greg

over the last few years i've done a lot (thousands of shots) of aquarium photography and thru trial and error i've come to the same conclusion as the people Dan interviewed- 100 or 50 macro (although the 28-135IS does a great job too), manual focus/exposure, and flash/es. flash for fish and crabs and shrimp and such, but not for most hard corals (acropora sp. etc).

keep the camera close to the glass if possible, and point it downward slightly to keep the flash from reflecting back in the lens.

greg<div></div>

i use a 100mm macro lens for aquarium photography too- with a flash in the hotshoe or off to the side on a bracket. small apertures are possible and necessary to get lots of detail. algae free glass helps a lot, as does choosing your background carefully. black is tough- nice coralline algae covered rock is great. the flash doesn't need to be at 45 degrees- usually only a slight downward angle is needed to avoid flash reflecting into the shot.

here's a shot of a beautiful Wrasse traveling through a bunch of different corals (Blasto, clove polyps, acropora, etc):

http://www.gregrothschild.com/wrss4.htm

greg

hello-

i do a fair amount of aquarium photography. i have some pictures on-line at: http://www.gregrothschild.com/photoalbums/fish/fish.html

i use a 100mm macro lens and a flash in the hotshoe most of the time. i do have a bracket for the flash (with an offshoe chord) and i use that for close close-ups. as mentioned by others- keeping the flash pointed at a slight downward angle will greatly reduce the chances of flash reflection in the shot.

i'd recommend shooting in manual exposure mode and starting out at about f11 and 1/60- experimenting with different settings depending on what you're subject is and what kind of depth of field you want.

greg

i'm not familiar with the first spot you asked about but the second one- of Sneffels and fence is right outside Ridgeway if it's the spot i'm thinking of- pretty impossible to miss. it's just south of town as i recall- by maybe a couple miles and there are big turnouts to show you where to put the tripod <g>.

going in the opposite direction (just north of town) i loved Owl Creek Pass- spectacular views of the Sneffels range as well as some incredible rock formations directly to the east (Courthouse Rock rings a bell, but the entire ridge line is stunning).

the attached photo is the area i'm thinking of, taken in a not-so-good-for-colors year.

greg

i've put my 1348 in the water a few times and i have noticed that it is taking more muscle to tighten the legs so they won't slip. this may not be because of getting the bushings wet- it might just be age- i got it when they first came out (2 years ago?). i always try to dry it out after a dunking but sometimes it has been many hours til i got around to it. i am going to try and find some new bushings to see if that will solve the problem.

greg

i don't have any books to recommend, but i did come across a very helpful website for california wildflowers:

http://www.calacademy.org/research/botany/wildflow/index.html

hope this helps-

greg

p.s.- i'm not affiliated with the website- i just like it

i think this is a great idea. thanks for doing it-

greg

is it possible he misunderstood the part about the projector and thought you said "scanner"? i believe scanners have a harder time with overexposed slides- my scanner does a much better job with slides that are slightly underexposed.

greg

I have been very happy with the service i have received from a small lab in hollywood- Chrome&R. they are on beverly just west of la brea. i think they have a lab on melrose too. they can usually have your slide film developed in two hours. i have had them make prints from original slides on several occasions and i have been quite satisfied with their work.

greg

last weekend i took a roll of the new film to the local botanical garden and below are links to a couple of the shots. one disclaimer- i was using a used eos 1n that i was going to buy- and after looking at the slides on a light table with a very good loupe i have decided that the slides are not as sharp as they should be and i am not buying the body. i used different lenses and they all produced less that perfect sharpness. i am thinking it is a minor misalignment in the viewfinder- which would probably be easy to fix, but who needs the headaches. i'll stay with the eos5 for a while longer.

http://www.toast.net/~gnr/succulentflower.jpg

http://www.toast.net/~gnr/arti.jpg

http://www.toast.net/~gnr/sprig.jpg

scanned with photosmart and resized and unsharped with photoshop.

greg

i really love my 20mm lens. when i am shooting landscapes it hardly every comes off the camera. i have to remind myself to bring other lenses when i leave the car...

i use canon stuff so i don't know about the quality of the nikon 20- i am guessing it is the same as the canon, which is (imho) top notch.

i assume you have a good sturdy tripod and head to support your future 300mm lens? this is a great way to drop some serious money-

greg

thanks very much for this report. if work hadn't gotten in the way i

would be leaving next week for sanibel island. now i don't feel so

bad. you say perhaps feb. will see an improvement- i have heard the

crowds dramatically increase too so i can't make up my mind whether to

just postpone the trip til next year...

greg

thanks for the update. i am thinking of heading that way- (it will be

my first photo-only trip. in the past my vacations have always been

flyfishing/photo trips) and i do not want to deal with crowds if

possible. is it reasonable to expect not too many people until

february? greg

i was about to post a similar query. the kirk ballhead i am using,

which has been perfectly adequate up to this point (and i'm not about

to scrap it because of this), got harder to turn on the pan axis only.

i was shooting in temperatures down to about 30F degrees- not really

that cold. my first thought (after frustration gave way to logical

thought patterns) was that the cold was causing it and boy i sure hope

the arca swiss does it too becasue if it doesn't then i might just

have to go out and buy one...

greg

i recently bought a right angle adaptor for my eos5- it attaches where

the eye-cup is on the viewfinder. it is about 4 inches long and

swivels 360 degrees. the adaptor costs about $80 and is a very nice

piece of engineering- the image appears very sharp, and the adaptor

appears to be built to very high standards- in fact, i'm surprised

that it only cost $80. this won't solve your problem but it makes

looking through the viewfinder a lot easier when you are down and

dirty. if you do order it make sure you get the necessary adaptor if

one is necessary for your body- the eos5 does require a small step-up

type adaptor.

<p>

greg

hi all-

i am driving to portland, oregon for the holidays and i am trying

to decide which route to take (from northern cal.). originally i had

planned on going up the coast and enjoying the many photo-ops on that

beautiful area, but about 2 weeks ago someone told me that i should

think about going the inland route due to the massive amount of rain.

i would still like to go up the coast, but not is there is lots of

flooding, slides, etc. does anyone have any advise? by the way, i

will be leaving next monday- thanks, greg

if this is the meteor shower i think it is (leonid?) then the place to

be is mongolia. i am a soundman by profession and recently did an

interview with a scientist at JPL who said that the real show would be

pretty much invisible in the u.s. because we pass through it in the

daytime. even hawaii will not be far enough west. he said most

scientists will be heading to mongolia...

greg

i have a rare opportunity to take a one week vacation in mid november

and i would love to make it into a wildlife/scenic photography trip. i

would prefer to keep it in the western united states. i guess i will

be renting some sort of sport utility vehicle.

my first thought was yellowstone, but wouldn't it be mostly

innaccessable that time of year?

thanks for the help-

greg

thanks very much to all who have contributed- your help is greatly appreciated.

<p>

greg

i've saved my pennies and for my big vacation this year i am going to

the southern parts of alberta and british columbia. i want to make the most of this so i am hoping to get suggestions on good spots for landscape and wildlife photography. it's possible that i may head up as far as calgary, but i'd like to spend my time south of there.

thanks for the help-

<p>

greg

a word of advise- call the wildlife waystation before you go there if you want to take photos. i think they only allow the public to come in and take photos on scheduled days. i just got the number from 411: (818) 899-5201. the weather may have cooled off enough by the time you go to make joshua tree nat'l park or anza borrego worth visiting. both of these desert destinations are pretty spectacular. if you have an entire day to spend and don't mind driving you could try the san diego zoo (world class) or the san diego wildlife park. to the north (250 miles oneway) you have the eastern sierras and all that they offer: mt. witney, bristlecone pines, alabama hills, ghost towns....

<p>

greg

across the street from lake macdonald is a trail that goes to one of

the chalets built 50 or 60 years ago by a railroad company. the (sperry) chalet is not open for business now but it doesn't matter because an industrious hiker can make it there and back in one (long) day. it's a 7 mile hike one way, but the trail is in great condition and the views are worth it.

there is a creek there, and when i was there a few weeks ago there were great waterfalls and wildflowers too. you have a good chance of seeing mountain goats, marmots, deer and bald eagles.

if you don't feel up to the hike there is an outfitter that has horseback trips to the chalet- i think they charge about $100/person.

the phone number at the lake mcdonald corral is 888-5121 (the brochure doesn't have an area code, but i assume it is 406).

hope this helps,

greg

i was told (by someone whose opinion i respect and value) that to avoid vignetting with my setup, which is the mamiya7/43mm lens, cut off the outer filter holders, as has been previously mentioned, AND use a 67mm to 82mm step-up ring. he said that 67mm to 77mm was just barely not enough.

i haven't tried it out yet, but i did buy the step-up ring and plan

on trying it out soon.

greg

we (my cameraman and i) travel internationally occasionally, and i have several friends that do the same thing i do, who travel overseas quite a lot. generally, we check between 15 and 25 cases- value roughly $150,000. like i said (knock on wood)- we haven't lost anything yet. our gear is insured, by the way.

the more common problem is having the camera stolen from the vehicle. this has happened to 2 people i know- they turned their back for a second and it was gone.

a good friend of mine went to india (about a year ago) on a month long shoot. they were doing a show about the wildlife refuges there and they took several flights to various places around the country. again, nothing was lost. a couple of years ago i did a shoot in indonesia, and we travelled to a few of those neat little islands, via airplane. although garuda airlines left us on the runway for 22 hours at one island, we didn't have any problems with theft.

greg

i just read a post someone put up on the mf rec.photo newsgroup- this person said he heard mamyiya is coming out with a carbon fiber tripod. can anyone confirm this? i hope it's true and i hope it's a good one- the marketplace needed some competition!

greg rothschild