DigitalPro Shooter Volume 2, Issue 11, September 1st, 2003
Welcome to DPS 2-11: In this issue I'll tell you all about my real world experiences editing images in the field away from my PC in "Chimping to the Max". But first I wanted to let you know about a special Fall color photo trip and some other great upcoming opportunities to learn about photography and do some shooting:
I love photographing in Northern Michigan, especially when Fall is bringing out the best colors. This year I'm hoping to share the experience with some of you by offering a Seminar & Day Shoot in Paradise on the Upper Peninsula on October 10th & 11th.
We'll start on Friday evening with a talk and slideshow on landscape photography. Saturday we'll be out before dawn and work through the morning at scenic locations in the surrounding area. We'll pick locations based on the weather and how the color is coming along, but there are plenty to choose from!
Then, after a lunch where we can all compare notes about what we captured and what we learned there will be an optional afternoon "hands-on" session where those shooting digital can review and edit their images. I'll offer some customized instruction on digital workflow and Photoshop techniques for making the most of your images--for both Raw and JPEG shooters. For more information and to register, see the Cardinal Photo Events page.
I'll be speaking & presenting a slideshow on working with biologists at BABP the evening of December 3rd. For anyone in town this is an open meeting and very informative for anyone interested in using their wildlife photography to assist biologists.
Grizzly Bears and Puffins will be the theme of my talk and slideshow on January 8th at the Sequoia Audubon. Featuring images from around the Cook Inlet you'll learn about the animals, the area, and how best to capture them in photographs. Plenty of Bald Eagles too! For more information.
I'm excited to be the Guest Speaker & Shooter at the March 7-10, 2004 DLWS in Yosemite--one of my favorite places to photograph in Spring. Hosted by Moose Peterson and Vincent Versace, I had a blast as the guest shooter at the first ever DLWS in Arches National Park this Spring and am excited about doing it again. You can register on Moose's site. Make sure and tell him I sent you!
Without out a doubt this is my favorite week of the year and the most popular photo safari as well. As usual, I'll be in Alaska in July leading a group photographing those gentle giants, Alaskan Brown Bears, and the always frenetic Horned and Tufted Puffins. I'll have more details in a month or two, but since the trip always sells out, I wanted to make sure readers had a chance to get it on their calendars and an opportunity to pre-register.
I'll be teaching a hands-on Seminar (classroom and fieldwork) on Vacation & Travel photography for the Sierra Photographic Institute in 2004. We'll publish the dates in DPS when they're finalized. In the meantime, check out their website for the great curriculum that they've put together.
With all the interest in various portable storage devices the most frequent question from readers has become whether they can replace laptops for editing in the field. After my experience with the original Digital Wallet I knew I didn't want to use one that lacked an LCD. But what about the new crop of devices that have LCDs. How useful could they be?
Well, I didn't have a Nixvue or FlaxTrax handy to review, but I did have access to a very nice Dell Axim X5 PocketPC with a nice little LCD display (240 x 320, 16-bit color TFT) and a CompactFlash card slot. It was trivial to take the card from my camera and put it in the PocketPC to look at the images. The good news first. The LCD on the Dell is far superior to the one on the camera--as you might expect. And with viewing software it is possible to zoom in on a piece of the image to check it for focus.
But the bad news is that I didn't feel at all certain that I could properly evaluate images for critical sharpness or tonal quality on the LCD. I could reject images that were clearly out of focus or blurred, but in many cases I had to re-review the images on my laptop before making a final decision. In bright light even this task was difficult, but indoors or in the shade I could at least get some idea of which were usable images.
The Axim, even though at 400MHz it is one of the fastest PocketPC implementations, suffers from a noticeable lag when loading images. Some of that is of course the flash card speed and some is the processor.
For me, this experiment means I'll keep lugging my laptop computer along whenever I can. I was hoping I could use a PDA sized device for image review while in the field or stuck waiting around. Unfortunately it looks like that won't be possible with the current generation of PDAs and software. I'll pass along additional ideas or results as they occur, and of course if you've had a different experience, please join us on the DigitalPro forums and let us what worked and didn't work for you.
Be sure to check out the September issue of Outdoor Photographer. Moose and I both have articles on shooting digital in the issue. Moose talks about digital workflow and my article will help you decide whether Raw or JPEG is right for you!--David