cowan stark

Haven't used the Swamp Strap, but a couple of thoughts. If you don't want to spend a lot, Tamrac makes a strap that attaches to one of their camera cases that wraps around your neck and waist in a figure 8. I've used this whilst skiing with an A2E and 28-135 and it works pretty well, kept the camera from flopping around. If you want to spend a lot more, but get what you pay for, the Kinesis system is great for what you want to do if you want to take more stuff with you. You can attach a case to their padded or unpadded harness and secure the camera in front of you. They've just added tripod cases (I just ordered one) that attach to the belt/harness system like small backpack. I've found this to be by far the most comfortable system for hiking. www.kinesisgear.com

I work in Portsmouth NH just across the river. Not much blooming here yet I'm afraid! There'll be tons of opportunities in a few months. For seascapes, the sunrises can be beautiful with rugged rocky foregrounds from Rye Beach or Wallis Sands just south of Portsmouth. It was one of Outdoor Photographer's "Favorite Places" spreads last year FWIW. There's the Isles of Shoals, a collection of islands about 5 miles offshore from Kittery/Portsmouth which in season has wildflowers and good birdwatching opportunities, but I'm not sure the tour boats have started their seasons yet. Check here for links to the area under 'coastal resources' http://www.portsmouthnh.com/ for some ideas and schedules for future reference. Then, there are always the lighthouses and I will send you a link privately via e-mail since the moderators will have to kill me if I mention it on the Nature forum!

Internal focus is an advantage when 1) You are using a polarizer 2)when using a ring flash. 3)You don't want to push the little bug off the flower you're trying to photograph with your lens barrel 'cause you're so close.

Check here:

 

http://paria.az.blm.gov/index2.html

 

They've been working on getting reservations available online, don't know how far they've got yet.

I know the question was about Slik tripods, but I thought I'd pass this along. George Lepp reviewed the Bogen 3443 and 3444 CF tripods in the current Natural Image newsletter. The review was quite favorable, and to my reading the Bogen had some advantages over the Gitzos. Price aside, he seems to prefer the locking mechanism, and the way you can convert the center column to a horizontal orientation for close-up work. He said he'd feel comfortable with lenses up to a 400/5.6, or any of the fast Canon IS lenses. I've decided to order one and got a price of $314.99 from Cameraworld-delivered. ($349 less 10% promotional discount until 2/2/2000, and free gound shipping on web orders.) I'll post my impressions if anybody's interested later.

Hi, Michael, try here:

 

http://www.tides.com/cgi-bin/tcweb.exe

Oops, that was supposed to be the "Grandeur of Zion" I was paying attention, really! Anyway, I took Stanley's suggestion and posted a more detailed review in the N to N section under workshops. Hope it helps.

Todd, I attended the Wonders of Zion workshop this past October with Tim Cooper and Elizabeth Stone. I thought it was one of the best trips I ever did. They were obviously familiar with the territory and had scouted out not only the usual photo ops but also some out of the way places and, also had contigency plans in case of bad weather. Long days, up for sunrise shots, critique/didactic sessions usually in the PM. Not much time for siteseeing. Side trip to Antelope Canyon was really cool, got some great images there. You could make it as strenuous as you want, usually only a few miles a day, but you could pretty much do what you wanted on your own. I wanted to shoot 35 mm and MF, so I hauled a 40+lb pack around which was pretty brutal, but I think I used just about everything in it. I though Tim and Elizabeth were great resources,very low-key. The critiques I thought were more 'constructive crtiticism' and a little sugar coated, but I can understand them not wanting to tick off paying customers. We were able to get E6 (35mm and 120) back the next day for the critiques for a fairly reasonable cost. I'd gladly take another workshop with RMSP when time permits. I thought the cost was reasonable also. This thread may get nuked 'cause there's a Neighbor to Neighbor section on workshops, maybe I should write it up there in more detail, but feel free to e-mail me privately if you have any specific questions.

Jeff, I keep a roll of Fuji MS 100/1000 in my bag for just such occasions -to use later in the day when the light goes and something worth shooting wanders by. It pushes fairly well to 400, but after that gets pretty grainy, and gets a bit blue. I've not pushed it beyond that, depends a bit on how much grain you'll accept. Having said that, if I were planning on going out at that time of day, it probably wouldn't be my first choice. I haven't pushed Provia F to 400 myself, but others have commented on previous threads about it. May be worth testing a roll. For print film, I've been real happy with NHG II (rated at 640) for both sharpness and saturation.

Try here:

 

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/

You may want to try a belt/harness setup such as the Kinesis system or Tamrac MAS. There are several others (Lowepro etc). The Kinesis system has padded and unpadded suspenders and with the latter you can still wear a backback without too much trouble. There's supposedly going to be a tripod attachment available soon, although I'm not sure how it'll work. The Tamrac is just a belt system, no suspenders, and it'll migrate south on you if you load it up too much. With the Kinesis (www.kinesisgear.com) setup you could still wear the vest. On my Kinesis setup, I can carry a EOS 3/booster, 70-200/2.8 with the hood in shooting position,540 EZ in the large zoom case, 3 small lenses in the carrying pouch, a film pouch, and 300/4 in the long lens case, tripod slung over shoulder with carrying strap. With the padded suspenders, it's actually pretty comfortable and well made stuff. For what you're carrying, you'll probably be able to manage a medium zoom case, and lens pouch and throw the rest in the backpack.

Hmmm...this camera's basically been around for 20 years, and undergone some relatively basic upgrades with the P67 II, and it's not possible to get sharp images?! Makes me wonder why it didn't go the way of the Kodak disc camera. Isn't the P67 the camera a photonetter witnessed being used for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, handheld? They look sharp to me, I check them frequently just to make sure.

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0008Ny

 

Joel, I recently enlarged (and sold)two images to 30"x24" made in Antelope Canyon on Velvia, 3 minute exposures, on a Bogen 3221/Arca-Swiss B-1, with MLU and cable release, weighed down the tripod with my backpack. I used the 55 and 135mm lenses. I also used a Canon EOS 3 with a 70-200/2.8 on the same shoot. Got a lot of very sharp images with both, but I was happier with the ones from the P67 because of the larger negatives. Sharpness was not really an issue. Honestly, I've found that any loss of sharpness has been due to error on my part, and I'll be the first to admit I've made plenty of them. I agree the mirror shake is probably a not that big an issue and I agree with the advise about waiting a second before firing. Shutter shake, perhaps, but I suspect most of the action occurs after the image has hit the film.

Slik just came out with 2 carbon fiber models, they're on the B&H website. Pricing looks reasonable, but rated only to 13lbs, which I think is the same as the Bogen 3201/3221. It'll be interesting to see what people think of them.

This picture already made the New York Times Magazine, and also upset some of the readership of Outdoor Photography. Some of the other images were even more graphic. Sure, they won't make good greeting cards, but I think they needed to be shown.

There was last year on the Outdoor Life Network a series on outdoor and nature photography that I thought was much better. Can't recall the name of it, and I'm not sure that it's still running. It focused more on the photographers and technique rather than celebs and their Canons. There was a really good one on large format photography, again, entry level stuff, but went a lot more into the mind of the photographers and their objectives.

Did Pinkham notch and the Kancamangus today-I agree with Charles, close to peak in Pinkham/Crawford Notches, probably another week or so on the Kanc. Overcast day with white skies and no wind, good day for in the woods stuff doing the stream and leaves thing and macro. Dusting of snow on the high peaks, at the top of the pass on the Kanc, everything was lightly crusted in ice which made for some interesting photo-ops. Supposed to get a hard frost tonight which may help move things along. Tons of tourists, lots of cameras, wide angle shots will really test your patience as they wander into your shot, but thats par for the course this time of year. Get started early, and drive carefully-there was yet another moose/multi-car pileup this morning on I-93.

Other than what used to be my vegetable garden...Swan Island, Maine is where the LL Bean School of Outdoor Photography holds a weekend workshop every July dedicated only to photography of whitetail deer. I bet they got 'em there. Check their website and go to the Outdoor Discovery Schools section at www.llbean.com

...or you can use a tilt/shift lens such as the Canon 24 TSE, and take one image from the left, and one from the right. You wouldn't have to move the camera or tripod at all. You can stitch the image together in Photoshop-George Lepps' web site shows you how to do this. I haven't tried this (yet), but they do discuss it in the user manual for this lens as an application for it.

Well when you plead your case as to why you need the 500/f4, just make sure you're not covered in it-that would be the only thing worse than having a turkey vulture portrait gracing the family photo album.

"If my wife reads this and really loves me, I might upgrade to a 500 f4 and Gitzo 410 for Christmas.'

 

 

Uh...not if you're going to grace the walls of your home with a portrait of a turkey vulture over the fireplace!

From Southeastern NH: I've been getting the same information as Bob. A lot of people have been getting hung up on the drought potentially causing poor foliage. There was a severe drought in 1995 in Maine which I think was one of the best years ever. Sunshine, which we've had plenty of (remember chlorophyll!) is also important, as well as frosts, which we're just starting to get. Also, the White Mountains have not been nearly as dry as the rest of the State, and there's been plenty of rain lately. I wouldn't discourage people from changing their travel plans based on predictions of poor foliage solely on recent weather conditions. Was in southern Adirondaks last weekend and drove across southern Vermont-not much doing there yet either.

Very tall order, but for starters, try here: http://www.photo.net/photo/travel/foliage.html

 

or: http://www.newengland.com This is Yankee Magazine's web site, a good place to start for lodging/dining, as well as on-line fall foliage reports.

 

Also, get the book "New Hampshire An Explorer's Guide" by Christina Tree and Peter Randall (well known NH photographer, the book is travel, not photo oriented). Also, there's a Phototraveler issue on fall in New England. There's another book (which I think is in the trunk of my car right now-can't recall the actual name) on waterfalls in NH with many short hikes to very photogenic places. Places fill up quickly here this time of year so get your planning done soon. Extreme drought conditions will likely affect the quality of the foliage this year especially in the SE and central part of the state. The White Mountains got a bit more rain, especially Coos county, which I think was one of the few counties that didn't apply for drought disaster relief but it's going to be a bit dicey.

I got 10 rolls from B&H last week in 120, they ran out of 35 mm. I've shot 3 rolls and compared them with RDP II, and E100VS. I really like this film. There's no 'over the top saturation' like Velvia or 100VS. To my eyes it's well saturated, but just about right. It's very, very sharp indeed. I didn't notice the magenta/exaggerated blue casts I can see in RDPII. Also,I shot in fairly contrasty conditions. The shadows look pretty neutral with RDPIII, 100VS gives me a mahogany tinge, that I'm growing to dislike more and more. I need to do more testing of course, but these are my early impressions. I'd be very interested in what others think of it. Unfortunately, my now former favorite lab, scratched the heck out of one roll of Provia F on their rollers.

Shun, don't panic yet, they've had quite a bit of rain in the White Mountains this year compared with the rest of the east, and the quality of the foliage also depends on the amount of sunlight as well as rainfall. I think we'll just have to wait and see, predictions are often wrong anyway. Here's one place to keep track http://www.visitnh.gov/foliageframe.html Granted tourist sponsored sites may be a bit rosier than the reality, it's a big industry here.

I'm in southeastern NH, and Rob's right, the drought has been pretty bad this summer. The northern part of the state hasn't been quite as bad, so there's still some hope. Of course, I've heard some old-timers say that the most spectacular foliage happens under these conditions. Take it with a grain of salt. There are several websites which track the foliage status, Yankee Magazine had an article this month about it, I think their website has a 'leaf tracker' at www.newengland.com. I know, your question was about film choices, but anyway...