Screen shot of my current Aperture catalog

This is great news and I write about it because it’s a very positive development. Apple has always been very slow to update their software to handle the newer cameras. Adobe, on the other hand, has always been way ahead of Apple on this front and I’m hopeful Apple’s new interest in keeping up with the frantic pace of digital cameras is a sign that all things photographic is still a priority for Apple. There has been some concern by myself and others that my favorite software, Aperture, might not be an ongoing priority for Apple. The RAW updates don’t necessarily confirm that they do still plan to stick with their powerhouse professional photo application, but it does suggest that they aren’t giving up on digital photography. Now lets just hope Aperture 4 is around the very near corner and is the huge update we all hope it to be.

Sample image of the newest version of iPhoto for the iPad courtesy of DPReview. Click on the image to be taken to the DPReview site for additional info on the iPad application.

An additional note regarding Apple and photography. DPReview recently reviewed the newest version of iPhoto for the iPad. It’s a glowing endorsement and one that anybody wanting to go lighter and smaller should check out. One downside is it doesn’t work with the original iPad so you have to have a least an iPad 2 or iPad 3. I’m waiting to upgrade my original version  of the iPad to whatever is released this fall. I’ll give iPhoto a try at that point and let you know how it goes.

That's Jill behind the hill. She's a bit shy but can really make things happen when producing prepress files for publication.

Keep in mind that the image above was produced to show me what the details of a camera like this can produce. The colors in this image are a bit funky due to the mixed lighting I shot the above photo in. The original print was actually dead-on to the original color of the scene around Machu Picchu, Peru. Ideally I should have shot this in better light but the moment of Jill behind the print was fairly spontaneous and she doesn’t like to pose for pictures too long.

The Nikon Coolpix AW100 Adventure Camera

The details over 90% of the print were stunning. I could pick out people walking the rock walls within the ancient ruins. The one downside that came to light were the edges of the frame. Unfortunately the outer corners were a bit soft, the detail in the grass and rock walls just didn’t match the center of the frame. That’s not unusual in any camera, even the multi thousand dollar pro cameras. In a perfect world I would have loved to not have noticed it, but I did. That said, would that affect my decision to use this camera? Not in the least. For an all-around point and shoot it produces razor sharp, highly detailed photographs. Remember this image was 11×17 inches. I would venture to guess you wouldn’t see the soft edges in images most people print. For details on how the print was produced I’m going to turn the rest of this Blog Post over to Jill. She’scover the technical details of making a print of this size from a small point and shoot camera. Take it away Jill.

Hi folks, Jill here (the eyes in the above photo). As Dan mentioned, he sent over this image of Machu Picchu to do an 11.x17 test print. The file I received from him was an out-of-camera JPEG file, 6.6MB, 300ppi and 15.36 x 11.52 inches. Keep in mind that the typical file we would work with would be shot in RAW format (probably a NEF, since Dan is almost always shooting with a Nikon) and be approximately 15-40MB – significantly larger than the JPEG file he sent over, and for an 11 x 17 print we would work from this RAW file to create a TIFF file, about 50MB, 300ppi.

Tanya sometimes takes Jill off to faraway places for help with fine tuning our Invitational Photo Torus. Here she's on the job in Ireland. Next month her and Tanya head to Brazil. She doesn't know I have this photo. © 2012 Tanya Cox/NaturalExosures.com

Anyhow, as many of you may know, JPEG files are compressed, meaning that some of the original image data is lost, cannot be recovered, and the quality of the photo will most likely degrade each time you make an adjustment and ‘re-save’ the file. Sounds awful, right? This is a trade-off for having images that don’t take up too much space, but that is another blog in itself, so we won’t delve too deeply into that. The importance of JPEG versus RAW is that shooting in RAW format, the image will retain the all of the original file information which makes for better files to print from in general.

Now that you have an idea of the type of file we’re working with from this little point and shoot camera, we’ll go on. I opened the Machu Picchu file in Photoshop and re-sized it (using Genuine Fractals Print Pro Express 5.0) to make the print 17 inches on the long side (rather than the original 15.36 inches). After enlarging, the print is 300ppi (same resolution) and 12.75 x 17 inches, not a significant enlargement, but we are enlarging a JPEG, not recommended, but it’s orders from the boss. We then do a basic sharpening using Nik Sharpener 3.0 for an inkjet, luster print – no creative or selective sharpening added. Send the print job to the Canon Pixma Pro 9000 Mark II here in our office, and viola we have our print. As Dan said, the end results are highly acceptable (minus the soft corners), considering the file we we were working with. Printing smaller files for a photo album, around 4×6 or 5×7 would be even better but when the need arises you’ll be able to make a large print for your wall without much trouble.

Well, hopefully these technical details didn’t bore you to the point of leaving this blog post. Case in point – pretty great little point and shoot camera – print-tested and Dan-approved Speaking of Dan, he has a few more words to say about the video feature on the Coolpix AW 100. Happy reading! Here’s Dan.

One of the other great features of this mighty, mini, digital imaging power house is its ability to shoot stunning 1080P HD video. It captures movies in the .MOV format and I loaded the clip below in to iMovie 11. This clip is nothing that will get me even a napkin to dry my tears at Sundance but it does show video quality and AF capabilities of a fairly fast moving subject. The entire video was shot hand-held which is not something I suggest when shooting video, especially when you zoom the camera out to its longest telephoto setting which I did in this sample. In general it really looks great. In fact I like the video out of this camera even better than the stills but both are pretty darn good. You can see another video sample of the Hammerhead shark in the original post I did on this camera a few days ago.

That’s all for now. If you have any questions for either Jill or myself please plug them in here on the Blog. We’re both happy to help. As the newweb site comes online you will all be hearing from Jill on a more regular basis. She has great tips and tricks for all things on the prepress/Photoshop side of the equation. As most of you know I’m not a Photoshop guy. Drop us a line any time. We love hearing from you.

Giulio Sciorio, respected commercial shooter talks about his change to lighter, smaller cameras for his professional work. Click on this image to read his Blog

What caught my attention was the reduced form factor of a liquid lens compared to its equivalent counterpart made of glass. From what I remember the basic overall reduction in size and weight was about 40% for both. Additionally, the resolving power was dramatically improved. Even twenty years ago I was was yearning for smaller, lighter and better image quality. Obviously I was a much younger man then, but even at that time I felt the pain of schlepping camera equipment such as a 300mm F/2.8, a 600mm f/4 and others from one destination to another. Liquid lenses sounded amazing as far as I was concerned. “Can’t wait to get my hands on one,” I thought out loud.

Well many years have passed and throughout that time I’ve only heard of a liquid lens once. It was an article about a cell phone maker, I think it was Nokia, changing their camera lens in their phone to the new liquid variety. A few months ago, November of last year, my favorite website devoted to Micro 4/3′s posted an announcement that Olympus was filing a patent for a liquid lens. Just four days ago another blog I follow, Canon Watch, announced Canon was also in the process of applying for a liquid lens patent.

It all looks like smaller, lighter and better quality is coming down the pike. I can’t wait. Bring it on. Can you imagine the benefits of combining mirror-less cameras with liquid lenses? Maybe this is where the big camera makers will gain the advantage while at the same time keeping a larger digital sensor. Right now mirror-less cameras such as the Panasonic/Lumix GX1 is smaller and lighter than lets say my Nikon D700. But as good as the image quality of the GX1 is, it doesn’t hold a candle to the D700, especially in low light. The D700 has the advantage of a larger sensor  which allows for larger pixels spread out over more space; which in turn reduces heat and electronic noise. The future of smaller lighter cameras is just on the horizon.

Stone Scorpionfish (Scorpaena plumieri mystes) is a master of deception, disguising itself as a rock, clump of vegetation, or piece of coral. James Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

The main reason for wanting something to shoot underwater was our planned snorkeling excursions while in the Galapagos. Our Galapagos trip is as much about being in the water as it is on land. We spend a great deal of time hiking the varied landscapes but after our morning hike and before our afternoon hike, each day we would be spending 45-60 minutes exploring the reefs full of fish, sea lions and magnificent corals.

Sally Lightfoot Crab (Grapsus grapsus). James Bay, Galapgaos Islands, Ecuador

Overall the camera did a reasonably nice job with the photo opportunities I used it for. It’s simple to use if you give it the freedom to do what it was mainly meant to do and that is “point and shoot”. If you can believe it, I left the manual at home and there were several things I wanted to try but could  not figure out without the manual. In fact, one of our guests had the exact same camera and between the two of us we could not decipher out how to set the GPS option to the ‘on’ position. It wasn’t until I was able to download the manual, when I got back to a hotel with high speed internet that I finally got it to work.

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) swimming near Lobos Islet , San Cristobal Island, Galapagos, Ecuador.

Here’s a bullet point list of pros and cons I found from working with this camera for nearly a month.

Postives:

• Turns on fast and focuses relatively quickly
• Is very small and lightweight. Fits into a purse or briefcase without you even noticing.
• Descent easy-to-use controls
• Exposure compensation easily at hand without digging into the menu system
• Very good closeup/macro setting
• Very good Movie quality at 1080P for the normal home movie experience
• Menu system fairly easy for 90% of the things most people will want to do
• Very well sealed for snorkeling. No issues with leakage or anything to do with water issues
• Dedicated flash button on back of camera that allows easy customization of flash. Good for forcing flash for fill light in bright sunlight.

Grizzly Bear (Ursus horribilis) female and her two cubs in Yellowstone National Park during the fall. Photograph taken from the safety of the road with a 600mm lens.

Just for the record, I’m no tree hugger. I grew up hunting and fishing and thrived in a family and extended family that spent as much time as possible going after things we COULD EAT! I love wild game and if a grizzly bear tasted good and there were plenty of them, I might be in favor of a hunting season. But neither of these is true. Bear meat is typically terrible; I’ve eaten black bear, and as far as grizzly numbers are concerned, how can anyone say there are enough to hunt when 98% of their original habitat is taken over by ranches, towns and modern civilization?

Good grief, give these animals a break and leave them off the hunting schedule. I’m just saying! You can read more by visiting the Greenwich Time web site. I saw this article in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle but the Chronicle seems to be fearful of putting all their stories on the web since it’s not on their site. Guess that’s a way to keep people buying papers.

Mr. Grenier has an amazing list of interesting endeavors he’s involved with. The interview is long but well worth watching. Two of his talents that inspired me to introduce him to all of you was his commitment to low budget documentary films and his enthusiasm for creating a cleaner world for us all to live in. Two subjects very close to my heart.

On the film front he produced a interesting documentary titled Teenage Paparazzo that did well at the Sundance Film Festival. You can read more about Teenage Paparazzo on Wikipedia for more information. Even more interesting is his commitment to all things involving the environment. To that end he helped start a conservation group known as Shft.com.

Below is a description from the SHFT.com web site describing what they are all about.

SHFT is a multi-media platform founded by film producer Peter Glatzer and actor-filmmaker Adrian Grenier. Our mission is to convey a more sustainable approach to the way we live through video, design, art and culture.

It takes a lot to make a movement on the quotidian level.  As filmmakers who are concerned with climate change, we felt that we could bring something creative to express the changes we wanted to see and were, gratefully, starting to observe.  We feel that video, art and design are powerful and inspiring ways to convey this narrative.  That SHFT was our particular tool to tell this story. 

We also embrace the idea that consumers have the power to make change.  Businesses respond to the demand of their customers.  SHFT celebrates the burgeoning sustainable marketplace where great design and innovation meet.  We vote with our dollars and can have a powerful impact when we do.

Finally, we wanted to explore the idea that “environmentalism” as a movement, as a separate category, has become anathema.  Sustainability should be folded into the fabric of our lives, a part of our consciousness that touches everything we do.  It should be reflected in our culture, our art, our music and design, and nudge us further towards the sustainable direction in which we’re inevitably headed.

Take a look at the interview with Chase Jarvis and see if Adrian Grenier impresses you as much as he did me. Let me now what you think. He seems amazingly young to have so much going for him. He’s not just a pretty boy! We need more people like this. Don’t forget to checkout SHFT.COM.

Watch It’s Baaaaack! on PBS. See more from Independent Lens.

Here is a screen shot of the many Aperture third party plugins that are available. You can click on this image to be taken to this page on Apple's website.

One of my absolute favorites is the plugin made by Nik Software called Viveza 2. This plugin has the outstanding U-Point Technology you need to try to believe. I highlighted the use of Nik’s Viveza in this blog post titled: Capturing an Image and Post Processing. Take a look for yourself to see if there are any that could fit your needs or desires. It’s great to see the list on the plugins page constantly growing. Drop me a note if you find something you really like to use. I’m always interested in hearing how you guys and gals are putting these new tools work.

Dr. Ian Stirling, world's leading authority of polar bear research.

Derocher and Stirling suggest that Inuit hunters have been seeing more polar bears than ever due to the lack of ice these animals have been facing the past decade. If they have no ice they need to be on land. It makes sense that if there are more on land and the native people see them more often that they would assume there must be more polar bears. The article is an interesting read on the issues facing polar bears in the far north and the people who have lived with them for thousands of years. I can’t fault the Inuit for wanting to continue their way of life and that includes hunting polar bears. Unfortunately, if the climate continues to warm at the pace we’re currently experiencing, there won’t be ANY polar bears left to hunt in the not to distant future. You can help support our work at Polar Bears International by donating to the Arctic Documentary Project which is a working long term project to document the far north while it’s still in the state we currently know.

Click on the Arctic Documentary Project to be taken to a web page that describes our mission. We need all the help we can get to capture the arctic in words and images before it’s gone as we know it.

Nikon's megapixel monster, the new D800.

Before I discuss my initial impressions I want to say that when Nikon first announced the camera I was quite surprised. I wrote a post on the subject titled  What do You Think of Nikon’s Two New DSLR’s?  Click on the link and you will see my early pre-handling thoughts. I tried to keep most of my feelings to myself, hoping to get honest feedback from our readers, but to say the least, I was confused.

What threw me for a loop was that ever since Nikon started producing professional DSLR’s they’ve worked hard at convincing us that the megapixel size of the chip doesn’t matter. Then they announced this monster 36 megapixel machine that goes against everything they’ve been professing for the last ten years. Wow, I was taken aback. However, I’ve come to understand the danger of professing the word “NEVER”. If you do,  you’re absolutely guaranteed that at some point that comment WILL come back to bite you in the ass (oops did I say ass? Are we allowed to swear on the Internet?). Anyway, they obviously changed their mind. And…. I have to say that after seeing the files from this top of the line, DXO christened  “King” of all DSLR’s Nikon does have something really special in this new captivating image capture machine.

After picking the camera up from F/11, I took it back to the studio, grabbed a couple of lenses, rifled through my gear for an external mic, picked up my little buddy Dice and headed down to the creek that runs not far from our studio. My plan was to shoot some images of Dice (have you ever seen a South American Pygmy Wolf?) as well as record some video of the flowing water. It was as good as I could do on such short notice. The goal was to compare the files to my now very old (in digital camera years) Nikon D700. The D700 has become my favorite camera for situations where low light is predominant.  The high ISO capabilities of the D700 are legendary and I’m actually thinking about picking a second one up, but I wanted to compare the D800 to the D700 first. Keep in mind that the D700 has only a 12 megapixel sensor and the D800 is 36 megapixels. This is important since traditional thinking in the camera world is the higher number of pixels, the poorer low light performance you should expect. That said, I had been reading amazing things about this new 36 megapixel sensor and I wanted to see it for myself.

With the late afternoon light fading fast I hurried to shoot about 100 frames and capture several minutes of HD video. Since the time I spent with this camera was so short, I’m going to bullet point my main thoughts.

• The fit and finish of this camera is the best I’ve ever experienced on any Nikon I’ve ever used. They just keep raising the bar regarding quality feel and ease of use. Admittedly this machine is a chunk but it’s a very satisfying chunk even though my desire to go lighter and smaller is well known. You just can’t believe the feel of quality and perfection.

• The Menu system has been reworked slightly from what I can tell and is just more pleasing to look at and navigate. They’ve improved the colors of the Folders and overall it just seems crisper than other Nikon LCD’s. As I write this it occurs to me they most likely increased the resolution of the LCD. I’ve tried finding details on the specs but no luck. If anyone has information on this I would love to have you share it here on the blog.

• The controls have a bit more of a tactile feel and  are a big improvement over my D700.

• The AF seems extremely fast and accurate though I didn’t shoot anything that was really moving. That being the case my observation is a bit meaningless but it seems to be every bit as good as my other Nikons. I’ll be doing more tests when I get one to use for a longer period of time .

• The new placement of the video button is going to take a bit of getting used to. They really changed the video controls and I’m not sure it’s for the better.

• Regarding video; something I’ve not seen any review mention to date is the new switch that toggles the camera from Video Mode to Live View/Stills Capture Mode. At first I was confused by this setup but once I saw what the camera did when it was set to Video Mode I was elated. A little known rule of thumb in the Video DSLR world is that to get the highest quality video, the camera should be shooting at a shutter speed equal to the video frame rate the camera is set to. For those who are unfamiliar with Video Frame rates I promise to discuss it in more detail in another post but suffice it to say that before the D800 I was constantly having to set my cameras shutter speed to 1/30th or 1/60th of a second. Video capture produces a smoother, less choppy looking moving image when it’s shot at a shutter speed equal to the the frame rate the camera is set to. I know this sounds confusing but trust me on this one. Now when you set the toggle switch to Video, the frame rate is automatically  set to the necessary 1/3oth of a second it should be. No need to have to remember to adjust your exposure so the camera is shooting at the shutter speed equal to the frame rate. That is a big deal.

• The HD video is stunning. I’m no expert but for the projects I would be using it on, namely the Arctic Documentary Project, it will be a substantial improvement over everything else I’ve used to date. To not have to carry a dedicated Video camera, along with all my other still photo equipment will be a welcomed blessing.

• My one generation back 70-200mm lens will most like have to be replaced with the newer 70-200 VRll. It just didn’t seem to be as good as I’ve seen this lens produce. The word across the net is that the older, non-nano coated lenses just aren’t up to producing the quality a chip this size can capture. I would like to make further tests before I go out and spend money on another lens I already own. My 24-70mm f/2.8 and 14-24mm f/2.8 produce superb results. They are, however, nano coated and that makes a big difference in sharpness and flair.

• The new option of plugging in head phones so you can listen to the audio while in video mode is a fantastic new addition to the video capture process. Anyone who shoots video knows that sound is at least 50% of a quality video production. It was a joy to plug my Rode mic into the mic socket and my Apple headphone into the headphone jack. I could hear every bird chirp, the rising water and passing trains. It was beautiful.

Low Light, High ISO Tests

For a quick and dirty low light test I set the D800 on a tripod in the little space I call my video editing room. The walls are almost black, well kind of dark chocolate. I know, I know, why would you have dark chocolate colored walls when black would be better for an editing room? Well, my dear wife, who’s kindness is legendary, decided to decorate my new digs when I was away on assignment . I hate painting and she doesn’t mind. She knew I wanted dark and thought a dark chocolate would fit the bill. I didn’t have the heart to tell her a dark gray or black would have been more consistent within the world of video editing. Her heart, as always, was in the right place and I didn’t want to spoil that. So just between us (she doesn’t read my blogs), she chose something much more interesting in her mind and I didn’t have to paint. Win/win if you ask me. Anyway, back to the test.

With the D800 on tripod and a 14-24mm F/2.8 lens attached, I shot ISO combinations starting at 200 and progressing one stop each until reaching 12,800. I could have started the ISO tests at 100 but since the D700 doesn’t go that low I chose to make the test the same between the two cameras by starting at the 200 mark. After running the sequence on the D800, I swapped the camera out for the D700 and repeated the steps. The key to using this dark room was the shadowy corners I would be able to look into on the final image. This is not as technical as what the folks at DPReview would do but it works well for the real world scenarios I plan to shoot in.

A chunk of D700 image at 100%. Take a look at the shadows beneath desk. There is noise but keep in mind this is directly out of the camera in RAW format. Click on the image to see it at full size.

After looking at images from both cameras I was astounded at how well the D800 compared to the much smaller sensor of the D700. The files out of the D800 had much more detail and the noise was comparable up to 6400ISO. After 6400, images from both cameras started to degrade but it’s a toss-up in my mind which one was worse. They both weren’t that bad. It’s hard to believe how low the light can be in today’s world of digital photography and still be able to get superb images. The D4 and D3 series cameras would be better but the sensors are so much smaller. I’ve been extremely happy with the D700 so I can’t complain about the D800 when you consider the advancement in the sensor size.

Ever since Nikon released the D3 and D700 bodies it has been obvious that they really have some sort of magic going on when it comes to optimizing their digital sensors for low light situations. Canon was killing them before the D3, but ever since the D3 was released there has been almost no competition for Nikon on the low light front. To have the D800′s 36 megapixel sensor be able to handle such low light conditions at such high ISO’s seems almost beyond the realm of possibilities. But here it is.

A chunk of D800 image at 100%. This image is larger than the D700, since bringing the image up to 100% makes the image a smaller chunk of the overall picture. This is because the file size is much larger as a result of the 36 megapixel sensor. Click on the image to see it at full size.

So those are my initial thoughts. Overall I think this will be an amazing camera for Nikon. However, I can’t help but think here is another camera in the lineup they haven’t announced yet. Something most likely with a 22-24 megapixel sensor that can shoot at 8 frames per second and also does quality video. There just seems to be a gaping hole. My guess is they have it virtually done and ready to go but there’s a reason why they haven’t released it yet, and here’s my theory on why that’s the case.

Back when the D3 was originally released, Nikon also introduced the D700. If they weren’t released together it was within a few months of each other. The fabulous thing about the D3 was it quickly became the low-light, high ISO performance leader. Even today the D3′s sister camera, the D3S, is still considered to be the camera for low-light pictures and DXO labs actually rate the D3S a bit better in low light than the new D4.

So back to the D700 and the fact that the the best thing about the D700 is that it uses the exact same sensor as the D3. When that became obvious, many photographers chose not to spend their hard earned cash on the twice as expensive D3. Why pay the extra money for the D3 if all you really wanted was quality low-light performance and you could get it in a D700 at half the price? That’s the route I took.

Well, Nikon didn’t let that happen twice. That’s why I’m convinced we’re going to eventually see another camera that really does replace the D700. The D800 didn’t do that in my mind. The D800 is a completely different animal than the D700. I’m guessing Nikon will sell the begeezus out of the D4 before they release a downsized version of the same and THEN we will have a true D700 replacement.  Meanwhile Nikon is going to make as much hay off the D4 as they possibly can, forcing all of us who want faster frame rates, a bit better low-light performance and some other nice options, to buy the high priced D4. I don’t fault them for taking this route, it’s good business but they do take a chance that people may migrate to the competition.

The new Canon EOS 5 Mark lll. A big upgrade in quality of build from the old Mark ll. Canon has finally received the message that Nikon kills them in build quality in their second tier cameras.

Aaaah… the competition. Yep, it’s alive and well in the wonderful world of photography. The most notable player for competing with the D800 is the recently released EOS 5 Mark lll. From all I’ve heard it has a few of its own issues. Seems to be a major Kerfuffle, as my Canadian wife, who can paint up a storm, would say. Seems the EOS 5 Mark lll has a so-called light leak, attributed to the top LCD panel that affects exposure. The 5 Mark lll has many of the same attributes I predict for the yet unannounced Nikon. It has a 22 megapixel sensor, shoots at 6fps (I hope the Nikon is at least 8fps), shoots HD video and numerous other options. Except for the frame rate, the 5 Mark lll could be the unreleased Nikon D700 replacement. It will be interesting to see if Nikon loses market share to a camera they probably have built but don’t want to release so they can milk the D4. It’s a strategic business move and you can’t fault them for playing the game. After all they aren’t making cameras out of the goodness of their heart; they’re in it to make MONEY! If you check Amazon’s best selling cameras, the D800 is outselling the EOS5 Mark lll by a substantial margin. So it seems Nikon certainly does know what they are doing. They really are getting good at this game.

My final thoughts on the D800.

The D800 is a fabulous camera. However, my biggest concern relates to the D800′s most notable strength, the huge sensor. At 36 megapixels the D800 files will be monsters to work with. It’s going to take larger, faster hard drives to tame each of these individual beasts and a more powerful computer to boot. I’m not the first one to write about any of this stuff and I’m not the first to be concerned about the gargantuan files. The size of each picture and slow frames per second would be the primary reasons why I would pass on this camera if I were planning to have just one camera to shoot. But since my work with Polar Bears International’s Arctic Documentary Project will include landscapes of the far north, I’m planing to buy the D800 and make it part of my equipment arsenal.  Meanwhile, I’ll bide my time waiting for the true D700 replacement to hopefully get a faster frames per second rate and reasonably sized files that I can use for more action oriented photography. At least that’s my plan until I have a chance to test the new D4. Maybe I should repaint my office to keep me out of the camera store.

Update: Nikon just announced the D600. It’s being hailed as an intro option for those who want a full frame sensor. Not convinced this is the replacement for the D700 either. It’s not professional grade from what I can gather.

Amazing tools have been developed since 1996 and actually most of those tools have come along since our last redesign in 2006. It’s now easier to work with more beautiful and interesting  layouts that give you a custom website that not only looks good but can also be changed and updated exceptionally quick and easy. The new Natural Exposures web experience is being built with the same system I use for this blog, WordPress. As many of you know, I mostly keep the blog up-to-date, down times usually occur when I’m in the boonies with no access to the Internet. Overall I try to keep things fresh and informational. This is only possible due to the extraordinarily easy interface that WordPress employs and I’m really excited about having these capabilities on our new website.

Philip Downer of Manifest Creative showing Dan and Kristie the newest ideas for the redesigned website for Natural Exposures, Inc. Bozeman, Montana

For those who might have an interest in building a website with WordPress you have a lot of options. We chose a WordPress theme company called StudioPress. We also decided not to try to do this ourselves. Over about a 6 month period I searched the net high and low for a quality company to help us build our site, and I finally settled on a great little web design and marketing firm called Manifest Creative just down the road in Belgrade, Montana. Philip Downer has been exceptional in his design work, knowledge of WordPress and his customer service. I have to say that having Manifest Creative so close to our studio was a big benefit over others we considered. What a pleasure it’s been to have a designer/programmer close at hand when we’re trying to communicate ideas.

Kristie working on design elements of our new website in the Natural Exposures office in Bozeman, Montana.

One of the toughest decisions I had to make when we started this process was to bring our web design and programming team closer to home. For nearly ten years we’ve been working with the great crew of Bio Design Works in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Darcy Hastings has been exceptional in his commitment to make our web presence a quality experience for both our visitors as well as my studio staff who needed the ability to make changes easily if needed. I’ll always be indebted to Darcy for his great service and quality ideas.

Times have moved ahead and we’re now building our new site on completely different and much easier-to-use technology. With the help of Philip from Manifest Creative and Kristie Peck, our newest intern from the design department of Montana State University, we hope to have one heck of a great experience for all of our Internet viewers when they visit the new Natural Exposures website. The overall design of our new site will be Adventure Travel, Photography Tours centric. In other words, it’s going to be targeted to the adventure traveler who wants to learn how to use a camera and become a better photographer. It is not targeted to the professional photographer. I’m not sure why so many people think professional photographers are the people we want to travel with. I hear from potential guests, quite frequently, that they think they have to be professional to travel with us. You don’t. In fact it’s just the opposite. We want those who are just learning, have small cameras (big cameras welcome too) and are eager to have a good time. Believe me, I know professional photographers, including myself, and I can promise you professional photographers are generally painful to deal with. They don’t make good travel companions; that’s the reason Tanya is always part of our team, to make sure she keeps me semi-warm and fuzzy. Our photography tours are designed for those who want to travel and feel like they’ve been on vacation, are eager to learn about photography and most of all have an interest in sharing life changing experiences through the wildly exciting places we travel to for the sake of taking pictures.

Some of the new sections on our redesigned website include:

• Dan’s Trading Post. This will be a place where traveling guests of our invitational photography tours can advertise their used photography equipment free of charge. The idea is to give our guests a place to post their used gear for others to see. The sale of the equipment will be between the person who owns the gear and the person interested in buying. We won’t take any commission of any kind. Our only interest is in connecting people to help them sell their unwanted/needed camera equipment, so they can buy new camera equipment. Gotta love that. Who doesn’t want new gear?

• Tanya’s Travel Corner. Here you will find things that Tanya has learned over the many years of travel she’s put under her belt. She may even let me post a thing or two. You’ll find travel tips like where to get the best deal on Probiotics that we regularly take to fend off intestinal bugs in places like India, Africa and South America. Tanya’s also a great cook and she loves learning about new recipes of traditional foods from around the world. So expect a receipt or two now and again. Lots of possibilities for this section.

I first met Jeffrey a number of years ago during our time working with Hatch. What is Hatch? As described from their website, “HATCH is a bi-annual four day experience that energizes creative professionals and thought leaders who are serious about transforming their ideas and talents into bold action, while inspiring others to do the same”.  Click here to visit Hatch on the web.  Hatch came about by way of Yarrow Kraner, a Montana State University graduate who felt young graduates needed a hand to make contacts within the creative industry. Yarrow is an interesting story himself.  I’ve been involved with Hatch over the years and have always found it to be incredibly inspiring.

Daniel Cox, Jeff Conger and Kristie Peck at the opening of Jeff's show Hot Rod Kings at Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana.

Jeffery Conger's group of photography students in Hayden Valley during their annual Yellowstone photo workshop.

Jeffrey Conger's photography students visit the Natural Exposures studio in Bozeman, MT.

I love working with these young people, and our connection to the university has given us access to amazing new talent in students who are excited to intern. We’ve actually hired three interns over the years: Jill, my assistant who is still with us, BJ Kirschhoffer, who was with us for 3-4 years and now works with Polar Bears International (so we see him every day since PBI and Natural Exposures share office space), and now our newest addition, Krisie Peck (in photo at the top of the page with Jeffrey and I) has been with us for several weeks. We’re hiring Kristie for at least a part time job at the end of her internship. So all in all it’s been a terrific, mutually beneficial relationship that works out to be a win/win for all concerned.

Watch Energy Quest USA Preview on PBS. See more from EARTH: The Operator’s Manual.

Joseph Linaschke teaches a course on Aperture at the Apple Distinguhed Educators Summer Summit in Ottawa, Canada.

All enthusiasm aside there is the reality we all face of learning how to effectively work with our pictures. I’m still amazed at how many people I meet who are hanging on to Photoshop when 98% of us have no use for 99% of what Photoshop offers. There are so many better programs for doing what I mentioned earlier and cost a fraction of what we pay for Photoshop. The two most inspiring digital workflow programs are Aperture and Lightroom, and to that end I want to introduce a great guy I met a couple of years ago named Joseph Linaschke. Joseph used to work for Apple and he’s an excellent photographer, a great teacher and without a doubt an Aperture Expert. Joseph and I met at the Apple Distinguished Educators conference in Ottawa, Canada in 2010. He was helping teach a course to teachers on the use of Apple’s Aperture program. Ever since I’ve been following Joseph’s ApertureExpert.com website and it is by far the best collection of tips, tricks and workflow ideas of any site I’ve come across on the web.

Joseph Linaschke teaches a course on Aperture at the Apple Distinguhed Educators Summer Summit in Ottawa, Canada.

Aperture has come on strong to contend with Lightroom as the workflow software of choice. I switched to Apple computers specifically due to Aperture, however, Aperture wasn’t quite ready for primetime and I eventually moved over to Lightroom. With the release of Aperture 3, the tide has turned and I’ve now been using Aperture full-time for over a year. Both Aperture and Lightroom are fabulous workflow programs and I actually teach both on our Invitational Photo Tours since I’ve used each of them extensively. For me Aperture is just a bit more effective for the vast number of ways I use my photography. Aperture is working to catch up with the recent release of Lightroom 4 but we all know how the leapfrog thing goes, and we’re predicting an Aperture 4 any day now. Isn’t competition great?!

Since Joseph has such a vast treasure chest of knowledge and insight in to Aperture I wanted you all to meet him. Now and again, I’ll be highlighting some of the things Joseph is writing about on his own blog ApertureExpert.com. I’ll continue to discuss my own suggestions on workflow ideas and how to’s for Aperture and Lightroom, but I’ve been so impressed with Joseph’s work I wanted to make sure you have other options to learn as well. Make sure you sign up for ApertureExpert’s forums. The ApertureExpert forum is an awesome way for getting to know Aperture better. After you’ve spent some time with the best guy out there on Aperture, come back here and tell me what you think. I would love to know if you’re as impressed with his site as much as I am. Be well and have a great time learning Aperture.

Fast forward to a few days ago when Canon announced their entry into the 4K capture territory with their new video/stills camera called the EOS-1D C. The C stands for Cinema. The first still camera that is specifically targeted at the movie-making industry. Nikon started the combination of stills and video, but Canon is taking it to a whole different level.

The EOS-1D C looks and handles much like the rest of the EOS 1 camera bodies. It's unique feature is the ability to shoot 4K video files which are considered to be 4-5 times higher quality than 1080P HD footage we see today on our HD TV screens. Click on the image above to read an article by EOSHD titled Making Sense of the Canon EOS 1D 4k DSLR.

Good for Canon and good for all of us working in the multimedia field today. When Red introduced this concept several years ago it caught all the big video camera companies with their “shoes untied” so to speak (my mother wouldn’t like me using the phrase ‘with their pants down’, so I won’t use it). Anyway, Red has prodded the sleeping giants and they are going to be coming after Red with a vengeance. Not only did Canon make this recent announcement, but Sony too has announced an amazing new 4k capture camera in the NEX-FS700 which they say is 4K ready, meaning they will be updating it to 4K with a software release in the near future.

Sony's entry into the 4K world.

Panasonic is rumored to be releasing something in this category in the not too distant future. And so the revolution of mirrorless, stills from video just keeps on rolling. Nikon’s D800 and D4 were pretty impressive just a few days ago but the competition is unbelievable in the new world of multimedia. I just hope they can keep up. Many people don’t realize that Nikon is a very small company.

Photo provided by Dan Chung of DSLR News Shooter showing the Nikon D800 outfitted for serious video. Click on the image to see a review by Dan comparing the Nikon D800 and the new Canon 5D Mark lll.

Thankfully Nikon is producing quality gear for most of us who do not need the 4K capture. The downside to 4K will be storage issues, computer horsepower to process the files and I’m certain many other technical workflow issues. But the writing is on the wall. The behemoths in the video world are encroaching on Nikon and Canon’s world. Luckily for Canon they have a long history in video capture. Unfortunately, Nikon doesn’t. I’ll end this piece with a scenario I would love to see evolve.

Quite simply this. Panasonic is dabbling in still capture cameras yet they have a long history of very high quality video equipment. Many pros use Panasonic cameras exclusively. Nikon is dabbling in video and we all know their history is in the still capture business. Wouldn’t it be amazing if they would merge? It only seems natural. How will such a small company be able to fend off Canon, Red, Sony and who knows who else? I would love to see the ability to continue to use my long list of very expensive Nikon lenses on a high tech video camera that’s competitive in the future world of multimedia. Then again who knows about Nikon. They pulled a rabbit out of their hat a few years ago with the realizes of the D3 and D700, low-light cameras that nobody has bested yet. Maybe they’ll be the ones to perfect the 4k video still camera. It’s worth hoping.

Why was the D700 so advantageous? First, these two aggressive creatures were moving very, very fast. I was shooting a 600mm lens due to the distance we needed to maintain. Fast motion and powerful telephotos require a faster shutter speed. The old rule of thumb is a shutter speed equal to or greater than the length of the lens you are shooting and that’s if you just want to steady minor lens shake from hand holding. These images were shot at 1/1600th of a second to make sure we stopped the action. Additional reasons for needing the ability to go to a higher ISO was the relatively low light due to it being early morning with heavy overcast and falling snow. All of these issues required the use of a great sensor that can handle low-light conditions with ease. The D700 is the go-to camera for conditions of this type.

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