Crossing the Strait of Georgia on a BC ferry: muddy Fraser River waters
stream through the blue Salish Sea.
Waterfront walk in downtown Vancouver: Cactus Club Cafe. A moire
pattern is clearly visible on a close-up:
Moire pattern in a digital image captured with Nikon D7100
(no anti-aliasing filter).
Chinese Garden: a juvenile rat (likely a woodrat, native to British
Columbia) enjoying the greenery of this urban park.
Stanley Park: a habituated raccoon strolling down a walking path. It
stopped by to sniff my backpack for food. No luck.
May 21, 2013. Welcome
Home Celebration for Adam Kreek. On May 18, Whitehall
Rowing and Sail in Victoria, BC welcomed back Adam
Kreek, a Canadian 2008 Olympic gold medalist and a member of the rowing
team that was attempting earlier this year to cross the
Atlantic Ocean in a rowing boat.
Adam Kreek speaking at
Whitehall Rowing and Sail in Victoria, BC
The
team was close to completing the crossing
when rouge waves flooded and capsized the boat just 1,300 km from their
finish line in Miami. All team members have been rescued. Their rowing
boat,
James Robert
Hanssen,
carrying a precious cargo of science data, documentary video footage
and equipment has been recovered later. However, the boat search and
recovery costs have mounted.
The
team is accepting donations on Indiegogo
to help cover the costs, share the enormous amount of oceanographic
data and promote adventure and ocean conservation through
their
video records. There are only four days left before the Indiegogo
campaign is closed, so please help soon if you can!
Comments?
Let me
know.
April 7, 2013.
Back to the Basics in B&W. Last November, our
local photography group had the usual photo outing in Ross Bay Cemetery
area in Victoria BC. This place is very photogenic in the Fall, covered
with fallen leaves displaying a full range of autumn colours. However,
this time we had a challenge of capturing the essence of the season and
the spirit of the place in black and white, using B&W film and
all-manual cameras. Everyone could only have one roll of film and two
hours to make the best use of it.
Autumn Trees at Ross Bay Cemetery
Around twenty souls had accepted the challenge braving the rainy
forecast. It was a usual mix: from seasoned photographers, some
primarily working with the film, all way to young folks who had never
photographed with film cameras. Several participants had brought extra
film cameras to share, including one medium-format that was
particularly in demand. Switching from a digital to a film capture had
been challenging for people with no previous film experience. It was
particularly interesting to observe a first-time film shooter lifting a
camera in outstretched arms to compose a shot the usual way, on a
back-panel LCD, only to realize that the LCD was not there! At the end,
it had all worked out fine: our group had created many excellent images
despite the recurring drizzle.
Pumpkin Vase with Flowers
I photographed with my Nikon FM2n and a 24mm f/2.8 lens that was my
favourite for a one-lens setup. This lens was wide enough for landscape
images, yet the 0.3m focusing distance was short enough for
intimate shots of small subjects. It was good to get back to the
basics, especially being forced to slow down: with only 24 frames,
every shot counted. I was also thrilled that I could rely again on the
split-prism focusing screen to consistently produce razor-sharp images
even at f/2.8, as long as a subject was stationary. At the end, I was
pleasantly surprised that, out of 24, I had at least five good images,
worth
printing large: my success rate with digital cameras had not been that
impressive.
Would I come back to shooting film? Not likely: the digital capture
offers too many advantages that are hard to dismiss. However, I would
definitely want to keep shooting film, once in a while, as a
way of refocusing on the basics while removing the technological
noise. My shooting film experience was similar to what a city folk
would likely feel heading out into the wilderness, even for a few
hours. No
phone calls, no Internet, no flashing billboards: just the fundamentals
to reconnect to and to get reminded of what really matters in life.
Autumn Leaf in Ross Bay, Victoria BC
Comments? Let me
know.
March 12, 2013. Three
Days in Rainy, Stormy and Sunny Tofino. In early March, I
had joined a small group
of fellow photographers for a
three-day photo trip to Tofino -- a town on Vancouver Island's West
Coast in an area popular for surfing and nature watching. This was our
second Tofino outing: the previous
one, two years earlier, was full of surprises. We anticipated foul
winter weather and storm watching; instead, we got calm seas, blue
skies and spectacular sunrises and sunsets. This
time, the weather
forecast was more "promising" and diverse: 50+ mm of rain on Friday,
rainy Saturday and sunny Sunday. We left Victoria on Friday morning,
with the sun almost breaking through the clouds. However, very soon the
weather got back to what was expected: light rain started in Malahat,
becoming quite heavy by the time we had stopped at Coombs for lunch.
In warmer months, Coombs is a great place to check out goats grazing on
a grassy
roof. This time, however, they were likely on the ground level and
inside, away from the rain.
Spectacular
roadside waterfalls were greeting us along the Pacific Rim
Highway;
unfortunately, opening a car window even for a couple of seconds to
compose a shot was not wise. We arrived to Botanical Gardens
on
outskirts of Tofino in a downpour. After checking in Ecolodge, a
very pleasant hostel-like accommodation, a few of us had braved the
weather and went outside to explore the grounds and views from the
shore. On this walk, I photographed most of the time
with Nikon
V1 inside a water-proof Eva-Marine housing: it was too risky to expose
unprotected cameras to the rain for extended periods of time.
Nikon
V1 with 10mm F/2.8 Lens inside Eva-Marine Housing
Islands in
Browning Passage, Tofino. Nikon V1 with 10mm F/2.8 lens
Salal Bush on a Log,
Browning Passage, Tofino. Nikon V1 with 10mm F/2.8 lens
The
Saturday morning had treated us to more rain. There was no point in
leaving very early for a sunrise: the clouds were too thick and the
rain
quite persistent.
Rainy
Morning at Ecolodge, Tofino. Nikon D5000 with Nikkor 18-200 VR
lens
In
the morning, we concentrated on the north part of Chesterman Beach. I
had used a combination of Nikon V1 inside the housing and Nikon D5000
with Nikkor 18-200 VR lens under an umbrella. Winds had picked up by
late
morning making an umbrella impractical.
Wooden
Pilings on Chesterman Beach in B&W, Tofino. Nikon V1 with 10mm
F/2.8 lens
Surfer
Waiting for a Decent Wave, Chesterman Beach, Tofino. Nikon
D5000 with Nikkor 18-200 VR lens
By
early afternoon, the rain had ended. We had taken off to explore
Tonquin Beach, very close to downtown Tofino. A pleasant trail through
the soaked rainforest had lead us to the shore. The area was
just 1.5 km from downtown yet reasonably
wild: from now on it's a must if in Tofino with no car and only a
couple of hours to spare.
Tonquin Beach, Tofino. Nikon D5000 with Nikkor 18-200 VR lens
Sand Pool with a Rock,
Tonquin Beach, Tofino. Nikon D5000 with Nikkor 18-200 VR lens
Fungi after
Rain, Tonquin Beach Trail, Tofino. Nikon D5000 with Nikkor 18-200 VR
lens
The wind had increased and the cloud
cover was breaking by late afternoon. We had returned to Chesterman
Beach, this time to its south part, and photographed spectacular waves,
much appreciated by surfers and kiteboarders.
Stormy Waves, Chesterman Beach, Tofino. Nikon D5000 with
Nikkor 18-200 VR lens
Kiteboarder, Chesterman Beach, Tofino. Nikon D5000 with Nikkor
70-300 VR lens
Sun Breaking through the
Clouds, Chesterman Beach, Tofino. Nikon D5000 with Nikkor
70-300 VR lens
Unfortunately, the sun had set behind a thick layer of clouds denying
us a spectacle. We had returned to our lodging deciding to try our
luck on Sunday at sunrise.
The night was clear and by early Sunday morning we were already on a
pier in downtown Tofino, waiting for the sun to rise. This proved to be
a less than perfect location at this time of the year: the sun
was rising behind mountains that were also almost blocked from our view
by Esowista Peninsula. Still, I came back to Ecolodge with an
interesting image of a pier.
Pier
in Tofino. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-300 VR lens
The day was still young and we were
driving back to Victoria with multiple stops along the way. Numerous
observation points on the Pacific Rim
Highway made the scenic stops safe and convenient.
Snow-capped Mountain and
Clouds. Photographed from Pacific Rim
Highway. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-300 VR lens
Old Pilings in Kennedy
River in B&W. Photographed from Pacific Rim
Highway. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-300 VR lens
A must stop on a way from
Tofino to Victoria was the Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial
Park, a protected patch of old growth forest. As usual, it was full of
visitors. Some parts of trails were under water after heavy rains,
making them impassable without rubber boots. It was a sunny midday with
harsh shadows and bright spots -- a challenge if photographing trees.
With many images from the Cathedral Grove already in my portfolio,
this
time I had concentrated on smaller details.
Tree Roots in
B&W, Cathedral Grove. Nikon D700 with Tamron 28-75 F/2.8 lens
Cedar Branches, Cathedral
Grove. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-300 VR lens
Our last photo stop before arriving
to Victoria was at Qualicum Beach. It happened to be a peak of the
herring spawning in the area. The bay was full of fishing boats and
birds, and waters close to the shore almost white from the
milky herring sperm released in massive quantities to fertilize eggs
deposited on sea weeds. Definitely a spectacle not to be missed!
Herring
Spawning, Qualicum Beach. Nikon D700 with Nikkor
70-300 VR lens
In conclusion, this trip was very diverse and full of photographic
challenges, and rewarding opportunities. It was good that we already
knew the area taking advantage of weather patterns and
locations without wasting our time. We were also ready for the foul
weather and so could be outside photographing in the rain, at times
heavy. At the end, it was important to have a plan yet be flexible,
adjusting on the go. It was also important to stay open-minded taking
advantage of unexpected subjects and events. Finally, packing light and
carrying only a very limited set of cameras and lenses allowed us to
explore trails and beaches without a burden of heavy loads. Overall, a
well-rounded outing in a pleasant company, something hard to beat!
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February 7, 2013.
Lessons from Setting up a Photography Exhibition. Last
week, I have opened my new photography exhibition at
Saanich Municipal Hall -- Princess Royal Island: A National Treasure.
It took
me two
solo kayaking expeditions, more than two months in the wild,
to
properly
capture the essence of the place, and I wanted to share this in prints.
While preparing all my previous
exhibitions, I was either restrained
by group exhibit rules or utilized to various extent older prints,
already in
my inventory, of different sizes and often on different media. This
time, I had
started from scratch. The experience has been both refreshing and
educational,
and I would like to share it with you.
1.
Size and medium. This was an easy part. The main
exhibition space was limited to an L-shaped 16 + 7 feet
wall, 7 feet in height (roughly 5 + 2 x 2 metres). I knew that images
of nature would look great
if printed large. And so my choice was to reduce the number of
photographs but print
them as large as I could without going to a commercial lab. The maximum
paper
size accepted by my printer was 17x22”. However, most of my photographs
had
retained the standard proportion of the 35mm film (1:1.5), and the
largest
available cut paper for my printer in this form factor was 13x19”. Princess Royal Island is in the
Pacific
temperate rain forest ecoregion, with the emphasis on the rain.
To my taste, misty images looked especially compelling when printed on
matte
paper.
2.
Framing. I had opted for a set of 18x24” black metal
exhibition
frames. They looked sophisticated yet nonintrusive and allowed
replacing the prints easily -- great for reusing the frames for other
shows. I had to order custom mats:
the standard ones, advertised for 13x19” prints, had an opening
slightly larger
than my printed images. A custom 12x18” opening that I had requested
was nearly perfect, giving a few mm margin on each side. I had ordered
conservation mats and backing, said to last at least 80 years without
affecting
artwork, exceeding the Wilhelm Imaging Research permanence rating of 76
years for my paper & ink combination,
when framed under glass.
3.
Narrowing down the selection. This was the most difficult
part, as I could only exhibit about a dozen of prints. I had initially
managed to get to 144, then down to 42 images. Going every
step further was progressively more difficult: the emotional attachment
was
getting in the way, clouding an objective judgment. I had found that
the best way
to handle this was by asking for an external opinion from trusted
sources. With their invaluable help I had reduced my selection to 14
(and thereafter down to twelve printed and eleven displayed).
4.
Printing. I have noticed that, no matter how well the
monitor
is profiled, it is next to impossible to get the image brightness
right,
unless the light level in the computer room is unchanged throughout the
day. My solution was index prints. After making preliminary brightness
adjustments, I had printed all images on one letter-sized sheet of the
same paper that I was going to use for large prints. While images
printed that small did not show fine details, they were good
enough to judge an overall level of brightness. After making a second
round of adjustments, I had made another index print. Two iterations
were
sufficient for selecting brightness levels and getting the
large prints
done right.
5.
Hanging. I had prepared ten horizontals for the
main gallery and two verticals for an area inside an office on another
floor. Once on site, I had discovered that I could not actually hang
all ten horizontals, as the wall had a round protruding fixture
sticking out where the print supposed to be, something I had missed
when surveying the area a couple of weeks earlier. With one
print removed, we had arranged the remaining nine both thematically and
matching brightness and colours whenever possible. We had found a use
for the wall space around the fixture by hanging my bio and an
exhibition description above and below. After the work was completed, I
quite liked how a simple line of large prints of the same size and
style told the story without confusing and overcrowding.
6.
Some of the Lessons learned:
- No computer/tablet can convey the power of large prints,
displayed properly.
- More does not necessary mean better: the nine prints on
display at the main gallery were sufficient to tell the story.
- Megapixels are not THAT important: I could not see any
difference between six, ten and twelve megapixel prints at this size. I
doubt I
would be able to tell them apart even if printed significantly larger,
assuming that the
images were properly resampled.
- High ISO is OK. The highest ISO setting was 4000
(that image was taken with a full-frame 12MP DSLR). After some noise
reduction and moderate sharpening in
the Lightroom, the printed image looked quite clean. Which one? I will
let you
guess.
- When in doubt, ask someone trusted but not
emotionally connected to have an unbiased look.
Here is a link
to the online version; however, I hope that some of you will
manage to visit the exhibition in person and appreciate the power of
large prints!
Finally, my big thanks to everyone
who has helped with selecting the images and setting up the exhibition,
including, in chronological order: Victoria Photography
Meetup, Mike
Nelson Pedde, Virginia
Hutzuliak and Sun Marshall (Saanich Arts and Recreation
Marketing)
Comments?
Let me
know.
January 16,
2013: What Nikon Lens in the 70-200mm Range? Recently,
Nikon has announced a new lens: the
AF-S
70-200mm F/4.0 VR.
The initial tests and reviews are quite encouraging; it is likely that
this lens is close in terms of image quality to the well
regarded
AF-S
70-200mm F/2.8 VR II,
while being cheaper, lighter and more portable. This brings a question:
Should one consider getting this lens instead one of the two already
available telephoto alternatives in the Nikon lens lineup: the
AF-S 70-200mm F/2.8 VR II and the
AF-S
70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 VR? In my view, it all comes down to how
desperately one needs to shoot at F/2.8, and how limiting is the budget.
Some
years back, I needed a telephoto lens in this focal range for
my
lightweight expedition photography. The 70-200 F/4.0 was not an option
at that time, and I had settled on the 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 VR lens. It
is much smaller, two times lighter and about four times cheaper than
the 70-200mm F/2.8 VR II lens. Over the years, the 70-300mm lens has
served me well. I have taken thousands of images, including some of my
favourites.
Chesterman Beach Sunset
with Birds and Rock, West Coast of Vancouver Island, 230mm at F/14
Close up Portrait of a Harbour Seal, Victoria BC, 140mm at F/8
However,
like everything in our lives, this lens is a compromise. While I have
saved on size, weight and price, I have lost in the low light
performance. Its largest aperture ranges from F/4.5 at 70mm to F/5.3 at
200mm (and to F/5.6 at 300mm, but this focal length is beyond the scope
of this post). Moreover, to get a good sharpness across the frame, I
usually have to stop down to at least F/5.6 at 70mm and to F/8.0 at
200mm. So, in a nutshell, I have a 70-200mm F/5.6-8.0 lens (with an
option to go to 300mm). For comparison, both the F/2.8 and the F/4.0
versions of the 70-200mm lenses are already sharp wide open and can be
safely used at their widest apertures. In practical terms, stopped down
at the 200mm focal length, the 70-300mm lens is two stops slower than
the 70-200mm F/4.0 and three stops slower than the 70-200mm F/2.8.
Just
how much difference the three stops make? During my most recent
wilderness expedition to the temperate rainforest, on one
occasion
I was shooting next to a photographer who was using a 70-200mm F/2.8
lens. It was inside a dark forest, drizzling, yet we were photographing
a fast moving bear and needed all the shutter speed possible to get
sharp images. I could only shoot at an ISO of up to 6400 (the highest
ISO setting in my camera providing an acceptable level of image
quality) and this was limiting me to a shutter speed of 1/320
sec, while the other photographer had an advantage of shooting
at
a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec and an ISO of around 2500. The outcome?
He was getting sharp, moment-freezing and much cleaner images, while
mine were blurred if the bear was moving faster than at a slow stroll.
If
I had the 70-200 F/4.0 lens at that time, I would have
gained two
stops and could have bumped up the shutter speed to the acceptable
1/1000 sec, and reduce the ISO to around 5000: not as clean as the ISO
2500, but still better than the 6400.
To sum up, if the low
light performance is an overriding priority, there is no choice but to
go for the 70-200 F/2.8 lens. If one is photographing in a better
light, or if a fast shutter speed is not that critical, the new 700-200
F/4.0 lens seems to be a very good, more portable and less expensive
alternative. Finally, if the price is an overriding priority, the
70-300 is still a reasonable option, as long as one is aware of its
limitations.
I have recently acquired the 70-200 F/2.8 VR II
lens, and I intend to use in extensively in the rainforest, adding
teleconverters if a longer reach is needed. One more reason,
besides the F/2.8 aperture, was guiding my decision to buy this lens.
Both the 70-200 F/2.8 and the F/4.0 lenses have an internal zoom,
meaning that the lens does not contract/extend when being
zoomed
in/out. In contrast, a barrel of the 70-300 lens extends while zooming
out, capturing the moisture and taking it inside when the lens is
zoomed in. In the damp and often rainy rainforest it is
usually
just a question of a few hours, sometimes much less, before this lens
gets fogged inside, even when utilizing a rain cover. Then it is either
changing the lens or packing up and getting to a dry place, and
letting the lens breathe for hours. By contrast, with no extending
parts and also additional weather sealings, both 70-200 lenses should
be much better performers in a damp environment.
Comments?
Let me
know.
January 13, 2013: A Few Simple Steps To Improve Bokeh.
First, a few words about bokeh. Essentially, bokeh is the way the out
of focus areas are blurred in the photographs. Often, we prefer a
smooth and non-distracting blur, so that the background blends
emphasizing the main subject.
The main decisions that affect bokeh are
choosing
the subject, choosing the background, positioning the subject against
the background, choosing the lighting and selecting the depth of field.
I have described the choices that I have made on my last photo walk in
the following narrative.
After
a prolonged period of rains, we have enjoyed a few sunny
days here in Victoria, an unusual treat in winter months. I have
visited a local park a couple of times
soaking up the sun while it lasted and looking for interesting subjects
for my photography. Initially, I headed for the most easily accessible
but also most diverse part of the park. I was not the only one enjoying
the sunny outdoors there: a
usual mix of birders and photographers, joggers and walkers filled in
the park with human presence and noises. Then a flock of young mothers
with toddlers had entered the park chatting their
lives away,
seemingly oblivious to the sunshine, the beauty of nature around
them and everything else, leaving unanswered friendly greetings from
bypassers.
With this part of the park getting overcrowded,
distracting me from the nature photography, I had decided to explore
grassy areas out of the main path. The
afternoon sun was bathing dry grasses in golden light, and I
wanted to capture this in my photographs.
My first
step was to
select
a subject, a stand-alone grass head, so its is not
competing for
attention with other nearby grasses. Soon, I had identified a couple of
candidates. I then started
searching for
a background
that I had in mind: a field of dry grass a bit away from my main
subject, providing a pleasant colour and texture without blending with
the subject. After finding a promising bed of grass, I had
positioned
the subject against the background by moving my camera
around until finding a suitable composition, and took a picture
below:
Grass Head, 105 mm lens
at f/6.3
In
this first image, taken with a 105 mm lens at f/6.3, the
background was very distracting, as the depth of field was not shallow
enough. Two choices had affected
the depth of
field
in this image: the focal length and the aperture. The longer the focal
length of the lens at any given
aperture with a distance to the subject unchanged, the more shallow is
the depth of field (the area in front and behind the subject appearing
to be in focus), and the more blurred
the out of focus areas are. The 105 mm telephoto lens was a reasonable
compromise. This focal length offered an angle of view wide enough to
fill the whole grass head in the frame, yet the focal distance was long
enough to offer a shallow depth of field and blur the background. I
could reduce the depth of field further by
photographing at a
large aperture, and that was what I did in the next image, taking it
with a wide open lens (f/2.8):
Grass Head, 105 mm lens
at f/2.8
The
background looked much better; however, it was still too distracting,
as the grasses did not blur and blend well enough. In
addition, patches of ice and water on the ground had created
large
dark areas. I had decided to try another grass head about a meter away,
with a less distracting background. This time, I had also positioned my
camera lower, pointing it slightly upward. Now, the whole background
was formed by stems of grass only, with no ice or water
patches
visible. To improve the bokeh further, I had to move my camera closer
to the subject. The higher the subject magnification, the more shallow
is the depth of field, and this move had finally helped me achieve the
smooth background texture that I was looking for:
Final Image: Grass Head
in the Late Afternoon Sun, 105 mm lens at f/2.8
Note my
choice of the lighting:
the front light of the soft late afternoon sun evenly covered the grass
head giving it a warm and slightly golden tone, while a distant grass
bed, also lit with the sunlight and displaying similar colours, is far
enough to let the grass head on the foreground to stand completely
apart. In this direct front light, the bokeh would not have been that
smooth if the background had some reflective surfaces (for example,
water drops on grass leaves and stems): it would have been full of
bright round objects, possibly sparkles, circles or donuts.
Finally,
one more factor is affecting bokeh: a mechanical design of a
lens.
Some lenses, due to the number of blades in their aperture diaphragms
and other design choices, produce better (more "creamy") bokeh than
others. These are often the most sought after lenses, sold at higher
prices and a prime choice of portrait and macro photographers.
Comments?
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know.
Copyright © 2009-2013 Mikhail Belikov. All rights reserved.
