iambaxter
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Posts posted by iambaxter
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I use a strap very similar to this. The one I use has a strap that goes under the arm. The problem with the Altura and ones like it are when lifting your camera or when setting it down the whole strap can slide around and the shoulder pad is no longer on your shoulder. If you get one that has the under arm strap this will prevent the whole thing from sliding. The type with the extra under arm strap and only a few dollars more and you don't need to use the under arm strap if you find that don't need it.
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Any one in public taking pictures of strangers these day is almost guaranteed to come under some type of suspicion. Especially if they are photographing woman or children. One of the reasons for this can be seen in a recent story from Canada.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/canadacreep-twitter-account-calgary-voyeurism-1.4158523
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Airport security is a bit of a joke. We just came back from Amsterdam and my wife had a pair of nail clippers confiscated at security. While waiting for our flight she did a little duty free shopping. She bought a 3 pack of cheese. It came with a free cheese knife; that has a very sharp 4 inch blade.
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I also recommend getting Darwin Wiggett's guide book. Another good source is the Photography America Newsletters.
Photograph America Newsletter on the Canadian Rockies
A bit of a warning, this is the 150th anniversary of the Park system in Canada and they have been giving away free passes since last year. So it will be busier than usual.
If you have not booked accommodations you should ASAP or you may be sleeping in your car.
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<p>If you want high quality that will last then you are going to pay for it. If you are looking for something that only has to last for one trip then you could get away with lower priced and lower quality products. If you are looking for great quality that will last the rest of your life and comes with a guarantee then you will have to pay the higher price. About the best quality product with a guarantee you can get is "Tilley" I have yet to find anything that beat the quality and the only product with a guarantee. Yes the stuff is pricey but you are getting top quality and a great guarantee.<br>
http://www.tilley.com/us_en/tilley-guarantee<br>
The prices on their web site are in Canadian dollars so if you are ordering from the states the price in US dollars will be lower.</p>
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<p>Check out the Magic Fountains in front of Palau Nacional museum.(NMAC) The fountains and the museum are great anytime, but the fountains are light up at night and on weekends they have shows with music.</p>
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<p>If you stop at Grand Prismatic Spring be sure to drive a little south to the Fairy Falls trail. If you walk out to the falls you will be on the back side of the Grand Prismatic and can climb up the hill and get an elavated veiw of Grand Prismatic. One of my favorite drives was Firehole Road. Best time for wildlife is at sunrise and sunset. Watch while driving, any animal near the road will create a traffic jam with people looking at the wildlife and not the road/traffic.<br>
When in the Teton's try and check out the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve. Great place for hiking, the trails have several streams and small water falls. the road into the preserve has several trail heads and is a good area for both landscapes and wildlife. A great place for sunrise is at Schwabachers Landing. Access is north of Moose on Highway 191. And of course there is the Morman Barns just north of Jackson.</p>
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<p>I have been to Costa Rica several times in the last 14 years. And I would also recommend getting a vehicle with high ground clearance 2X4 or 4X4. And I would also agree on getting the max insurance. And never leave anything in your vehicle overnight and never leave anything visible when you leave your vehicle parked anywhere unless you are close by.<br>
Get a GPS if you do not already have one and get the most up to date maps available. I would also not recommend traveling between cities at night for a couple of reasons. First is safety, if you have any kind of breakdown or get lost you never know who will come by. Second is the roads are in rather poor condition, potholes everywhere. And the signage on road is poor at best and mostly nonexistent. This goes for highways and inside cities. That is why you will want good maps and a GPS. Most hotels will list their location by address and with GPS coordinates.<br>
As far as what to see, Rincón de la Vieja Volcano National Park in the north and Manuel Antonio National Park in the south and Tortuguero National Park in the east are three of my favorites. One place that I highly recommend is La Paz Waterfall Gardens, in Alajuela. This is a private park but a great place to see wildlife and landscapes. There is a great hotel on site, a little pricey but I think it is worth staying for one or two nights. Any place that has zip lines are not going to be any good for wildlife. The noise scares the animals away.<br>
The jungle is dark so you will need fast lenses or crank up the ISO. Most places are very humid and it rains a lot in the jungle so plan on some way to keep your gear dry. I keep desiccant bags inside my camera bag all the time to help with the humidity and when raining I use a Kata rain protection bag. You will want to bring every thing from wide to long telephoto. The monkeys, sloths and birds stay high in the trees most of the time.</p>
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<p>A second D300 or D300s would be the way to go. Or the D90 uses the same battery, unfortunately it uses SD cards. But the price of memory cards being so low you could pick up a couple and sell them with the camera when you return if you do not want to keep the second body.</p>
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<p>Mac: </p>
<ul>
<li>Mac® OS X 10.6.8 through 10.8 </li>
<li>Adobe Photoshop CS4 (CS5 for HDR Efex Pro 2) through CS6 </li>
<li>Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 through 11 (apart from HDR Efex Pro 2, which is not compatible with Photoshop Elements) </li>
<li>Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 through 5 </li>
<li>Apple® Aperture® 3.1 or later</li>
</ul>
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<p>Howard is correct that is a plug-in not a stand alone programme.</p>
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<p> I find it mildly funny that to OP asks about filters and some people come back with reply about software. Some people may be unable to take photos without the use of a lens hood, but other people can. I use lens hood all the time but still have had problems with flare on the lens. The solution could be as simple as using your hand to block the sun from hitting the front of your lens. In the past I have use my hand, a hat, a peice of paper, any number of things that you have with you could be used. My post was about trying to find a solution that was in the OP's budget. And if anyone knows of software that can replicate using a circular polarising filter please let me know.</p>
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<p>Put the 150.00 towards a good circular polarizing filter that is able to fit in the largest lens (front diameter) that you have and then pick up any step up rings that you will need for your other lenses. This way you only have to by 1 good (expensive) filter that you can use on all of your lenses. In the future you can look into getting a filter system like the Lee Foundation holder system and expand your filters to include neutral density filters and graduated neutral density filters. The holder and filters would be more than your current budget. So for now I recommend only one good circular polarizing filter.</p>
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<p>I have the first version of that tripod. It is great for traveling and hiking. Small ,light weight and inexpencive. If used properly it will give good results. Big problem with it is that it is less than a meter high. This means you have to get on your hands and knees to look through the view finder or to look at the screen, unless your camera has a swivel screen. I would never use it with the center column extended. I assume that you will be driving and weight and size will not be a big factor for this trip, so I would not recommend this as a primary tripod. I'm sure that someone could recommend something better for about the same price. As far as filters, the only one you might need for landscapes would be a circular polerizer.<br>
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<p>Bob I admire your determination. I will second the advice from Anil about going into Springdale and renting all the gear. They will supply you with walking sticks and special boots for warmth and footing, as well as hip waders and any waterproof bags you might need. I have found the people in the rental shops to be most helpful on selecting the right type and size of gear. They will also help with safety tips. I'm sure that you will not be traveling alone. One thing to remember is that you may not be able to drive you own car up to the narrows but may have to take the bus depending on the time of year you are going. Again talk to the people in the rental shops for advice.</p>
<p><img src="/photo/6606196" alt="" /></p>
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<p>Double post.</p>
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<p>Having just got back from two weeks in Kenya and Tanzania and traveling with people that had a variety of gear, I have a better understanding of the types of lenses and other equipment that I would recommend. Being in a vehicle that most of the time is restricted to driving on roads only, I suggest using a minimum number of lenses with a wide focal range. If you look at my earlier post you will see what I brought. We traveled with two different groups, one in each county. Most people had DSLRs and a few had point and shoots. Those with DSLRs the majority and crop sensors, only one person had a full frame- Canon 5D II. I was the only person with more than one body. The person with the 5D had two lenses (15-85 and a 70-200) and a couple of t/c’s (1.4 and a 2X). After the first day he had the 2X and the 70-200 on his camera most of the time, and would switch to the 15-85 when he wanted wider. I saw him use the 1.4 only once in 6 days. He commented that he wished he had more reach than the 2X and the 70-200, and several times he was scrambling to change lenses when wildlife moved in closer. One person had an 18-300 on a Nikon D50. She only had the one lens. Her only comments were not enough reach and she had to turn up the ISO for early morning and evenings. All most everyone else with DSLRs had more than one lens, most were using kit lenses (18-55 or something similar) and at least one telephoto zoom(70-200 or 70-300 or something similar). One person had a 300/f4 with a Canon 7D. He borrowed the 1.4 T/C from the guy with the 5D more than once to get the extra reach. Almost every one missed shoots when changeing lenses when wildlife moved closer.<br>
So after seeing what I used and what other people used and hearing their comments, I would recommend two bodied with two lenses that cover a wide focal range. The two lenses that I had worked great on two bodies, no time spent on changing lenses when wildlife move closer or farther away. Yes there were times I would have liked to have more reach, but with the dust in the air (will come back to this later) shooting anything more than 500-600 yards away came out soft. Extra reach comes in handy for that close up of wildlife less than a couple hundred yards out. I would not bring a macro lens; I only used mine 6 times. I would bring a super wide instead. But I do suggest a backup lens of some type. I did see a few frustrated people that had equipment failures. We brought two flash units (for use with three bodies) that we only used a couple of times, so I would suggest only bringing one. Extra batteries are a must, some places only have electric power for couple of hours in the morning and again in the evening. This limits the time you have to charge.<br>
Cleaning gear for lenses and sensors is a must. That dust is horrendous. I cleaned lenses at least twice a day. I tried using a tee shirt to cover our cameras when we were not shooting and inside a bag when driving, but the dust is very fine and gets everywhere.<br>
So I suggest that rather than spending the extra money on a 200-400 look at the 80-400 and a second body. The 80-400 focus is fast enough on a D300 body for 99% of the shoots you will use it for. And for the second lenses a kit lens 18-55 or an older 18-70 would work great.<br>
Last thing, we were not warned about what not to shoot by our guides, but when asked they did verify the info as correct. We got the info from someone who was volunteering/living there. DO NOT take pictures of police, military, security, prisoners or the national flag. If caught you will lose your camera gear on the spot and may be arrested.</p>
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<p>I'm going to Kenya and Tanzania in two weeks. After talking to several people that have been on similar trips and looking at their photos and finding out what type of gear they took I have decided on what I will take. My wife will have a D90 and an 18-200 and a SB-600. I will have 2 D300s, 18-70, 60 macro, 80-400 and a SB-800. Along with tripod, monopods, filters, 3 spare batteries, lens/sensor cleaning kits, 2 battery chargers, electrical adaptors and lots of spare memory cards. The trip I'm taking does not include any flights on small aircraft so I will not have too much of a problem with weight. Most of the time we will be in vehicles, so using a long prime would be limiting. With dust being a big problem, having two bodies with two zoom lenses will limit having to change lenses. All three bodies use the same battery but I’m taking a second charger as back up. The lenses I have chosen cover an 18-400mm range and macro. I will leave the 12-24 and the 70-200 at home due to over lapping focal range and weight.<br>
If you are trying to choose on which long lens to get, think about the weight for carrying and flying. And if you are going to be in a vehicle with other people a zoom may be more versatile than a prime. If the cost of buying is too much, think about buying used, using the lens on your trip and then selling when you get back. You should be able to sell for about the same as what you paid. Renting I found was just too expensive.<br>
I should be able to offer more specific advice on most used focal lengths in about 5 weeks when we get home.</p>
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<p>I would not recommend the Kata bags. I have the 3N1 33 and yes the bag is very versatile but the straps for slinging over your shoulders are rather narrow and when carrying it for long periods or with heavy loads they can become very uncomfortable. Look for something that has wider straps or some type of adjustable shoulder pads.</p>
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<p>The problem is when I try to save the file there is no option for "Save Optimized". The only options are "save" and "save as" and nether of these options have the choice to save a Gif. </p>
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<p>Trying to create a simple gif in CS3, but having a problem saving it. CS3 does not have image ready so I am not sure if it is posible to save the file as a gif. Any ideas or suggestions.</p>
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<p>Chech out this reveiw on the new D7000.<br>
<a href="../equipment/nikon/D7000/preview/">http://www.photo.net/equipment/nikon/D7000/preview/</a></p>
Question about Hoya filter
in Casual Photo Conversations
Posted