greg_miller3

"Setting up the Arca-Swiss "Field" camera is sometimes very annoying and I miss things"

 

I own a current model F-Line FIeld. I cannot imagine how this statement could be true. The camera is quite simple and fast to set up. Much faster than the folding field camera I used to own. I cannot imagine how a view camera set-up could be made much easier.

Apply Cat Crap to a UV filter. Cat Crap is intended for ski goggles as fogging preventative. You spread on a thin layer and then wipe off when dry. Does not affect the optics.

You'll need to remove the period on the link above to mahe it work: http://www.gregmillerphotography.com/Browse%20Panoramas.htm

Now that you have an x-pan don't forget about the stitching method. Stitiching gives you more flexibitiy - you can shoot a 2 shot panorama or a 20 shot panorama. And you can pu up and across (e.g. 8 shots wide by 3 shots tall). Its a fair amount of work but its great for honing your Photoshop skills.

 

I average around 10 to 13 shots (shot with camera in a vettical position): http://www.gregmillerphotography.com/Browse%20Panoramas.htm.

The people doing 20-25 miles per day on the PCT are typically carrying 30 pounds of gear or less (and they did not start with 20 miles on day 1 - they gradually build up to it allowing the body time to adapt). You indicated you have done this for 1 day but doing it every day for 3 weeks solid is very different. Even if you limit your camera gear to 5 pounds uou have only 25 pounds left for pack, food, shelter, ...

 

I think you need to choose between an agressive trip with lots of miles but a very basic camera kit (i.e. small slr and 1 lens; or P&S) for snapshots - or - a serious phot trip with much fewer miles.

David Middleton has a book specific to photogrpahy in Vermont: www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0881505331/qid=1121198587/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-8475485-0402450?v=glance&s=books

 

It references specific spots along with best times of year and places to stay and eat.

An interesting option for backpacking is the Osprey Aether 75. Its a great backpack from a backpacking perspective. You can purchase the optional Osprey Daylite daypack that is designed to attach securely to the outside of the Aether 75. So the camera gear stays on the outside of the main pack where it is easily accessible. You can also detach the daylite and hike with just the camaera gear. The Daylite is not huge but should hold most of your 4x5 gear. The combo gives you a great backpack plus great camera stoage.

If you have an equal amount of black and white then it averages out to a middle gray so your meter should give you a propoer exposure whith no compensation.

 

The dynamic range comments above are inaccurate. What you have here is a range of colors, not a range of brightness. Any modest film or sensor can easily record black and white tones at the same time. A properly exposed black tone and white tone will have the exact same exposure if they are both in the same light. Conversely, a single black or white tone could not be captured if it was partially in a deep shadow and intense sunlight within the same image.

The best place to sit is in the front seat next to the pilot. But note that there will be control pedals by your feet that you do not want to interfere with so do not expect to store any gear around your feet. Also expect to seat to be very cramped. I'm not the smallest guy in the world but I have problems rotating my body 90 degrees to face the side window and still having very much space for the camera not the touch the window - it will help if you are a contortionist. I find a 28-105 lens (on a film body) will cover the bulk of the shots that you will want. Expect the plane windows to be dirty and scratched. Be nice to the pilot and maybe he will bank the plane when you ask him too - money helps. There will be tremendouns vibrations in the plane - do not let the lens, camera, out your arms touch anything when you are shooting.

I have been to Chile twice in the past 2 years on assignment in Patagonia with many flights on LAN Chile (and also in Peru; similar # of total x-rays to what you will be experiencing)). I have never requetsed a hand inspection - just let it go throught the carry on x-ray (several hundred rolls of Velvia 50 & Provia 100). No problems to report.

David Middleton has photographer's guides to several areas including Vermont and the Oregon coast.

Perhaps you are a pro when established pro photographers consider you to be a pro.

 

I'm not sure what your point is , though. I know of many outstanding photographers who do not consider themselves to be pros. Is this an ego thing for you? If so I would worry more about making great images and let the titles take care of themselves.

I always tell myself that the pain just lasts this morning but I get to keep the images for the rest of my life. 30 years from now the agony of climbing out of bed at 4:00 am and heading out into the cold dark night won't mean a thing.

You can be pretty much guaranteed to see bears in parts of the Adirondacks. Camp around Marcy Dam, Colden Lake, or Flowed lands. Bear canisters are required for food storage in these areas because the bears make the rounds every night. Just hang out around dusk or just after dark in these areas and more likely than not you will see several bears. These are backcountry campsites so you have a shot at making it look like wilderness shots.

As long as the backgound is a consistent color and a color that is different than the product you can just do a color selection and then paint the background white (or any other color that you want).

Regarding enlarging, you would generally want to use bicubic smoother. If you were down-rezzing you would generally use bicubic sharper.

I'll second the suggestion for 3M PMA - works very well for me.

I have a Epson SP 2200 on which the paper cutter died. I called Epson expecting them to send a replacment cutter. Instead they sent a complete new printer. I eben told them they didn;t need to send the whole printer just the cutter but they insisted n sending a new printer. The best part being the new printer came with a new set of ink.

I can only answer #1. The information I have recieved is the Pro version has a release date supplied by Epson as February 2005. Epson has a reputation for being late and in limited quantities.

For building tone using any of the techniques mentioned avove you can: duplicate the image layer (or a composite of all layers using ctrl/shift/alt N then E) and then changing blending mode multiply (or other mode to taste; or screen to lighten) and adjusting opacity on that layer. Repeat as necessary.

You want to think about timing too. If you take a shoe when the whale/dolphin is at the apex of their jump, then motion is temporarily minimal and a slower shutter speed is possible. If you shoot when the animal is bursting from the pool then the motion is much greater and a fatser sgutter speed is in order if the goal is to freeze the action.

FWIW - I skimmed throught the auction catalog from the Center of Photogrpahy at Woodstock (www.cpw.org). Lots of prints from famous and not as famous photogrpahers. There is no consistent treatment of signature - ink, penicil, on front, on back, on mat,...

"the only time I use ICE (or it's equivalents) is for color negative. Its the only medium that I think it actually works on correctly....at least for me. Besides, it tends to soften an image, and why would you want to soften something like Velvia? Just "spot" it post scan."

 

Maybe ICE was not as good with the 2000 - or maybe you had it incorrectly set on the "fine" mode. ICE (in normal mode) causes no discercernible softness with my 4000 and I need to do minimal manual spotting. If you deal with any volume of slide this will save hours of time.

My answer was not a lark. I use it in the field all the time. Out for hours at a time in the rain. Nice thing is you can roll the leg up to adjust for different lens lengths. If you go the AquaTech route you may end up buying more than one to accomodate different lens sizes.

Polarizer filters vary more than other types of filters between cheap filters and high quality filters. Cheaper polarizers tend to impart a color cast. When buying a ploarizer it makes sense to buy as high of quality filter as you can afford.