Wulff

Thanks guys. I just hope for those thinking about it, its not always the coolest, technically best, or eye poping photos of stunning vistas/animals in great light that catch editors eyes.. John. (Isonychia) For now just the OWC. Ive got sponsors and can meet criteria. Im 99% sure I'll be accepted. The OWAA which my sponsors and some others have recomended is next up. Just want to be fairly certain I can meet the criteria and have a few more nothces in my belt first I'll always be here AL, not going anywhere. I highly doubt I'll be getting rich off this...Its soooo competetive and unless your gettng regular publishings from numerous publications.......... Its enough for me to be doing somethingI love doing. J

One thing I'm learning down my path to Freelance Outdoor photography is that you never what images are going to catch someones eye and why. For those you trying to get started heres a little encouragement. This past weekend I went and covered an event on my own time and dime. I wasn't expecting much from it with regards to potential sales to begin with, although it had some small potential for me. I had written most of that potential off by last Wed when the weather turned and the forecast was downright nasty, if not dangerous given the event was on a big lake, famous for high winds and 8 foot swells. Leading up to saturday I was advised to make sureI had a Mustang survival suit due to the cold, waves and potenial for something bad. As it was the Police Marine unit had t bring one boat in and one angler ended up in an ambulance. Saturday dawned ( well there was no sun) near freezing and pouring rain. :arghh: I shrugged took the cold and rain on the chin, and did the best I could. Everythng was at ISO 800 and above, f1.8 and under 1/200th In short time since Ive had an AD express interest in buying a few and and a very successful Outdoor Writer who has been published in some very big periodicals through out NA contact me, asking if Id be willing to accompany him on outings either on commission or a collaborater when he has articles to be run that need accompanying photos to send to editors. This is potentially worth more tan the sales as it gets my name in front of ADs who otherwise wouldn't know me from Adam. Not to mention by-lines in some bigger publications, whos doors right now are firmly shut:) All as as a result of this days effort. I have thousands of technically better photos. Better eye catching photos, you name it that havent gotten me that much recognition/attention. Go figure. What they were vieing for (beyond cash and prizes).One of the best trophies I've ever laid eyes on. Designd and prepared by one the best taxidermest the world has to offer (imo). If your interested in Pro Bass Tournaments and want to see the full gallery its on my site...Bass Pro Lake Simcoe Open Gallery oh and my applicaton to the Outdoor Writers Association with 3 sponsors went out the door. woo-hoo.

Well Fall is upon us. For me this year that means hunting. It startd in mid Sept with some Field Trials. I've spent alot of hours patterning Does in Sept/Oct so as to increase my odds of getting that elusive big buck when the Rut starts. No big Bucks have graced my viewfinder yet, but have got some young bucks. In between I took a day on our Thanksgiving weekend and made a trip to one of our national parks. Was hoping to get some Fall colours (missed by 1 week) and Bull Moose (only saw Cows and 1 calf). Algonquin Park Fall colours with the help of PS Fall colours 1 week to late And even though we didn't see any Bull Moose I did manage and like this backlit Calf Break over its back to looking for Bucks and trying to arrange a Bow hunt. Im also currently working on a new library. One outing under the belt a few more to come. Pheasant hunting But before I make like this dog and skedadle in pursuit of more I thought Id leave you with the newest poster on my wall.

nice stuff

I often (or used to anyways) ask people who say little more than "I want a new camera and am thinking about a DSLR" or "I wat to learn photogrpahy and am thinking about a DSLR" Why they think they want a DSLR. Frankly, sometimes I tink its only because DSLRs are a fad/rage and or jonesing. Truth is there are some really sweet PnSs, lots of Pros use them. Can a PnS do everythng a DSLR can...no..but there are things PnSs can do that DSLRs cant not to mention they cost a fraction of the price by the time you add in telephoto lenses, macro lenses, extra batteries, a tripod heavy enough for a DSLR a bag big enough for a DSLR. A filter bif enough for 62, 72, or 77mm lens and on and on and on Grats for making a logical decision on what best suits your needs, vs what others may say is the best way to spend a few grand gettng started with a DSLR.

Theres no reason I can think of why it won't work. From your description I would still tend to think the problem is one of underexposure. Remember; if your metering off the snow, or if your in an evaluative/matrix meter mode and the snow comprises a fair amount of the weighting, your camera wants to and will render it grey/greyish. Adding a CP further reduces the light hitting the sensor by 2 stops. If your metering through the CP thats not a non event. If your metering first and then adding the CP your 1) likely underexposing resulting in grey snow (not white) already and then 2) further underexposing another 2 stops (by adding the CP ). Off the top of my head if your employing zone metering, pure whites should be I think 1 and 2/3 to 2 stops over exposed, just s pure black should 2 stops underexposed. Basically if you spot meter bright white snow, ignore what the camera meter is telling you and dial in atleast another full stop exposure. Really what you should do is check your histogram after a shot. Depending again on how much snow is present you want a spike on your histo thats just short of 255. That could either be a thin spike in the case of just a little snow relative to the entire scene, or a thick spike in the case of a field blanketed by snow. Check your histogram in your editing software and see where the right edge which represents your highlights stops. It should be close to 255, if its a stop + away on the graph your getting away from whites and heading towards mid tones (greys). Meaning the brightest (highlight)part of your image is closer to the mid, than it is whites The troubles really start when your trying to shoot something other than the snow. If you expose for the snow to render it white, you risk over exposing your subject. If you expose for your subject you risk underexposing the snow, leaving it off white or grey. Mucking around with snow in PS can turn it towards pink btw. Winter shots with CPs added

nice Jay. J

Im Canon, so Im sticking to that. Nikon is worth considering to. Robert the reason you couldn't set the f/stop is because you were in an auto mode...macro mode to be exact. Any "auto" mode on the dial will see the body behaving like a poin and shoot. Its in complete control. Go back to a camera store and put the camera in "AV" (Aperture priority), its a semi auto mode. In this mode you set the ISO and the f/stop, te camera sets the shutter speed to whatever is needed for a "proper exposure". If you pull the trigger on this, goto a good book store or Amazon and also buy "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It will shed alot of light in laymans English on what he calls the Exposure Triangle...ISO/F/stop/Shutter speed. Its important for macro shooting given you'll be a small f/stops...F11 to F32. Any entry level body will do. That said, in my mind "Live view" was made for macro shooters. Macro shooting should be done in manual focus and if your trying to get critical focus on some tiny thing, seeing it on the LCD rather than through the viewfinder makes that easier.....not to mention you can zoom in 5X and 10X to make sure critical focus is exactly where you want it. Lenses You dont have a huge budget, nor do you want to get"into" photography....Truth is, you may, once your up and running...Its addictive. Macro is just another word for close focusing. The closer you can get he end of the lens, the larger your flies will appear in your photos. The closer your lens te smaller your DoF. In my opinion a generic all purpose 70-300 will end up leaving you dissapointed eventully and you'll replace it. AT first you may love it but as you bcome more familiar, you'll realise its not doing what you want it to do. Its a fin all purpose lens for someone who doesnt want to "get into" it, its not going to be great for shooting your flies. I understand your on a budget but heres what I would do. Get a basic all purpose lens to use when at the zoo with the kids, fishing, birthday parties, whatever. Something like a 17-85 IS or 28mm to 105ish. Save a bit more and get the Sigma 105mm f2.8 macro. Its about half or 2/3s the cost of Canons 100mm f2.8 mcro and every bit as good. You shoudl be able to package that for around 1500 with and XTI or XSI.

Grats Jay. J

At first I felt the same about the video, still do mostly but it might be neat when shooting the kids at school plays, sprts etc. The Canon Japon site has same vids shot with the 85 f1.2. They look pretty darn good. lol, i suspect Id be lucky to get off that easy. 5D sample images. As an aside you'd think for such a highly regarded net "reviewer" he'd find things more interesting to shoot and in better light. Cest le vie. The ISO 2000 shots are wonderfully clean, 3200 to...Even teh 6400 looks good http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canoneos5dmarkii/page14.asp

I'm going to be sorely tempted. I'm going to be sorely tempted by the 50D to. And there are 2 more lenses Id like to own one day. A 500 f4 and 70-200 Grrrrrrrrrr. So ive been saving my pennies, waiting for the announcement to see if might help me decide which to get tis fall/winter and which gets shlelved for another year or 5 My heart wants to keep saving for the 500 f4. My Brain wants a second body. Its telling me now that getting assignments, selling things, etc a second body is not only prudent incase my main fails, there can be an advantage in swinging two bodies on a shoot premouned with different lenses...No more fooling around trying to dig out a lens and then switching lenses and then switching back to the workhouse after the few frames. Which second body? Hard to beat a 21MP FF that should be sweet upto ISO 3200 maybe 6400. I could mount the 24-70 on that and the 400 on the mkiin But then again Editors are always looking for nice shots of various game species...Some of which are difficult to approach...Monster Bucks, elusive Coyotes etc, etc. A 16mp 50D with the 400mm mounted has a native 1.6 cropy already compared the 1.3 on the 1D. At 16mp I could crop yet another 30% and still be left with a 10MP file...plenty for covers. The only downside to this is that the 50D wont AF with my 1.4 TC mounted on the 400mm. If I could use the 1.6 crop mounted with the 400 and the 1.4tc..... Grrrrrr. I hate this part of the buying process. Right now Im leaning towards the 5DMKii. Put my 500 dream on hold for some years. /cry

Duane its a Chukar. Heres the next frame after the "taking aim" The other shot is the same species, but from another sequence And heres a sligtly better look at one. Thanks all. Nice to see you drop by CB. Ive gota be in the Chattam area sometime in Oct/Nov for a couple days shooting . That anywhere near you?

Did the final day of a 3 day Bass Tourney this past weekend. Long day, left home at 4:30am, got home at 6:30pm. But I came home with a couple that are destined for my wall. It started early. The first guys started launching at 6am They kept luanching until a little past 6:30am Wating for "Blast Off" Blast off. Wasn't easy shooting into the light and being rocked by waves, but I could shoot these all day long. This is what 60 to 70mph looks like in chop at 1/100th Few shots from later in the day Lifes rough Playing to the crowd What its all about Hope you enjoyed the ride.

Its funny..maybe not..dunno. But talk to Ontario hunters and most pine about how much better the management of WTs in the states has been. Look at a map of Ontario and then look at NY,Maine,Ver etc. Yet, the WT populations in Ont are dwarfed by any 1 state. Then consider that the vast bulk of Ont is undeveloped and still for the most part "wild". Thats not to say Ont doesnt have big bucks. A new record was set last fall...22 pter if I recal. Just not as many. I forget the actual #'s but its staggering. If I cant get out with WT hunters Oct/Nov for some hunting imagery, and if I don't find any myself Im considering heading to Quebec or the US for a weekend maybe in Dec/Jan.

Lol Peter

Wish could join you for a week, would be cool. I'm doing my "homework" now trying to locate and do everything I can to find some big bucks. I've located 1 8 pter thus far. In 3 years I havent had luck finding big bucks. So this year I'm puttting even more effort into it. Picking brains, spending hours scouting, tlaking to Bow hunters etc etc. If Im lucky I'll get a nice big buck, in some pines during or just after a snowfall so theres some snow on the rack....Dreams and goals are nice it what drives us. I'll settle for a 12 or 14 pter wih a nice wide rack standing in the middle of the road though J

No kidding Jay. Ive been saving my coin. Not sure what for yet. 2nd body, 300 f2.8 or 500 f4. Been waiting for the announced 5d replacement. Not that Id rush out and buy, but just to help solidify my plan. So Id no if I wanted to spend 3500 for it or 2000 for the 5D or keep saving for a dream lens. I wasnt expecting this though Caught me by surprise and its just added another wrinkle for the reasons above. If I buy a 5D or new 5D my hopes for a 300 f2.8 or 500 f4 are pushed even further back aother year or three Instead of 1,2 or 3 years for the 500 maybe it 5 or 6 years . Now the brains thinking, well instead of FF for second body I buy a 50D (about $1,600 up here) and the 500 doesnt wait as long, only 4 or 5 years instead of 5 or 6. I shoulda married rich Think Paris Hilton would take me? Shes looking for a new BFF isnt she ************* Unless you have a pressing need to upgrade Jay keep the 40D. Its a great body and unless your AF demands are realy stringent (meaning 1D bodies) there shouldnt be one to upgrade. The 50D ISO and IQ from the new technology would have to be extraordinary to really make it worthwhile..I expect it to be good but not the best ting since sliced silicone. The 5Dii might be unreal being FF and on the same processor and technology...Remains to be seen though So while 50D has some nice additions,were it me Id not pay the coin to upgrade from a 40D. Maybe in a year or year and half. but by then the 60D will be coming out and buyers of the 50D this year will be in the same shoes as todays 40D owners. Its a cycle that keeps repeating.No sense playing into it unless its part of an upgrade plan and it fits.

Thanks All. Hope everyones summer was good. If your like me theres a small part thats glad its ending and that falls just around the corner. It doesnt hurt knowing the kids are bck in school next week either With luck the fall will be kind and I'll get just a fraction of the stuff thats running through my mind and on my "want" list. J

Going through the site, reorganising and deleting a few. Figured it was time to show some of what Ive been upto lately, that I haven't posted here. Spent some time up north Kids didsome Tubing Dad did some shooting. Rained alot. Amost every day. Made for some interesting albeit tough shooting. Loon in the rain Boys in the rain Back to the grind and sort of between seasons (fishing/hunting). Realy want to do some hunting photography this fall. Made contact with a game farm/dog training operation. Gonna be doing some pheasants there hopefully over the next couple months. Working dogs Cute Puppys Birds in trouble Tieing material Did some small stream fishing with a friend this week. We were after these Saw some sights Caught some jewels Along the way and as Aug has been kinda slow since getting back from holidays Im trying to put together a collecton of birds. But with a theme. This is very much a work in progressand has realy only just begun. In time I hope to have a nice library of them, replacing some as I get better images of any given species. Fishing Birds ( posted the Terns earlier) Loons Cormorants Osprey of coarse Black Crownd Night Herons And there you go, all caught up. 4 weeks of shooting, condensed into a short Septs around the corner and with it comes the close of regular trout season and the start of new seasons. Upland Waterfowl Bucks Hunting scenes Fall runs of Great lakes Chinnies,Browns and Bows hope to have em all by the end of Nov. Soon

Nice classics Jay. I like the first as well.

TG. Hense the common saying. Glass last/Bodies don't. Even if you drive what ever body you currently own into the ground and get years out of it and never feel the itch to upgrade. At some point it will fail. At the very least all DSLR shutters have a hard wired life expectancy. Entry level bodies are around 25,000 actuations, mid evels etc may be 50,000..Pro bodies range from 200,000 to 300,000. Is it worth spending $200.00 or $400.00 having the shutter replaced, when technological advancements are such that your body (while not physically) old are "old technology" and a new body while it will cost more will a) last you years and be "new". Anyone who wants to or has a DSLR should accept the fact and plan for upgrading their bodies. If you have something of a plan it wont hurt as much. Impulse buys will. Yesterday IMO the 40D represented absolutely fantastic great value. Are there better bodies? Absolutely But they cost more So has the 40D somehow started taking worse pictures today? The 50D is tempting. I'll be tempted by The need for a second body. This si something I want/need no matter which body it is. The 1.6 crop and 15MP, with 2 bodies I can use which ever is best suited to my needs. The ability to crop a 15mp file of some distant animal on top of having the 1.6 crop sensor and still be left with a 10 to 12 mp file is very appealing. If I want a wider frame I'll use the 1D and 24-70 and have the 1.6 crop mounted with a 400. If however I want to get a bird in flight, the 400 goes on the 1D. I'll be tempted by its high ISO potential and Digic 4 IQ. Gapless photons seems to be the thing there. Stil want to see what it can do though. Noise is largely a product of photon size. Even with the new photons will it compare to the larger 1.3 and FF sensors. Im also tempted by the micro adjustments possible with our lenses. Id love that on my 1D The 50D may have fast initial focus but I doubt (although it remains to be seen) that it will focus as fast as a 1DMKIIn or MKIII. Canons not going to piss off thousands of Professional Sports shooters by introducing a $1,300 body that focuses faster than a $5g MKIII. Especially in light of some of their complaints about the MKIII already Either way I think its safe to assume that all the major changes will also be incorporated into the new 5D (rumor is mid sept announcement). Up to now my plan was a FF for my second body. I can only imagine how clean the high iso images will look with this new technology on a FF sensor and wonder how many MP it will have. Probably overkill for me but a 5Dii mounted with a WA and the 1D with a 400mm tickles my fancy to. For example Im going to be doing some hunting stuff (ive already done a Upland game bird dy run). Id love to follow the hunters and dogs with *both* a 24-70 mounted for lanscape/hunter/dog/bird coming up out brush shots....and then grab the 1D with the 400 mounted for bird in flight isolation shots...Same with duck hunting, deer hunting....fly fishing.. etc And so the cycle starts over and the itch gets worse. As someone said, time to hide the credit cards If anyone is looking for value *afterwards* both the 40D and 5D should come down in price as a result and both are still damn good bodies.Nothings changed there. If you want a bargain or dont have the budget for bleeeding edge technology they should be worth strong consideration. I know if I dont feel like shelling out full price for either of the new cameras (I still want to save for a 500 f4 down the road a year or three) it will be one of these *cough* old bodies I look at...Probably the 5D

Nicely done Andrew. Using flash well can be intimidating. Still an area Im working on.

Your a few hours too early TG. Its out http://www.dpreview.com/news/0808/08082605canoneos50d.asp 15MP holy crap. Thats a hell of alot of MP for a 1.6 crop sensor. Wil be interesting to discover what theyve done to improve noise. Adding that many (a 50% increase) would normally mean.....more noise

Grats Will (and Will) great cover.

Looks good Matt. Only thing I might prefer is horizontal thumbnails vs double column vertical but thats a minor nit picking thing. J