John Bennett
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
this is my net
Actually this me with net, feesh and sage lumbar. Love the arrangement over all. Better yet it allows me to carry my camera back pack quite comfortably which with either a vest or chest pack is litterally a pain.
To say it’s a “con” may not be entirely accurate. I clip the bungee to the pack and stuff the handle down the belt such that the business end is up around my shoulder blades.
I don’t mind it, Id like to find a better arrangement. Because the net is fair sized almost anything results in the mesh dragging in the water.
One other thing you can try.
First want to emphasise. If your not trying to freeze motion which in fish portrait and grip and grins your not….SLOW the exposure down as much as you can without introducing shake…This will help with colours. Low ISOs
If your at 70mm or 50mm the average person will avoid shake at 1/focal length. If your at fx, 1/500th and ISO 640…knee cap the ISO.
As I and Zack have mentioned don’t direct the flash at the subject unless the distance to subject warrants it. Their reflective nature will create hot spots where you dont want them (on the fish).
Diffusers are great. There are a variety to choose from.
I use both a GF light sphere and a stofen.Depending your flash head you can actually direct the output back and away from the subject…Basically up and behind you. I don’t normally do this, but will do it when night fishing so as to reduce the deer in the headlights look and reflections from scales
The boaters in the heavy rain were taken with the 85mm f1.8 wide open. Note, that lens is not weather sealed.
The rest were with the 24-70 f2.8 L which is weather sealed.
iso 400 f2.8
iso 400 f2.8
iso 100 f4.0
iso 100 f4.0
iso 100 f2.8
One more in the rain approach
iso 100
f2.8
Not flashed
Exp Bias + 1/3 ( low iso, + exp = more saturation)
I think we go over this every couple months 🙂
I made the switch 3 seasons ago, really like it. The guys I fish with have also made the switch from their chest packs.
Pros:
Plenty of cargo capacity inlcuding mesh pockets for water bottles
Lumbar support
Like the most: Able to swing it, from the small of my back to either hip when one spot needs a break. Usually I wear it on my left hip, as the day wears on I swing to right hip or back as needed.Cons
No good spot to clip your net. Until I can figue something out I stuff the handle down the belt and the net rest against my back.I have Sages, dont like Fish ponds but they are all similiar
http://www.sage-flyfishingoutfitters.com/sage/s/viewitem.aspx?pid=TPA-SAG-LUPA-000Mike I’ll try to offer a few thoughts. I’ll also include a few samples
Remember there are no hard and fast rules.1. The camera was on center metering and Travis had a dark jacket on.
Always, always, always ask yourself when looking at something and picturing the pre image….what is it your exposing for????? There are a multitude of possible area’s/scenario but I’m going to try to keep it simple.
Are you taking a picture of a subject that represents maybe 25% of the frame? Or, are you taking a picture of a “scene” where the something represents 25% of the frame. In the former expose for the subject and dont sweat the scene. In the later expose for the scene and dont sweat minor problems with the “subject”. In this case yes over all the image might be a bit underexposed, but the Musky is well exposed. Dont sweat the clipped shadows too much.
2) Always shoot raw
3) Can’t help you. I will say that using remote flash for our kind of shooting is probably impratical. Takes too much time setting up in most instances, consider getting a decent or good flash bracket instead.
4) Rain is rain, you can shoot in it. I’ve shot in light rain and heavy rain…You just need to take some precautions, and if your uncomfortable don’t risk it.
If your sweating about the rain, your not having fun. Photography first and foremost should be fun…even if your trying to generate sales/business. When it stops becoming fun even for a day (rain)……….
Sunrise and backlit. Flash directed at him
Same fish 30 seconds later. Moved in closer, directed the flash head up.
In the rain images.
No exposure bias
negative FEC.
NOTE. Do I care that the anglers skin is hot???? No, the Browns the subject…
In the rain, very close,
under exposed TWO and 1/3rd stops
NO FEC
In the rain this time
Lens is wide open
ISO 100
1 full stop underexposure, ..wanted it DARK
no flash
Five different ways to tackle the same problem
Grant;
Not sure what “kind” they’d be other than wild 🙂
Turkey were pretty much extirpiated (?) from Ontario 15 years ago or so. The MNR, OFAH and some other groups worked to brng them back. It’s been so successful they just opened up in 08, an either sex fall season in addition to the Spring Tom/Jake hunt. It runs from about April 25th to May 20th…bascially 4 weeks.Its a great month, but for me also very trying. Turkey and Trout open the same week, followed by Pike and Walleye in May. Some of our best hatches are mid-late May.
Justnot enough time to do them all, especially as I’m trying to get pictures for stock. If i get skunked 1 weekend I want to go back the next to try and get imges. Last year I completely missed Walleye.
Shot these around this time last year, they’re we’re in this past Feb’s issue accompanying an article about getting ready/scouting for Openers.
For Turkey Hunt articles they need the new growth of May, so if I hope to get a struttin Tom that might make a cover shot next year I need to get the shot this May
Never enough time to get al of Trout (steelhead), then Walleye, then Browns during the hatches and Turkey in 4 weeks
I’ve got 3 “flocks”? scouted out. Two of them seem to have about 20 Turkeys, the 3rd has maybe a dozen. Will start going after them in a few weeks, looking for Struttin Toms. Need some green to start showing up first.
This is from the smaller group in the fall. Normaly hit one of the local Tribs for migrating Steel, then one of the fields on the way home
Wish I could help more Phil. If they are old they may not be the best and at some point you will want to upgrade them.Dunno
On the upside the “kit” lens you get with a Canon/Nikon body isn’t bad. Its made cheaply, meaning it mightdie if it gets wet or fall apart if they get banged around but the glass is surprisingly pretty decent for “kit” lenses. Â The focal range tends to be 17-55mm…So no different than what you have now really. Might be 6 of one, half dozen of another.
You don’t have to have the best of the best lenses and there are plenty of good lenses that are “poor” cousins.
Canon 85mm f1.8. Retails for around 4-500.
The 85mm f1.2 L retails for $2,300
The focal ranges you have are in my bread and butter zone. For hunting/fishing my 24-70 f2.8 is glued to my body.
So I would start there, you want 1 decent lens that give you decent coverage from 17mm (landscapes) out to around 55 to 100mm. You either have 2 right now or if you bought a body + kit you’d have 3.
***********from there you’d want to fill focal range gaps, maybe get out 200mm or get something thats fast for narrow DoF and low light shooting options like a 85mm f1.8 or 50mm f1.8.
Before buying you could probably go to a store and take some shots with those 2 lenses and the kit lens…bring your memory card home, load them up an see if theres any appreciable difference.
1 last thing…With a crop factor body 1.6 or 1.7 those lenses probably won’t give you a wide enough field of view on the wide end, which is why aside from potentially little difference in optics you might want a kit lens (17mm) anyways.
Phil.
Given everything thats going on, nows a good time be a buyer in the used markets. There’s a fair amount of hardware being sold at good prices.
New.
Both Canon and Nikon are flying in the face of logic and raising prices substantially on alot of their product. Theres another hefty increase coming on Canon stuff in april, atleast up here.Id look for a 2nd gen body (Nikon or Canon) meaning 1 step below *current* in whater line. Then a nice lens or two on the used markets.
If fishing buddies already have Canon/Nikon you might want to let that influence which you get. Normally I wouldnt but you want to springboard yourself as much as possible and being able to “borrow” a lens a friend has, while out together will help a fair bit as you amass your arsenol.
Your probably already aware of this, but any hardware you buy can be written off as a Capital expediture. Up here, it’s amortized over 4 years (CCA) bu dont forget that when shopping.
I don’t think you are David.
Nor do I (again I’m no economist) really see things turning around unless 2 things occur.
1) The US establishes some measure of stability and confidence. Its started in the US 2 years ago, the “end” or turn around has to start there to. Not to Politicise this, but somewhere down the road and with the benefit of history the “Catalyst” for this ‘global economic meltdown” is going to traced there. For generations we Canadins have had a saying.
When the US sneezes, we catch a cold
2) The world gets its excrement together and works together to turn it around.
The list of world economies and world wide organisations that are going tits up are staggerng. Not day has gone by where I dont thnk in the 3 months where I haven’t about about dismal results from A,B or C, or mssive layoffs at D, E and F. It litterallly seems like every day.
Japans ecomony shrank by 12% last quarter followed by the USs. The EU is reeling, Canada is reeling, Auzzies, in short everone is.My hope right now is that the news coming out “now” which is largely a result of things occuring during the late fall is something of a bottom (to be sure theres more to come)..But with action starting to occur, by the time early summer rolls around things will start petering out and alot of the hemoragging will have stopped. By fall we start seeing some growth, thanks to steps being undertaken now.
Thats my glass is half full.
TO get there I do beleive it’s going to take massive spending by all Govts, corporate tax cuts, and ballooning deficits. Â In a few years assuming we get though it, then Gov’ts of various economies are likewise going to have to work together to reverse the damage.
It might mean higher taxes, it might mean massive cuts to govt spending and progams it might mean alot of things.
One things for certain the Landscape will have certainly changed.
Agree with the above, the key to lines is your back ground, follwed by light. The same can be said for numerous subjects actually. What makes 1 photo stand out from the next. More often than not its the back ground.
My own modest and largely unsuccessfuly attempts for the shots I have in my mind all have one thing in common when the line is “visible”
Dark back grounds: Which really when you get down to the brass tacks is
Contrast.
Use a midnight black line against a light blue sky and Im sure it will show.
***************
Here you can clearly see how critical your selection of back ground is.
Against the water the line “pops”, against the far shore its completely lost
Interesting to see how things have played out a bit since this thread was started only 3 months ago. Theres still plenty of bad to come imo. Much as I said in Dec I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it (there are just no signs of easing as yet). The good news if you want to call it that, is that change is starting to occur and Gov’t action ( spending) is starting to get out.
Sucks, but its the only real way out. Robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Hopefully come late summer/fall theres enough peices to pick up and carry on.Some indoor stuff is just plain hard to get right without serious lighting, in fact most interior shooting is hard
Without alot of coin invested in lighting setups and without alot of technical know how to over come some of the issues, you want to accept that you are limited.
You don’t need highly reflective surfaces to bounce flash but as David said before trying to find your solution via bounce, get yourself a diffuser.
I started with a stoffen omni type, then graduated to a Gary Fong LS. LOVE IT. Especially for someone like me whos challenged when it comes to artifically lighting stuff. It’s an area I have to yet to sit down and force myself to learn.
GF LS at work
What I like about ths pic, while not perfect is the prop isnt a “hot spot”
Re not getting crisp photos.
Could be a couple things but if I have to guess (which I am) the problem with the photo you attached is a little “shake”. Your shutter speed is insuffiencint.You could.
Bump your iso or open the lens as wide as you can. Both introduce problems.you could
Set the camera to M or TV and start by fixing a SS thats high enough to avoid shake. If the camera is still metering an under exposure, the flash will compensate to bridge the gap. While that may introduce more “flash” problems it will eliminate shake. Of the two, Id rather have colour cast, than soft photos.You could
Shoot from a Tripod. Depending on the Shutter speeds your acheiving with the lens wide open, you may need to use a cable release to avoid vibrations from your finger releasing the shutter, and you may even need to use mirror lock up to avoid “slap” if your glass isnt fast enough. Meaning I suspect yourshooting at fairly low SSs where al of the above may be in play.The problem with DP review is two fold.
As David A said, the forums are a joke to be avoided like the plague.
Phil and his team (the technical end of DP review) are ok I guess but imo he has too much vested interest in writing positive reviews.Luminous Lansdscape is a site I frequent quite a bit. I dont bother with the forums but I like (to a degree) Michael Reichmann. If I had the coin for such things I’d love to shoot with him for a day or two. It helps thats hes a Toronto native 🙂
If you want seeminlg unbiased reviews and such I like Rob Galbrath.
He has alot of vested interest, and yet he almost single handly took Canon to task and hounded them non stop over the Mark III fiasco.
That kind of credibility is rare for online pundits with vested interest.Luminous lansdscapes is good as are both naturescapes and Nature Photographers (incidentlly IAs Richard Bernabe has a big hand in).
I lurk on both Nature Scapes and Nature Photographers.
Stay away from DP review. Fred Mirandas is ‘ok” but different from the above
Other things sites similiar to IA exist. I lurk on quite a few and participate on 3 or so to varying degrees. Basically what i find helps with these kinds of sites is that they deal with the subject matter
For me, thats hunting and fishing. You pick up tidbits, see other peoples photography, etc, etc. What I’m finding very helpful is how hunters/anglers who arent photographers react to different types of images. Getting techincally correct, well edited images is only part of the equation.Ask away here. You know us, we’ll be glad to help 🙂
J
No kidding.
Wondferful work Richard.Makes me reaslise just how far Ive yet go 🙂edit
just went back for a another look. Its humbling in a good wayFew years ago, I started wildlife photogrpahy. Something Id always wanted to do since I was a kid, drooling over images in my favorit mags.
Haven’t “made it”, nor do I think I ever will.
However I have realised something of a dream thats been with me for most of life. Contributing to hook and bullit mags. If I get a few images published each year, that fits my definition of making it.
Last X-mas (2008) my wife convinced me to get out of my comfort zone and send a CD to my favorite mag. Started by emailing the associate editor, sent the CD to him, mostly it was Falconry images and some fishing images. A month later the Art Director contacted me asking me for more. By May I started shooting a couple assignments for them and started looking at getting my foot in the door with another of my favorite mags.
In June the Editor of that magazine saw some of images online, contacted me asking for them and more. Â By July I was in touch with that mags AD and working towards to getting my first images with them published.
2009
I’ll have a bunch published from assignments shot last year and stock sales. With luck I should have a couple covers and I hope to find a 3rd magazine hopfeully in the US.3 mags are probably as much as I can handle. I dont want this to be a busniess per se, but rather an outlet for something I love doing.
I also hope to work more with the Pro Bass series up here. Not sure if theres really a market for it, although I have had talk with the publisher of the magazine up here, and I should be contributing a bit to them as well.
But its more just doing the stuff and industry contacts that are developing as a result. I was pretty tickled and flattered when asked to supply images for their trade show this Feb.
Freelancing for this market (hunting/fishing/fly fishing) is as much  about networking than what you produce.
Two 10ft x 4ft banners on either side of a stage
