John Bennett
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Yeah your going to want a WA dome and a strobe. For the U/Os you may want/need fill is side or backlit. So aside from provingding better lighting et all, its much like using a flash bracket in so much as it gets the head off the body and reduces backscatter.
The time of day could ( I say could as Im only guessing) be related to the suns position relative to the horizon so less about the light being harsh and more about the sun being higher in the sky.
And yes its very expensive, hence why for me its a low priority with less than ideal waters, and the fact its goign to compete with my main image taking pursuits.
The Fuji F200 ( and Fujis housing) is actually a very nice compact and it takes great shots.As mentioned I picked it up to dip my toes into UW without the expense of what I expected i’d want. Really what i was looking for was to get a sense of how often id use UW and what are the conditions. It made it easy for me to determine that a adv PnS was all I needed. I probably would have used it again this year had my daughter not lost it…/sigh. Cant complain the S90 is really nice.
Two things I didnt care is its lack of RAW. One reason I was pretty sold on the G11 (until discovering the S90). The other thing I didnt care for was its shutter lag…its not bad, but its noticeable…The G11 is pretty good in that respect, the S90 is surprisingly fast. One of the largest detractions for PnSs vs DSLRs
Few Fuji f200 samples I have online other than the above half/half
This from one of the clearer streams I fish
Typical lake in algae bloom
Note the light fall off. Yes, its in the middle of an algae bloom which makes is worse but aside from that you can see where a Strobe would have been so much better than the on camera flash.
If I fished the salt or an region where the waters were clearer I might give more thought to a dslr but its really over kill and they are beast. As mentioned Ikelites housing for the G11 is basicall a 6x6x6 box.
Add a tray and a strobe………….As commented on FB, they look great Tim. A couple look a little dark but thats niether here nor there. Love the reel/nymph shot 🙂
I’ve done fair amount of research and as always, it comes back to buying what suits your *needs* and getting the most bang for your buck.
One day I may (although this is only a slight possiblity) go the DSLR route. Â Obviosly cost is part of the equation, so to is how often will you be doing UW stuff. For me at best it’s going to represent a very small percentage..Probably less than 5% or 10%. Â That makes it tough to “justify” the expense.
Two:
Conditions. The waters I fish simply arent clear enough. I suppose if more streams and lakes were clear than it might become more of my work, which then makes the cost less an issue but the fact is even the streams I fish aren’t particularily clear.Strobes:
Depending on the stypes of shots your thinking about they are more an issue. Regardless it’s probably a good idea to plan on getting one. What should change then is where it stands in your priorities. High or lowWA ports.
See Strobes. Worth getting one, just adjust where it stands in the acquisition priority.Size and Bulk.
UW housings are huge and for me the number reason why I will (in all likely hood never go the DSLR route).I just packed my bag for what I want to have with me for the next 3 or 4 weeks Steelheading.
1DMKIIn paired with the 24-70 f2.8
1DMKIV paired with the 85 f1.2
180 f3.5 macro
Tubes for use with the 180 and 85
spare battery for each body
40gig in cards
Flash/Flash Bracket/spare batteries
Filters.
You dont want to know how much it weighs and thats a “light” load missing by tripod and some other glass. Not shown is the camera I took the shot with. A Canon S90, and it’s UW housing.I was going to go for the G11 until I realsied its size and bulk when housed in an Ikelite housing. So the S90 which is about half the size, has a brighter lens, less shutter lag ( its remarkably good for a PnS) was more to my needs..In time I expect to outfit entirely with FIX housing, WA port and strobe.
Heres another good site and actually a good write up.
http://www.backscatter.com/learn/article/article.php?ID=80DSLRs are great, but often over kill in many respects.
Last year I wanted to get a taste, try to figure out how I was going to approach bringing some UW stuff into what I shoot so I jsut bought a Fuji F200 and its propeitary housing.
Sold 3 images taken from it including this half/half published as a double truck
Start with
where do you shoot most often and what are water condtions like?
Clear vs Murkey
Green water prone to algae blooms etc?
How big a unit do you want to lug around?
How often will you be using whatever it is you get?
Can you use what you get one handed?
etc,
etcDavid – maybe I am doing something wrong, but I very rarely crop my images for clients. Not for any real reason other than I have found that clients I work with tend to like having the freedom to crop as they see fit, if indeed they want or need to.
I do resize my images and store them separately, but that’s just for web, blog and sample use.
I very rarely crop my stuff – unless I have messed the horizon up a bit and need to straighten it out !! Guilty as charged from time to time when things get hectic…….
I am with Henry completely.If I were to guess what percentage of my images are cropped I would say 2%. Â There’s a number of reasons for this but most echo his statement. I’m going to highlight two important ones.
First being.
Clients and publishers often desire/need the latitude to do that themselves. If ‘ve gone ahead and cropped the image some, then it makes further cropping tougher, perhaps un doable. Which means they are coming back to me for the original. Not good that.Second being
Misrepresentation. “Suppose” a potential client is perusing your website/portfolio/work and they see something that “clicks” with what they are looking for. However unbeknown to them, it’s an ijmage thats been cropped (perhaps a fair amount). Maybe the crop was to remove something unsightly or distracting in the BG, or Maybe the crop was to change the perspective, or make the subject fill more of the frame.They contact you…”Hi, I’ve been perusing your work and I would like to discuss buyng the rights to image abc. Could you please send us a high res file, printable 22 x11 300dpi…..or larger
And the cropped version doesnt cut it.
It’s not as far fetched as you think. I know some shooters who are in the habit of cropping and who have “lost” sales to some nice commercial uses because they’ve had to respond.
Thank you for the enquiry but I am unable to meet your request. So not only have they lost that sale, they’ve probably lost potential future ones to.
Here’s how I approach my workflow. It changes a bit image to image but this fits *generally*.
First pass with the original RAW file. If needed minor corrections to exposure/tones and a light dose of sharpening..”capture sharpening”. Which in essence is correcting “softness” in all raw files that come about due to the strength of your bodies AA filter. In a word replacing that which is lost.
Save as Master file in a holding folder.
If it’s a file I want to “display” for myself, my friends, my family, use as a sample of something, I then copy or save as and continue working on it with the last step being output sharpening to match size.The “master” files are then there to further adj as needed, when needed. If Im asked to prep an image to a specific size I can. If a magazine picks up an image for use as a cover on 8.5 x 11 or as a double truck 8.5 x 22 they can crop and sharpen as they see fit and need.
J
Ive yet to hear a complaint about KEH Zach.
Despite parity in the dollar it’s rarely worth buying cross border unless it’s a big ticket item imo. That requires insurance and then by the time you pay shipping and to get it across the border………….That said.
I haven’t bought *new* glass in years. Used glass is the way to go imo. The only hurdle being able to establish trust/comfortability with the seller.Keh might be the one/only site I’d do it through.
Keith pesonally I think people get caught up in “DSLRS” and make the leap unneccessarily some times. In fact its not uncommon for Pros to own and use atleast one PnS.
Just so you know what Im alking about 🙂
The photogs name is Angel Pulido lest there be any confusion about credit
scroll down 3 images
http://pixdaus.com/?sort=userbest&name=faunahttp://gallery.photo.net/photo/7826344-lg.jpg
http://pixdaus.com/single.php?id=85132
You can draw your own conclusions. In the end none of it really matters they (and the images above) are fantastic photography.
/edited for links
It’s fairly rare that a square format works for me personally. While considering your square representation I kept thinking i’d like to see it in vertical with a traditional aspect ratio. Then when looking at the three frames of the pano I realised the first frame was pretty much what i was thinking Id like to see.
J
No problem. I was looking because I’ve seen images before by another photographer but capturing the KF underwater. Truly stunning those were.
This shooter to seems to have borrowed a page from his book and rigged an underwater set up as well, which I only discovered once looking. Can’t tell you how much I wished this species of KF was indigenous to NA. So much prettier than our Belted. No idea if these KFs are as intolerant of humans as our Belted but alot of people I know who have spent countless hours trying to get images of them diving refer to the Belted as the devil bird.
So what happens to the kingfisher if at the time it  dives the minnow is right against the glass?
Scratch one kingfisher…?
I would have to think that’s a possibility, I wouldnt know as Ive never done it. Simply relating how people have baited them.
Some digging turned this up. The images are part of a larger group.
http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/02/02/article-1133589-034401AF000005DC-422_634x901.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1133589/Dinner-It-8217-s-fast-food-deep-freeze.html&usg=__Pqwc1Y9abx8M1THC8oEpr-jRq20=&h=901&w=634&sz=144&hl=en&start=356&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Itml6ZZzmv-KvM:&tbnh=146&tbnw=103&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dking%2Bfisher%26start%3D342%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D18%26tbs%3Disch:1You do if its baited.
One method of baiting Kingfishers is to put a small aquarium in the water so it sits just under the surface and bait it with minnows. In this case it could be as simple as having a pail under the ice, drop your minnows in, then sit in your blind and wait.
I can almost gaurantee you the hole wasnt randomly cut in the ice of some pond/stream “hoping” all the elements would come together
Thanks Zach.
My “hope” is that come fall I’ll be able to start crossing off some bucket list destinations and YNP is near the top. Am looking at something of a road trip to get some landscape/scenic photography in and to dip my toes and wet a line in places only ever read about.
And you know I cant make a trip like that without packing the long glass for wildlife. The wolves and Elk of YNP are very high on the list.
Im dieing to repeat similiar shots to this but from a wilder setting.
From what I know/knew of the pack it the most commonly photographed and as you stated that likely has to do with their location and proximity to the road as anything else. It wont stop me, and hopefully another pack will move in or other opportunities for wolves would present themselves.
One of the reasons I was hoping to make it to YNP possibly later this was to photograph them.
Sad news, but it’s hard to be “sad” about such a success story.
No idea how pricing might work for images/articles.
Most magazines buy one time first serial rights. So the issue runs and then a month or quarter later its off the shelf and the images/articles only rarely get a reprint. As an originator you are then free to try and resell the same image/article (albeit very hard). So your right in that shelf lives might be indefinate.
Maybe it moves to some type of royalty based on the number of DLs…
With regards to comp I would think it would be structured much like it is today where its dependant on sizing from postage stamp, insert 1/4, 1/2 full TOC, dd truck/cover…no way to know for sure.
What would/will give me cause for concern is potential for copyright infringment. Where today all our 1024 x750s or 800 x 500s images in gallleries are totally unuseable for print where they want to be able to print at a minimum of 8.5 x 11 300dpi.. Someone could rip images and submit them as their own. Publishers wont need full res files anymore.
