February 27th, 2012
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| Roseatte Spoonbill, from the Hooptie Deux, Tampa Bay 2009. Photographed with the Canon 1D3 and 500mm with a 1.4TC |
My last visit to Florida was in 2009. Then I was joining the BIRDS AS ART IPT (Instructional Photo Tour) to see how the pros do it. My photography had not progressed much in years and although there are only 3 parameters to understand (shutter speed, aperture and ISO), it turns out to be more difficult to control than it at first hand appears to be. I am very glad that I joined then, I learned a ton. The trip then was in more ways than one a solid base for my photography. See my images from that trip here….
I was very pleased to be part of this year’s IPT and to visit Florida again: we had a relaxed group of very nice people which made the whole experience very pleasant. As with my first visit to Florida, this visit had an extra punch of learning as well. I rented a Nikon D700 and 600mm lens. For years, I have been a Canon user and for a number of reasons I decided, after many discussions, to investigate the ‘dark side’. The main reason for my consideration to switch was the announcement of Canon’s new 1D X: I had in mind to order this one, to complete my 1D4 with a pro-Full-Frame body. However, it is said that this camera will not be able to focus at f/8. So, a 800mm/5.6 lens with a 1.4TC attached or a 600/4 with a 2.0TC attached, mounted on a 1D X will not autofocus. There are rumors that Canon will do something about this, but I decided not to wait for this and rather to investigate Nikon. As it turned out, Nikon is coming with the D3 followup, the D4. This will be my next camera.
Back to my rental: certainly the first day was filled with getting familiar with the Nikon metering system and how it reacts to the different lighting conditions. Certainly in bright sunlight, the Nikon meter is less forgiving than Canon: for whites you will have to dial down. In overcast conditions I find the meter reacts quite similar to what I am used to from Canon. But these were my first impressions.
In the focus department, I have to say that there is a noticeable difference: in acquiring focus Canon might be a tad faster but Nikon is in my opinion steps better in tracking and following. I have not been exposed to all situations with Nikon yet as I had with Canon but my first impressions with Nikon were very satisfying. The ability to focus with f/8, Nikon also behaves differently: the D700 (as a prosumer body) is able to autofocus and in order to test this, I also brought a 2.0TC. Results are, (Nikon does not qualify this ability) to say the least, not impressive. Static subjects can be photographed, but in low light or if focus is not center sensored, the camera hunts a lot. One of my first flight images I took in Venice was the following one:
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| Great White Egret, approach to the island. Photographed with the D700 and 600mm, tripod mounted |
Having a nice camera in your hand is one, Florida does the rest. There are lots of birds and good locations. Most venues are accessible and birds are tame and approachable. The Venice Rookery, Estero Lagoon and even populated beaches present rich photographic opportunities. The odd one out here is Ding Darling. Through careful office management, this refuge is useless for bird watching, let alone photographing. See all of my images of my visit to Florida 2012 here….
After the IPT finished I joined a small group on James Shadle’s pontoon boat (the Hooptie Deux), to visit the bird island in Tampa Bay. Roseatte Spoonbills and Black/Turkey Vultures are garanteed. The most special thing about going to the bay is that photography takes place in waders just meters off shore the island. The island is forbidden territory, so the only way to get a low perspective is to put your waders on and stand waste deep in the water, with your equipment on a tripod (see the image above).
Finally, Arthur Morris invited me to his home in Indian Lake Estates, where I spent a morning photographing the birds at the lake shore. There I got close to Black Vultures basking in the morning sun and they allowed me to get in very close range for a couple of nice portraits and flight shots. An example of this was the following image.
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| Photographed with the D700 and 600mm, Beanbag from within the car |
During my stay in Indian Lake Estates, I was subjected to a healthy portion of sports and basketball was the main topic. In a matter of days a young college player Jerermy Lin grew from a nobody to an international star. It was so exciting that I decided to put a link to a summary of this amazing player here:
February 20th, 2012 More than once I hear from friends and colleagues questions related to Windows vs Mac functionality. Most software is available for both platforms but often there is only a Windows solution. A good example of this, from the photographic community, is BreezeBrowser Pro and Downloader Pro, only available for Windows (Read more details here: BreezeBrowser Pro). The BreezeBrowser products are in many ways very intuitive to use and offer a great deal of functions that make downloading and pre-processing of images very easy.
Also, the most recent release of Mac (Mac OS X Lion) decommissioned the support for Rosetta. This function in Mac OS allowed for installation of PowerPC based applications. This is no longer supported and will render many applications useless on a Mac. Vendors are either late or not willing/able to develop a Mac OS X Lion solution. After my upgrade of Mac OS X Snow Leopard to Mac OS X Lion, a number of my favorite applications did not run anymore. (For example, on my Mac the Fuji X10 camera software failed)
There is a simple and powerful solution for this: virtualization software for your Mac. What does this mean ? It means so much that you can install a program on your Mac, from within you can run (emulate) other operating systems, like Windows (e.g. Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 or other operating systems). It is not like dual boot, but runs like any other application, as a virtual machine, while using your Mac in parallel. In the virtual machine you can now install programs that can only run on Windows or were previously able to run with Apple’s Rosetta support. Note that if you run Windows on your Mac, you need a valid license of Windows: more about this in the next section.
There are two ways to get to your Windows based virtual machine on your Mac.
- You do not have a Windows license: either you don´t have a PC or don´t you have a Windows Installation CD. For this scenario a good product candidate is Parallels Desktop for Mac V7. Once purchased and installed with a valid license key, you launch Parallels Desktop and you can now use a (purchased) Windows installation CD to start installing Windows within Parallels Desktop. You can order a copy of Parallels Desktop using the following link:
- You have a Windows license, in the form of a privately owned Windows PC. This scenario is well served by purchasing WMWare Fusion 4. Once purchased, you install this software on your Mac and install a migration assistant on your Windows PC. As soon as the installation is finished, you launch the Mac installed VMWare Fusion server component, the PC migration assistant and you are asked to pair the PC with the Mac. VMWare on your Mac will now import your entire PC into a new virtual machine: all applications installed on your PC will now run from within the virtual machine on your Mac. You can order a copy of VmWare Fusion 4 using the following link:
I used and installed both products and I am very content with both. VMWare Fusion allows you to import your entire Windows PC. Very useful when your PC is already loaded with Windows based software solutions.
Finally a note on migrating Windows PC software to a virtual machine: some vendors allow migrating your Windows PC based license to your Mac, for example Adobe Photoshop. I would recommend to migrate as much as you can to your Mac.
October 19th, 2011 For many years I have been a reasonably happy Canon shooter. Much to my excitement I heard about the new Canon 1D X. At first glance I was really pleased with what I read. Full Frame, 12fps, 2CF card slots, etc: features promising increased usability and functionality.
Much to my horror I found out that this camera only autofocuses to f/5.6! Never mind that, the announcement mentions that the 1D X will be replacing the 1Ds Mark III and the 1D Mark IV.
What the ….
Not for me. A 1D with autofocus only to f/5.6, will never replace my 1D Mark IV.
Autofocus at f/8 is my primary motivation to consider a 1D body and provides for a fantastic range of lens flexibility, in particular for my f/4 supertele lenses. Canon says: “Stuff you. You can’t anymore. We think we know better and you don’t need your 2xTC any longer. Wait, we help you and make autofocus at f/8 impossible.”
Let me not forget to mention that the 800mm/f5.6 will also no longer focus with a 1.4xTC attached.
I really don’t understand the rationale behind this decision of Canon. Why is this necessary ? Have the dudes at decision levels a clue ? Clearly not. They applied a business decision profile that disregards the needs and requirements of today’s nature and semi-pro hobby photographers.
What struck me as well was the line in the announcement that says: “… culmination of customer feedback and requests from the field … and answered the requests of many photographers …” (apparently for the two CF slots). Well, they missed the boat here completely. Autofocus at f/8 has always been the most important feature of the 1D Mark IV for me and if they would have asked their current users what they would think about removing this feature, they would get an overwhelming response: please don’t.
Although I think this new camera has some great new features, no autofocus at f/8 is a killer criterion for me. I really looked forward to the new line, which I expected a bit later. I wish they did wait a bit and re-considered this strange move. I will either sit it out, consider a second 1D Mark IV (which I really did not want to do) or make a move to Nikon. Tbc
August 30th, 2011
Galapagos: tale of a leaf
On the morning of 7 July we had a panga ride through a mangrove forest. The atmosphere was magical. In the background the sound of the sea and in the channel system a serene peace.
When peddling through the channels, you can sort of imagine how buccaneers and pirates went through these channels some hundred years ago. A number of animal species also use the peace of the mangrove-forest for security and for regaining strength: turtles, rays and numerous species of fish were spotted.
Our knowledgeable guide Juan pointed us to a particular feature of the mangrove trees: since they are completely submerged in the seawater they are designed and forced to deal with the salt water. The tree evolved to have a very efficient filter to get rid of the salt, as salt is not contributing to the growth of the tree: the mangrove tree is able to filter 99% of the salt out of the seawater.
The last percent needs to be dealt with too and the tree does this by sacrificing one leaf of each cluster of four. So what you’ll see is a green tree with lots of yellow leaves: the tree accumulates the salt from the filtered seawater in one leaf and will discard this leaf. The leaf will drop to the water, sinks to the bottom, ferments and rots away to then provide the necessary minerals for next generations of trees or other plants of the forest.
The image above portrayed this cycle of life quite nicely: the dying leaf, hanging above the water is about to be handed over to the sea, containing the last bits of salt, showing this remarkable relationship between tree and sea.
August 8th, 2011
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This rainbow was formed by a blowhole in the surf of the Pacific Ocean on Hood Island. As the next wave came through the hole would blow up a large quantity of dust-rain, forming this spectacle of colors. It represented in a way the good fortune I had, to be on this trip.
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By some extreme luck and at last minute notice, I was invited to join the 2011 Galapagos photographic tour, organised by my good friend and mentor Arthur Morris. I got just enough leave from my work and the decision was taken within 24 hours to go: on Monday 27 June I booked to leave on July 1st… The flight was long, taking me to Amsterdam, Bonaire, Guayaquil and finally Quito, Ecuador. The first couple of days were spent in Quito, where we visited a mountain lodge photographing hummingbirds. On July 4th it was off to Galapagos. A trip I will never forget.
Over the next couple of weeks I will publish a number of posts, describing my fascinating experiences.
In the meantime, check out the Galapagos Image Gallery Page 1 and Galapagos Image Gallery Page 2, with the images I managed to process so far. Never in my life have I taken so many images and I am still, two weeks back from the trip, going through them.
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