The latest episode of TWIP is in the feed.

Hosts: Scott Bourne & Alex Lindsay
Guest: Rick Smolan
Contributors: Fred Johnson, Ron Brinkmann
Locations: San Francisco, San Jose, Hermosa Beach

Intro Music by Scott Cannizzaro

Producer & Show Notes Author: Aaron Mahler - Twitter: halfpress

Bandwidth for This Week in Photography is provided by Cachefly.

TWIP is sponsored by Audible. For a free downloadable book visit www.audiblepodcast.com/twip

This week’s show is brought to you by the phrase: HEY, EVERBODY!

- We have a new link contest going! If you link to our blog from your site and we randomly select it from our referrer logs, you’ll win a Drobo! You must be 18 or older and live in the US to participate (Scott explains why - ad nauseam - in the podcast).

Our guest this week is Rick Smolan, a former Time, Life and National Geographic photographer, is also the man behind some groundbreaking books including 24 Hours in Cyberspace, America 24/7, Day in the Life, From Alice to Ocean: Alone Across the Outback, One Digital Day: How the Microchip is Changing Our World and, most recently, America at Home.

(more…)

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If you’re thinking of buying a Canon camera product, hold off until Sunday. Canon PR just informed TWIP that they are launching a major rebate program running May 18, July 19 2008.

$300 off Canon 5D, $200 off Canon 40D and other rebates on popular lenses and Canon flash units.

Full details will be available on the Canon web site soon.

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Photo by Scott Bourne

NOTE: This article was cross-posted at JPG Magazine.

1. Research and read everything you can about birds. This tip is good for any subject, but especially birds. I wanted to photograph eagles in flight. I found out they often defecate right before they fly. The more you know about any subject, the better off you’ll be when it comes time to press the shutter.

2. Have the right gear. Avian photography is one of the rare photographic pursuits where the equipment can often make the difference between getting a shot or not. Very long, fast lenses of 400 to 600mm at f/4 or f/5.6 are required for bird portraits. Fast 300mm lenses with image stabilization are required for flight shots. A good heavy tripod is a must and a camera with a fast burst and buffer rate really helps too. You’ll also want autofocus lenses. If you don’t have all this stuff don’t worry, you can rent it at most pro camera stores.

3. Know your gear before you go. The first time I went out to make avian images I took my new Canon 600 F/4 IS lens with me, but was unfamiliar with all the switches and the IS. I didn’t get any keepers. I took the lens home and practiced on coke cans in my back yard before my second outing and it made all the difference. Also, if you’re going to use a new camera, read the entire manual and play with all the features BEFORE you go into the field. Birds move fast. They won’t wait for you to remember how to set the aperture.

4. Photograph with your back to the sun. Birds look best when front lit. Sidelight may be the landscape photographer’s friend, but the avian photographer’s enemy.

5. Make the photograph at eye level. I got down on the ground to make one of my best-selling bird images and the editor told me it was the ground/eye-level shot that made the difference.

6. Backgrounds, backgrounds, backgrounds. Having a clean background is a must. When I photograph birds against a clean blue sky, I often get the most compliments. Also, the further your subject is from the background, the better. Busy backgrounds detract from the subject.

7. Practice at local zoos. Captive birds will give you a chance to study behavior, hone your skills and become familiar with bird photography and guarantee enough keepers that you won’t be frustrated.

8. Take it slow and be quiet. Birds are very easily disturbed. Sudden movements, loud noises and anything out of the ordinary will spook them. Take your time. Birds take off when they see nearly anything move quickly.

9. Like many subjects, birds are best photographed early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Fortunately this corresponds with the best light. Be there at the right time and you’ll increase your chances of getting a winner.

10. Look at lots of bird pictures. Writers read if they want to become better writers and photographers look at photographs if they want to become better photographers. Look at avian images in books, magazines and on the Web. See what the photo buyers are selecting. Use those images as your benchmark and then go get some of your own.

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Photo by Scott Bourne

(Canon 17-40, F/5.6 zoom extended to 37mm on a Canon 1DS MKIII)

I know this lens has been around for a while - but it’s new to me, so I decided to review it.

For a long time I had this focal range covered by a very nice Tamron lens that I used reliably. I never had any need to switch to Canon just because there’s some negative stigma attached to using third-party lenses.

But after years of very hard use, and yes some accidental abuse (this lens was used by my students during dozens of field workshops) it bit the dust.

I looked at the 16-35, but I already have access to a 14mm Rectilinear-corrected lens. That being so close to the 16, I decided to save the weight and the money and get the 17. I realize that the 16-35mm lens is probably a better choice for my 1DS MKIII, but it works well enough on the full-frame camera and superbly on the 40D body.

By the way I mention weight because it is important. As I grow older, every ounce in my camera bag is my enemy. At 1.1 lbs, this is Canon’s lightest and smallest “L” zoom lens.

I won’t go into a bunch of mind-numbing statistics about the lens. You can get those on tons of different blogs and Websites. Instead, I’ll just hit the highlights and give you my impression of the lens.

You should know I don’t have any fancy test equipment and I don’t need any. I’ve been making images from cameras for more than 35 years. My eyes are the best test bench I have.

First the basics. The lens is quiet and as you’d expect, focuses quickly and smoothly. It’s effective focal length (EFL) on a Canon 10, 20, 30, 40D, etc. is 27-64mm. Of course it is what it is on my 1DS MKIII since there is no crop factor.
My mounted 77mm B+W circular polarizing filter didn’t rotate when affixed to the 17-40. A real plus, in my opinion.

At F/4, this lens is one full stop slower than the 16-35mm “L” from Canon, but it’s also half the price.

It’s sharper at the short range than the long range and at f/5.6, it’s really sharp everywhere.

There is great lens flare protection and contrast is very good. As you might expect, there’s some mild distortion at 17mm but at about 22mm I didn’t notice it.

There is no vignetting on my 40D, but I get mild vignetting on the full-frame sensor body. The vignetting is virtually gone at f/5.6 on the 1DS.

It has a very good minimum focusing distance of 11 inches throughout the zoom range, and this lens feels solid. It’s fun to use and for around $700, is a steal when compared with other lenses in the price range.

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The results of the last poll are in. It’s Lightroom by a hair, followed by Aperture, then iPhoto. In fact, nearly three quarters of the almost 2000 respondents picked one of the big three. Fourth goes to OTHER, followed by Bridge and the rest of the gang.

The next poll is “Are You A Pro?”

You’ll have a week to answer. The poll is designed to allow only one vote per computer.

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Photo by Scott Bourne

I charged the battery for my new 1DS MK III and rushed across the street last night to the Giants/Astros game for some quick test shots.

Since these are all larger images than our template allows, you’ll have to download them. This is originally a RAW file converted to hi-res Jpeg. I shot this photo using a Canon 70-200 F/4 IS “L” lens, at 200 mm (since this is a full frame sensor I no longer have to do the conversion for effective focal length (EFL), handheld, at ISO 800, F/5.6, 1/500th of a second. It was dusk and believe it or not, I am shooting at field level through a fence.

I pulled the image off the card an into Aperture where I made minor exposure corrections and added some minor edge sharpening to restore what’s typically lost in the normal digital process. No other corrections were made.

The files start off at full frame and get cropped more aggressively in each photo, all the way down to a very small portion of the original image.

I wasn’t trying to make a Pulitzer Prize winning photo here. Just trying to get a sense of the camera’s ability.

You can download the comparison data here; the original frame here; the 1st crop here; 2nd crop here and final crop here.

For ISO 800 shots in low light, shooting through a fence, I think they look pretty good. You be the judge.

NOTE: Since everyone’s monitor is different, I make no attempt to discuss the color qualities of the image. I’ve looked at it on three different monitors and seen three different sets of colors. Try to judge clarity, sharpness, noise, etc.

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Canon has announced two new compact photo printers. The SELPHY CP770 and the ultra-compact CP760.

The 770 has a suggested retail price of $149.00 and works with the optional Canon NB-CP2 battery pack ($79.99) for printing anywhere. Of note, this printer supports infrared wireless capability making it very easy to print photos from cellphone cameras or other devices. It also features a 2.5″ LCD monitor.

The 760 retails for $99.99 has a 2.5″ TFT screen with card slots that make it easy to print straight from the camera using a USB cable.

Both printers make 4×6″ color prints and use Canon’s Portrait Image Optimize technology that allows photographers to correct and improve their image quality without a computer. The printer automatically corrects for red-eye and can lighten or darken individual areas of an image. This new technology also employs facial recognition to correct for the ideal brightness and coloring.

Both printers also include new lamination to help reduce blurring and fingerprints.

For an additional $49.99, Canon’s optional BU-30 Bluetooth adaptor makes it even more convenient to print from Bluetooth enabled cameras.

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