folks who in the first 24hrs of the blog posting have already emailed from around the globe questions and thoughts for my new book. I guess I should have done this book a lot sooner, it has been 7 years since my last book on wildlife photography. I have to come clean, when Scott suggested I do this I didn’t think I’d get much of a response. That’s one great thing about this profession, everyday I learn something new!

One very common question I thought I’d answer right now. The #1 question has been on workflow with a Part A and a Part B. The Part A is workflow in regards to getting all the back end business of getting images from the camera to the home/office network safely. I’ll be addressing that in the book no doubt. You can find the “old” answer (because technology does keep changing) here. The Part B answer, well, those who asked it will be disappointed with the answer. The basic question is, “what’s the workflow in Photoshop you use to make your images look so good, how do you know how to crop?”

I shoot Raw +Jpeg and unless you’re looking at a gallery print (a process that requires Photoshop for things like sharpening for content and output), what you’re seeing is the Jpeg that came right out of the camera. My wildlife images don’t see Photoshop (other than sizing and creating the blog poster) and are in fact the Jpegs from the camera. I’m pretty old fashion in that way and, well, a stick in the mud where I’ve drawn the line. I consider myself a nature history historian, many of my images are the only image of a species that exists. I use every tool and technique at the point of capture to get it right, right from the start. When you look at any of my wildlife images, even though it was captured digitally, it’s just like if you looked at an old fashion slide. It is what it is. This will be a big part of the book. So the brief answer to the Part B workflow question, camera craft is how I get the quality you see.

When it comes to my landscapes, well that’s a totally different animal. They fall under the giant umbrella of Art and as such, I use every tool, both camera and computer to grab your heart strings. The image above is a good example of that. This is a D1 image taken with the 80-400VR from the Denali Hwy of the Alaskan Range back in Oct, 2000. Man, does it have noise and a color cast. Both of those things had to be dealt with in post to make the gallery print. After that, Nik’s Silver Efex Pro was used for the B&W conversion. (Oh yeah, this is one of my favorite images.)

I want to thank everyone who has written with their input and  words of encouragement. To be honest with you, I wasn’t nervous about writing the book until I read all that folks expect of me! Thanks also for coming to Moose News Blog as well, we appreciate your support!

We all have a different perspective on life which in a free society is a great thing because we can voice it. This week, I’ve heard a lot of perspective on the D3x. So much so, I put up that annoying animated Gif which did it’s job, stopped the angry pricing emails from coming to me (as if I’m in the garage assembling the camera and selling it to Nikon). Then started the emails from folks like the one below. I just wanted to share this view from the other side of the fence.

“I saw your BLOG Sunday night on the new D3X and figured that I would drop you a e-mail to see what you think, then being gifted with a “tiny” bit of common sense I figured half of the “Free World” was probably sending you the same e-mail asking you the same question.  So I went digging on line to see what I could find, wow, I thought I had walked into a pre-school that had just had just canceled snack time.  The whining and crying caught me a little off guard, so I enjoyed the article last night and the link over to Scott Kelby’s “Adobe Photoshop Insider”.

They act like a kid crying in the isle of a Toy-R-Us, they should have purchased two Canon MKlll’s, brand new, shot less than a 1,000 frames, sent them both back to the factory TWICE and still found out they wouldn’t auto-focus on a turtle crossing the street!  Then you get to sell two new cameras at a 50% loss because nobody will by a brand new used model released from a camera manufacture that should have known better.  On top that you have a ton of glass you have to sell at a loss because the acorn falls off the tree and hits you in the head and you find out you can get a much sharper picture with a camera made from a little company called NIKON.  They should feel my pain!

I don’t take pictures to make money anyway, I am not that good.  But it is great to put pixels on my hard drive or photo paper that evoke passion and emotion and I am gratefully reminded of this everyday when I open up files from the past seven years of my two kids whom are now seven and five.  I couldn’t put a price on those memories that fade through time but are revisited when you actually see them on the screen or on photo paper in front of you, the true definition of “Priceless”.”

The emails are flying in, “Are you getting a D3x?” Hey, I’m Moose Peterson, I can’t help myself, silly question! Like I already mentioned, just being able to do my Ultra Wide Panos with the D3x kept me up last night planning locations I want to visit and revisit this winter. Making it easier for me is the fact the decision was actually made for me. A client wants what the D3x has to offer and is going to pay to have it. But what about you?

To me it’s real obvious just like deciding between the D3 and D700. Approaching it strictly from a business point of view, if you can’t make money on the expendature, why even consider it? If you’re not going to see a 200-300% gain in your photography, just don’t go there. As has been correctly pointed out, the D3, D700 & D300 are great bodies. If you already have them and they are paid for or been thinking about adding them to your bag, then go make merry and don’t get caught up in the new kid on the block.  And if that doesn’t work, here’s another thought on the matter if it helps.

After the shock wears off that Moose photographs models (though that’s how I started a dark age ago) and does a pretty good job, next comes the question, how was Tre lit?

The lens used was the 14-24AFS at 24mm. I was no more than two feet away from Tre. The light is a single SB-900 with its wide angle adapter attached and being shot through a Lastolite Trigrip, 1 stop. The flash was geled with a 1/2 cut CTO. My assistant Josh is holding the Lastolite and SB-900 so the Lastolite is actually resting on the lens barrel and the flash is perhaps four inches away from it. The camera has -2 dialed in, the flash is at -2/3comp.

While I know enough to be dangerous, I’ve not produced anything to teach it to you online (which is what the emails have been asking: appreciate the kind words). If you want to really learn this stuff and from the master, the guy who has taught me TONS, you need to check out Joe Mcnally’s online videos at Kelby Training. You can get a little taste by checking out his blog from the same shoot were I photographed Tre.

The bottonline on Joe & my photographs from the NAPP Safari is they were done with just one light. If you want personal flash inspiration, be sure to join us at DLWS where Joe teaches these techniques for three days, in the classroom and in the field.

What you see above is a map showing all the countries where MooseNewsBlog has been read in the last 30 days (the green areas). The counter just hit 100 countries today. It’s a cool time when from a small office in the Sierra we can “beam” out across the planet images and thoughts to be shared with other like minded folks. The power of photography is pretty darn awesum is reaching out when even there might be a language barrier. It just gives one at times hope that we can make a difference with a mere click!

Thanks!

First, thanks for all the kind words about the images I posted last week. The portraits seemed to garnish the most attention, I guess folks just simply don’t think of me doing “portraits” especially with flash. I received lots of emails with lots of questions which I answered. I wanted to just take a moment to answer some on the blog.

*What was my favorite island? – Kauai by far!

*Are we doing any workshops in HI? – Yes, we have a DLWS scheduled for next March and we’re looking into doing a Base Camp there as well (dang cool birds on the islands)

*How’d you get your gear around? – Sharon & I both used our MP-7 which worked great. The photo above shows what I took and how it was packed.

*Will I be cruising again? – NO, at least not while teaching photography

*Do you really like the D700, or are you being paid to say that? – Yes, I’m being paid so I can now retire and not have to blog another thing. Really, can’t believe folks still ask that question. Yes, I love the D700 it did a great job. No, I was not given a D700 nor paid to say that.

*How many images did you come back with? – Darn interesting question. Photos that went into the library were around 3100 but I came back with about 6000, the balance being “experimental” shots taken while putting the D700 and SB-900 through their paces. I still don’t have all the answers I want on the SB-900, more testing to do.

*What lens did you find you using the most in “tourist” mode? – the 24-70AFS rocks and is the lens I used the most.

Thanks to all who take the time to write, hope this helps all.

So we left the house at 01:00 to drive to the airport (which is 3hrs away in Reno) and saw lots of cool wildlife on the way, managing to hit none. We parked, got our luggage and headed to the ticket counter. There, we find our flight to HI scheduled for 06:00 which as of 11PM last night was still on time, had been canceled. Not to worry they say, we’ve rebooked you on another flight leaving at 2PM! You are in rows 9 and 40, so you can at least wave to each other. I just love flying these days!

In the midst of the public address system stating “we have a fire condition, stay in your area,” we hear fiddling going on. After a while, I looked to find this 10yr old virtuoso playing. He’s got this huge crowd in front of him, his fiddle case filling up with cash and large photographic mural of Tahoe Basin behind him (light sucked and reflection a killer, but better than sitting). I go ask his mom if it was OK to take a couple of snaps, grabbed the D700-24-70AFS and proceeded to take a couple of snaps. It summed up our morning pretty darn succinctly.

With luck, my next posting will be from a sunny, romantic beach in HI and not the gate of some airport. Have a great one folks!

Photo captured by D700, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

Life has as we all know it’s pluses and minuses. One of the pluses is the wisdom that comes from getting older and having a laugh over the silly things we did as kids that we now know were really stupid. As one get’s older one of the BIG minuses is the passing of friends. That’s not as easy to get over.

I was saddened to receive an email from Jim Clark about the passing of Tom Vezo this week. I knew Tom well back in the 90’s, the film days and shot with him on a number of occasions at some memorable locations. His big smile on those cold mornings at Bosque just after lift off are hard to forget. He was out hiking with his wife when life caught up with him, doing what I’m sure he enjoyed.

Luckily for all of us, he left behind his passion and love in his photographs and words. Tom also was passionate about the preservation of his home in AZ. You can learn more about Tom visiting his website or those things folks are writing about him. But you can learn about Tom best through his photography. I can only wish Tom continued great shooting!