PixelatedImage Blog

Within a stone’s throw of the Arctic Circle in Iceland. Photo: Dave Delnea

It’s been a while since an unapologetic gear post but I need to get this out there. I love the Gitzo fleece jacket. It’s not right for a guy to love a jacket this much, much less a jacket that raises my nerd factor to 11. Hell, this jacket goes up to 13, it’s that nerdy. But oh do I love it, and as most of my shooting happens in places where even a vest is too hot, this was my first time to really wear this miracle of recycled water bottle multi-pocketed fleecy goodness. Here’s the official image of it being worn by a man who also models for colouring books, only he looks less nerdy when he wears it. Could be the hair.

The jacket’s not light – but you can put pro-sized bodies and lenses in it, carry more CF cards, lens cleaners, hats, mits, Moleskine journals, flashlights, Leatherman multi-tools, than one person should own, let alone carry on their person while also looking like a member of a Special Ops bowling team or SWAT softball league. Assuming men with that much testosterone and access to guns would have such clubs and/or leagues, this would be the jacket they would wear. But I bet they’d embroider something cool on the back instead of just GITZO, which is what it says now at the base of the neck.

Seriously, this is an incredible jacket and if access to your stuff while keeping warm, if not mildly unfashionable due to the excess of pockets, is important to you, then this thing is a win. No, I wouldn’t wear it around town. Not often, anyways. Maybe for special occasions, like when Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal are kickin’ it in Vancouver and I want to hang out with them but need to feel a little more ready to take on the end of the world or evil Asian Triads while I do so, I might wear it around town then.

The pockets are legion, and huge. There are thick patches on the shoulder and elbows, a large back pocket in which you could stow a small child, or at least 3 Puffins, which is what I wanted to do, and – did I mention the pockets? There are many of them. Many much pocketed goodness! And a huge tab/loop/hang-yer-30lb-jacket-from-this-if-you-can-find-a-railway-spike-deeply-embedded-in-a-load-bearing-wall on the back by which one can carry the jacket, or swing it fully loaded like a Russian kettlebell should you be away from your preferred means of exercise.

I love this jacket, and while it does border only slightly on the absurd side of extreme, I was really grateful for it in Iceland and know I’ll get a lot out of it in cooler weather travel shooting. It ain’t cheap, but nothing with the Gitzo name on it usually is. You can get more information from the B&H Photo website HERE. Despite the sarcastic review, highly recommended. You can have mine when you peel it from my cold dead body (update: my warm, well-insulated, multi-pocketed corpse). Here is another photograph, this time worn by a very rugged, yet contemplative photographer. (Laugh if you must, but my pockets can beat-up your pockets any day!)

Good news for all my friends and students who have been eagerly chomping at the bit to get their hands on the Singh-Ray Gold-N-Blue Polarizing filter: they’re back in stock. Now I know y’all don’t like these things, and I’m as guilty as anyone of struggling to learn to use this filter a little more judiciously. I also know not everyone is on board with the use of filters at all – last time I posted about this kind of thing someone accused me of lacking integrity – oddly not something I’ve been indicted for when using a 17mm lens or duo-tone treatment on the print. I know, Galen Rowell wouldn’t have done it this way, but then I’m not Galen Rowell. So I’m putting my armour on and cutting/pasting an article that Singh-Ray just released on their blog that has some of my thoughts on the creative use of filters in digital photography. Feel free to disagree if this is one of your weird little hobby horses, but let’s keep the ethical assertions to a minimum. This is art and if you can’t be an anarchist as an artist, you may as well get a job making motivational posters. You do things your way, I’ll do things mine

From his home in Vancouver, Canada, international assignment photographer David DuChemin roams the world specializing in humanitarian projects and travel workshops. He’s also the author of Within the Frame, a noteworthy book on his images and the thought process behind them. Here’s a brief example of that process as applied to his Singh-Ray filters. “I just got back from teaching workshops in Italy on the beautiful Ligurian coast, and then later in Venice. These workshops, whether in Italy or further abroad in India or Nepal, are often the times I learn the most myself. Nothing galvanizes what I’m learning faster than teaching it to others — and one of the things I am consistently asked about is my use of filters. I think the digital world continues to labour under the delusion that optical filters are a thing of the past and that most of the effects once possible with filters can now be done as easily in Photoshop. The more I show my students the filters I use and give them a chance to try them, the more certain I become that filters still have an essential role in digital capture.

“Photography, for most of us is not merely a technical pursuit, but an aesthetic one. If that is true then what truly matters is what our images look and feel like. Filters still enable an aesthetic that’s not possible through simple post-production, and in some cases not possible at all, even in Photoshop. The aesthetic they enable may be forcing a slower shutter speed to blur motion, or polarizing light to reduce glare, or knocking part of the frame down a couple stops to darken a sky or lighten a foreground — in each case the filter remains a mainstay in the photographer’s kit.

“The images that accompany this article were shot in Italy this spring. So much of my time is spent in the so-called ‘Third World’ that being in a place like the Italian Riviera and Italy was magical — so different from what I usually photograph — and with that difference came a different experience. When I looked for tools to help me express how I felt about the magical light in these places, the Singh-Ray Gold-N-Blue, complete with un-corrected colour cast, was what I settled on for these images. Did it look like that? I’m not sure that’s the point. It felt like that and I’m more interested as a photographer in communicating my own very subjective response to places and moments than I am in pretending at objectivity.

“What the digital world at large has at times failed to recognize are two important understandings. The first is that every technical decision at the point of capture has an aesthetic implication and that means filters will allow you a significantly different look than a mere adjustment layer in Photoshop can replicate. The second is the importance of the creative process itself. Most photographers I know struggle to find a balance between the Artist and the Geek. Optical filters, used well, can meet the needs of both.

“When I made the transition to digital I sold my film gear and a box of filters, most of which I’d never use again even if I had them now. At the time I was told that, ‘you don’t need filters when you shoot digitally.’ I believed it for a long time until I began looking at the work of photographers I really admired – particularly those working in fine art and landscape disciplines. What I saw was a noticeable difference in the aesthetics of their photographs, and it pushed me into what is now nearing the end of a year spent learning about and playing with filters.

“I now carry 2- and 3-stop graduated ND filters (both soft transition and hard transition), a Gold-N-Blue and an LB Warming Polarizer. It’s a small set of filters, and it doesn’t take much room in my bag, but I no longer leave home without them. Together they allow me to capture a broader dynamic range of light, turn mundane light into spectacular light, take longer exposures, and deal with reflections on water. All of that without hours in Photoshop. In fact my images captured with the use of filters consistently need less work in post-production than others. But the biggest benefit my filters have brought me is in service of my creative side, the Artist.

“We all work differently but many of us seem to work dialectically. In other words we begin with A, we react to B, we get C. While this thought process can and does happen in the darkroom, it is much more powerful when used at the point of capture. When you put a filter on the lens you see the results immediately, you react to it, it gives you an idea, helps you see in new ways, and then you change what you’re doing, follow the muse. In my workshops, I’ve seen this process over and over again in my students. They’re shooting a scene, they look at what I’m shooting and exclaim, ‘Wait! How come that looks so different from mine?’ I explain, hand out my filters for them to play with, and watch them run off giggling. The key word in there is ‘play.’ Creativity is one big ‘what if,’ and the more we engage our craft with a sense of play, the more creative and unique our results. Engaging that sense of play is an important step in the creative process, allowing the filters to not only change the way the image looks but to change the very process, making these simple tools a catalyst to in-camera creativity — something Photoshop, for all its marvels, can’t do.”

The Singh-Ray blog is an excellent source of inspiration and information about the use of filters. Find them HERE. As an aside, the year I have spent learning filters has been an interesting one and I’ve waded through a number of frustrations about the differences in sizes and mount-options and it can be confusing at times. Not sure why there can’t be a little more clarity on all this, nor am I sure why some of the best lenses have 82mm threads while Singh-Ray’s screw mounts are sometimes only as large as 77mm. Anyways, I plan to address this kind of thing in an upcoming eBook when I return from Iceland and have a chance to shoot some images to illustrate.  Questions about filters – leave ‘em here.

This is my silhouette, in Italy, cunningly disguised as someone shooting video on a DSLR. Photo credit: Jens Stachowitz.

Video has become the next big thing in photography. Weird, huh? While I’ve ranted about the convergence of still and moving pictures before, it’s not because I don’t love where this is all taking us as creatives. I just get bent out of shape when everyone out there is already wrestling with their craft and suddenly the camera manufacturers and industry leaders put the pressure on to learn video. Video capability in today’s DSLRs is amazing, and some people will grab this by the horns and tell some amazing stories.  And some people, myself included, will have cameras with beautiful video capability and never learn how to record a single frame of video. Video is a separate language entirely and it means an investment in time and money to learn how to shoot, edit, sweeten audio, etc. If you thought still photography was expensive…

Still, there’s no denying the movement is here to stay, and mostly for the good, I think. This generation of visual storytellers has an unprecedented amount of tools at their disposal. To that end, I want to point you to one of those resources and share with you the next release in the Craft & Vision library, which will release at the end of the month.

First, Think Tank Photo has just released The Multimedia DSLR Buyer’s Guide and it’s packed with really solid recommendations to help you navigate through the forest of new gear you’ll need to understand. It’s been put together to support the marketing on their line of multimedia bags, which are an amazing piece of gear in themselves for video and multimedia people, but it’s a really helpful resource. And it’s free. You can find that HERE on the Think Tank Photo site.

Second, at the end of the month Craft & Vision will be releasing Trevor Meier’s Vision In Motion, an eBook written by a guy who is both a professional stills photographer and film-maker. It discusses the core issues of motion storytelling and for anyone who is wanting to begin dabbling with the video capabilities on their DSLR, it’s a great primer. It won’t teach you how to use your camera, but it’ll open your eyes to the issues involved in moving from stills to motion and help you get your footing as you learn to use your camera to begin speaking this entirely different visual language. Together with some of the great online resources out there you should be able to wrap your mind around some of these issues and begin filling harddrive after harddrive of footage. You Tube is already getting a restraining order knowing that if one more cat video is uploaded it will simultaneously crash their servers and cause a tear in the fabric of the universe. So please, for the love of Soderburgh, learn to do this well. Vision In Motion will be out end of the month and we’ll let you know when. As always, it’ll be $5. Or less.

And next month? We unveil a whole new Craft&Vision website, all the Craft&Vision books as apps on the app store, and a couple more books to inspire and educate. The new site allows reviews to be posted and we’ll be asking for your help with that, and putting an iPad on the line. Stay tuned!

I’m re-reading Hugh MacLeod’s IGNORE EVERYBODY. Great book. You should read it. Seriously. But that’s not why I bring it up. I just posted about shooting with a little less gear and then I sat down with a glass of wine and this book and a pen and read the following. I think it applies.

There’s no correlation between creativity and equipment ownership. None. Zilch. Nada….

A fancy tool just gives the second-rater one more pillar to hide behind.

Which is why there are so many second-rate art directors with state-of-the-art Macintosh computers.

Which is why there are so many hack writers with state-of-the-art laptops.

Which is why there are so many crappy photographers with state-of-the-art digital cameras.

Which is why there are so many unremarkable painters with expensive studios in trendy neighborhoods.

Hiding behind pillars, all of them.

Pillars do not help; they hinder. The more mighty the pillar, the more you end up relying on it psychologically, the more it gets in your way.

Ouch. And yet it I wonder if it hurts because it’s more true than not in this particular neck of the woods. Some photographers seem to escape this. I’m sure they have their own pillars to deal with. But the gear thing, man can it get in the way. I’m going to leave you with Hugh MacLeod’s words because I don’t think they need elaboration, but feel free to discuss. I know, I KNOW, we need good gear, etc, etc. But once you lay down all the excuses and the reasons, seriously, when’s the last time that new piece gear really truly made better, truer, more honest photographs for you? I’m a fan of the What If…question. So in the spirit of that…what if our hunger was less for new gear and more for images that were more deeply personal, more honest, more powerful, more subtle, more emotionally compelling, more beautiful, more luminous?

Ok, not really. I’ll take vision anyday over the shiny toys. It doesn’t always have to be one or the other, though. This is one of those rare posts that talks about gear and if you’re not ready to hear me geek-out, perhaps now is a good time to go read What The Duck or something.

I have been planning this for a while. Lacking a 50mm lens for a while I bought a Zeiss Planar 1.4/50 (HERE’s the lens on the B&H Site) It wasn’t a moment of weakness. But it could have been, this is a nice lens! Sharp and fast, no surprise there. But here’s the kicker. It’s a Nikon mount lens. I shoot Canon (for now). With a Novoflex EOS/NIK adapter (B&H Link HERE) I can put this on my Canon bodies just fine. So why then, would I pay for a lens I had to buy an additional (and, at almost $300, expensive) adapter for? Good question.

First, the Zeiss lenses are amazing. Beautifully built and with incredible optics, this is a no-compromise lens and the thought of buying Canon’s 50/1.2 just didn’t sit well with me for the money they cost (not that the Zeiss lenses are cheap but this one was just over $800CAD and the Canon L is $1800CAD). And did I mention how beautifully these are made? They feel like a lens should and are all metal – including the lens hoods.

Second, while Zeiss makes these lenses with a Canon mount, the Nikon F mount version has an aperture ring on the lens which the Canon version does not; so this is a step back to my old-school roots. I wanted an exceptional manual focus lens, and with a little digging around I discovered that the combo would give me both manual focus and manual aperture. Love it!

Third, as I look to the day when I will shoot both Canon and Nikon bodies, this allows me to begin building a collection of prime lenses – a 21, 50, and 85 – that I can use on both mounts. One day in the not-to-distant future I want to shoot both Nikon and Canon (another topic for another post) but for now I’m not keen to duplicate my lenses. However I also want a selection of good primes for travel and this will eventually let me invest in one set of glass I can use for both bodies. Until now I had no idea it could be done.

For many of you this won’t matter a bit, but if you’re looking for some of the best primes – and the Zeiss 21mm is arguably one of the best wide angles available – and want manual functions and brand-neutrality of some degree, this is an exciting option. Downsides? Well, it’s manual so the more I stop down the darker things get in that viewfinder. And there’s no EXIF data coming from the lens. And it’s manual so I’ll miss some shots while I re-acquire my manual-focus chops. But as part of the purpose of all this was to slow down a little, that’s a gain, not a loss. And with this Novoflex adapter, I can start borrowing older lenses from my unsuspecting Nikon friends. You hear that, Delnea? Yeah, I’m talking to you!

Now, I’m off to Italy to try this baby out. Remember, Vision is Better – but Gear is Good!

Perfect Thing #19. Shooting What You Love. Shot this on the island of Goree in Senegal last month. A day to wander, shoot, and hang out with a friend. Life is about these kinds of moments.

I should be slaving away on a million things right now but I’m feeling a little sheepish over the neglect this blog’s suffered recently. This month’s Outside magazine has a feature called 51 Perfect Things and I keep coming back to it;  I think what most resonates with me is that in a time when it seems critical reviews and nit-picking get all the page space, it’s nice to see something so celebratory of simple pleasures. Might be overstepping it call them perfect, but in a world where perfection so seldom comes, these are as close to it as I’ve ever found. These are the things in which I’ve taken particular pleasure over the last year or two.

#1. Chai at the summit of Khardun La, the highest motorable road in the world. For extra points get there on a Royal Enfield Thunderbird.

#2. Film. Digitial gets the glory. But having recently returned to shooting film in an effort to stay fresh and creative, I can’t believe I stayed away for so long.

#3. A steaming bowl of Pho ga in Vietnam. Vietnam is colourful and friendly and I’m dying to go back. Put the camera down and enjoy the local food. On a cold day nothing beats hot noodle soup.

#4. Hasselblads, Leicas, and Carl Zeiss. We’re surrounded by plastic these days. Getting your hands on some old-school engineering makes shooting such a pleasure. Walking around with a 1980′s Hassleblad 500 c/m and listening to the clunk of the mirror return, and feeling the sure mechanisms of the focus and aperture rings reminds me of the joy I took when I was a kid discovering the tactillity of this craft.

#5. The Moleskine Notebook. My shelf is lined with them, full of thoughts and checklists and little pieces of paper I tucked away in the back pocket. They have travelled the world with me.

#6. Blundstone Boots. They don’t come better than this. Ever. After going around the world in them for a few years they feel like slippers. Manly, rugged, slippers.

#7. Shooting at dawn or dusk. Just being awake at this hour seems to have a calming effect, and for me the paint seems to stir easier when things are calm. Also? The light ain’t bad.

#8. My Saddleback Leather satchel (they call it a briefcase). I don’t travel internationally with this, it’s just too heavy, but for domestic travel and every-day use for tossing in the laptop or Hassleblad, this bag is amazing. And as they say in the ads, your kids will fight over it when you’re dead. It doesn’t come cheap, but this’ll outlast a hundred others and gets better looking with every rainstorm and accidental scar. Absolutely perfect.

#9. The Leatherman multi-tool. The original and still awesome.

#10. Arbeg Uigeadall Single Malt Scotch Whisky. If you like single malts from Islay, this one is hard to beat. Amazing.

#11. Michael Kennsa’s Hokkaido series. All his work is stunning, elegant, but his Hokkaido series in particular captivates me.

#12. Being there. We talk and talk about all the places we could shoot, but being there – in mind and body – is a gift. Want to be there this year but don’t want to plan it all yourself? Want to come with me? There are spots left on Lumen Dei Tibet (July) and Lumen Dei Kashmir/Ladakh (September) and I’d love to travel with you.

#13. Gitzo Ocean Traveler Tripod. It’s a particular person who will buy one of these. They aren’t cheap. But they’re amazing. Like all the Gitzo Traveler series, they’re light, strong, and beautifully made. Add stainless steel and sealed mechanisms and a ball head you can field strip and you’ve got a really sexy thing. Price aside, this is the perfect travel tripod.

#14. Waking up in a luxury tent camp as the sun rises into a solar eclipse over Mt. Kenya with the Serengeti between you. Unbelievable. One of the most beautiful moments of my life. The best moments are unrepeatable. I did my first African safari this year; it won’t be my last. A perfect way to spend 10 days

#15. My 13″ MacBook Pro. The perfect travel machine for me.

#16. Icebreaker merino wool socks and underwear. I swear I’ll never travel with another pair of underwear and socks if they aren’t Icebreaker. Amazing. They keep you warm when it’s cool, cool when it’s warm, and they’re comfortable and durable.

#17. The Nifty Fifty. Canon’s EF 50/1.8 lens is cheap, made of plastic, and has nothing whatsoever to recommend it other than that it’s just that – cheap, made of plastic, and for the money delivers great images with a fast aperture and a short mininum focus distance.

#18. The ScotteVest Travel Vest, in black please. I don’t travel without it. Love it. It’s warm, so forget wearing it all day in Delhi this July, but I still travel to and from locations with it. Even in Senegal where it hit 40 degrees C during the day, I’d wear it in the cooler mornings. Functional, comfortable, and far less geek factor than a classic photography vest ever had. And pockets? Only the Gitzo Fleece can compete.

#19. Photographing what you love without regard for what anyone else thinks. Sure, it’s nice to hear people rave about your images, but at the end of the day the only thing that really matter is that you love them and loved making them. Being a so-called amateur has this strongly in its favour. Don’t ever forget why you do this.

#20. This one’s yours. Comments are open. What would make it onto your list of Perfect things?

I got this email yesterday, and I’m quoting it here in full with only a few edits to protect the identity of the one who sent it:

Dear David,

What do you know and think about stock photography, and which stock photography company would you recommend using? Really any information you have about stock photography will help.

I’m seriously thinking about taking out a loan and upgrading from my Canon 30D to a Canon 5D II, and adding a few L series lenses (the 30D isn’t meeting my expectations any more). But before I do, I want to ask you and a few others to reassure my wife that it will help support us.

Sincerely – Taking Stock, Podunk, WA

So. You know I’m about to launch into a sermon, don’t you? This week we’re talking about issues relevant to the VisionMongers out there. Today’s your pep talk about money, specifically debt. Here is a much-expanded version of my reply.

Dear Taking Stock,

First of all, it’s quite a coincidence but my buddy Gavin Gough is writing an eBook right now called Taking Stock, Vol I and it’s about this very thing. It’ll be released, along with Vol.02 under the Craft&Vision banner and I’ll announce it loud and clear when it’s out. And there’s a little bit about stock in VisionMongers itself. So, let me address the two very separate issues you’ve asked about.

One. Stock. I make a few thousand every now and then on stock. I don’t pursue it and I think those that do need to treat it very specifically as its own market. You need to study it, shoot specifically for it, and spend as much time maintaining your relationships with the clients as any other vocational photographer. If you want to make good money at it, you need think of it like a job and work at it; it is not a hobby.

Two. Loans. This is one I get really fired up about. Don’t do it. Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it.

Yes, there is a time and a place for loans and leasing. When you are buying a proven asset – something that will make you money – then a loan is sometimes a good idea. When you are buying a liability, it is not usually a good idea. In your case, the camera and new lenses might be either. Only you can answer that. But I doubt you can answer it from where you sit right now. You’re gambling. You have a camera. You aren’t currently making money in stock. If you’re looking for a confederate to gang up on your wife, I’m the wrong guy. Listen to your wife.

I’ve been there. I know the allure of the gear and the siren-call of newer, shinier, and better. I know the way that little gear gremlin whispers in your ear, saying things like, “if you had that new camera you’d make more money.” Bologna. If you aren’t making money with the 30D or D90, then you aren’t going to magically make money when the new camera arrives. What you need to do is go out and make a pile of money with the images you have now, or go shoot new images and sell them, but the new camera is very unlikely to help. If you can’t afford to pay for the new camera and lenses with cash, you simply can’t afford them.

The single best way to begin and operate a photography business is in the black. I’ve gone bankrupt. I have friends that have gone bankrupt. It’s a product of this heady cocktail of impatience (I need it now!), delusion (it’ll help me make more money!), and greed (Shiny! My preciousssssss!)- don’t, for the love of Diane Arbus, do it! Yes, a loan can be a good idea. But when it is, you won’t need to convince your wife, the numbers will do that for you. Very, very rarely is gear the asset we believe it to be. It breaks, go obsolete, and is seldom the thing that sells a client on hiring you or buying your images. And when it is, you can rent.

If you want to get serious about this, and be able to live and create without the added pressure of the overhead that servicing debt creates, then kick that gear gremlin to the curb, tighten your belt financially, and buy that new gear when the old stuff is making you enough money that it’s not a gamble or a hope but a necessity. And for the love of all things good, don’t use a credit card. I have a credit card with a ludicrously high limit, and the only time I use it is when I can use it like cash – I make the purchase and IMMEDIATELY go online and pay it down. I get airmiles and purchase protection, but I pay no interest. If you must take a loan, take a low, low interest loan. Take it from one who’s been there.

Can I get an Amen? There’s a lot of us out there, many of you even more savy about finances than I am – if you want to echo this please add your voices. Sometimes people need to hear the same thing over and over again before it sinks in. Your life, your family, your marriage, your business – none of these need the stress of debt.

Me. Kiboko Bag by GuraGear, Canon 1Ds MkIII, EF 300/2.8L IS.

I told you I’d picked up an Elinchrom Ranger Quadra (B&H link HERE). It came a week or so ago and I’ve finally had a little time to play with it. Product reviews are always a dicey thing. So because I’ve not had much more than an afternoon to play with this, consider it a reaction instead. I set it up in my living room, still amazed by how tiny the head is. I mounted it to the adaptor that lets you use larger Elinchrom modifiers, then put it into a Lastolite Ezybox, which I’ll talk about in a moment. I set it up as one light, very low power on the left of the frame and put a large reflector on the right. And then I parked my butt on the floor and grabbed a couple of my new favourite toys and took a few self-portraits because the cats weren’t in a helping mood.

The way I judge whether I like a product or not is this – does it do what I bought it to do? Does it meet my expectations? So here’s why I wanted the Quadra. First, I need more power than the 580EX can give me and I am NOT getting into the nonsense of bringing a dozen of them and a crate of Pocket Wizards just so I can have some nice light. I needed it to be portable, un-reliant on AC power for a day in the field, and I needed it to play nicely with my other gear. I want to be able to put one light on a monopod or stand, through a softbox or umbrella, and be able to set it up fast and shoot wirelessly.

So. I bought a Lastolite EZbox because I am so sick of messing with my Photoflex softboxes and I am not bringing a 5ft octa to Africa. It sets up really fast, breaks down quickly and with the Elinchrom speedring and the Quadra adaptor it all goes together fast. Plug the cable in to the pack, turn it on, and you’re ready.

But it gets better. The Quadra comes with a built in Skyport receiver. With the optional Skyport transmitter you’re ready to shoot wirelessly really fast. The transmitter is TINY and though some worry about breaking it, I’m more concerned about losing it. Why this over a Pocket Wizard? I love my PW’s but they require plugging in, and they can’t control the power of the light from the camera. Skyport can, and it’s amazing. You want to fiddle, push the power a little up, a little down, go for it. No more walking back and forth to the pack. It’s all at your hotshoe and in the hour I played with it, it worked great. I can’t tell you how psyched I am about this!

And one more plus – it’s got an LED modelling lamp and for some of the low-light places in which I shoot, this will be all I need – one LED modelling lamp will do wonders in a low-light space and I won’t have to mess with shutter sync. Glorious.

What don’t I like? Elinchrom umbrella shafts are slightly smaller than the standard, so their holes are too. Want to use an umbrella, you’ll need to get one from Elinchrom. The instructions are lousy, as they always are with Elinchrom. And the head comes without a protective cap. Even my 200Ws D-Lights came with a protective cap and they’re the bottom of the pile of Elinchrom’s offerings. The lack of protective cap seems cheap and silly to me. Grumble, grumble.

Is the Quadra for everyone? No. Plenty of folks still want much more power. The Quadra’s 400 Ws which is a lot – 4 times more than a 580EX or SB800. But for some that won’t be enough. For me, it is. And some folks don’t need even this much power, in which case you’ll save a ton by purchasing a used SB800 or 580EX, a battery pack,  and a set of Pocket Wizards and still have money to spare. The Quadra’s about $1500 plus extras. But if you’re asking whether I love mine, yes I do. It borders on mania and I can’t wait to play with it some more and shoot something better looking than the suspicious bald guy up top.

If you’re looking for more detailed info than this artsy-fartsy, touchy-feely reaction to my new toys, then head over to David Hobby’s Strobist site and read his post about them. Then for the real meat, read the comments. Lots of good intel in there.

Lastly, a quick shout out to Lastolite. I have a couple of their products and they’re just great. I love their Skypanels and this new 24×24 Ezbox (link HERE to B&H product page) is compact, quick up, quick down, and makes some really nice light. I loathe futzing with softbox poles and speedrings, and this rig is light, fast, and rugged. And it’s simple so it doesn’t give me the rage when I’m too tired and jet-lagged to screw with setting up a fussy softbox.

Thus concludes the gear-head post. I don’t do them often and Vision’s better, but hey, Gear is still good when it helps us get a little closer to our vision. And when it’s shiny.

This one is an unabashed, shameless, Gear Is Good but Vision Is Better post. You’ve been warned.

There have been a lot of quiet, but enthusiastic ripples about the new Elinchrom Ranger Quadra system, and I finally caved in. I called B&H and talked it through, then placed my order. I’d been tempted before Photoshop World and then I got to play with them, hold them in my hot little hands, and they amazed me. The picture above doesn’t give any sense of scale, but this is a tiny (no, I mean, really tiny) system. The battery and pack is about 8inches tall and weighs 3kgs, or just over 6.5lbs. The head fits in my hand and cranks out 400w seconds – which means it’s WAY more powerful than my Canon 58Os. And with built-in Skyport it’s ready to use wirelessly very quickly. Am I excited about this? Absolutely. Why? Because one of the reasons I don’t do as much work with my Canon flashes as I’d like is that – excuse my language – I find them to be a right pain in the ass. I’m still wrestling with my new Pocket Wizards, which work well when they work. And I find, after brief experiments with it, that the ETT-L stuff is more work than it’s worth. I would actually take a small unit like this on assignment where larger kits are just too large, heavy, and prohibitive.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Strobist movement, and in the right setting I like my 580s well enough. But to have more power in such a simple, portable package, with a modelling lamp and built-in Skyport? I’m in love. I’ll let you know just how deep that love goes and if it’s going to last or just be some brief fling powered by gear-lust and infatuation once I’ve had it  a while.You can see more info on the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra HERE.

A couple other housekeeping items I wanted to mention and won’t have time later this week.

1. Matt Brandon’s got a 2010 Calendar for sale over at The Digital Trekker. I haven’t had a printed calendar for years but word on the streets is some people still use these nutty contraptions. If you’re one of those people, you don’t have to admit it here, but check out Matt’s calendar HERE.

2. I was contacted recently by a Vancouver-based photographer, Andy Cotton, who has developed a really cool way of carrying your cameras. It’s called the Cotton Carrier and for outdoor lifestyle and adventure photographers I imagine this will have early adoption – it’s pretty darn cool. Other will want to use them but might have to get over the fact that it makes you look like some kind of Commando/Ninja. But it’s super cool. I’ve played with mine, like the idea and the execution a ton and am just looking for a chance to try it out. Seriously, go take a look at the Cotton Carrier HERE.

3. I got my Gura Gear Kiboko bag last week. You know I love my Think Tank bags, but if there’s one bag they don’t make it’s what I’d call an adventure bag. I wanted something for safaris and more rugged adventures, something that still fit into a tiny overhead bin (like the Embraer or Canada Regional Jets) but still be built to take abuse, haul a ton of gear, and – this was the kicker – have an excellent backpack harness that I could see myself carrying heavy loads over tougher terrain. So when I ordered my bag from the maker, Andy Biggs, himself an accomplished photographer and safari guide, I had high hopes. Man were they ever exceeded. I’ll do a review later, probably after my safari in January, but the Kiboko is incredible. Weighs less than 4lbs, carries a mountain of gear, and is clearly made by someone with control issues and an eye for details. Like I said, review to come, but if you’re looking for a great adventure bag, take a good long look at the GuraGear Kiboko bag (pictured below.)

4. Lastly, how in the world has it taken me so long to get turned out to OnOne Software and their suite of plug-ins for Photoshop and Lightroom? I knew they were out there. I glanced at the site. I kept thinking, I really need to look into this more. And I never did. And then at Photoshop World (PSW is an evil temptress) I saw a live demo that convinced me I needed to look at them more closely. I’ve played with the tools on and off since yesterday, so this isn’t a review, just a reaction – this stuff rocks. If you do any commercial works directly for clients, especially wedding or portraits, or you like to get a little more artistic with your work, the OnOne Plug-in Suite has some cool tools – I especially love the Focal Point 1 and Photo Tools 2 plug ins. Anyways, take a look at them – in Lightroom they act as an external editor in conjunction with Photoshop, but it’s pretty seemless – it goes out, you do the adjustment, it returns to Lightroom. Love it. OnOne has free demos and videos of all their stuff – find more info about them HERE.

OK, enough gear-freaking, get out there and shoot something you love.

I’m going to make this short. If you do any localized work in Photoshop or Lightroom, you are missing out if you’re not using a tablet. I’m not exaggerating my case; you really need to try one, get past the initial awkwardness and discover the pressure-sensitivity goodness in PS and LR that can only be accessed with a tablet. Sure, you can use a mouse for most things, and you’re probably right to be a little suspicious of all these overly-enthusiastic tablet-users. Who knows, they might even be the same wierdos who eat sushi, listen to NPR, and insist the battle between Canon and Nikon is irrelevant. But even so, you owe it to yourself to try these. I use mine all the time in LR with the Adjustment Brush and in PS with masking and it gives me the ability to work on my images with more ease, control, and subtlety. I won’t go into the shortcuts possible in your workflow, but you get used to these things really fast, and if there’s a downside to them it’s that the mouse you now love will, in short order, begin to feel like a giant cumbersome ham in your hand.

And when I begged Wacom to show some lovin’ they didn’t blink and eye. So I’ve got a medium Wacom Intuos4 to give away. The only catch is that I can only offer it to residents of America or Canada. I know. Sorry. But here’s a small consolation. If you live outside the US or Canada, leave  a comment in the comments, along with the others , and indicate clearly which country you are from and I will draw 3 names and send you each a signed copy of VisionMongers when it comes out. It’s no Wacom tablet, but it’s something.

So what do you have to do to be considered eligible? Just leave a comment under this post. The last giveaway – the one for the Drobo – all I asked for was a simple sentence and I still got poems and sycophantic praise. So, this time I’m not going to hold you back. Poems, praise, limericks, heck – anything to catch my attention in a PG kind of way- and I’ll do a somewhat random draw with points given for creativity, in a couple weeks. Just be sure you leave a name and email address when you leave your comments. You foreigners, you know I love you – so you can play too – just be sure to let me know which country you’re from. And no cheating; if you pretend to be from Nova Scotia but give us a mailing address in The Gambia, the jig’s up.

Huge thanks to Wacom for the lovin’. I’ve got one of these for my desktop, one with my laptop, and another on my wife’s desk too. All Wacom’s tablets bring PS and LR functionality to a new level, but the Intuos is an amazing step up from the old Graphire I used to use. I know, I know, it’s not about the gear, Vision is Better, etc. But a great tool can make things easier, and when the technology stops being in the way, it’s a little easier to get where you’re going. Tablets do that for me. Wow, 4 paragraphs in, no sign of slowing down, and I said I’d try to make this short? I suck at brevity.

If you’re not familiar with the whole Wacom line, from their Bamboo to their gorgeous, truly lust-worthy 21″ Cintiq, you can find more about them HERE.

Alright, you know the drill. Good luck. *Updated October 26, Comments now closed. Winners announced tomorrow.