24 November 2008
TWIP Podcast #57 - Back to Nature
Posted by
Scott under:
Audio Podcast
NOTE: We had mic trouble recording this episode and apologize for the fact that it’s not up to our usual standard. However, we didn’t want to throw the show away. So listen with this fact in mind.
Episode 57 is in the feed or you can download the MP3 at Pixelcorps.TV.
Our guest is Greg Downing, founder of Naturescapes.net. He’s offering a discount to his seminar at Bosque del Apache the first week of December, 08.
- 1/2 price on the Bosque del Apache Event - for event details seewww.naturescapes.net/events - discount for twip listeners by calling Kim at 1-888-667-0559 or email at kim@naturescapes.net.
Greg also leads workshops to Africa, for more information visit http://gdphotography.com/Africa_2009.htm
Mention TWIP for another discount.
This Week in Photography - Episode 57 Back to Nature
Hosts:
-Alex Lindsay is off to Japan this week and is with us in spirit
-Scott Bourne coming in from Gig Harbor
-Aaron Mahler
-Ron Brinkmann from Seattle
Special Guest this week: Greg Downing
Bandwidth provided by Cachefly.
Show is sponsored by - Drobo.
Show notes by Bruce Clarke at www.momentsindigital.com or www.twitter.com/bruceclarke
HOUSEKEEPING
Linking Contest
The linking contest continues. Link from your blog or website to TWiP Photo and you could win a one year subscription to Lynda.com and 3 of Scott’s books.
NEWS
LIFE Magazine Archives on Google
Google has launched the LIFE Magazine archives which allows you to search and find over 10,000,000 photos from LIFE magazine which spans over 100 years of history.
Foto Week in Washington D.C.
Foto Week took place in Washington from November 15th - 22nd. This week long celebration of photography included exhibitions, speakers and photowalks.
US Army Manipulates a Photograph
Controversy arose over a photograph of Army Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody that was altered leading to the Associated Press suspending the use of photos provided by the defense department.
Nikon releases Firmware Update for the SB-900
This update can be installed when the SB-900 is connected to one of the following cameras: D3, D300, D700, & the D90. According to their website, the following issues are addressed by this update:
With uninterrupted shooting with the SB-900 set to i-TTL mode, images captured just before the flash ceased firing were sometimes overexposed.
This issue has been resolved. By resolving this issue, metering precision has been further increased and the number of times the flash fires has also been increased.
When the SB-900, set to TTL auto flash mode, is used with a camera supporting the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS), flash mode automatically changes to A mode according to camera communication status. That flash mode was previously maintained, but it has been modified so that TTL auto flash mode is restored once the SB-900 again recognizes the camera as a CLS-compatible camera.
Canon Updates Digital Software
Leading up to the release of the 5D Mark II, Canon has updated the following programs: Digital Photo Professional 3.5.1, EOS Utility 2.5.1, Picture Style Editor 1.4.1 and WFT Utility 3.3.
SITE OF THE WEEK
DXOMark.com is the site of the week and it’s a great site for all the pixel peepers out there. This site offers a publicly-accessible database of RAW sensor image quality measurements.
PHOTO ASSIGNMENT & POLL
The current assignment is Straight Lines and there will be a great prize pack which will include at a minimum a 1-year subscrption to Lynda.com
POLL RESULTS
Last week’s poll - Have you ever purchased another photographer’s work. 8% - Yes for Commercial Purposes. 42% - Yes for Myself. 50% - Never. This Week’s poll is about stress relief. Regarding photography as a stress relief, is photography a (A) Stress Relief (B)More stress inducer than relief (C) Stress Inducer (D) More stress relief than inducer. Scott is just stressed by trying to read off those choices. If you have an idea for a poll question, send your suggestions to Scott at twipphoto@gmail.com
GREG DOWNING - NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER
Greg is a nature photographer from Maryland, who started his photography career specializing in bird photography. Greg was dating a woman who was into bird watching so Greg took up the hobby and was hooked. Eventually he migrated (pun intended) from bird watching to bird photography in the mid 90’s.
Scott: When did you decide that you wanted to turn photography into a career?
Greg: In the late 90’s. Greg enjoys travel and saw other photographers doing workshops, etc. and decided he would like to do the same along with selling his work. Greg began posted his work online before online was even popular. He started a tour company in New Jersey and then expanded from there.
Scott: Are you still focused on bird photography or have you branched out into other areas?
Greg: Still doing bird photography but trying to expand his horizons and recent trips to Africa have helped him to do that.
Scott: How many times have you been to Africa?
Greg: Been there 3 times already and going back in February. Greg says that Africa is an amazing place if you are into photography.
Scott: What are your top 3 photography locations:
Greg: Antarctica, Africa, & Bosque Del Apache in New Mexico
Scott: Bosque Del Apache just happens to be one of Scott’s favorites too and leads well into the next topic which has to do with an event happening in Bosque in a few weeks. Please tell us about it.
Greg: Naturescapes.net is having an event in Bosce Del Apache from December 5th - 7th at the Macey Centre in Socrorro. Speakers such as Rick Sammon, Royce Howard, and EJ Peiker will be offering seminars on Bird Photography, Photoshop Techniques, High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing and Field Workshops. TWiP listeners can attend this event for half price just by mentioning TWiP. The regular price for the workshop is $199.
Scott: Tell us more about Naturescapes.net
Greg: The site was launched in August of 2003 and receives approximately 1 1/2 Million page views per month The exciting part is that 80% of the users who visit the site, visit it everyday. The forums are where most of the action is. The site is free to register and there is a paid membership option which give you the ability to create a portfolio and sell your images.
Scott: Bosque is one of Scott’s favorite places to shoot and he’ll be headed out there this week as he has done every year for the past 17 years. In just a few days you could build your portfolio with a visit to Bosque Del Apache. What else is on tap for Greg?
Greg: Visit www.gregdowningphoto.com for information on workshops. He is headed to Africa, Costa Rica, Florida and Kamloops, B.C. in the next few months. The trip to Kamloops will be to photograph loons in late June.
DROBO - PREMIERE SPONSOR OF TWiP
Everyone is feeling 100% drooby including Ron who finds using the Drobo so much easier but wants everyone to know that when you buy a Drobo you are buying more than just a box to put hard drives in. You are buying a computer. Visit http://www.drobo.com/twip to receive a $50 off a 2nd Generation Drobo. Scott’s tip is take a look at all the things you can do with the Drobo dashboard including tools to put the Drobo into standby mode, format drives, and look up the serial number of the unit.
Before getting into the Q&A, Ron heard Scott on MacBreak Weekly talking about his new Lens Baby Composer. Scott is working on a series of images with it and a review should be up soon.
LISTENER QUESTIONS
Jack Label has a question about manual focus and whether there is a difference using older manual focus lenses on today’s modern DSLRS. Scott doesn’t think there is a big difference. The only notable difference is that the older manual lenses had the focus distance scale on the lens which today is a luxury on lenses.
Next question is from Paul Evans who just bought a Mac and Aperture 2.0. His company still uses Photoshop 7 and he is wondering if the data from Aperture (XMP Sidecar Info) will translate into Photoshop 7. Since Photoshop 7 is going back almost 5 versions, none of the guys can recall how it handles this information. Certainly the latest versions of Photoshop would have no problems with this. Aaron suggests that if funds are limited, they should at least take a look at upgrading to the latest version of Photoshop Elements.
Jezz Curwin wants to know if Canon has something similar in their line to Nikon’s creative lighting system. At first the TWiP panel is stumped by what he means with this question so they open it up to the TWiP audience for crowdsourcing. Scott does mention that you can do quite a bit with Canon’s flash system - particularly if you have a couple of flashes like the 580-EX II. Aaron does some intrepid research on the fly and thinks that what Jezz is refering to is Canon’s ETTL which is the equivalent of Nikon’s creative lighting system. If you have other feedback or ideas you can comment on the blog.
Hamish Carpenter would like some suggestions from the panel on a good set of beginner strobes to get into studio lighting in his basement. Suggestions from the panel include a set of 580 EXII flashes or a 580 & a 430. You can also get the STE-20 wireless transmitter and that combination can make for relatively inexpensive studio setup. As for strobes, Hamish should consider ones from Calumet or Alien Bees.
Phillip Geighton wants to know how a clip from an HD video capture would compare to a regular still photo? For example, taking a video of lighting and then selecting a frame from the video. Ron says that first off it won’t be the same resolution. Video compresses the data which leads to artifacts. General advice from the panel is to shoot with a long exposure to capture things like lightning.
NEW BLOG
Scott has started a new blog for Consumer Video tips. Check it out at http://www.consumervideotips.com
NEXT WEEK
Alex should be rejoining us from Japan and Scott will be checking in from New Mexico.
TIP OF THE WEEK
Scott’s tip this week is to know your rights when it comes to Copyright. If you post an image online you are not giving up your copyright. Check out the blog post about this topic on www.twipphoto.com
WRAP UP
Ron Brinkmann - www.digitalcomposting.com or www.twitter.com/ronbrinkmann
Alex Lindsay - Pixelcorps.com or www.twitter.com/alexlindsay
Scott Bourne - www.scottbourne.com or www.twitter.com/scottbourne or www.f64.com
Steve Simon - www.stevesimonphoto.com or www.twitter.com/stevesimon
Aaron Mahler (Producer) - www.halfpress.com or www.twitter.com/halfpress
Visit the blog at www.twipphoto.com and the Flickr critique group.
Show notes by Bruce Clarke at www.momentsindigital.com or www.twitter.com/bruceclarke
8 Comments so far...
Burt Says:
26 November 2008 at 11:47 pm.
Nit typo — $50 off a @nd Generation Drobo
Obviously meant to be 2nd
[Reply]
Scott Says:
27 November 2008 at 12:01 am.
@Burt thanks - and fixed. Too bad you can’t proof-read everything we post BEFORE it goes up 
[Reply]
jeremy Says:
28 November 2008 at 1:13 am.
good episode as usual. I enjoyed Greg’s contribution to the conversation. One small gripe though is that you guys talk about Africa as though it was a country not a continent.
When you asked Greg his favourite place to shoot, he said Africa. It would have been nice had he been more specific.
[Reply]
Scott Says:
28 November 2008 at 6:25 am.
@Jeremy we’ve given very, very detailed descriptions of the exact places on the continent of Africa where we like to shoot in past shows - we’ve covered this at length. Greg was put on the spot and said Africa. I don’t see a reason to gripe about anything you get in a free podcast, but maybe that’s lost here.
Anyway, if you really want to know where he specifically wants to shoot, just send him an email. We gave you his web site.
Also, even if we did think Africa was a country not a continent, it would put us in the same place as a recent Vice-Presidential candidate
[Reply]
Mark G Says:
30 November 2008 at 6:41 am.
I am a Nikon shooter, however I saw this post in my Bloglines subscriptions:
Using multiple Canon Ex flashes tutorials
http://www.digitalpixels.net/2008/11/flash/using-multiple-canon-ex-flashes-tutorials/
Thanks for another show,
Mark
[Reply]
Stephen Says:
2 December 2008 at 5:02 am.
In response to the questions posed by Jezz and Hamish, Aaron said something about in ETTL mode, the flash fires twice. First, it checks it’s exposure settings, then it fires again and takes the picture.
Here’s my situation. I have a promaster 7500dx flash that I bought for my Rebel XT and, it being my only flash unit, I have always kept it in the hot shoe when I was using it. One day I decided to put it in slave mode, and I realized that when I pop up the in-camera flash, I can get them both to fire (seemingly) simultaneously. Whenever I take a picture though, it proves that the timing is off, and the only flash illumination in my picture comes from the on camera flash. Is my external flash firing with the first flash, to check the exposure settings, and then not flashing again when the actual picture is taken?
If you, Aaron, are able to elaborate on the double-firing thing a little more (specifically how it might relate to my situation), that would be great.
Thanks,
Stephen
[Reply]
Todd Machacek Says:
3 December 2008 at 2:22 pm.
I wanted to add a comment about Jack Label’s show question of using old manual focus lens on new DSLR bodies. The general consensus was that there is no issue focusing. That is certainly true, the focus distance is the focus distance no matter what lens is used. However, the older lens generally have depth of field indication marks, and these are calculated based on a 35mm frame. Even some of the newer lens with the marks are still 35mm equivalents. So when using the lens on a DSLR which doesn’t have a full frame sensor (i.e.: with a particular crop factor) these depth of field focus marks are not correct, and will not produce the indicated depth of field.
[Reply]
Aaron Says:
5 December 2008 at 9:19 am.
Stephen - what you describe is a common problem with slaving flashes that aren’t either Canon or fully compatible E-TTL’s. The initial flash from the master (part one of the two-part flashing of E-TTL) does, in fact, trigger your slave to fire. So you absolutely diagnosed it properly. In addition, the firing of the slave on the Canon pre-flash is going to likely throw off its metering of the scene. So in a master/slave situation like this, your flashes need to either be true Canons or fully compatible E-TTL third party flashes (and I’ve heard mixed results on the latter). Canon does not officially sanction or license the E-TTL stuff to other vendors, so it’s always going to be reverse-engineered and your mileage may vary. I think Sigma has gotten it right on some of theirs, but I can’t speak to that from personal experience.
I’ve run into this very problem firing studio strobes and using a Canon flash or ST-E2 as a master. The trick I discovered - and I’m not going to officially sanction this here since it’s truly a hack - is to cover all but the front-most pin on my ST-E2 before putting it in the hot-shoe. I use a piece of electrical tape on the ST-E2 pins placed very flat and tight before slipping it carefully into the hot-shoe. This eliminates the E-TTL communication and the camera simply does a single fire of the ST-E2 (which isn’t sending a flash, but an infrared signal). The lack of E-TTL here eliminates the pre-flash entirely and all the strobes just fire. Normally, though, I just hook up the PC synch cord to one of the studio strobes and don’t use the ST-E2 except when I want to be completely untethered or if my slave flashes are Canon speedlights in slave mode.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you’d like more detail or I skipped anything…
- Aaron
[Reply]
