Video and the DSLR

Video is the new excitement for the users of Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras. During the last few years the technology has improved to the point where the latest video capable DSLRs rival professional video cameras. You can easily do HD video without the necessity of buying another piece of equipment and having to carry it with you. A simple switch lets you convert back and forth between video and still photography.

Professional video companies are regularly using video equipped DSLRs for high end video productions. Parts, and in some cases, all of theater quality movies have been shot with them. Video pros like video DSLR as it allows them to use the wide variety of lens offered by companies like Nikon and Canon. It gives them to ability to be much more selective in their lens use which means more control over the look of the scene. For example, they use low light (fast) lenses to get more selective depth of field control or super-wide angle lenses for the special look they provided.

This two-in-one technology offers a great opportunity for the photographer who has not used video before and let's face it, there are just something that look better in video. There are just some stories that a still images can't communicate.

We were in Haines Alaska photographing bald eagles fishing the last salmon run of the year. One of the eagles picked up a fish that was too heavy for it and could not get enough lift to make a full take-off. Instead, it had to abort take-off and landed in the river. The eagle than began to use its wings to literally swim to the shore. I shot a number of still images of this event but Paula shot the action in video. The stills looked okay but really just showed an unremarkable image of the bird in the river. The video, however, was amazing . It told a much different, much more dynamic, story watching the big bird swim.

There are downsides to consider when using the DSLR as a video camera as well. I'll discuss a few of these in my next blog.

Good-by Kodak

Its always amazing how the mistakes of the few can effect so many. Just little over a decade ago Kodak was selling hundreds of million of rolls a film a year and was the master of the photographic world. Apple was a company on the edge of bankruptcy. Several weeks ago Kodak announced it was going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy around the same time Apple was again named the world's most valuable company.

Today, Kodak announced they were ending the manufacturing of digital cameras, video products, digital picture frames and other digital capture products. The company that literally invented digital imaging has left its market. Kodak will concentrate on licencing its name and intellectual products as did past photo giant Polaroid. Kodak's demise is attributable to its lack of vision and poor management just as Apple's success can be attributed to great management and the incredible vision of Steve Jobs. Kodak refused to believe that film was dinosaur and struggled to find itself in the new world order. Its a classical lesson in 21st century business management.

Its kind of sad to see a name you grew-up with, a giant of American industry, fade into the past. Yet on the other hand I remember well attending photo shows in the 80's and the Kodak reps would look down their noses at the photo world and scoff at the idea of giving away even a roll of their newest film to the mere mortals of the professional photography world.

There is an old expression to be careful who you alienate on the way up as you will have to pass them on the way down. Good-by Kodak.

Bosque 2012

Last week we completed our first Wildlife Photo Workshops of 2012. The workshop was The Birds of Bosque and it was run through Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. This is a "hybrid" workshop. We spend the first 3 days photographing the birds in Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Sanctuary in New Mexico. We than go to Santa Fe where we spend 2 days editing and printing the photos in the school's state-of-the-art digital lab.

Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife is the winter home of thousands of sandhill cranes, tens of thousands of arctic snow geese and a bevy of other species

Watching these thousands of explode into flight or fly-in for the night in the spectacular high desert sunset is really one of nature's more wondrous sights.

We had a great group for the workshop which ran from before sunrise to well into the evening. Everybody was there for every moment. The photographs the printed the last two day in Santa Fe were amazing especially when one considers that most of the participants had very little experience with nature photography or digital printing.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to All,

Paula and I would like to wish everybody a very Happy New Year and great photography in 2012. We will be leaving later this week to do a wildlife workshop for Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in Bosque del Apache. Bosque is a national wildlife sanctuary in New Mexico where tens of thousands of sandhill cranes and arctic snow geese winter. After 3 days of shooting at Bosque we drive to Santa Fe to spend 2 days printing in the schools state of the art digital lab.

We are also looking forward to three 2012 trips to Alaska as well as trips to the Tetons and Yellowstone. Hopefully we will also have time this year to finally explore more of Western Washington and the Olympic Peninsula.

The snow owls have been keeping us busy here. There are at least a dozen in one of the wildlife sanctuaries in Ocean Shores. Last week we saw and photographed eight in one area. Here is one of those images.