Grand Canyon Sunset from Desert View

The New Cameras...

It's been a big year for some of the camera manufacturers. They've been busy pushing the envelop with new sensors and new bodies plus more than a few new and exciting lenses. Canon fired the first shot with the 5DS(R) cameras containing a mind boggling 50 megapixel sensor. The photos are amazing and I think many serious Canon shooters have already made the transition. However, the sensor does have some serious noise issues (as do all Canon sensors) and the files are very large. This is a tripod only camera for in-studio use and for dedicated landscape photographers who are comfortable with that. Not good for action and, seriously, only outputs HD video ... when many in the world are already shooting 4K resolution. Hope that's just a software issue and not a limitation on the hardware because Canon, who really pioneered video from DSLR cameras, is now behind the 8 ball on that score. Then came Sigma ... yes, Sigma ... who are creating a whole new line of lenses called the ART series and these are really good glass. I think they just introduced a new zoom but the primes are truly amazing. I'm looking at the 24mm f/1.4 for astro work and it's as good as the much more expensive Canon offering. At less than $900 it's a real bargain. On my wish list as I write this. Then Sony came out with the new A7R ii and it too is an amazing camera. A forest of new features including 5-axis in-camera stabilization, 399 cross focus points so the camera can track action, a new back-lit sensor that is very low noise and sensitive and has 42 megapixels and 14 stops of dynamic range at low ISO. Almost ... and I say that with great hesitation ... almost a perfect camera. But there are increasing reports of overheating when recording 4K in-camera video (4.2.0 which isn't great but a first for a mirrorless camera none the less and 4.2.2 to an external recorder). Not a good thing if you plan to use this camera as a backup or primary when recording interviews or other long time sequences. Seems the problem is so bad the camera shuts down after 15-20 minutes even in a cool environment. If I was primarily planning to shoot video I'd bypass this camera but I'm not ... I'm shooting high resolution, high dynamic range stills mostly so I don't think this is an issue for me. So, as I type this the A7R ii is on my wish list too. It's not cheap ... only a few hundred below the Canon 5DS so I'll be selecting based on performance and how clean the images are. Oh ... and Sony has a lossless compression in the mix so that's also an issue. Why, I wonder, would they go to all the trouble of developing this amazing sensor and then crap all over it with a lousy compression algorithm? Rumor has it they've been listening to the wailing and are working on a new software fix to give users the option of getting the 14 bit RAW right from the sensor as an option. I hope so. Even if it slows down the shooting speed a bit. Please, give us the RAW data ... we can handle it.

Grand Canyon Sunset from Desert View

As you enter the south rim of the Grand Canyon on Rt. 64 there's a campground called Desert View. In the early days they constructed an observation tower on the rim so you could see the Colorado River deep in the canyon. It's a much quieter place than Grand Canyon City further to the west and the views are even more spectacular. I spent several days there, capturing sunsets and the amazing beauty of the canyon. This image was taken from a vantage point to the east of the tower and shows the river and red bluffs in beautiful detail. This is, of course, an HDR panorama. If you haven't been to Desert View, I strongly encourage you to make a stop the next time you're in the area. You won't be disappointed.

Grand Canyon Sunset - 16mm(1.6 crop), f/18, HDR, ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Golden Gate Bridge

Where am I?

I'm not ignoring you ... I'm just off doing other things. I have a family that needs some attention from time to time and I'm still working on that software project. Plus I'm starting to think through what I want to do on the next cycle which starts probably after the new year. I'm thinking hard about spending a long time in and around LA to work on my timelapse video and then what do I do? I don't want to be driving nearly as much as I did last time ... almost 10k miles and a lot of money. This time I want to be more localized and concentrate on southern California. I think that's possible. And since I want to do a nighttime video I can sleep during the day and avoid most of the issues around night camping and rule breaking. There's lots of issues to be resolved and plans to be made so I'll be busy for the next 4+ months. I'll still try to cull my photos so there's a constant stream of new images but I have other fish to fry too so bear with me while this gets done.

Golden Gate Bridge at Night

I spent a total of 2 days in San Francisco. I've already explained why I cut my stay short so I won't bore you repeating the obvious. I spent almost all that time around the bridge as it's the most obvious landmark in SF. Such an amazing construction and one of the few man made structures that actually enhances it's environment. The guy who designed it made a really excellent choice with the color ... international orange ... which lets the bridge stand out from it's surroundings while actually complementing the colors of the hills and city. A true work of art. And, if you've noticed, one of the few human constructions that appears in my pictures.

It wasn't easy taking this panorama. I had originally hoped to take this picture from the highest observation point in the park but fog got in the way. I was parked high above the bridge, awaiting sunset and the chance to take some really awesome pictures but, as is often the case in northern California, the afternoon fog rolled in and pushed the ceiling down until the bridge disappeared totally from this vantage point. I was forced to work my way down the observation overlooks as the ceiling fell until I was pinned at the lowest observation point. But the insults weren't finished yet. Every time I got out of my truck to set up, some clown would pull into the parking area and leave his lights on so my shots were ruined. Finally, in total frustration, I crawled into my truck and hunkered down until very late ... almost midnight ... when all the gawkers had finally gone home to bed and I had the place all to myself. Fortunately, the fog remained just above the tops of the bridge stanchions so I could see the red fog lights and traffic flowing across the span. It's a very nice picture but not perfect. The fog and mist gives all the lights a halo which is both nice and not so good. Also, some of the sections are a bit overexposed. I plead to frustration ... after all the negative pressure going back many hours I was just rushing to get any image and get back into my truck. At midnight it's really cold and raw up in those hills and standing outside for long periods trying to get the perfect picture is very uncomfortable. If I get back there this next cycle I'll do better ... I promise.

Golden Gate at Night - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/11,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Shiprock Sunrise

There's More to Life Than...

It's been a while since my last post. I've been busy with other things. I'm working a lot on my software project ... an application to help me remove flicker from my timelapse sequences. You've seen the flicker ... the video looks like something from the old hand cranked camera days with each frame having a different brightness. It can be very disconcerting to see something like that in a modern sequence and I work very hard to avoid getting that effect. Sometimes it's impossible to avoid like taking a sequence of images at a waterfall in the moonlight. The amount of mist changes from shot to shot so the intensity of reflected moonlight causes the image to 'flicker'. In that case you can do very little to fix it as it's part of the scene. The flicker I'm talking about has more to do with variations in shutter speed and aperture from one shot to the next and I can do something about that. I've been working on this program for several years now as it keeps getting shelved as my interests shuttle from one project to another but this time I'm intent on getting the thing working, at least for my purposes. It may never see any commercial success but that's OK. I want this for my purposes and that's good enough for the present. Right now I'm working to get bugs out and to make sure there's enough capability for my workflow which, at the moment, means making sure I have the ability to read in images in the correct format and to output images in the proper format. Right now that means being able to read Adobe .dng files and to output the same or DPX movie frames. I got that working yesterday (all except for the .dng output part). I also want to add some capabilities to the effects I can use to give me more latitude in how I fix the flickering. I think that takes maybe a few more weeks. When I'm finished I'll post a few examples so you can see what I'm doing.

Shiprock Sunrise

My first stop on this last cycle was Shiprock, NM. It's in the 4-corners area. I've written about it before so won't bore you with a rehash. I slept on the indian reservation so I could be at the rock at sunrise. When I awoke, the sun was just starting to lighten the sky so I was able to set up my camera and take a quick panorama of the colors in the sky. It was the first sunrise I'd seen in a long time and was very spiritual in a way. There's something very different from a sunset which has an ending quality about it. With a sunrise there's renewal and the feeling that there's hope for the new day. At day's end you know whether there was success or failure and your emotions are colored by those outcomes. The new day offers a chance at starting over and that's special.

Shiprock Sunrise - 17mm(1.6 crop),f4.0,2.5 sec,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0