I was reading a blog post by a fellow photographer yesterday about knowing your subject and your art. As is often the case I started thinking and remembered an essay I posted on my website about 7 years ago after a family reunion of my wife's family in northern Nebraska. "Nebraska?" you say? Well, google up the Niobrara river, have a peek, and we'll talk photography in Nebraska. Anyway, I decided to repost the essay. Hope you enjoy. Yeah yeah, I know the image isn't from Nebraska but it is one of my favorite sunrise shots. Deal with it!

They Just Don't Get It.....

It's the kind of morning that city people can't understand. It begins when I wake in the half light that envelopes the world about 30 minutes before dawn and continues as I stand on the porch of a 100 year old farmhouse and watch the sun slide past the horizon. Maybe it's the way the steam rises off my first cup of coffee that tastes so good I could swear it's the nectar of the Gods. Perhaps it's the way the new sun glints off the spider webs in the field just beyond the mown area of lawn making them shine like a new silver coin in the sun. Personally, I believe it's the air.

The storms that moved through night before last and yesterday afternoon have scoured any impurities from the atmosphere and left behind air so pure and clean I'm sure if I take a breath I'll never be able to breathe city air again without choking. It's not quite like cold clear mountain air that sears the lungs when I take a breath and it's certainly not the filtered purity of a modern air-conditioned office where I spend most of my waking hours. No, this is something else entirely. A bit more humidity, remnants of the previous storms, but mainly it's the clarity that makes me feel this is what God had in mind when he designed mornings.

I am a photographer after all, and I spend a lot of time praying for mornings like this. When I create an image I try to convey the feelings I experienced when I saw a particular scene and it's almost impossible to make a bad photograph on this kind of day. But a photographer friend once told me the best images are often the ones in your mind, not on the film so occasionally I leave the cameras in the case and just observe the magic.

I have a lot of friends that wonder why I never travel east to photograph their parts of the country. My wife nags me a lot to visit the cities of the east: New York, Boston, Washington. I'm sure the eastern landscapes are magnificent in their own right and the cities are spectacular but they hold no allure for me. I sometimes struggle to explain why I have no desire to visit any place in the east knowing that they just don't get it.

But I'm okay with that. Really I am. You see when I experience a morning like this I realize it just doesn't matter that they don't get it. It doesn't matter that the East will never see a magical morning like this. The sun is shining on a fresh new world, the magic has begun…I get it.

Gear Review: Induro C014 tripod/Markins Q3 ballhead

I haven't done a lot of gear reviews in the past and I've always been sort of a rebel in some aspects so this isn't going to be your typical review. I'm not concerned with specifications like the thickness of the wall of the leg tube or the maximum load capability. That kind of stuff relates to all sorts of gear ratings but the one that comes to mind is capacity of tents. A 4 person tent can only accomodate 4 persons if they're all really good friends or if all of them are pygmies. Same with load ratings of ballheads and tripods. If you look at the max load specs of the Markins ballhead you would believe this device can support up to 65 pounds. Good luck with that but more on that later. On with the review.

I was a bit skeptical about buying a tripod with twist leg locks. I kept remembering my first serious tripod, a Leitz Tiltall which had twist leg locks. It worked really well as long as the temperature was between 45 and 80. Much colder or hotter than that and the legs were a nightmare to open and close. Don't get me wrong, it was a good sturdy tripod but when I discovered that I couldn't remove the 3 way head and put a ballhead on it the Tiltall had to go. My next tripod was a Bogen 3221 with a Bogen ballhead. The quick release plates on that head didn't lend themselves to a secure platform and the lever release enabled me to drop a 500mm f4 lens on the concrete. 2 days later the Bogen head was gone, replaced by a Graf Studioball head. This rig served me well for over 10 years and I don't know it's actual weight but I think it was about 87 pounds so as I got older and my knees got stiffer it had to go, replaced by a Manfrotto 190XB with a Mini Studioball head. Much lighter and also much smaller. Then I started reading about carbon fiber tripods. Ultimately I came across a Manfrotto Carbon One 441 tripod for a decent price and sold the 190XB, using the proceeds to acquire the Markins Q3 ballhead. Well, that tripod is my main unit. It's a perfect height for me, very light, and very sturdy. But it doesn't fit in a medium sized suitcase! Arrrrrrggggghhhhh. Conclusion: Man can not live on 1 tripod alone. So I started shopping for a smaller tripod to travel with.

After a lot of research and reading reviews online I narrowed my choices down to the Induro C014 or the Velbon El Carmagne 640. Ideally I'd have opted for the El Carmagne but I'm not one of those guys for whom money is no object so in the end, price was a major determining factor. I found the C014 on Ebay at a screaming good price ($150) pushed the button, and 3 days later I had a new tripod. Here's the data. I said I don't care a lot about specifics so I'm not going to give you very many. Here's what I care about:

1. Will it fit in a medium sized suitcase?

2. How far do I have to bend over to use it?

3. How sturdy is it and how much does it weigh?

4. How quickly can I set it up and tear it down?

Other than that I don't really care what it looks like though this is a pretty snappy looking unit. So here goes.

The interior measurement of my medium suitcase is 24 1/2 inches. Folded length of the tripod with the ballhead mounted is 21 1/4 inches so no problems there. Diagonally it might even fit in a small suitcase that's appropriate for carry on but I'll check that some other time.

At 5'9" tall I'm what used to be called "average" size and this is the only gripe I have about the tripod so far. With the legs fully extended the top of the ballhead is 49 1/2 inches tall. I'd like it to be maybe 6 inches taller with legs extended. I NEVER extend the center column unless it's absolutely the only way I can get the shot because that effectively turns your tripod into a monopod and 80% of the inherent stability is gone. That being said, if you're 6' plus or have a stiff back then this is probably not the tripod for you. Of course, if it were 6 inches taller it probably wouldn't fit in the suitcase. The height is not ideal but it's a worthwhile trade off for me. You have to bring some to get some.

How sturdy is it? My field test this weekend was a bit abbreviated but I'm convinced this tripod/head combination will be more than adequate for the lenses I have. I probably won't use it much with the 100-400mm but it will handle the 17-40 and the 28-135 with no problems. I don't have a 70-200 (yet) but I suspect it would handle one of those pretty well too. As for weight, when the postman gave me the box my first thought was "Dang this is light. I hope they didn't forget to pack the tripod." With the Markins ballhead mounted the whole thing is just over 3 pounds which makes it a breeze to carry and it's remarkably sturdy for such a tiny thing.

I was concerned with the time it takes to set up a tripod with twist lock legs but there's something amazing about this little guy. My hands aren't inordinately large but I find that I can loosen all 3 twist locks on a leg at one time, pull the leg out to full extension, and lock them in place probably quicker than I can set up my 441 with lever locks. As for cold weather performance, one of the properties of carbon fiber is it's ability to resist contracting in extreme cold or expanding in extreme heat. Last weekend I was shooting in 20 degree weather and had no issues with the legs either extending or collapsing and the locks were good and solid without having to torque them down really hard. That's a plus.

Finally the Markins Q3 ballhead. In the past I've used ballheads by Arca Swiss, Foba, Bogen, Studioball, and now the Markins and I can say that the Q3 is by far the smoothest and easiest to adjust ballhead I've ever used. It's fit and finish is immaculate. In short, it's a purty little devil. The key there is "little." I've put it through a lot and finally was able to discover it's one shortcoming. In January I was photographing Sandhill Cranes at Bosque Del Apache with my 100-400mm lens and as long as I was photographing stationary objects the Q3 performed great. The issue was panning to try and photograph cranes as they take off in the morning. The little Q3 would get really sticky if I tried to pan more than 100 degrees. As an experiment I switched lenses and found I could pan with no issues using the 28-135. The big zoom was just too darn heavy for the Q3. Other than that I have no issues with the Q3 and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone with the proviso that you be aware of it's limitations.

All in all, I am convinced that this tripod/head combination is very close to my ideal travel/hiking/lightweight tripod. It weighs nearly nothing, it's very sturdy for it's size, and most importantly it fits in my medium suitcase. I think I'll keep it!

Music Can Set You Free

Let me say right up front so there's no mistake...I'm a Rock 'N' Roller. I grew up during the 60's listening to artists like The Yardbirds, Buffalo Springfield, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix. I played lead guitar in a couple of garage bands during High School and made a little money at it though not a lot. When I got my first car I went through all the gyrations to make the AM radio sound good, installing speakers in the rear deck of my 1964 LeMans along with a reverb device. I was astounded and obsessed when 8 track tapes came around and later followed them to cassettes and finally cd's in all my vehicles and at home.

I've listened to lots of different kinds of music but I always come back to Rock. Guitar rock...the cd currently in my car stereo is a compilation cd that I burned with lots of hot guitar licks. My musical tastes are more esoteric as I grow older but given a choice I'm still going for the hot screaming guitars. I've never been a devote' of Classical music other than to notice that most of the cartoons I watched as a sprout were set to Classical music, a fact that was lost on me until I was in my 30's and watched some cartoons with my kids. The exception (for obvious reasons) being Ravel's Bolero. If you younger people don't understand the reference, don't e-mail me, I'm not sharing.

But tonight, watching the Winter Olympics, I heard a piece of music that moved me. Not because the couple skating to it were fantastic. I despise pairs figure skating. But for another reason entirely.

The music was "Sunrise" from The Grand Canyon Suite by Grofe. I don't know why it caught my attention, possibly because I enjoy the Grand Canyon. But as I listened, I was mesmerized and transported to another place and another time. Back to early 2008, standing on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon watching the clouds break and seeing the sun light up the Canyon. I'd arrived around 4pm Thursday, having driven in from Las Vegas, and once checked into my hotel room I headed out to the Canyon to get some shooting time. Before I could get there, though, it started to snow, lightly at first then heavier and heavier until I could barely see 100 feet. No problem I thought, it will stop during the night and I'll get in some good shooting tomorrow. That was Thursday night....24 hours later when I finished supper it was still snowing hard and I had to leave by 11 the next morning to make my flight in Vegas so I was beginning to worry.

Saturday morning at 5 it was still snowing but I decided to head out to the Canyon and sit in the car until the weather broke or I had to leave, whichever came first. at 6am it stopped snowing and at 6:30 the clouds in the east began to break and let the sun shine through. It was one of the most magical sunrises I've seen anywhere and led to the most productive 2 hours of shooting I've had in many years. But back to the story.....

Listening to the music tonight I closed my eyes and was back on the rim of the Canyon that morning. I could see the clouds breaking, the first hint of light in the East. Then more light, lighting up small sections of the Canyon. And finally the sun fully lighting up the morning and the clouds melting away. It was a magical morning and the music put me right back there.

I can't promise I'll listen to it regularly, but I'll tell you this. Before too awfully long I'll have the full cd set of The Grand Canyon Suite. It will be in the car and burned onto the hard drives of all my computers and who knows...I may treat myself to an Ipod one of these days. But for now, I'm content with the images from that trip. How bout you?

Right In Your Own Backyard

Well, almost. A few days ago I set a task for myself in response to a blog by Bret Edge. Bumper sticker version: There are a lot of photographers out there that travel to exotic locations but a lot of us don't spend enough time photographinng close to home. I'm a prime example since only 2 of the last 10 shooting trips I've taken have been to locations in Colorado. So I decided to do something about it.

The Assignment: Within 10 days of the original blog I was tasked to create a blog postable image within 20 minutes of my home. It's been kind of cold and we got about 4 inches of snow overnight so with the assignment gnawing at my brain I grabbed the G10 and my new little tripod and headed out to run some errands and maybe locate a photo or two.

Now understand, I've been thinking this over for a few days...the location that is. My first thought was Castlewood Canyon for sunrise and, in fact, I woke up this morning about 5am and looked outside to see if there was going to be any semblance of color in the sunrise. What I saw was hopeless. Snow falling so thick I couldn't see the detail of the streetlight a few houses down the street. Back to bed for me.

I thought about taking a hike up Cherry Creek which runs about 200 yards behind my house and provides me with some nice views in the spring and summer when the cottonwoods are leafed out. But a quick hike upstream and downstream from the Cottonwood Drive bridge was a little disheartening. Lots of interesting compositions but the sky had cleared and presented me with a cloudless blue sky, the bane of a landscape photographer's existence.

Back to the car and more thoughts: Finally, Eureka! I've got it! Check out the old standby where I used to go to shoot senior portraits, bridal portraits, family portraits and even some landscape details. Let's just hope the waterfall isn't completely iced up. Got there in 5 minutes, hooked the G10 up to the ballhead, headed down the hill and was rewarded with the sight of water flowing around the boulders in the creek. Turned on the camera and got the error message that none of us ever wants to see: "No Memory Card." No problem, right? Wrong. The memory card I usually keep in the camera is sitting on my desk where I left it after downloading the Bosque images to the hard drive. No problem, there are more cards and they should be in the camera bag, right? Wrong.....I usually carry the G10 in my backpack with the DSLR and that's where the *(_*&&^ memory cards are. Back in the car, blaze home (thank goodness it's only 10 minutes and not some distant locale) grab the memory card wallet and blaze back to the location. Fortunately the light was still good and I was able to create the first image you see above. Now I can finish my errands so it's off to Wal Mart to buy dog food.

On the way I was driving past one of the parks where my son played baseball when he was 9 or 10 and happened to glance down the gulch that runs around the park and saw the snow covered rocks. Two decent images inn 20 minutes in completely different locations. I guess I don't need to travel too awfully far to find some things to photograph. No vacation time? No problem. Cloudless sky? No problem.

And the moral of the story? Well, I'll still keep traveling to build my stock files. In fact, I'm headed to Phoenix in 5 or 6 weeks to visit my daughter and will spend a few hours photographing in Lost Dutchman State Park. And in April I may be heading back to New Mexico to photograph Bisti Badlands with a fellow photographer. But ultimately, if I'm out of vacation days or just want to get out, there's a lot of subject matter....Right In My Own Backyard.

What's it Gonna Be?

The challenge has been issued, the guantlet thrown down, and I've accepted the assignment. Earlier today I responded to Bret Edge's post about Wanderlust. You can read it for yourself at http://bretedge.wordpress.com/ . I posted that only about 20% of the images in my photo files are from my home state of Colorado and Bret issued an assignment for me to create some images from Colorado before the end of February. Well me being me, I accepted the challenge but altered the terms: Sometime in the next 10 days I'm tasked to create a marketable image within 20 minutes drive time of my house. To quote the immortal Foghorn Leghorn.."Nice boy but he ain't too smart." But accept the assignment I did so now all I have to do is decide where to go with my trusty cameras.

Hmmm....within 20 minutes of home.....I wonder. Will it be Castlewood Canyon? I've seen some nice images from there recently and I drive past it every day on my way to work. How bout the wildlife 10 minutes away in Ponderosa Hills subdivision. I once counted 10 fox dens in a 5 square block area. Maybe a hike up the frozen creek 2oo yards from the house. I know the dogs like going there. Or maybe the 100 or so Canada Geese that overnight in the park behind the house. Who knows? I guess you'll just have to keep checking the blog to find out.

Do as I say, not as I do!

I must have heard that saying 10,000 times when I was a kid. It was very popular with my parents. Sadly, I guess I didn't learn a lot about that.

Later in life when I first began teaching Basic Photography I was relentless on my students when it came to composition. "Everyone in the world sees things horizontally at eye level. Get higher or lower...turn your camera vertical...BE CREATIVE!" Sounds simple right? Flash forward 25 years to the present. I was fortunate enough to win a fantastic door prize at the annual RMNP shindig. Denver Digital Imaging is going to print one of my images 24X36 for free and have it mounted on Dura Plaq also for free. I started thinking immediately what image will I choose and where will I put it in the house?

After an evening of looking around the house for an empty space and consulting with my interior decorator (my wife) I decided that the 2 prints hanging in the 32 inch wide cubbyhole over the fireplace have faded so badly after 22 years that they need to be replaced. There's a perfect location for a vertical image. Now the search begins for an image and that's when I came upon a disturbing trend. All of my images that I really LOVE and would like to have printed large are.....eye level horizontal! What the.......

Don't get me wrong, I love all my images and there are plenty of verticals to choose from but under careful scrutiny each of them is flawed somehow. A lot of them were shot with "average" lenses and while they work well as smaller prints they would never hold up to 24X36. I've got a file drawer full of 4X5 transparancies that would be wonderful but I don't currently have megabucks to get them properly scanned. So that takes care of plan A. No vertical image that I LOVE that will hold up to large printing.

So here I am, back to evaluating locations for a nice 24X36 HORIZONTAL print. I found a logical spot and now all that remains is to choose an image. AAarrrrrrrggggghhhhh! Ever wonder what it's like to spend 4 hours going through digital files looking at images? Who's got the migraine meds? But I managed to narrow the choices down to 6. Then to 3. Then to 2. And I finally made my decision, burned the image to cd, and headed for the lab. Care to guess which image I chose from the two above? I'll let you know in a couple weeks when I get the print back.

And by the way, I made a label to stick on the ballhead on my tripod that says, simply....DFV.

DON'T FORGET VERTICAL!