Katahdin

While Mt. Washington (New Hampshire) is the highest peak east of the Mississippi, the terrain of Mt. Katahdin (Maine) is clearly the most challenging “hiking” that I have ever seen (excluding technical “rock climbing”). Before hiking up to the Knife Edge via the Dudley Trail, I thought perhaps carrying a tripod might be a hinderance, so I left it at camp. In retrospect, this was a prudent choice; the Dudley is more rock climbing than hiking. I am not typically afraid of heights, but this trail gave me the creeps!

Atop the Dudley Trail is the infamous Knife Edge between Pamola Peak and Baxter Peak. Having now personally traversed the Knife Edge, I must tell you that words cannot do it justice. It is the most dramatic landscape I have ever seen in the northeast USA; beyond that, I am at a loss for words.


It is widely reported that Mt. Washington is home of the world’s worst weather. Truthfully, many mountains have the same weather; they just don’t have an observatory at the summit to record the facts. At Katahdin, when the weather turned bad, I left and went home.
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Backpacking and Photography

Carrying a lot of heavy camera equipment on an overnight hiking trip … is a little crazy. It’s just too much weight. For a three-day backpack trip, you might need to carry 35 to 40 pounds of food, clothes, and camping equipment. Add to that 8 to 12 pounds of cameras and lenses, then another 8 pounds for a tripod, you are then carrying 60 pounds. I do not recommend it. That being said, I will do it on occaision to photograph remote locations.

But how to carry all this stuff? “Photo backpack” sounds perfect, but truthfully, these things are designed to carry camera equipment and not much else. Photo backpacks cannot carry all the food, clothing and camping equipment for overnight trips. A hiker’s backpack is necessary. I use a large backpack, stuff a camera bag inside of that, then make daytrips from camp, carrying only the smaller photo bag.

In the past, my camera bag on these trips has been a waist pack plus a small day pack. In fact, the LowePro Orion AW actually comes with both (at least mine did years ago). The waist pack allows fast access to camera equipment without removing a pack from my back.
For my upcoming trip, I will be using a Kata 3N1. This bag quickly converts from a two-shoulder backpack to a one-shoulder sling. On top of that, it has a small compartment at the top, just big enough for lunch and a jacket. Compared to the Orion AW waist bag, the small 3N1-10 is about the same capacity, while the larger 3N1-30 has twice the capacity and still provides fast access to equipment.

My large backpack is an old Kelty Super Tioga external frame pack. Because most hikers today use internal frame packs, most don’t realize that an external frame pack is still a good option in some cases. Some people seem to believe that external frame packs are relics from WWI and no longer manufactured today. Of course, this is false. Just as an example, the ancient and venerable Super Tioga lives on in 2009, though the name has changed. I recently ordered a replacement hip-belt for my Super Tioga, which simply is not possible with an internal frame pack.
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Custom Photo Book

Years ago, I collected a series of photographs into a photo book, just a few copies for family. I printed the images myself on double-sided photo paper using a photo-quality inkjet printer. The book covers I made by hand from heavy weight board and book cloth from a local arts supply house. It was a very personal gift and I would have made more if it were not so labor intensive.

Today, making a custom photo book is much easier. Several online photo services provide the ability to layout the book and upload it for printing. I chose MPIX, having compared their product to a competitors product. The resulting book looks terrific. But what really amazed me was how fast MPIX produced my book. It was in my hands just 24 hours after I uploaded it! They printed the book and bound it within a few hours and shipped it the same day.

Creating your own custom photo book is so simple anyone can do it. There are varying options such as size, choice of paper, hardcover vs softcover. My book project included 20 images, 10×10 inch pages and a black hard cover with soft suede-like feel, for just $30. Adding a couple lines text to the cover cost an additional $7, which seems like a lot of money when you consider that this is almost %25 the cost of the book it is printed on. Alternatively, a hard cover with photo on it is $50 total for the book. Soft cover with photograph on it is less expensive.
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Wedding shoot

Having been making photographs for many years, most of my work has relied upon available light. However, in photographing a wedding yesterday, I employed some artificial lighting techniques.

I rented a PocketWizard remote flash setup and also a better flash than what I own, both from LensProToGo. Unfortunately, testing the equipment the evening before the wedding, the PocketWizard transmitter failed. While this is certainly not as bad as discovering a failure an hour before a shoot, it was stressful none the less. Fortunately, I was able to make a long detour on my way to the wedding and pickup a replacement from LensProToGo. The moral of that story is: make sure to get rental equipment in your hands (and test it) a few days in advance of your shoot; if there is any problem, your supplier has time to ship you a replacement

During the actual wedding ceremony, I relied upon available light. After the ceremony, with more time and freedom of place, we staged some photographs with the bride, groom, wedding party and parents. For these staged shots, I primarily chose electronic flash bounced off a reflective panel. A small light source (e.g. flash pointed directly at your subject) can be harsh with specular highlights and hard-edged shadows; the reflective panel creates a larger light source, which creates for a more gentle light, reducing specular highlights and softening shadow edges. Having the flash on a remote stand allowed me to change my camera position without needing to move the reflector.

It was a very lonnng and tiring day. Late at night, reviewing the images on the camera LCD, there were definitey some issues, but I was most concerned with apparent bluriness. However, the images looked much better once I got them onto a desktop computer display.

For information on wedding photography, I recommend the training videos by David Ziser at KelbyTraining.com. KelbyTraining allows anyone to sample the first few video chapters for free; subscribe as a member to see all chapters.

Tripods – is Good and Inexpensive possible ?

You can find tripods in any department store that sells cameras. You might find a good tripod, though perhaps the odds are against you. You can find tripods in any specialty camera store; these are a bit different than the department store variety and they can be far more expensive.
A couple years ago, I went hunting for a good tripod around $100; here is what I found.

There is one quality that a tripod must have above all else; it must be sturdy. While this might seem a good opportunity to denegrate a lot of department store tripods, I am not going to to that. Why? Because “sturdy” means one thing if your camera weighs 10 lbs and means something quite different if your camera weighs 10 oz. A tripod of the department store variety is typically intended for lightweight cameras. For the intended camera, some of these tripods can be quite sturdy, while others simply defy the notion of “sturdy” no matter the camera. Decades ago, my first tripod could be readily described as flimsy; the parts were not fitted together with any precision to prevent the parts from moving about. Without comparing it to other tripods, I knew no better. Of course, there is an argument to be made that any tripod is better than no tripod at all.

The second quality I look for in a tripod is good control of the camera movement. Camera movement is a funciton of the tripod head, as opposed to the tripod legs. The two most common types of tripod heads are the ballhead and the tilt & pan head. Tilt & pan heads are often referred to as video heads because they are particularly useful for video cameras. These heads have long handles attached so you can pan and tilt the camera very smoothly without jerky motion. Ballheads are more compact, basically a ball and socket with one knob that loosens/tightens it. Loosen it and the ball can move in any direction, forward, backward, side to side. A good quality ballhead will have a tension adjustment to prevent the camera from suddenly falling to one side when you loosen the ball. A bigger ball will support a heavier camera compared to a smaller ball. A bigger ball will move more smoothly than a smaller ball. A bigger ball usually has a bigger price tag.

Good tripods are often sold in two separate pieces, the head and the legs. The connection point between the two is a simple screw afixed into the top of the legs. While European tripods may use a different standard, there are two english measurment standards for tripod screw mounts, 1/4 inch and 3/8 inch. If you buy the head and legs separately, just make certain that the mount is compatible. Some tripods sold with both legs with head actually have a detachable head, which gives you the option of upgrading the parts later. Simply be aware of which screw size is used. If it has a 1/4 screw mount, that does not necessarily mean you cannot use a tripod head with 3/8 screw mount. You can employ a 1/4 to 3/8 adapter. However, a set of legs with 1/4 screw mount is intended for smaller cameras; I recommend that you don’t put a 10 lb camera on a set of legs that is not designed for that much weight.

For hundreds of years, tripod legs have been made from wood and these are still available today. However, most legs today are made from aluminum. Innovations over the past 10 years have led to the use of other materials such as carbon fiber. Regardless of the material used, most tripods are adjustable in size for simple reason of portability. A common design consists of sections of tubing that fit within each other like a telescope. When the legs are completely stowed, the tripod has a minum height. This measurement is important for reasons of portability, particularly if you intend to carry your tripod onto an airplane. Fully extended, each tripod has a maximum height. Most people will want a tripod that is tall enough such that you need not bend over to look through your camera’s view finder. Two tripods with the same maximum height may have very different minimum height. In particular, if the tripod legs are each comprised of four sections, this will typically collapse to a size that is significantly smaller than tripod legs having only three sections or two sections.

So here was my task; find a good tripod, not too expensive, nothing too fancy, too heavy or too expensive. Considering the particular photographer, this would be her first tripod; while I insist upon a quality product, I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars.

From my own experience, Gitzo tripods are superb. Unfotunately, the cost was a higher than I was intending to spend.

One of the most respected names in tripods is Manfrotto. Manfrotto model 190 was just the right size, with easy-to-use lever locks to extend the legs, 3 leg sections. Legs adjust to 4 different angles and will drop flat to the ground (for ground level photography) with use of a piece (included) that acts as a center-column replacement. Leg tubes are somewhat triangular, stronger than simple round tube. Cost is $125 with no head. Adding the cost of a separate tripod head, this was not inexpensive.

Manfrotto did offer less expensive tripods but they all seem to include a permanently attached head and are rated to support only 2-4 lbs. This might be acceptable for the particular photographer I was shopping for, but I felt that it was a undesirable compromise for anyone using an SLR camera.

You will find Slik tripods in department stores as well as specialty camera stores. Slik model 330 and 340 seemed pretty good, but I felt that the leg-locking levers are too small / under-designed. The model 500 corrects this, but is a significantly larger tripod. Levers are better on Calumet. I believe the included head is removable/replacable.

Giotto has been offering tripod products for a few years; a relative newcomer compared to Manfrotto and Slick. Excellent quality. Better legs than Calumet. However, legs are extended using a twist lock similar to Gitzo and I think lever locks better for a new photographer. Furthermore, each takes 3 turns to lock/unlock, whereas Gitzo is only 2 turns. Extending the Giotto is tedious.

Giotto ballheads, purchased separately, were also very good quality; includes tension adjust. Hoever, the ballhead cost $90 without quick-release and $120 with quick-release; so the combined cost of the legs plus the head was a bit too much.

Tilt-all has made photography products for decades. Unfortunately, the tripods I saw were unacceptable. Every part had a cheap finish and the twist-locks on the legs were lousy.

Induro tripods looked interesting on-line, but I could not find these products in any local stores.

In the end, I found a clear winner … Calumet. Similar to the Manfrotto 190, but the legs were constructed from cheaper thin-wall round-tube aluminum. Legs were locked/unlocked via easy-to-use lever locks. Four leg sections instead three (so collapses smaller). Legs adjust to 3 different angles. Though the center column prevents it from going flat to the ground, the bottom half of the center column can be removed or the entire column can be inverted. Includes a pan-tilt head with quick-release; and the head can be replaced with a good ball head (1/4 inch thread). Three year warranty. Cost $50, wow! I would have expected $90. I bought it.

In a later post, we’ll take a closer look at ballheads.