PixelatedImage Blog

Checking in with Chase Jarvis’ blog this moring gave me a nasty shock and I’m only just wrapping my head around this. It seems the US D.O.T or/and(?) the FAA (not the TSA) are now limiting the kind and amount of batteries you can either check or carry on. Here’s a couple links - knock yourself out:

Chase Jarvis: Photographer Travel Alert: New Limit To Batteries in 2008, Link HERE
FlyerTalk Thread: Link HERE
TSA Website Article, Link HERE

Here’s the gist of it from where I sit. It’s not the regs that matter, it’s how the security guy at the gate decides to interpret it that matters. And if I know nothing about watt hours and how much Lithium is in my Li-ion batteries, you can bet the guy at security knows - and cares - even less.

It looks like the big issue is with Lithium batteries, not as much with Lithium-Ion batteries. For me it boils down to this - no batteries checked, only carry on. All batteries carried IN the cameras, strobe, etc. Spares are CLEARLY marked Li-On and will go into a baggy so it appears I know the rules, understand them and comply with them.

Canon users, your BP-511A batteries should be fine, but carry them IN the camera. I’ll happily post anything from Nikon users if you know anything about your batteries. My MacBook battery is Li-Ion and is 55 watt hours, so well under the limits - a spare should be fine (but then I’m not so sure I’m reading these regs correctly)

If there’s an issue I’ve missed here, chime in. Also if you have any idea how to discover the watt hours and amount of lithium (seriously? Less than 2grams of Lithium? How the heck…? Sigh)

Take care with the folks at security, smile, be compliant, and hope to God they don’t find out that digital camera sensors are being used by Al Qaida for unsavory purposes…

Update: Ok, I’ve had time to let this settle and to stew over the chart and this isn’t (it seems) as bad as it first seemed. In part because I’ve looked at all my batteries and they’re ALL Lithium-Ion, not Lithium-Metal. And the chart seems to be OK with Lith-Ion batts both in and seperate from the device. And no maximums are given. Perhaps there’s more to it and the chart is only part of the story, but it seems if you only have Lith-Ion you’re safe. In addtion to this, at this point this only affects people flying on American carriers. No doubt the rest of the world will follow suit, but for now it’s not an industry-wide thing.

The coming of a new year always brings with it the idea of a clean slate, a new starting line. The notion of resolution is nothing new - not pixels per inch but a decision to will ourselves into change (usually short-lived, the life-span of the average resolution is about 4 weeks, less if it’s fitness-related, and even less if it has anything to do with how much we put into our mouths).

On Travel Photographers Network we recently started a list of photographic resolutions and it’s been illuminating to see what ruts people are fighting to escape.

I thought I’d open a discussion here on PI:blog - and while I know we’re a week away from 2008, this week always feels like a good time for some light introspection and the making of goals, plans, and resolutions.

I’ll start:

1. I will stop comparing myself to others creatively but will still actively compete in three competitions in 2008.

2. I will more pro-actively push myself out of my creative ruts and give myself more challenging self-assignments.

3. I will not buy any more camera bags. (Hey, everyone needs at least one resolution they feel ok about breaking)

4. I will get a RAID drive/server and create a more streamlined, automated backup system than the multiple harddrives chaos I have now.

5. I’ll more consciously shoot more versions of every image and try to mine them a little more deeply - horizontally, vertically, tighter, wider, from a different angle entirely.

6. I’ll try really, really hard not to justify adding yet another Canon L lens to the collection. Though I might end up with an 85/1.2L and that’s OK, because everyone has their weaknesses and as far as weaknesses go this one is (a) harmless and (b) a legitimate tax write-off.

Ok, your turn…

There’s been alot of chatter here on PixelatedImage:blog about camera bags recently. Mostly it’s my insane search for the perfect travel bag (getting my gear there without ever having to check it). But I have been pretty careful to delineate between bags that work for travelling TO a gig and a system that works once there. Until recently it was my LowePro Specialist 85AW which I still love. But I’ve been thinking more and more about adopting the approach Karl Grobl uses.

Until recently his working set-up, which accomodated 2 bodies and 2 zoom lenses in holsters on a padded belt, was LowePro based. He’s now changed, it seems, to using Think Tank Photo products for some pretty compelling reasons.

I don’t want to steal Karl’s thunder, so I’ll refer you to his site, specifically his page about his working belt/bag system HERE. It’s not rocket science but it’s smart and very functional. It allows him to carry and use his gear quickly, to protect it well, and to hop on a motorcycle without problems.

So this morning I placed my order. I’d been planning to come home and do a similar set-up with LowePro products, but Karl makes a compelling case for using the Think Tank stuff. Already owning some of their gear I’m a big fan of the quality and the thinking that has gone into it. The reasons I am abandoning my previous system:

I am now working with two bodies and the Specialist 85AW is not a two camera bag. I tried adding a second holster bag on this last assignment and it was a disaster - just not set up for that kind of thing.

I want to be able to put away, and pull out, my body with the 70-200/2.8L in it’s shade-on position - the bag I have now doesn’t allow that.

I want to stop putting my gear on the ground and risking theft and damage, but the old modified system was no longer letting me just wear it all.

I want to stop wearing all this gear primarily on my shoulders. A belt with a set of optional chest straps will save my back.

Lastly, I already have a closet full of Think Tank modular components and they’re excellent.

So if you’re looking for a working bag system, check out the one Karl Grobl is using. I’m planning on using this system in Tunisia and the subsequent assignment in Mongolia, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

Vincent LaForet was in Vancouver this fall with the Canon CPS Expo. He gave a very inspiring talk, and in the course of the lecture unloaded a few gems that put words to some ideas I’d been mulling around. A side comment he made while discussing lens behaviour was that the Canon 70-200/2.8L IS lens was the single most versatile lens Canon makes, and that the lions’ share of commercial and published images shot with Canon bodies were also shot with this lens.

Two days before I left for this recent assignment B&H FedExed what has, in a three week period, become my favourite lens. I shoot with two bodies, and until this last assignment those bodies sported a 135/2.0L and a 24-70/2.8L most of the time. This trip about 80% of my images were shot with the new 70-200/2.8L IS.

This is an excellent lens - for almost any shooter. LaForet pretty tidily summed it up when he said a professional choses his lens for a particular shot based on it’s compression behaviour - not primarily because it “makes stuff look big” (those ones were my words). In this regard the 70-200/2.8L IS is brilliant. Most of this assignment I shot at greater focal lengths, wider open, and just took a few more steps back - the results was even better backgrounds (another of LaForet’s commandments: thou shalt keep your backgrounds clean and simple)

I don’t want to get techie, this isn’t a review. The colour and contrast on this lens is awesome and th IS gives me more stable shots - very, very sharp stable shots - than ever before. I’m adding this to the top of my favourite lens pile, and now feel an odd kinship with the rest of the Canon shooters who always seemed to have a suspiciously fanatical perspective on this lens. Now I’m drinking the Kool Aid.

It’s been a long three weeks. I had honestly hoped I’d have some time and internet access and be able to get a post or two in before I returned, but it’s just not been possible. I’m in Frankfurt now, with another 4 hours of layover ahead of me before beginning the final leg of the journey.

I’ve had a great trip, but it’s been truly gruelling. Trips like this wear thin the romance and the glamour this profession is seen to have. I wouldn’t trade it for anything and I seem to get some kind of sick Hemingwayan pleasure out of bumping around the back paths of Africa in a Land Cruiser, but this has been three solid weeks of mostly 14-16 hour days, with a couple long travel days in between.

A few things to catch you up to date.

Travel Photographer of the Year, Finalist.
I was pleased to find that I was a finalist in the Travel Photographer of the Year competition. It’s heartbreaking to put so much work into a print-based competition and not win, but finalist is nice in such a large and prestigious competition.

Photoshop User Magazine, Featured Photographer.
Just before I left on assignment the folks at Photoshop User magazine asked if I would be their featured photographer in the Jan/Feb 2008 issue. They asked me to wait until it went to print before I said anything about it. Last week I got an email letting me know the issue had gone to print, so keep your eyes open for the Jan/Feb issue.

Upcoming Assignment, Mongolia in February?
I’m told by my favourite client that the chances of me spending a week shooting in Mongolia this February are very strong. I am very, very, very excited about that possibility. Less excited about how cold it might be. While I’ve shot in a Russian winter and lived in Winnipeg for two of them, living in Vancouver has made me soft, I tremble at the thought of a solid night of frost. Time to dig out the long underwear.

Chase Jarvis has consented to let me pick his brain and bring some of the findings to my readers and the members of this little, but loyal, community. Chase is a sought-after advertising photographer with a strong desire to give back to the photographic community and the world in general, and pretty much everything he says or writes is worth listening to. I’m excited about bringing that to you when I can.

My annual portfolio trip is coming fast. I’ve hardly given it much thought over the last three weeks but suddenly it occurs to me I will be in Tunisia in only three weeks. I’m sorry to say this means another blog hiatus during that two week period. I’ll do what I can to make up for it with some solid content both before and after. I’m looking forward to this trip – we’re travelling light and have no real itinerary except a loose idea of what we’d like to see and do.

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More to come, including some thoughts on my new favourite lens. Thanks for sticking out this hiatus with me.