Not quite a year, or is it?

I suppose, given that we got a free day this year (Feb 29th), it might be considered a year since I last posted, but as it's not the 9th until tomorrow, I'm saying it's not quite. ;)

Anyway, yes, I've not been posting.  As usually happens, work has been getting in the way (not that I'm complaining, I've shot some beautiful people over the last year and produced a good number of images I'm rather proud of).

I've been teaching some workshops too, and have also recently relaunched an old site under the new guise of learning photography, so I will generally be posting there from now on.  I'll also be rewording and updating some of the stuff on here and shifting it over there in the form of new posts.

So, head on over to http://www.johnaldred.com/ and start following there instead. :)

DPI vs. PPI - And why it matters, or not. :)

This post now resides on my new blog, linked below.

http://www.johnaldred.com/dpi-vs-ppi-and-why-it-matters-or-not/

Been a boring few days, but the weekend's looking up!

This week's been a little slow and boring for me. I decided that I was going to take the week off from the regular hustle and bustle of daily life and just stay at home with my feet up watching the TV, and what a great week it's been. :)

I did discover a new site this week though, TFPModels, and I shall be doing my first group shoot with organised with them this weekend at the beautiful Victoria Baths in Manchester.  The baths were closed down in 1993, but the local population has been fighting to keep this building alive and it is currently undergoing restoration to bring it back to its former glory.  You can find out more information about the baths and their restoration, as well as support the restoration efforts at the Victoria Baths website.

Also, I received a tweet this morning, as I'm sure many of you did out there, from Chase Jarvis letting us know about the next CJLive event happening today.  I missed a big chunk of the last one and only really caught it as things were winding down, but I expect it to be a fun filled day with lots of information, tips, and inspiration if the last one was anything to go by. It all kicks off at 10am Pacific Time (that's west coast USA), which is about 6pm for us folks in the UK.  Let's hope they've sorted out the audio issues this time. :)

I'm going to be away for the next couple of days and won't be back until Sunday's shoot.  This people shooting stuff is all relatively new to me still, as humans haven't been the primary subject of my images for the past 10 years or so that I've been a slave to Nikon.  But, it's a great looking venue and the models scheduled to be there are all absolutely gorgeous, so I hope to have at least a few decent images to show off next week.

Image courtesy of wingalls.photo.

It goes from bad to worse, then better again! :)

So, after spending a couple of weeks in bed recovering from surgery, then heading down to Birmingham for the Spring Fair, I get back home to find myself spending another week sick in bed.  After talking to a few other people that went it seems their must've been something going around at the show.  Now, though, I'm finally starting to feel human again so just wanted to post a quick update.

Had some new bits arrive this week.  My free SB-900 arrived yesterday from Nikon.  For those of you who didn't know, this was a special offer Nikon had for registered DSLR owners to upgrade to a D300s before mid-January and receive a free SB-900.  So, I did, and now it's arrived to join the ranks in my growing little Speedlight army.

Just as an aside on the flash situation, I just recently discovered that the Yongnuo YN460-II actually has some limited CLS support (sort of).  I always knew this flash had an optical slave mode (manual power, set from the flash itself, as usual), but what I didn't realise is that it has a second optical slave mode which is designed to ignore the pre-flashes sent by the CLS system.  Very very handy if you just want to add a little light to a dark corner in your scene and you don't quite have enough SB-900s to go around.  Just set your power (manually, from the flash itself, not via the CLS menus), pop on a gel, snoot, grid or whatever, and set it to CLS slave mode.

How close the colour temperature is to SB-900s (or even if their quality control provides for consistency between different samples of YN460-II flashes) I don't know, but at only £38 each, I think I'm going to have to pick a couple up and see how well they work.

Anyway, to go along with the new SB-900 and the RF-602 gear I received last week, I decided to pick up some Konig light stands.  I had bought some on Amazon a couple of weeks ago, but they turned out not to be anything like Konigs with a non-standard adapter nobody I know has ever seen before (although the image in the listing did clearly show a standard 5/8" spigot).  The company failed to acknowledge that the image misrepresented the item, but did refund the purchase cost minus the shipping (I had paid extra for next day), and my return shipping costs.  So, all in all, I'm out about £20 because of those idiots.

A friend suggested an alternative seller on eBay from which he'd purchased some in the past, and they were top notch, so I ordered four.  Konig, 2 metres tall (that's 6'6" for the rest of us), each with their own individiual bag.  Very pleased.  I hadn't tried them before, but I needed something a bit more lightweight than I usually cart around.

They'll definitely require some assistance to help prevent them from falling over in anything more than a breeze, and I probably wouldn't want to throw a 43" brolly on one outdoors, but they're not bad at all for the price and will definitely see much use now that the weather's starting to warm up.  Given that I got these to help become more "lightweight", I'm currently seeking alternatives to sandbags.  That kind of defeats the purpose of lighter stands, but we'll see. :)

Speaking of the weather warming up, and getting over spending far too long in bed doing nothing, I'll hopefully be able to get back out and shooting more regularly again soon.  So, I'll be popping up some reviews of the new gadgets I've picked up over the past few weeks, giving them a good workout and testing, along with some tips and tricks to workaround any problems that may come up when using them.

Spring Fair International 2010

Well, I'm back from the Spring Fair International at the Birmingham NEC.  Had an absolutely blast getting to talk to some of the people from companies I've dealt with in the past, and making soem new contacts.

There's really not too much to write about it, but I just wanted to say a big hello and a thank you to the guys from Epson & Fujifilm for spending far too much time with me chatting about the various pro printer range and the different media avaiable.  We'll see you guys again at Focus next month! :)

Also a huge huge thank you to the folks at Designline Systems for convincing me to even consider Canon hardware (just to be clear, I'm talking printers not cameras!).  Hopefully I'll be getting down to visit them in Poole sometime over the next couple of weeks to see their facilities and have a good chat about their range of Canon pro printers.

I'm not shifting entirely away from the HiTi dye-sub printers, but I need something for LARGE prints and canvas, and it would be nice to be able to print 4'x3' canvas in-house. :)

My Mobile Phone Camera

I've owned mobile phones of one flavour or another for about 15 years now.  I always eagerly anticipated the next generation of phones that would come out every year or two, bringing technological leaps and bounds to what has essentially become a mini-laptop (ok, so they're not *quite* that good yet) in the palm of your hands.  I wasn't one of those people who had to have the latest and greatest, but I wanted to keep up and see what they could do, to see if there ever was anything worth getting to replace whatever I was using at the time.

One thing that really caught my interest was the evolution of the smart phones, and about 6 years or so ago, I actually got one when the company I was working for switched providers and went with some very cool (at the time) Windows Mobile 5 "PPC" (Pocket PC) phones.  I was blown away.  I could sync it all up to my Outlook; Address book, schedule, ToDo list, the lot, I could browse the web, I could even hook it up via USB to get my laptop online wherever I had a signal.

I was sold, completely.  When I left that company and had to relinquish my phone, I decided to go get one for myself, so I picked up an MDA Vario II.  Loved it, great for work, and I loved the ability to have it sync up with my PC, and the media capabilities had improved slightly too, meaning it was a sort-of viable mp3/video/podcast player during long train trips (ok, so the screen was a little small to be able to really watch a 2hr movie on a train ride, but I was happy).

I got the Vario on an 18 month contract, but when it was up I switched over to a shiny new Samsung Omnia, with 8GB of storage, and another 8GB provided by a Mini-SDHC card.  Now I had plenty of space for as many tunes as I wanted, a few videos, and I could download Podcasts on my PC at full broadband speeds, and then pop them over with a USB cable to watch at my leisure (and with my Sony Bluetooth stereo earphone headset, it sounds better than an iPhone).  It also has GPS, which has proven to be more accurate than TomTom at finding good routes on several trips around the country.  That said, I do miss my Vario's keyboard.

The one thing that never interested me even in the slightest about any mobile phone was the inclusion of a digital camera.  What's the point?  I can't change the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, or even the focal length. They produce noisy, horrible pictures I'd be ashamed to put my name to.  I think at this point in my life, I've taken a total of maybe 20 photos with a phone, ever, and those only when I've gone out shopping to take a photo of something to show the wife when I get home in order to get her blessing before spending a bunch of money.

But, with all of the talk of Chase Jarvis, his Best Camera application for the iPhone, and the book to go with it all it has started to get me a little more curious about the abilities of the humble crappy camera built into my Samsung Omnia.  I'm not even going to bother trying on the Vario as its camera is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

I've now decided I'm going to start using my mobile phone to start taking more pictures as I go about my daily life.  I might not use it every day, but I'm going to try to remember to use it at least once a week, and with the discovery of Kinoma Freeplay, I have the ability to publish the photos straight from my phone to flickr.

Whether I'll be able to deal with the hassle of an on-screen keyboard to also publish on Blogger from my phone, well, only time will tell, but for now I am determined to try to get at least *some* use out of this little camera included in my phone.

Chase Jarvis Live

So I thought this was quite a neat idea when I first heard about it, although I was kind of curious about the format and interaction with viewers given that it was a live production shoot.  I didn't actually hear about it until it was already over halfway through, so only caught the last 3 hours or so, but it was a fairly enlightening experience.

For those of you who have never heard of Chase Jarvis, he's a multi-award winning photographer based in Seattle, Washington.  He's done shoots for the promotion of the new Sandisk Extreme Pro cards, and many other big names.  He was also asked to be a judge, and help decide who gets the $100,000 prize, in the Nikon Festival.

As I said, I found out about it late, but CJLive was quite a unique experience, and not exactly what I'd expected.  One that I find difficult to describe in ways different to those already stated by others.  It gave you a lot to think about with regard to inspiration, style and evolution of a shoot, rather than talking about the geek stuff and settings used.  I think this article from Suiiter Designs pretty much sums up my sentiments the closest.

The whole event is expected to be archived online at some point for future viewing, but no news as to when yet.

Image courtesy of wingalls.photo.

The Apple iPad Announcement

Steve Jobs officially announced the impending launch of the new Apple iPad a couple of days ago.  This is the type of device I've been waiting to be released for a long time now.  Smaller & lighter than a laptop, but something that could potentially provide me with certain features and abilities that I often use a laptop for when shooting photographs.

From watching the keynote speech announcing the product, and various demonstrations from many different important people at Apple showing off how incredible it apparently is, I still have a few questions.  Some of them may be answered from reading up on the various sites I currently have open, but I still can't wait for it to hit the streets so I can check the answers first hand.

I'm not going to make any comparisons with the iPhone, partly because it's not intended to be a replacement, it's not a phone, but mostly because I don't own an iPhone.  I skipped the whole iPhone thing because I'm perfectly happy with my Samsung Omnia.

As noted above, I do have some very specific requirements & uses in mind for a device such as this (from a photography aspect), and I'm going to list some of them here and see if I can find out if it's capable given the information currently available.

Instant image review while shooting

When shooting tethered to a laptop with the D300s (or any other Nikon body), my main concern is being able to see my results on a nicely calibrated display immediately (well, within a few seconds) in order to get a better idea of sharpness & focus, checking the white balance, and being able to more easily see potential problems that may crop up as I move flashes around my subject.  Basically as a replacement for the camera's built-in LCD.  The problem with shooting tethered is that my laptop does not have an IPS display, so I have to now hook it up to the HP LP2475w IPS monitor so I can get a nicely accurate display.

The iPad comes with a 9.7" LCD (yup, a bit smaller than my HP 24") with IPS technology (score!).  If the iPad will allow me some way of shooting on the camera, and having it come up on the screen within a few seconds, then that will certainly fit the bill for me there, especially if shooting on location (kind of difficult to plug the HP into an electrical outlet in the middle of a field or a run down old building).  How it might be able to do this I've yet to determine.

Overall review of images at the end of the day

This is something else I often use a laptop for, again usually hooked up to the HP monitor.  Now, carrying around a big clunky monitor with me sort of negates the point of being "portable" with a laptop, so it's not something I prefer to do.  Also, it can make things difficult and awkward at a client's place of business to walk in with a bunch of gear, extension cables, etc, trying to find a clear spot on a desk to set it all up.

So, holding the iPad in my arm and being able to flick (literally) through images right there is a big bonus.  The only issue is how to (without a PC or laptop) transfer images from the camera to the iPad.  The D300s can use both CompactFlash and SDHC, although the iPad has built in readers for neither of these.

Again, we have a similar issue as to above.  How to get the iPad and the camera talking to each other.  But, if it's doable, the iPad will have the advantage of being able to flip it around so that either landscape or portrait images would be able to fill the screen (sort of).

Review of video footage shot on the D300s

The fact that video footage is not shot in RAW, but an 8Bit motion JPG format, getting accurate white balance that much more critical when filming.  I generally use a Lastolite XpoBalance card to preset my white balance beforehand, but perfect neutral lighting isn't always the effect you want to achieve depending on what you're shooting.  The built in LCD on the D300s seems to shift white balance to some degree depending on the angle you're viewing the LCD from.

As it's difficult to cart around a 32" 720p TV everywhere when you film (which is what I often use when filming in the studio) the iPad could hopefully at least give me some form of relatively immediate review of my footage to double check lighting and white balance on the scene in a more accurate fashion than the LCD.

If there's a way to stream liveview out directly from the D300s, either via its HDMI or AV output to the iPad display, that would obviously be the most ideal solution, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

So that's really my main required features for a device like this.  Instant image review while shooting stills, a quick solution to view video footage shot on the D300s on a larger and more accurate display, and to easily show a range of images to a client or model at the end of a shoot.

The only thing I've read so far is that it's not a widescreen display.  This isn't such a big deal for the review of images (as they're 3:2 anyway), but the widescreen video is 16x9, so when the iPad is oriented horizontally, it's going to bring the size down quite a fair bit.  Whether it's enough to care or not I'll just have to wait until I can get my hands on one to see for myself.

The iPad is expected to be released in the US within the next 60 days, with a 3G version coming out within the next 90 days.  In the UK, 3G versions are expected to be available at some point in June.  I haven't decided yet whether 3G is going to be something I'd want or need on this device (all versions contain 802.11n wireless networking), but it will really depend on the cost difference on the purchase of the device itself, as well as the various data package options available from the different mobile phone companies over here.

The iPad 3G is coming unlocked by default so that it can be used on any network, but due to a couple of different reasons, it appears it won't work on T-Mobile (my current mobile provider).  Whether this is just limited to T-Mobile in the US or T-Mobile in the UK, or what other providers it may affect int he UK I don't know.  Again, another one we're going to have to wait for to find out.

More to come on the iPad as I do some more research and figure out what it can and can't do to satisfy my needs.

To Grip or Not To Grip

To grip or not to grip – that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer wrist pains while shooting a lot of portrait orientation images for extended periods of time, shorter battery life and feel slightly off balance with longer lenses is entirely up to you.

This post was inspired by a question I saw on the Talk Photography forums, and I thought I would detail a little about the reasons why I chose to shoot with a grip, and why I can't live without it any more.

I started off, photographically speaking, with a Nikon N90s (that's F90x to some of you), a fantastic film camera if you didn't want to spend an absolute fortune (at the time) on an F4s or F5.  America considered the N90s their "lowest end professional 35mm SLR", the rest of the world considered the F90x the "highest end amateur/hobbyist 35mm SLR".  Whichever way it was worded, I loved my N90s (I still have it, although I haven't used it in a few years now).

This was the only 35mm SLR I've owned that I didn't purchase the grip for (although I wish I had now).  I did get the MF-26 replacement back for it though, which added some great features to the camera.

After making the expensive decision to go digital I went for a Nikon D100, along with the MB-D100 grip (a US$1750 purchase at the time).  The primary reason was not the same as why I now choose to use a grip, but I did learn to love it.  Originally I'd bought the grip to give the D100 a 10-Pin port to which I could attach my MC-20 remote.  The D100 body didn't have one built in, but the grip did, although the MB-D100 did have its issues, according to some.

For a while, the majority of my shooting was still done without the grip, as most of my lenses were relatively short (all of them shorter than 80mm), and I felt it just got in the way unless I was on a tripod with my MC-20.  Eventually though, I picked up a Nikon 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 (a much better, sharper and more solidly built lens than the two 70-300mm Nikon "G" & "D" offerings that replaced it in their product line).  This is where the grip started to become invaluable.

The D100 had outstanding battery life, as I never used the popup flash, so the only advantage to me of having the second battery in the grip was to add extra weight.  Some of you may consider this a disadvantage, but it just made the whole rig feel that much more steady in my hands, and really helped to balance out the weight of the longer zoom attached to it, resulting in what I believed to be better images.

After I while I picked up the 300mm f/4 AF-S and this just reinforced my thinking regarding the weight & balance.  So, from this point on, the grip was permanently attached to the D100 body.  I ended up getting 2 more D100 bodies, both with the grip, so that I could shoot a couple of different lenses without having to switch them out mid-shoot, and had one as a backup body in the bag (by this point, the D100 had dropped to around $600 used, including the grip, which is the way I went when acquiring two more).

So by now the virtues of using the grip to help better balance the weight in my hands with longer lenses had well and truly embedded itself in my mind.  Even with shorter lenses, I was starting to get used to it, and the extra shutter button & command dials certainly made life easier if I was shooting a lot of images in portrait orientation.

When I made the decision to upgrade, I sold off two of my D100 bodies, along with their grips and picked up the Nikon D200 along with the MB-D200 grip, using my remaining D100 as my backup body.  As most of my photography by now was wildlife, the D200 resided in my bag with the 300mm f/4 permanently attached, along with the grip, and it was such a reliable camera that I rarely felt the need to pull the D100 out any more.

Incidentally, while the MB-D100 provided extra features to the camera, such as the 10-pin port, and voice memo recording, the MB-D200 provided no other features than the extra set of shutter release, command dials & AF button that already exist on the body.

Since picking up the 300mm, I really hadn't used the 75-300mm lens that much as the two just didn't compare at the 300mm end and that is where I spent most of my time.  But, the times were coming where I needed something that would cover that mid-to-long range at a quality at least as good as the 300mm.  So I took the plunge and bought the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens (the original one, not the recently revamped VRII - and I'm not going to get into arguments why one is better than the other) and also the Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 (I didn't feel it was worth almost double the price for the f/3.5 version after reading all the reviews comparing the two).

The 70-200VR is a heavy lens, probably about the same as the 300mm f/4, and the grip again proved its worth.  The 10-20mm is a short stubby lens, but now that I've had a good few years to get used to the grip, I find it difficult to shoot using a lens even this short without one, especially as I shoot "left eyed" (definitely watch this video if you also shoot left eyed).

More recently I upgraded to the D300s, along with the MB-D10 grip.  I'm in two minds about this grip, because there are things I do and don't like about it, although Nikon have gone back to having the grip provide the camera with extra abilities.

My biggest gripe with this grip is that it only holds a single EN-EL3e battery.  Your original battery still resides within the camera body itself, which means that when it dies you have to remove the grip completely to replace that battery, although you do have the option of not using a battery in the body at all (meaning you're back down to using a single battery), and also the ability to tell the camera which battery to use first (I always tell it to use the battery in the grip first, then default to the battery in the body, that way I can switch out the battery in the grip, but I've still got some in reserve when needed).

But, this design does have its advantages.  The MB-D10 grip uses a tray on which you mount the battery before sliding it inside the grip.  Two trays come with the grip, one for using an EN-EL3e battery, and one for using 8x AA batteries.  Using the AA batteries, this bumps your speed up to 7.7fps.  There is also an optional BL-3 tray available that can be used with an EN-EL4a battery giving you a full 8fps shooting speed (assuming your shutter speed is fast enough).  The EN-EL4a battery also has a life expectancy of at least two and a half EN-EL3e batteries before requiring a recharge.

The MB-D10 grip also allows the D300s to improve its base "High Continuous" shooting speed from 7fps up to 7.7 or 8fps depending on which battery you put inside it.

The other new feature on the MB-D10 grip is that it gives you an extra little joystick for zipping through the image review, menus or (probably more importantly) selecting your focus points while holding the camera in portrait orientation.  A very handy feature when shooting sideways up and don't want to (or are unable to) leave the viewfinder or contort your hands to adjust.

In short, I originally went with the grip out of the pure necessity to add the MC-20 remote cable to a body that didn't have a 10-pin port, and I just got so used to shooting with it, that it's a must-have item for me now.

Of course, there is always the argument that it makes you look like you're using a pro body and people will think you actually know what you're doing. ;)

How awesome is Virgin?

I'd completely forgotten about this until somebody me on Talk Photography reminded me earlier today, but how cool are Virgin? :)

I actually don't remember if this was at Lancaster or Preston that I saw this, but I'm 99% sure it was Lancaster train station.

This was shortly before Christmas and I didn't have a real camera with me, just my Omnia, but I had to grab a shot.

Ain't that great? At least one major organisation acknowledges that we're not terrorists! :)

Please be respectful of the staff and their requests if you go down to your local train station to take a few shots.  Don't use flash, and if you would like to use a tripod, speak to one of the staff on the platform first and just let them know what you'd like to do.