PixelatedImage Blog

Manfrotto School of Xcellence, Monday Oct. 24, 2011. 2pm – 3pm PDT
More information on the Manfrotto site HERE

On Tuesday morning I jump in the Jeep and drive down to Syracuse, NY to join Jeffrey Chapman for some spectacular Cambodian/Thai food before we jump an early morning flight on Wednesday to Oaxaco, Mexico for our Oaxaca Within The Frame, Day of the Dead Adventure. Very excited.

Tomorrow (Monday ,Oct 24, 2011), I’ll be on the air at 2pm PDT / 5pm EDT for the Manfrotto School of Xcellence (don’t get me started on alternate spellings. Just plain goofy.) giving a free one-hour webinar presentation about Building Better Photographs. The presentation is largely based on the principles of the newest book, Photographically Speaking, though in a much distilled form. I’d love you to join us. These presentations are always fun (read: fraught with tech issues) and I’ll be glad to have some friends in the audience. Join us! (Follow the link at the top to the Manfrotto site)

Manfrotto School of Xcellence, Monday Nov. 21, 2011. 2pm – 3pm PDT
More information on the Manfrotto site HERE

Next month, same time, I’ll be doing another one called Confessions of a So-Called Pro. Here’s the blurb: When professional photographer and best-selling author David duChemin left a 12-year career in comedy to pursue his first creative love, photography, he tried very hard to be the “professional” he thought he was meant to be. What he discovered along the way was that being a productive photographer that loved his craft had nothing to do with getting paid. More than that, he learned many lessons about the craft of photography that apply to everyone, from so-called amateur to so-called pro. Join David in a candid discussion about the journey of photography.

I’d love you to join us for that too. Between now and then I’ll be in Oaxaca shooting the Day of the Dead, and on Roatan, Honduras, doing nothing at all. The last trip I went really light, this time I’m taking a Nikon D3s, Sigma 20/1.8, Nikon 24mm PC-E, and Sigma 85/1.4. 4 batteries, no charger. 2 x 64 GB SanDisk cards. Gitzo Ocean Traveler tripod, and a couple Singh Ray filters. It’s a fraction of what I once carried but already it feels like I’m packing for an expedition! I’ll carry it all on my back in a Think Thank Photo Airport Acceleration, until I get there, when I’ll pop my working gear into a Think Tank Retro 30. Wow, that was a lot of gear talk in one paragraph. Let’s move on.

Lastly, Photographically Speaking is now shipping and I’m getting really beautiful early comments and reactions. Thank you again for the support! I think this one is the strongest of the so-called vision trilogy. If you haven’t got one yet, you can do so on Amazon.com HERE or Barnes & Nobles HERE. If you’ve already got yours and don’t mind leaving a quick review on Amazon, I’d be grateful.

Will try to check in from Oaxaca and Roatan and send postcards! See you when I get back!

When I asked Piet to write ebooks for Craft & Vision, I had no idea what I was doing. The man just doesn’t know how to write a short ebook. Fortunately he does know how to write a great one. It’s just always so freaking long I have to pay everyone involved with it twice as much to create it. It was that way with his Masterclass Series The Power of Black & White. It was like that with his first book on off-camera flash, Making Light. I begged him to shorten them up. He agreed, then made them longer. He’s Belgian, so there might be some bizarre cultural thing at play here. Whatever it is, his readers benefit because his books are as full as they are long.

Piet Van den Eynde’s latest, Making Light 2 is yet another gigantic ebook. It picks up where Making Light left off and just keeps on going, talking about going beyond sync speed, working with multiple flashes, using different modifiers, even going beyond the use of small flashes. And then he includes 4 case-studies, all loaded with helpful stuff. And like his other books, it’s big. Did I mention that?

We pride ourselves at Craft&Vision on giving our readers way more than $5 worth of value in our eBooks. We want to lead the way in excellent but affordable photographic education. Piet outdoes us each time, raises the bar, and makes us proud. If you have any interest in small flash and getting it off the camera to create beautiful light, both Making Light and Making Light 2 should be a must for you. And with this release we’re not only offering Making Light 2 available at the usual on-release discounts, but we’re also offering a bundle discount for purchases of both of them if you didn’t grab Making Light the first time around.

Special Offer on PDFs: Use the promotional code MAKINGLIGHT4 and you can have the PDF version of Making Light II for only $4 OR use the code MAKINGLIGHT20 to get 20% off when they buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST October 24th, 2011.

Making Light Bundle: Get both volumes for just $8. There’s no product page for this package on the C&V website but you can make your purchase by simply clicking the direct shopping cart buttons below.

When I met Steve Simon in Hawaii last year we became fast friends. I was already familiar with, and a fan of, his work. And I knew going into his lecture called The Passionate Photographer, that this was a man I shared a lot with. And then we met, shared some meals together and my respect for him deepened. Now I’ve got a copy of his book The Passionate Photographer, on the couch beside me, and I want to introduce you all to him. I try not to flood you with book reviews or “you gotta get this new gear” posts, Lord knows I flog my own stuff enough, but you really should consider getting Steve’s book; it’s that good.

Steve’s a veteran of 30 years in the trenches. He loves what he does with a rare zeal. And his work is excellent. He’s got the cred to write this book, and the subtitle – Ten Steps to Becoming Great – is more than just marketing hype. Steve gets down to basics, and while other books will fill yer brain to busting with information about advanced lighting or technique, it’s the fundamentals that will make the most significant difference in your work.

The table of content is deceiving, you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s not much to this book – only 10 steps? Just tell me what they are and move on, right? But it’s what Steve says about these 10 steps, in 250 pages, that contains the gold. Steve’s book is both deep and wide. It’s got it all, and I’m convinced there is no photographer out there, of any discipline, who will not benefit from reading it, if you’ll also put the time in to applying it. If I were teaching photography in a classroom, at anything more than a basic technical level, I would make The Passionate Photographer one of my standard texts.

Steve Simon’s The Passionate Photographer is published by Peachpit Press and available on Amazon.com HERE. Highly Recommended.

Last week I got a call from FedEx in Vancouver. They tried to deliver the first copies of Photographically Speaking to an address I’ve not lived in for 9 months. Sigh. Getting the first copies of a new book – I mean literally the first two copies off the press – is a thrill and I’m a little sad I’m not there to get them. But it means – and this is the point – the book is out and within days now some of you should be getting first copies!! I can’t wait for you to have it in your hands, though there’s a good chance now that some of you will see it before I do, which seems a little unfair.

If you get the book, I wonder if you’d do me a favor and share. I’ve got three ideas how you can do that.

1. Share with me.
Would you let me know you got it? I’d love to see its progress as deliveries happen. It’s a thrill to see people around the world pick up something you’ve worked so hard on.

2. Share with the World!
If you enjoy the book, would you help me out by telling the world? If you have a blog or use Facebook or Twitter would you point people to the book on Amazon? Would you consider writing an enthusiastic, but helpful and honest, review and posting it on Amazon? These reviews are so helpful and they help offset the occasional rants and weird personal attacks. No need to write a novel, or undue praise, just a short comment and honest rating would be great. Thanks in advance. While you’re at it, feel free to do that for any of the other books you’ve read, by me or any other author – it’s a small thing but it means a great deal to us.

3. Share with your Community.
If you’ve got a few extra shekels, would you consider donating a copy to your local library? There are a lot of students that would benefit from this book but library budgets get tighter and tighter every year. I’d love to know people can read my books and never pay a penny to do so.

If you don’t have a few extra shekels, but you know a student or struggling photographer that could use a copy and can’t afford one, would you please leave a comment below and tell me about them? You can use first names only, or change names to protect the innocent, I just want to pass along some love. I’m going to ask Peachpit, my publisher, to send 20 copies to photographers that simply can’t afford them. We’ll select them, and then send the copy to you to deliver in person. Cool?

Where Within The Frame was sometimes perceived as just a book about travel photography, Photographically Speaking is for everyone. It addresses the most fundamental stuff of our craft – photographs themselves. It talks about the language of photographs and how an understanding of the visual language can make our images stronger. My hope is that you find this book important enough to you to share with others.

You can find Photographically Speaking on Amazon.com HERE, and if you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a brief intro video to the book HERE. Anyways, book’s almost here. Thanks, as always for your support.

Almost a year ago I bought a 1993 Land Rover Defender named Jessie. To say we had a rocky start is an understatement. There were days I was torn between loving that Defender and wanting to drive her into the ocean. Things took a while to smooth out for Jessie and I, but I bribed her with a new transmission, and at the end of February 2011, I packed up my Vancouver condo, sold most of my possessions, and packed what remained into the Defender and began what was to be a one-year nomadic life as I traveled around North America.

And then I fell off the wall in Pisa, and took 4 months to get Jessie back from Atlanta where I left her to fly to Italy. In all the chaos of recovery I needed to register and license Jessie in Ontario, my temporary home while I recovered. That registration required a safety certification which I learned Jessie would never pass. Not even close. Extensive corrosion in the frame forced me to take her off the road. There’s a good chance repairs are not an option, leaving me two choices – replace the frame (in other words, re-build her completely), or sell her to someone with more time and resources to do a restoration. I’m still mulling it over, but the end is the same: if I want to resume my nomadic life – and I do – then Jessie and I need to say good-bye. If you want to say “I told you so,” get in line. In the meantime, I’m unrepentant – Jessie and I had a great time while it lasted.

So, enter Emily. Emily’s a 2011 Jeep Wrangler. And in February, when I get back from Ethiopia and Kenya, I’ll finally (finally!!) pack my gear up and resume my journey. This time I’m taking much more time to see, and photograph, the American west, spending as much of 2012 as I can. If I move back to Vancouver it’ll be late Autumn 2012, but the nomadic life suits me very well, so we’ll play it by ear. Until then I’m living lighter and lighter as the days go by – a desire of mine made easier by the fact that there’s just a lot less room in the back of the Jeep than the Land Rover. This return to simplicity, something I once embraced much more easily, has made more room in my life and my heart & mind for the most important things. The last year has been the most profound gift.

I’m still choking on the need to take Jessie off the road, but as much as I love the Land Rover, it is the journey and the adventure I love most. So yes, the Jeep is sexy and new, and she’s comfortable and fast. But character is earned, not purchased, so she just needs some adventures and some miles under her wheels before I enjoy her nearly as much as I did Jessie.  I spent this past weekend enjoying the fall colors on the snowmobile trails at my family’s cottage on the south edge of Algonquin Park, and I think Emily and I are going to get along just fine.

Can’t wait to pack my cameras and tripods into the back and get back to the journey. We’ll head south along the eastern seaboard fairly quickly (give me a break, it’ll be February and I’ll be camping!) and after a week or so in the Florida Keys, I’ll head west. I plan to spend as much time as I can, slowly, in places like Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, etc. And I’ll be at the Overland Expo in Arizona for the middle of May. If there are any overlanders among my readers, I’d love to see you there and buy you a drink.

Rice Paddies in motion, Laos, 2011.

This is a 1920×1200 wallpaper, so it’ll do for anything up to a 17? MacBook Pro. Click the image to access the larger file.

This one’s a little different for me, and I wouldn’t use it to judge the merits of the Fuji x100 with which I made it, but I’m playing with impressonism and abstracts, and I thought it might make a nice change from the twilight work I’ve been obsessing over.  Enjoy.

A year ago, on October 22, I posted about my transition to Nikon. It’s taken me that long to write something that gear-ish again. With my transition to Nikon began a relationship with Sigma that I’ve been waiting to elaborate on. Now, as I near the end of that year, seems a good time to talk about the lenses I’ve been using and what I think about them. For those of you who’ve been clamouring for this post for 11 months, thanks for your patience.

When Sigma knocked on my door I was no stranger to their lenses, having used their 24-70/2.8 EX and 70-200/2.8 EX for early professional work. The reasons I decided to use their lenses again were simple ones. First, it gave me a chance to get into the Nikon system – when you get a box filled with Nikon-mount lenses to use, it’s easier to afford the bodies. Second, and more importantly, was my desire to walk the talk on this Gear Is Good, Vision Is Better stuff I’ve been spouting for so long. The fact is, the vast majority of my readers are not professional photographers. They’re enthusiastic amateurs of all stripes and seasons and most of them can’t simply buy the very best Nikon or Canon glass. I wanted to make images I was proud of, with gear that’s generally less expensive. I wanted to remind my readers- and show them – that the best top-shelf gear wasn’t necessary for creating beautiful work.

Sigma 24-70/2.8 EX DG

For the last year, I’ve shot mostly with Sigma’s 15mm fisheye, 20/1.8EX, 24-70/2.8EX, 85/1.4EX, and 70-200/2.8EX – along side my own Nikon 300/2.8, 24mm PC-E, and 14-24/2.8, and Zeiss 50/1.4. Those were the lenses I used day-in and day-out, though there was a long hiatus while I was recovering from the accident and not making photographs.

What do I think of the lenses? If you’re tempted to skip to the end, here it is: I never once used the Sigma lens and thought, “Man, this photograph would be more beautiful, or more compelling, had I shot it with a more expensive Nikon lens.” Not once. For the most part my Sigma lenses performed really well, created beautiful images, and usually (though not always) for much less than the top-shelf Nikon or Canon equivalents. Beauty is in the photograph, not the gear. Lenses matter, but even today’s kit lenses are capable of creating beautiful photographs. I’m not a pixel-peeper, and never have been, so please don’t ask about the best apertures for edge-to-edge sharpness. I just don’t know. If I don’t notice the loss of sharpness, it doesn’t matter to me. And if the best thing people say about my work is, “Wow, it sure is sharp,” then I’ve failed and the lens is irrelevant.

Sigma 24-70/2.8 EX DG

Would I use these lenses for professional work? That kind of depends on what you mean by “professional.” By my definition, I did, and I would again. But remember, value is not in how inexpensive something is, but how much you get out of what you paid. In the future I will be replacing some, but not all, of the Sigma lenses – notably the 24-70 and the 70-200. Those are my go-to lenses for much of my work and I’d happily pay more to replace them with the Nikon versions. Why? First, neither lens is sealed. When I last returned from Africa, my D3s sensors were filthier than any sensor I’ve ever seen. I was working in some of the most punishing conditions I’ve ever been in and sealed lenses would have made a huge difference.  If you aren’t working in these conditions, it could be a total non-issue. After-all, not even all Canon L-series lenses, are sealed. But to me, for these two lenses, it matters. Secondly, the build quality just doesn’t measure up, and I punish my gear, so durability matters. The body of the Sigma 70-200/2.8 EX, for example is made largely of plastic. It’s lighter, for sure, but I’ve less confidence in it than I would a lens made with more weight. In the field I need my gear to be more like a tank than a toy. But if you don’t need this kind of tankishness, then you might benefit from the saved dollars and the lighter weight. Those are my own reasons, but “horses for courses” as they say, and you need to decide what’s important to you. For many of you budget may prevent you from buying the top-shelf Nikon or Canon lenses, but you’ll get huge value from a fast, constant-aperture, zoom lens that makes beautiful photographs. If this is the case, Sigma’s got some great lenses for you.

The three photographs posted here were all made with the Sigma 24-70/2.8 EX DG. I’ll eventually replace it, but not because of image quality.

Sigma 24-70/2.8 EX DG

Would I continue to shoot with these lenses? I would and I will. Absolutely. They won’t be the lenses I go to when I need them to beat the sand and grit of the Kaisut Desert, but I’ll keep using them and recommending people consider Sigma, and take them for a test-drive when they can. Some of my favourite photographs from the past year were made with these lenses, and I’m grateful to Sigma for the chance to work with them. You can see some of those images, along with images of friends like Darwin Wiggett and Younes Bounhar on the Sigma Canada site HERE.