rich_furman

If your system is currently at the Body + Normal Lens stage, I would suggest popping over to Nikon, with something like an FM-10 for a Body (or a used FM). Functionally, it is the equivalent of your K1000, but with a vertical travel metal shutter rather than the horizontal travel cloth, and it opens up the Nikon system to you. (I'm substantially invested in Pentax-K and finding myself wishing that I had access to Nikon lenses. There are more of them in the market used). The K1000 is a great box; I want one as a backup to my ZX-M. If you have much sunk ito lenses at all, I wouldn't jump systems (I haven't, but if I had it to do over again I would gow with a used Nikon FM, rather than the Ricoh KR-10se that put me into the K-Mount World.)

SLR in Pelican Case in Bulkhead. You'll want it on land. For a P&S, I recommend a Pentax 90WR. You'll find it either on closeout or used and its more feature rich than its successor, 105WR. Also, check a pddling shop for something called an UltraClamp (NOT Bogen's SuperClamp). It is a C Clamp with a weird little ballhead. I would clamp it to the cockpit coaming. I will say this in favor of the New T4's though: with their waist level finders, framing a shot should be easier.

John Shaw's Field Techniques book recommends many of the same techniques your newspaper article describes. In many ways photography is about exercising control over light. That is its essence. I am unable to make a moral distinction between manipulating the background with a wide aperture or a T-Shirt. The big rule is "do no harm."

 

I have never had an ethical problem with anything Shaw has said. But I have read other books that have advocated baiting animals. (The Complete Idiot's Guide to Photography, but I guess the name says it all; see my feedback in dead trees).

 

It sounds like you are going after sort of a camera hunting ethic; stalk the perfect shot and take it when it comes.

End of May mosquito and blackfly population should be relatively low. Avoid navy blue clothing, blackflies seem attracted to it. Khakis are better. I don't think full battle armor is called for. When I go to the BWCA, its usually early or late in the season. June, July and early august are the worst.

You live near some really great places to get started. With Harriman

and Bear Mountain state parks to the north, you'll have lots of great

views. For stuff more local, try a book called Short Walks on Long

Island, which is chock full of some really great day hikes.

 

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As for the fire, you're a photographer. You're there to take

pictures, not chop wood. Build one once, the making of it will

provide you with the chopped wood to photograph, the fire itself may

make a nice subject. Then decided it was too much trouble to

repeat. The time you invest in building a fire will typically be as

sunset approaches; why waste prime shooting time on it unless it is

going to be a subject.

 

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Get hooked up with the ATC (Appalachian Trail Conference) they have

lots of events that will afford you great photo-ops

 

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Books: Boundary Waters Canoe Camping with Style. Although it focuses

on camping from a canoe, you will find this chock full of techniques

for camping. It covers everything from equipment and food

recommendations to firebuilding techniques. Also, visit a photo-shop

and look for a book with a title like Backpacking for Nature

Photographers (I don't know who wrote it, or the exact title)

There's also the book by John Shaw that Atkins recommends.

 

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Finding out the rules is best done at an info booth or ranger station

near the park entrance. In general, if camping is allowed, if you

heed everything in Jacobson's book and refrain from building a fire

you should be well within the rules in any New York State park -- his

book is written to the much more stringent rules imposed by the

Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

 

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Read the Ethics threads here if you want not to make an ass of

yourself. The camera may tempt you to go off trail, bait wildlife,

etc. These threads will impart a moral grounding to protect you from

these temptation.

 

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Oh, and if you don't want to die, stay out of Forest Park in Queens,

its not a place to be with pricey gear.

As a four-eyed computer geek getting back in touch with my inner

photographer, I find this all very interesting. The best point made

is that these guys should stand up for their art, because it is not

photography. Photography and Digital Imaging are not different

enough for a photographer to take a self-righteous stance merely

because silver halide is the imaging agent throughout the process. A

lot that is done digitally can be (and has been) done in the

darkroom. Sandwiching negatives and masking prints can all be used

to make a picture of an elephant fighting a polar bear in a snowscape

with penguins looking on. Silver Halide can lie too.

 

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Digital imagers are fairly typical examples of a postmodern

aesthetic, where existing images are drawn together into a single

work that may show a jarring juxtaposition, or else may be a

simulacrum of reality.

 

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Photographers are fairly typical examples of a modern aesthetic,

where images are created and manipulated technologically. It is the

absence of the act of creation that divides the postmodern from all

else.

 

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Postmodern art is derivative. Photography will never die (though

silver halide might) because a derivative art form needs a creative

art form as a source of material. The number of original

photographic images in the world, though vast, is finite. And a

consumer may realize that the bear fighting the elephant is the same

pose of the same bear catching a salmon in another picture.

 

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The answer: This isn't a fight. It is a new medium. It does need to

identify itself as such, both to protect photographer and to

highlight the skills of digital imagers. They are not are friends,

they are not our enemies. They are the people we will need to seek

as allies in the face of issues like censorship and copyright. We

should encourage them to distinguish themselves, not by saying "Hey,

you're not one of us," but rather "Hey, that's really cool let the

world know how you did it."

 

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Remember that to the artificer, the "hand of man" is a value-added

feature. A "Found View" will never be more than a snapshot to an

artificer, because hey, you didn't MAKE that image, you just found it

and took a picture.

 

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The real danger, I suppose, is that images that are art and images

that are portrayals of reality can become conflated. But that is

something that has always been possible with the photographic medium.

If an individual animal is a member of a small population I would worry about "stressing" it. Otherwise I would understand that that "stress" is an animal's natural response to something unfamiliar in its environment. However, it is essential that we take pains not to harrass or feed a subject. Harrassing them will prevent them from doing what they need to, like caring for eggs or young, and feeding them -- well that was well covered in "baiting animals." Its a big Bad.

 

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To get a shot in as non-obtrusive a fashion as possible should be a universal goal. This means that the wildlife photographer should rely on tracking skills to enable them to photograph the animal going about its daily business.

Taughannock Falls flows toward the lake (I can't remember its name).

A USGS Survey Map can help you to surmise which way water flows. The Topo lines point upstream. This works really well when you have a gorge like the one downstream of Taughannock Falls.