Impressed? You bet.

...but first...

A newsflash from my friends at Topaz Labs.

They've put Topaz Remask on sale at 50% off for the month of July. Offer expires July 31

Think about the last time you created a mask in Photoshop. Even the most experienced photographers dread masking. Getting a decent mask can take hours and rarely gives you the results you need. ReMask is an awesome product: check it out for yourself!

Here's the link to the Topaz ReMask page. If you order, use the code "julyremask" at checkout to get your 50% discount. You can also download a 30 day free trial and see for yourself.

By the way, if you enter "faczen" in the code field at checkout, you get 15% off any Topaz product, including the full bundle. Use this link to get to their main site.

Now: How was I impressed?

First, by some outstanding customer service, and then by some great products!

If you've read my blog regularly, you'd know that I use a wonderful lightweight carbon fiber tripod and ball head made by a British company called "3 Legged Thing". The tripod I have is called "Brian" (I recently learned how they named their tripods. Each one is named after the artist that was playing in their design room when the product was conceived: read about it here. "Brian" is named after Brian May from Queen).

I broke Brian. Twice. See below. Anyway, I wrote them and within a couple of days, I had a response from 3LT. They're sending me the replacement parts and all I have to pay for is the shipping. It wasn't their fault, it was mine, but they are a GREAT responsive company.  Check out their stuff at B&H here. 

Second, by some neat products I got to try.

I was exceedingly impressed with three pieces of photographic gear I happened to be able to try in the past week.  Let me present the three new ones, in the order of likelihood that I might buy them!

Nikon 105mm micro-Nikkor f/2.8 VR lens

Gail B brought hers with her when she came to visit yesterday. I put it on the D800 and made a few informal test shots. That's an excellent piece of optics.

In addition to being exceedingly bright, as are other f/2.8 lenses, the build quality of this lens, its weight and form factor all made it a pleasure to use. But even better were the results, this is one tack sharp lens. I only spent a few minutes with it but I know I want one. Unfortunately, Gail wasn't interested in the offer I gave her and was far too observant for me to surreptitiously spirit it into my bag! Here are a couple of shots

People who regularly shoot this kind of stuff will scoff at this picture of a fly on a daisy. HOWEVER: it was handheld, a quick shot and I didn't bother to reset my camera so it was at a really STUPID setting of 1/8000 sec, f/3.2, ISO 800. A little LR adjustment and a Hi-Pass layer added in PS is all that was done to it. And I didn't shoot it from that close, this is really a 100% crop. 

This was a more reasonable setup, 1/160 second at f/16, ISO 200 on the tripod, no crop, direct sunlight. Intensely sharp where it was focused, as you can see from the blowup below.  

Same shot, 100% crop. Nothing done to it, outside LR. Colour me impressed. 

So I want one of these and it's bubbled to the top of my shopping list. You can get it at B&H here. My birthday's coming up...

Induro CT414 Tripod

Again, Gail brought hers with her. Brand new, she hadn't yet set it up. We threw the Gimbal mount on it and put the big 600mm on and it handled it with ease. There were several things I liked about this tripod: it's carbon fiber so it's extremely light and deceptively strong. The build is excellent and attention to detail is great. The friction nuts are big and solid and tightened down in a positive fashion. It extends up to considerable height. Not cheap at $660 US (legs only) but worth it. You can get it at B&H here.

When I compared my 3 Legged Thing tripod to this one, well it's apples-and-oranges. Mine is a lightweight, portable CF tripod that folds down to nothing but it doesn't have anywhere near the strength or solidity of the Induro. I tripped and almost fell last winter and broke the tripod trying to support myself. There's no doubt the Induro wouldn't have broken. I also broke the top of the column a couple of days ago but that was my own stupidity, mounting the gimbal mount and 600mm lens on top of the telescoping column. 

Nikon 600mm f/4 super telephoto lens

I have Dr. Ron's 600 mm lens here for a few days. This is one really serious piece of gear. The optical quality of this lens is undeniable. This copy of the lens is for sale at a huge discount because the autofocus is not working right. When I say a "huge discount", I mean about 85% off the retail value.


It\s not my thing. I'm slowing down physically and can't handle the kind of shoots for which this lens would be ideal, but to anyone who has birds or grizzly bears or... in mind, this is the lens for you.

I did mount the lens on my tripod (then broke it. The tripod. {sigh}). But if you want tack sharp, here you go:

This sign had to be 100 yards away.See the grey blob just to the right of the sign? Look about 500 yards further away and you saw... 

...this swan swimming about a mile away. I didn't even know it was there until I pointed the lens out there. 

I know, silly overprocessing, but just for fun. This Osprey was having a bad hair day. 

This is the 600mm lens, with Gail's D800 on the back, mounted on my gimbal mount which was attached to Gail's Induro tripod. By the way I took this picture with the 105mm lens, so that brings this whole thread together! 

At the White Water

I shot the Andrew Weslake Memorial Race at the Minden Wildwater Preserve last weekend. This is my favourite shot from the whole day.

The water was crazy high and fast. This wasn't even at the faster section upriver. Tala (I think that's her name) was one of the organizers: I saw her several times setting the course up – but she was also a competitor. The only thing about this shot? Her facial expression wasn't great (she had her eyes shut against the splashing water). But this tell the whole story for me. 

The Minden Times bought both a photo (not this one) and my story on the race. Can't say I agreed with the editor's choice of photo, but hey... They've bought several of my images over the past few weeks. The links aren't up on their website yet, but I'll pass them on as soon as they are.

See you next week!

— 30 —

New Beginnings

Canada's new anti-spam legislation came in force today — I'm writing this on July 1, Happy Canada Day to all my Canuckistanian readers, and Happy Independence Day to my American Friends — and it is forcing a big re-think by everyone who maintains a mailing list. Those who are located in Canada, anyway: most of my spam comes from more obscure places who aren't going to pay attention to our laws.

In the past, I added names to my mailing list of people whom I thought MIGHT be interested in reading my blog, friends and acquaintances and people I met or had dealings or communications with. You can't do that any more. All I can do is send them an invitation to subscribe, and the link to the subscription form (if you're reading this, and you're not a subscriber, PLEASE click the "Newsletter" link at upper right. The newsletter is simply an alert that there's a new post on the blog and a hint as to what it contains. One email a week).

So as I write this, my list is only 1/10 of what it was: I'm only a couple of hours in, people are away and haven't read their email yet, there's this whole world of apathetic people out there, and lots of people who are inundated with email and don't want more. On a positive note, that means that everyone who is reading this is doing so because they want to! (update: it's July 3 and I'm up to 25%)

I'd really like to build it back up again, so please forward this to your friends and colleagues, whom you think would enjoy this weekly blog.

Something else new...

Is the header picture. As my loyal longer-term readers know, when I replace the blog header, the old one is gone forever, so I take a second to post it here.

This is the previous header, posted in May 2014. I like to keep them seasonal. Not looking forward to putting next year's winter one up! 

So a note about the new header: the background picture is a composite of 50 exposures, married using StarStaX (it's a free software utility, available here, that's designed to merge images to create star trails). It works on clouds too!

The bear was a photo I took at the Landfill (OK, the "Garbage Dump"!). The background was really ugly, to say the least. So I thought I'd try the new "Focus area selection tool" in Photoshop CC 2014 and it really works! After using the refine edge dialogue, it really rendered even the hairs of the bear! So after a little tweaking (and a flip, I like him facing this way), I composited him into the shot.

Here's the original bear picture, after I selected him and applied a heavy Gaussian Blur to the ugly background! 

This is the original cloud shot. After I merged the 50 images in StarStaX (I actually had 135 images but after 50 the effect seemed to downgtrade), I laid a masked version of the tree on the left on top because the wind was blowing and the moving trees didn't render well. 

New Toy

For starters, those following the blog should know the Sigma 120-400 lens has found a new home, someone who will enjoy it as much as I did. I find myself these days trying to travel a little bit lighter and I found I left this lens at home a lot. Just too many lenses to carry! So I decided to give it up and acquire a Nikon TC-17e II teleconverter. It only gets me 340mm focal length, at a slightly bigger aperture (f/4.8) but it fits easily into the bag. I haven't shot much with it yet — the bear above was one example — but I'm quite pleased with its performance. Here are a few more shots:

Nice and sharp, good bokeh (I suppose that comes from the lens) 

A different approach! I came in close for this one, then I used the new version of the Paper Texture Pro extension in Photoshop CC 2014 for the textured background.  I'll bet this will make a gorgeous print! Contact me.

Good Canadian source for the teleconverter? Amazon.ca. In the US, B&H Photo. By the way, it only works on selected lenses like the Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VR, so be careful.

Speaking of long lenses

There's a phenomenal deal out there. The 600mm f/4 is arguably the best long lens Nikon has ever made. The only problem was the price tag: over $12,000. Dr. Ron had one trashed by an elk (here's a link to the story in case you missed it) and although in the end it was repaired, it isn't perfect. The autofocus is working, but more slowly than it should. Optically it's perfect. He wants to get rid of it, insurance has replaced it, and is asking an unbelievable $1800 for it. If you're interested, drop me a note and I'll put you in touch. Move quick!

Another friend has gone over to the dark side. He has a bunch of immaculate Nikon gear for sale, including two D800 bodies, a 70-200 f/2.8, a 300mm f/2.8, a 400mm f/2.8 and a bunch of other stuff. These are NOT going at fire sale prices, they are spotless but I'm sure you can make a deal. Again, I'll put you together if you write me. Where's the lottery fairy when you need her? If you want to know what to buy me for my birthday, well I'd find a way to cart around that 300 or 400 f/2.8!

Newsflash

Here's a deal from B&H Photo: If you've been meaning to get a calibration device for your monitor, they have the Datacolor Spyder4PRO on sale for $70 off! It's for July the 4th, so I don't know how long the discount is on, but here's the link. And Elements 12 is $60 here. 

Here's a sad picture

Other people get great pictures of beautiful wildlife. I'm not so lucky. Neither is this mangy, emaciated fox who has obviously seen better days. I think he was injured, somehow, or sick. He limped, and likely wasn't able to hunt. I'm guessing he didn't have long to live and I wish I had been carrying so I could have put him down. This is not a happy shot, so don't click to blow it up if you don't want to. 

On another note...

Candid Camera

I caught this shot at the Minden Wildwater Preserve. These were campers on the Preserve side who had come down to the river to bathe. This young lady was washing her hair and did this to rinse the shampoo out:

This was entirely candid: if she knew I was there, she was ignoring me. I enhanced the contrast and motion using some Photoshop filters but this is how it looked! 

FWIW, I cropped this out of a bigger shot. Her boyfriend was in the background doing the "pants on the ground" thing but without underwear and I didn't think it belonged in the picture. Here:

Kind of on the edge of "PG"... 

So that's it for the first post in my new generation blog. Not a ton of change in style or content, I like sharing pictures and stories and giving an insight into goings on in my world and up here, linking up to interesting things and events. Stay tuned!

— 30 —

This will make you cringe!

... if you're a photographer, that is.

Here's the story of the elk and the camera, direct from Dr. Ron who gave me permission to post it here.

On my recent trip to Yellowstone 2 elk were fighting. I ran over with my camera around my neck leaving the other body and the 600mm lens on the tripod beside the river where I was shooting another Elk in the river just moments before.

The Bull elk that lost the fight was forced onto the road. He saw me,  and I saw him….

He charged me and I ran up the hill hiding behind a tree.  (not very brave but I am still here in one piece) That is when he spotted the tripod with the Nikon D3s and the 600 mounted to it.

He went over to investigate….

I yelled at him…he charged me again…still not brave I chose the same tree! 

BTW My heart works very well, I could feel it beating out of my chest!

 An angry elk looks into the camera (for a sense of scale, that 600 mm lens is more than half a meter long - ed.)

The 12 point bull (6 per side) standing about 6 feet at the shoulder (the height of my extended tripod) ,  returned to the tripod. Stuck his nose into the end of the lens….I held my breath….hoping he would get disinterested and walk away. He stood there for a moment looking at the gear deciding what to do.

He charges the camera antlers first 

No such luck, he was frustrated and looking to take it out on something. He lowered his head and charged. As his antlers pushed the tripod over, it slid down his antlers making a scraping noise, then the camera strap got caught in his antlers and that really freaked him out. After it finally hit the ground he began kicking the camera and lens now scattered in several pieces into oblivion. I must not be a good photojournalist because I was too shocked to take any pictures of that…..

He kicks the camera for good measure 

Some other photographers saw what was happening and jumped into their car, drove towards the elk honking and screaming and he just looked at them indignantly….almost daring them to come closer, took a step towards the car in a mock charge daring them to come closer….he finally turned, gave one last kick to the downed lens almost to say F. You and trotted off down the slope towards the river.

When I retrieved the gear, the body was useless, the inside mounting ring was bent and the outer housing cracked. The lens had a very serious and gut wrenching crunching noise when you attempted to turn the focusing ring, the 1/8 of a turn it had left in it…kind of like a final gasp before slipping into a coma!

The good news is that both are repairable, a testament to the ruggedness of Nikon.  I do however have a new tripod on order. I tried to find one that is elk proof. No such luck.

I have a new found healthy respect for Elk, Moose and Bison….they look fluffy but they pack a punch.

Gotta love Nature photography….not for the feint (sic) of heart!

Followup: good news!

I spoke with Nikon service today. The service department is very familiar with the story, the tech I spoke to knew exactly what I was talking about! We agreed that the fact that the camera and lens are repairable is a testament to the ruggedness of the Nikon product. Obviously there's a price tag attached, but it's MUCH less than a new lens and body!

Ron, they told me your camera and lens will be ready for pickup in 5 working days!

The bad news is, that means Dr. Ron can't justify buying that new 800mm f/4 that Nikon just announced!

Another (non-related) piece of good news: my D600 is ready for pickup, I'll be at Nikon tomorrow morning! In uncharacteristic fashion, Nikon told me, "the technician found it necessary to replace the shutter mechanism, in addition to cleaning the sensor filter". Hmmm...