CameraintheWild - Carolinas Nature Photographers Association

FIT RIGHT IN
Sue Jarrett • sjarrett@islc.net
Finally you have the opportunity for that photo trip you’ve always
wanted to make—price, dates, locations —fit right in. I am talking
about the Average Joe or Jane who has saved for years for that tripof-a-lifetime.
Not First Class and Five-Star, but Coach and Three-
Star, how the majority travel.
I took a photo safari to Africa starting on board
Virgin Atlantic Airlines. VA has strict regulations.
Your coach carry-on bag can’t weigh
more than 13kg or about 28 1/2 pounds. My
camera backpack weighed 30 pounds, but after
the check-in crew learned that it was all camera
gear, they allowed it. Phew!! While riding from
one wildlife preserve and lodge to another, our
driver/guide and the lodge aides complimented
me on the size and weight of my baggage. On
a trip to Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park
the float plane tour receptionist at Natron Air
commented that my two bags (camera backpack
and clothes bag) weighed a total of 54 pounds
and that was the closest any traveler had come
to their 50 pound requirement in months. So,
not only was I following the rules, but I was also
making it easier for myself.
I’m not going to talk about what goes in your clothes bag. That’s
your decision and desire. I’ll give some ideas about the camera bag
and gear.Some wildlife photographers swear by the hard rolling
backpack like ThinkTank or Lowepro or Tamrac, etc. These may be
good for some photographers, but for Joe and Jane Sixpack they are
expensive and heavy even when empty. No matter what Think Tank
International V2 ($300) advertises, not
all firm rolling backpacks will fit in the
overhead compartments on flights. And
its weight added to your gear weight may
cause even more carry-on problems. My
backpack fits in the overhead bin almost
all the time unless other travelers have
filled it up (remember I am talking about
coach). If not in the bin, it fits under the
seat in front of me.
My backpack also doesn’t display itself
as a camera bag -- just a backpack to be
less obvious. To save weight I decide on
lenses, tripods or monopods, attachments,
etc. I have to decide about wildlife
shooting. For example, I don’t take my
detachable battery grips for my Nikon
D300 bodies. I don’t take my laptop, I’d
rather take my long lens. How do I edit
and backup my images? First I take lots
of high gig memory cards with a basic
plan of filling so many each day. Like
when we used to decide how many rolls
of film to take. I don’t want to reformat
28 • Camera in the Wild • Fall 2011
the cards, but keep them safe in several GEPE Extreme Card cases.
No laptop because of weight and space.. For editing, I use the LCD
panel on the back of the camera as I ride from location to location
or at lunch. You can easily delete bad exposures or out of focus
shots. After basic editing, I slip the memory card into the slot on my
Digital Foci II Storage Safe and download all the images. Actually,
I have two of the Storage Safes, so I have my images on the memory
card and backed up twice.
There are several manufacturers of photo storage safes, but Digital
Foci (250 gigs $100) is a fraction of the cost of JOBO 250 gig $375 or
SANHO Hyperdrive 250 gig $360. The model
I own doesn’t have an LCD screen, but newer
models do and are still less expensive.
My lenses, bodies, storage safes, flash unit, are all
stuffed inside military knit caps. A polar fleece
vest also can help pad the bottom (and keep you
warm). The caps are lightweight padding in the
backpack and are much less expensive than a
LensCoat protective cover. Not having dividers
in a backpack lets you fit much more gear in it.
The backpack is always with me. For basic security
while walking with the backpack on, I have
key rings on each zipper that I hook together.
That makes it hard for someone behind me to
unzip pockets quickly and quietly while I am on
a shuttle or bus or standing in line. I also have
small padlocks when needed.
For stronger security I have a PacSafe Backpack
protector. Now PacSafe has a specific metal
mesh pack for a camera backpack or bag. This wire mesh net goes
around the backpack and latches to an airport bench (while I nap)
or to the bathroom pipes or bed rails in a hotel room or a metal hook
in a car trunk or in the rear of my SUV. Sure someone could eventually
cut through it, but that would take time. Most crooks want to
grab n’ go quickly and can’t open a pocket easily or yank the whole
bag away. I bought mine on eBay.
The last important thing if you are
going out of the country is a customs
list of your equipment, CBP Form
4457 http://forms.cbp.gov/pdf/CBP_
Form_4457.pdf. You can download it
from the website, fill it out and take
it and the equipment to the nearest
Customs Office. An official stamps and
signs the form that you may have to
use when you return to the US to prove
that you didn’t just buy all those lenses
and bodies in another country. One
suggestion is to list each piece singly on
a separate form, so you only carry the
forms that match the equipment you
take. Then if you sell a lens and buy a
new one, all you have to fill out is one
form and get it certified by the Customs
Officer. Some people have done this at
the airport hours before departure. I do
it weeks before so I don’t have a delay.
Nikon GP-1 GPS unit for your camera!
Peter Krenn • Krenn@comporium.net
I recently added a new “toy” to my collection of photography
equipment. It’s the Nikon GP-1 GPS unit. I use it with my Nikon
D-300. What it does is record the GPS location and adds it to the
Metadata with the rest of your Metadata information. If you are a
Lightroom user all you have to do is click on the coordinates in the
Metadata information and the program will automatically take you
to Google Earth and give you a satellite view as to where the picture
was taken. I understand it also works with other programs. Now
that’s all well and good, but there is more: you can scroll in or out,
even to street level if the picture was taken in an urban area. It uses
the same program as Google maps. Also, it gives you the elevation
and time the picture was taken.
I ride a motorcycle and my style of picture taking is just following
my nose and seeing where it takes me, usually down many a back
road in the middle of nowhere—I’m just enjoying the ride and
looking for old barns, etc. When I do find an interesting subject to
photograph it may be the wrong time of day for the lighting conditions
are not what I am looking for. I snap a picture anyway and now
I have the information I need to return to that location. It comes in
kind of handy when I’m going through pictures on the computer
and see a shot I would like to take again. I just transfer the GPS
position into my GPS on the motorcycle and let it lead me there.
I just returned from a trip to the Northeast and into Canada and
the GPS kept a great record as to where I took all the pictures of
lighthouses, etc.
The unit is not much bigger than your thumb and attaches to where
your flash mounts, with a short cord going to your camera’s tenpin
terminal. It pulls very little power and works off your camera
battery. It can be adjusted so it only comes on when you depress the
shutter button half way. Like most other GPS units, if you turn it
on after having moved quite a distance, like on a long trip, it takes
several minutes to find the location to where it is at, however once
that is established it only takes about a second or so to see the red
LED in the unit change to green telling you it knows your location
and is ready to record it.
You’ve Been Framed!
David Bowers • dave.bowers@allentate.com
Framing is a creative tool that draws attention to your main subject
by accentuating other portions of your image with natural elements.
By framing your photos, you create a sense of depth, thus, the addition
of another pleasing dimension. What you’ll be creating is
a pathway for the viewer’s eye to travel to the subject that’s most
important within your photo. As a consequence, the viewer tends
to remain fixed to your work for a longer period of time, since there’s
a natural barrier between it and outer edges of the photograph.
Frames for your images can come from various sources and they
don’t necessarily have to be overbearing. Be careful not to make it
feel cramped or to be so heavy as to dominate and take away from
what you’re trying to accentuate. While setting up for the “shot”,
consider moving around your subject until natural elements present
themselves such as: over hanging branches, doorways, arches,
windows, etc.
In my photograph of the shorebirds on the beach, the main
subject is in fact the “frame” situated 10 feet in front of the other
birds (skimmers) which leads us to a very important point. If you
desire a sharp focus of both the subject and the frame, a long depth
of field is required. (ex: f11 to f22) However, some photographers
like a softened frame and consequently open up to f 4.0 to f 5.6 in
order to blur by means of being out of focus. This can be a very
nice effect and further emphasizes the viewers “focus” on the main
subject. Hey, consider this: anything that lets you go through one
thing that leads to another will make a good frame! So, next time
you’re out, look around, you “may have been framed”!
Carolinas’ Nature Photographers Association • 29