Lens Case Replaced
Thanks to a tweet from Neothermic I found out the soft case for my Nikon 200-400 lens was subject to failure. 
I sent the lens case in last Saturday via the provided FedEx return shipping label. I have the lens sitting on my desk at the moment, waiting for the replacement to arrive. I hope it doesn’t take too long, the lens doesn’t travel well without the case.
I’m planning a trip to Alaska at the moment. It’s not a true photography trip (more of a family vacation) so I’m not sure if I will be able to justify taking it or not. I may end up with the 70-200VR 2.8 and a converter or something instead.
I will post back when I get the replacement case in, and let everyone know how long it takes.
Digital Vacation
I took my first all-digital photo vacation a few weeks ago. It wasn’t intended to be that way. When I started packing I could not find any film in the freezer. I have a number of pre-paid Fuji envelopes, so I should have film. But it was nowhere to be found.
So I spent the week in Utah taking only digital pictures with the D700.
It felt weird.
Texas Wildflowers
I hope to get down to southern Texas this year in order to do some wildflower photography. While trying to find some resources on the web to help I found the TX-DOT page related to wildflowers as well as Fall foliage.
I’m posting it here for myself as much as anyone else. Enjoy. 
Texas Department of Transportation Flower and Foliage Resource
New Equipment
I got some new toys tools near the end of last year, including a new Nikon D700 digital body. As luck would have it, life has been really really busy over the past few months (as evidenced by lack of activity on this blog) so I have not had time to shoot very much with it yet.
I hope to rectify this shortly.
Please Recycle
Plastics. It’s not just a quote from “The Graduate” it’s become a way of life in the United States. And apparently, it has become a new floating island in the Pacific Ocean as well.
Memory Card Rebates Available at B&H Photo Video
My favorite online e-tailer for photography related equipment is offering rebates on Sandisk memory cards through October 11th, 2008. For example you can get a $75 rebate on an Extreme IV 8GB card. The rebate strategy is interesting… you don’t get cash back, you get a prepaid VISA card instead. This is the second time I have seen this. I got a prepaid VISA card instead of a check for the rebate on my new cellphone too.
Gitzo Twist Now a Thing of the Past
I have a Gitzo “Mountaineer” tripod that I purchased several years ago. It’s a great tripod, but it’s a pain to use. As a result, I will often end up lugging around the heavier but more user-friendly Bogen unless I need to use the Wimberly head. Gitzo has fixed all of that, and I’m really pleased.
I just received my latest order from B&H and it included a monopod… specifically the Gitzo GM3551 Carbon Fiber. It uses the new 6x technology to make it lighter and stronger, but what’s really special is the new “twist lock” feature. No more Gitzo twist! Now you can twist to lock or unlock with one hand. I opened and closed it twice and was already making plans to replace my older Gitzo tripod with the newer 6x “twist lock” model. I think it would become my only tripod at that point.
I got the monopod to use with my Nikon 200-400 f4 VR lens. With VR you would think I would not need a tripod or monopod, and truthfully I don’t. I have managed to get some very good pictures without a support. Then why the monopod? Then lens is simply heavy. 
The monopod is more for supporting the weight while I’m using the lens rather than for providing stability. I have a soccer game this weekend and might try it out.
I also picked up a new VR lens, the Nikon 70-300 VR. This is not a fast lens or a fix aperture. But I have always liked the reach of the 70-300 lenses, and with VR it’s certainly going to be fast enough. I am going to take this to the soccer game this weekend too. If it works, it’s certainly going to be a lot easier to cart around, even if it is a bit slower I’m betting it will be more than adequate for soccer pics.
Stay tuned for more details as I get to start using my new toys.
Old Habits Die Hard
A recent headline on AOL read as follows:
How to Take Better Pictures at the Game
5 Tips for Catching That Perfect Play on Film
Yes, they said “film” in their headline. And the best part is that the article talked about using a couple of new digital cameras at the US Open to capture shots of the tennis players.
I bet the person who wrote the headline is over 30 years old. 
Missed. Again. <sigh>
I got an email from B&H Photo Video the other day saying that they had some Nikon 70-200 VR lenses in stock. A few hours later I hit the site, and they were sold out. Yes, just that fast.
I have been told that the 70-200 VR will be re-released this fall as a VRII model anyway, so perhaps I’ll just wait until then. My 80-200 2.8 works quite well so the VR feature would be a bonus but not a requirement.
In any case, it’s amazing how quickly these lenses sell out. Maybe they’re just getting two or three at a time into their stock. 
Using A Flash… Light
Many cameras come with a built-in flash. My Nikon D-70 has a pop-up flash that works fairly well and is always available and doesn’t require me to carry an extra piece of equipment. But it’s not always a flash that you want.
I went to Utah earlier this month and spent a day in the Needles area of Canyonlands National Park. On the way in I stopped at Newspaper Rock, a very famous petroglyph that is right on the road into the park. I didn’t like the light so I decided to come back later. I didn’t realize that “later” meant after sunset until I had already spent all day in the park.
Flash Painting
But I still decided to stop on the way by, just to try an experiment. I had a fully charged flashlight with me and decided that it was time to try some flash painting. What is that? First, here is the result:
How was this done? It’s a fairly easy technique, but one I had never tried before. I set up my camera on a tripod because I was going to use a 30 second exposure. During that 30 second exposure I used my flashlight to “paint” the wall of rock and illuminate the petroglyphs. I spent more time painting the interior of the image than the outside, and that’s what makes the shadows more pronounced along the edges.
I did a number of trials since I had no idea what was going to work. I guess that is one of the advantages of having a digital camera with a nice, bright LCD panel to review your work. Since I had no idea what was working (and what wasn’t) I just took a lot of different pictures. For the record, this was the last one. Based on my memory this one involved me starting with the flashlight already on and moving and leaving the flashlight on for the entire thirty second exposure. The others had less light, and came out much too dark.
This image was shot on Velvia 50 slide film and scanned with a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED. No image alterations (contrast, brightness, and so on) were made to this image during the scan process.
