les_barstow

<p>I have few complaints about my Tokina 12-24mm DX lens. It has an excellent reputation and doesn't seem to have many bad copies. The problem with the third party lenses now is (a) QC on some lenses, and (b) lower percentage of true winner lens designs than Nikkor. Go by professional reviews on a lens-by-lens basis and I think there are some good bargains to be found...</p>

<p>Still like my 28-105 ED. As a single walk-around lens with a 1/2 "macro" setting, it still finds time on my camera.</p>

<p>Thanks for what I hope to be my only encounter with these bad boys. And yes, that last shot is definitely of an obese spider!<br>

I try to keep a healthy stock of Wolf Spiders in my house to deal with Widows and the theoretically non-resident Recluses in the Colorado mountains. A single oggle of a Widow in the woodpile of my old apartment was enough for me, thanks; for photographs, I'll stick to Tarantulas and other less harmful beasties.</p>

<p>Which is more comfortable for you, and which gives you the control you feel you need?<br>

Personally, I only carry a polarizer.  It serves as glare reduction and a neutral density filter (for waterfalls and such).  I find that very few of the scenes I shoot have a straight transition zone, so I get better control in PhotoShop (which I'm pretty comfortable in) or using an image fusion program to merge exposures than I would taking a single shot with a GND filter.<br>

That's my personal preference, but only because it fits my artistic sense, workflow, and expertise.  Your mileage may vary.</p>

You're already working with the 35mm equivalent of 450mm; that's not shabby for the money you've spent, or are likely to spend.

 

The next step up is to buy a 400mm lens of some sort, and I wouldn't skimp on a lens that large. You might be able to find a good used manual focus lens in that range for a reasonable (several hundred dollar) price.

 

Otherwise, I agree with everyone else - get a good blind set up; it'll be cheaper and more effective.

Colin,

 

I love the pictures, and wish I had that much hoar-frost to play with! There is a bit of a DOF issue on some of the shots, but others still show I think what you mean by a lack of detail...

 

For the DOF, PS CS4, Helicon Focus, TuFuse, EnFuse, and other multi-exposure focus stacking filters are probably your best bet, though unfortunately I have yet to see a camera that understands "focus bracketing". (Major camera manufacturers out there: hint, hint!)

 

If you're capturing "more detail" when exposing down to the left of the histogram, perhaps it's time to play with the levels and/or curves of the image rather than the exposure. As RL Potts notes, there's a lot more data captured in the upper half of the image than in the lower half. Expose to the right, but then bring up the black point in the levels (and/or adjust the midpoint) to increase the contrast. Applying a slight S-curve to the RGB curves at just the right spot can do the same without messing up the non-ice details so much. I don't know Silver Effects Pro, but there are PS plugins that enhance local contrast that might be able to bring out some detail.

 

HDR won't do much for you here, I don't think - the dynamic range isn't too high, it's too low - something each of the above techniques addresses.

 

Otherwise, get some more directional lighting. Early morning light won't generally blow your highlights, but it will create shadows from the intricate crystal boundaries. A remote fill-flash might serve a similar purpose, set off to the side.

Louie,

 

I'd agree with Paul in every respect here, as well as emphasizing the other posters' comments.

 

The Cottonwood Canyon Road and other roads into GSENM are not something to trifle with when wet; a nice warm day can turn frozen roads into an impassable morass.

 

Stick to Bryce (gorgeous in Winter) and Zion. If you really feel you need to hit up some part of GSENM during your trip, I'd suggest getting Laurent Martres' book on Utah and following the directions to the hoodoos along US-89. But really, the best parts of the monument are either reasonably far along the dirt roads or out of Escalante, and neither really sounds like it will fit your trip plans well.

 

Come on over to the RMNP.net forum as suggested by Paul if you want further details, we're more than happy to expound on our wonderful region!

I guess my shock at the $8000 price tag is two-fold.

 

The main rant is that Nikon has never done this to us (landscape photographers) before. $5000 has been the

introductory price tag now for two-plus generations of DxX bodies, and it's been one of the reasons why Nikon has

been able to stay in the market against the generally ahead-of-the-curve Canon competitor models. (The other

being that Nikon's comparatively fewer pixels have generally looked nicer than Canon's...)

 

The other complaint is that the 1DsMkIII has been out now for a year. It's no longer an $8000 body, at least not at

market prices. The D3X will be entering the market at a price point above every single other DSLR camera

available, and without much to really show for it.

 

Finally, while the 5DII isn't strictly in the same market segment, it certainly is going to be the main

competition against the D3X just as the 5D held its own against the D2X, and the very substantial price

difference between the two isn't going to help Nikon. Sorry - to me this was a dumb marketing ploy whose only

conceivable benefit is to slow-roll the first cameras because they can't meet a higher production rate. And that

in and of itself is the sign of a problem...

I've just started doing this myself, but believe I've got the process down pretty well.

 

Start by loading both (or more) images into PhotoShop CS3. Pick a "main" image and rename the Background layer (some operations don't work on the Background layer). Paste the other image as a second layer into the "main" image. Select both layers and select Edit->Auto-Align Layers... from the menu. Do a full-auto alignment; this will match the images' distortions. At this point I usually cycle through the layers, making only one visible at a time, and do an Image->Trim... to remove edges that aren't replicated on all layers. Now you have a workable image stack.

 

If you're using PhotoShop to do your blend, you're all set up to start blending. For more complex DoF merges, I'd suggest a program like Helicon Focus, Combine-Z, Enfuse, or Tufuse. I use Tufuse, so I split the layers back into their own files, save them, and run Tufuse from a commandline (you can also use Tufuse through Pano Tools if you prefer that tool for your image alignment needs...).

I'm not a high-"mileage" photographer, unless it's my car odometer you're looking at. There's probably only 14,000 shutter trips on the camera. But it has been mostly in dusty Colorado and Utah environments, so it's possible a large speck of something's gotten in to the camera body.

Shun, that sounds like it explains just about everything - an off-position mirror would have showed as a top-to-bottom focal plane issue on the focus screen, could have caused the exposure to be too dark (not enough light hitting the AF sensor), and would have screwed up the AF system. It also explains why a single shutter release did such a thorough job of fixing it.

 

Looks like it's time to take a peek, and possibly take the unit in for a professional cleaning.

I was out with my

D2X over the

weekend, and when I

pulled it out of the

bag it had severe

focus problems. :(

 

Auto-focus refused

to find a focus

point, and when I

switched to manual

it seemed like the

focal plane was

completely off

top-to-bottom - I

couldn't get a

relatively flat

surface in focus

across the entire

screen. Best focus

for infinity was

almost at minimum

focal distance! I

switched lenses,

thinking the lens

might have broken,

but the same

behavior was

immediately

apparent.

 

I fired off a single

exposure using

manual focus,

aperture-priority

pointed at the

grassy ground - it

came out very

over-exposed. And

as it fired the

exposure, I thought

I heard a click...

After that first bad

exposure, everything

magically started

working right again

- focus was spot-on,

exposure was fine.

 

Has anyone else

experienced anything

like this? Is it

something I should

be worried about, or

something that

shouldn't rear its

ugly head again?

Haven't been up yet, but certainly plan on it. The main flower bloom is 2nd-3rd week of July, but things might be running a bit late this year. Theoretically, there's an earlier bloom of alpine flowers that should be happening around this coming week, but with the extra snow we took on this year and the slightly later blooms elsewhere along the Front Range, those are probably pushed back into early July.

Take the suggestions of others to heart - on a long weekend you'll only manage one - or at most two - of the three. Antelope Canyon is just too far out of the way to mix with Bryce or Zion on a long weekend. Bryce and Zion are doable together, but photographically not as satisfying for a short trip.

 

If you're going for Labor Day weekend in September, expect the crowds to still be going strong. Thanksgiving weekend will be much more relaxing, and it's far enough away that reservations will be easier to make.

 

Each of your dates has its advantages and disadvantages. Choose a location and plan around it with all the information everyone's provided; make sure you can get a reservation for the date you choose - it'll be busy (even Thanksgiving is getting a bit crowded in the past year or two...).

Shun's suggestion of Harriman in New York is an excellent one, and you won't take too long once you get there figuring out where to shoot. I went from Harriman over to Rickett's Glen State Park in Pennsylvania last year and wished I could have spent another couple of days at both locations.

Blossoms begin early; when I was there in mid-May, things were already in bloom. But they peak a bit later than that - not sure of the exact timing...

I'm assuming, Andrew, you mean the bent pin problem. The CF cards do have an offset groove which guides them in to place, and though it's possible to insert the card correctly, you can tell you're not doing something right before you manage to do so.

 

Otherwise, if you mean engineering around the lack of high-speed memory cards in other formats, it's not something Nikon controls.

Congrats on the purchase. I use a slim Heliopan polarizer on my Tokina and don't see any vignetting under my normal shooting circumstances (I am always stopped down a couple of notches, which helps).

 

As for flare, I haven't noticed mine to be as bad as some of the reviews make it out to be. I just got it recently, so maybe I just haven't seen it at its worst, but it hasn't killed a shot yet.

Passed through in 3rd week of May two years back, and it was pretty good, with young Bison in evidence and good water flow. If you have the flexibility, go just after they open the majority of the park roads (the weekend of the 17th this year?). If you're looking for wildlife, it's the best; it's also a better time for some of the thermal features, as they have a bit more water than later in the year.

I'm a fan of wide angle for a lot of landscape shots, but it really depends on the scene. I use all three of my lenses, ranging from 12mm to 400mm in my landscape work.

 

while I like my 12-24mm lens, sometimes it's just too wide to capture a scene. And like Kent I take out the 80-400VR to isolate features and capture "intimate landscapes".

Early May is a bit early, but you'll still have a good time...

 

The lower lakes should be thawed or partially thawed. Runoff should be picking up, so waterfalls will be more interesting; if you're feeling adventurous, a snowshoe trip up to Ouzel Falls in Wild Basin might be in order. If you're lucky, an overnight snow will freshen up the landscape, covering boulders in the streams, etc.

 

As other people have noted, Trail Ridge Road will still be closed; stick to the East side of the park (around Estes Park) for best results, IMHO.

One thing you can do to make birds more comfortable is to give them some cover that they can run to in a hurry. Plant some bushes or a hedge.

 

A bird bath or, as Carl suggests, an evening sprinkler run will also attract more birds.

 

For non-hummer feeders, squirrel-proof is a necessity. There's only so much you can do about Starlings and House Sparrows, but squirrels you can deter. (Besides, they provide endless hours of entertainment in their failed efforts to get at the food...)

I drive up Mountain Base Road dozens of times every year and look along that hillside religiously. He hates me :( (My wife worked for the park for a season, so I have some good info on it...)

Reagan, funny you should mention that cat! I live only 5 miles from Golden Gate Canyon SP and know a lot about that particular animal (though I've never seen it...). Golden Gate Canyon is the park I was referring to in my post.

Cats are a lot harder than birds; their numbers are much smaller and they don't frequent one part of their range on a (semi-)predictable basis. I've seen exactly two bobcats since I've moved to Colorado (coming up on 9 years now); I've been very lucky to see three cougars in that time (plus the one I never saw that used to hang around our house...). In every single case, the cat was already leaving the area when I noticed it.

 

Spend lots of time in the areas that cats frequent. Talk to your local park rangers; we have one maintenance man in our local state park who has a "gift" for wandering into areas with predators, and just a few minutes' conversation has informed me of two frequent bobcat sighting areas. Cats are curious but paranoid, and they're very good at hiding; be extra observant. There's a photo at the Denver Zoo of a family out in the wilderness; neither the family nor the photographer realized that a cougar was hiding in the tall grass not 20 feet away! In cougar country, they say that you might never see a cougar on a hike, but that about 75% of the time a cougar sees you. They're out there, waiting for you!