Digital Photography and Cameras

This is a question that I’m asked often and it’s a hard one to answer. When I travel I tend to “travel light”, often only carrying one body and 2 lenses plus assorted other paraphernalia. When I have the luxury of travvelling by car or boat I tend to carry more, closer to what I have listed below. So, here’s my rant about what’s in my bag. Any comments?

To start with, I use Nikon cameras. I’m often asked why I use Nikon rather than Canon and the answer goes back about thirty years when I first started doing photography seriously. A friend had a Canon F1 with a motor drive and I had a few simple Nikon F’s, no meter, just the basic cameras. What struck me about the Canon was how heavy and bulky the package was. Now, this is nothing against Canon as the equivalent Nikon at the time was likely just as heavy and bulky. Being on a shoestring budget for many of my early years I acquired a large quantity of used Nikkor lenses and other miscellaneous camera system components.Years later Pentax came out with a fancy little professional camera, the Pentax LX. The lenses were good and sharp, everything was lighter than the equivalent Nikon equipment and I sold all of my beat up Nikon gear and temporarily switched to Pentax. While I thoroughly enjoyed using the Pentax equipment the set-up suffered from lack of development and the bodies had a tendency to have their shutters crack at inopportune moments. It was time to switch back to Nikon again.

With the digital age it was clear that Nikon or Canon would get my business. In most ways it was a no brainer for me, I had all these Nikkor lenses, why reinvest in a completely new system? That’s why I’m still using Nikon. Is Nikon better than Canon? My guess is that any of the modern cameras can produce great images with a good photographer operating them. All these systems can also produce terrible results with an incompetent photographer operating them. As well, I have started using many third party lenses that can be purchased for many different systems. I guess it really comes down to personal preference.

So what’s in my bag? I’ll start with the weird and accessory items:

Toshiba notebook (only if required, a few days away from computers is healthy), I’ll tell you what’s on the computer at a later date
Cable release
USB reader
2 USB cords (I either lose them or they are a little finicky)
250 gb hard drive
160 gb hard drive
Garbage bags (lots)
Band aids (these are useful for more than just patching up my body)
Lens cleaning fluid
Lens cleaning paper (in truth, I almost always use my shirt or other old clothing, underwear (clean) etc, I know….)
Permanent marker
BC Ferry schedule (may not be useful to many of you)
An old magazine or two (for the road, usually something other than photography like Air & Space or Vintage Motorsports)
Lightweight gloves
Super duper LED flashlight
Visa card, “can’t leave home without it”
A few leaky pens and,
a pair of small scissors and a knife (that I have to remember to remove before boarding an airplane).

Camera Equipment:

Nikon D300 body
Nikon D2X body
Sigma 10-20mm
Nikon 17-55mm
Sigma 30mm f1.4
Sigma 50-150mm f2.8
Sigma 150 macro
Nikon 300mm f4
Nikon 85mm f1.8 (not used often anymore)

Battery chargers for two cameras and flash unit. (why these can’t be compatible boggles my mind, in a perfect world…)
Nikon SB800 flash
Manfrotto monopod
Manfrotto Carbon Fiber tripod
Manfrotto Head

4 – 8gb Compact Flash Cards
2 – 4GB Compact Flash Cards
2 – 2 GB Compact Flash Cards

There you go, nothing fancy and all totally abused. Am I missing anything? Well, a 500mm lens sure would be nice, maybe a fisheye, donations are always accepted.

My new Panasonic camera mounted on the compact 0.5 meter Glidetrack. These are test shots from around Kensington with the stock lens on the camera, very low light due to time and weather! Filmed in 720p 50fps and then slowed to 25p, also graded with magic bullets. Click on HD button for full quality!

Image taken on 2008-07-01 14:00:36 by Derek K. Miller.

Speed Bag Scissorhands(adam salomon) New Sony Camera Action Test Video- testing my new camera. www.SpeedBagScissorhands.com SPEED BAG SCISSORHANDS on facebook- www.facebook.com

We got the new Casio EX-F1 in at our store today so I did what any reasonable person would do. I got someone I know to slap me while someone recorded it at 1200 FPS. The quality is pretty bad because at this speed the resolution is tiny and our store lights can be seen flickering.

My first tip for taking digital photography for anyone whether they are beginning, or have some degree of experience is “don’t be frightened of your camera”. Get used to handling your camera so that you feel comfortable with it. Make sure you know where all the controls are, and familiarise yourself with their functions. This is one of the basic beginning photography tips that often gets overlooked as it is such an obvious one.

Once you are comfortable handling your digital camera and have learnt how to use all the controls and functions, my next tip for taking digital photography is to take lots and lots of pictures. The beauty of digital photography is that you do not need to keep every picture that you take. You are not paying for a long processing sequence like you would be if you were using a camera that uses rolls of film, so you can be a lot more extravagant when it comes to taking pictures. Plus you may just take a prize winning photo purely by chance, and any photos you don’t want you can simply delete.

Another of the basic beginning photography tips that people often forget is to hold the camera steady. Again this may sound pretty obvious but it’s surprising just how many of us forget this simple little tip when we rush to get a good photo. It is important to actually practice holding the camera so that you automatically steady it for every picture that you take. How often have you seen the chance of a great picture only to rush it and ruin the shot? It’s far better to get one or two great pictures than dozens of blurred or poor quality ones.

My next tip is to always make sure that you have enough memory capacity on your digital camera. There is nothing worse than coming across something that would make a great picture only to find that you have no more room on your camera. Get into the habit of going through the photos stored on your camera on a regular basis, and deleting the ones you don’t want, and downloading and storing the ones you do want onto your computer, or have them printed off. Also buy a second card for your camera so that you always have a spare one with you just in case you need it.

Once you have got this far you should have loads of photos that you have taken, now is the time to study these and see if there is room for improvement. Maybe some of them are still coming out slightly blurred, so you will need to pay attention to your focusing. Remember that a digital camera has a tendency to take a little longer to focus when compared to a camera that uses roll film.

Maybe you are not happy with the lighting on some of your pictures, so try practising using the flash. The flash on a camera is not only designed to be used when taking photos indoors, it is also great for getting good sharp pictures outside as well, especially if the subject is in shade or if the natural light is low, like in the late evening.

I suppose that one of the most important beginning photography tips that I can give you is to “get out there and have some fun with your camera”. Take loads of photos and practice as you go. Use your camera as often and as much as you can. My last little tip would to be to get hold of a good book on digital photography, this way you will get all the tips for taking digital photography and learn all the usual mistakes to avoid right from the start.

Image taken on 2008-10-26 09:14:44 by pollobarca2.

Extended version Commercial credit: takeshikaneshiro.net August, 2008

this is the live sound i created with my line 6 toneport going into 2 gallien krueger backline 115s for that stereo effect.its recorded through my fujifilm camera as i dont know how to do video and audio studio recording yet.anyway its more about the tone than the playing ability.i hope you like it. before you ask this sound is quite real and yes im really playing it lol. FOR LINE 6 USERS DOWNLOAD THE PATCH I MADE HERE.SEE BELOW www.yourguitarplace.com