Bier Hier

Corona -- the standard!

I've had some really nice beer from Lagunitas; the Cappuccino Stout sticks out in memory, even after months.

I used to be a big fan of Hacker-Pschorr Octoberfest, but their Wiezen is good too. There are a bunch of great German white-beers; a good relatively cheap one is Hoegaarden witbier

There are plenty of great Octoberfests, woo-hoo! Even the Paulaner is pretty darn good, and has little sample variation.

When the Ga. beer laws changed, I went through a phase of trying all the strongest beers, like Kulminator Doppelbock.

Which reminds me, while all of the Doppelbocks are pretty worth trying. A really good regular bock is Aass Bock, from Norway.
Lately it's been Tequiza (great with taco chips and lime.)

At a party the other night, a friend and I bought several different chocolate double stouts -- they were all great, and we really liked Young's. (if you like heavy beer syrup, which I do: try some Mackeson[sp?] stout; it's not quite as sweet though.)


Special mentions for Delirium Tremens (with the flying pink pigs), and Negra-Modelo Dark; St. Peter's Cream stout <-- that's some great stout, not too heavy.

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Half Asp P+S Announced Today: Nikon P6000 p+s camera

It amazes me that with all the great components lying around, no one has put together a p+s pocket camera that is worth a crap. There are quite a few that approach goodness, till you look at lens length, batteries, weight, size, price, low light capability, shoddy construction, price [M8 anyone?], ergonomics, operability, and now, just to put a finer point to the matter, a question with software, and native M$ toe-lick-ability. I guess that no lens or camera maker wants to see a superior p+s on the market for fear that we won't feel the need to debate the purchase of several stones' worth of glass and mechanics.

At gm, ford, mercedes, et al, they will actually kill the family and the neighbors of anyone who designs a successful electric car or a better battery. How would they stay in business selling large, gas guzzling cars which have been designed and put together to fall apart within 3 years, if there were better alternatives on the market?

Are the auto makers really so inept and incapable that they can not build, market, sell and deliver a reasonable electric car TODAY? For about $5000 to $10,000 US? The same is true of Nikanon: sure they could put the D3 sensor and processor along with a rock+roll zooper-zoom lens into a p+s with practically off-the-shelf components -- TODAY. But it's not in their business plan.

Remember, products are about the manufacturer, not the consumer....

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Copyright Info

Where to learn about copyrights? There's a lot of info on the web; here's a few primary sources:

Carolyn E. Wright (The Photo Attorney)
The US Copyright Office
Editorial Photographer (Online org. for Editorial Photographers & Editors)
The Electronic Copyright Office (U.S. Government)
Some discussion on PSC's forum (must be a member!)
Registration of Claims to Copyright, Group Registration of Photographs
Bert P. Krages II (Not just another attorney: great basic info)
US Patent and Trademark Office (related in that they frequently protect Intellectual Property)

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Getty and Flickr, Sitting in a Tree ....

Hey, happy Tuesday. It's great that we could even be in this debate about whether an opportunity which may be handed to us will be worthwhile.

I'm not saying that it's a good deal: 20% is peanuts. Low-priced Royalty Free models are for suckers, and they diminish the industry -- that hurts everyone involved.

OTOH, not many agencies give you 70% -- that's primarily PSC. Other companies that have traditionally been less about MicroStock, eww, are turning that way now to try to stay afloat, in some cases they are creating new models practically giving images away: Alamy.

It stems from the fact that there are so many photographers taking so many pictures. Barriers to entry (into the stock sales industry) seemingly are lowering, with better cameras, software and wider, easier distribution and archival access of the internet.

But, even with all of those monkeys pounding away, it still requires skill to produce work of salable quality consistently, and release it, and tag it, and put it in the right place. Look through flickr and try to imagine: who would Getty contact to establish a professional relationship? Do they know what they are about? Are they already selling work?

That 20% may be a wakeup call for some, but for others with great quality work, it may always be a wrong number. Some people came to flickr to show their work, but have no interest in selling it. There could be a variety of reasons, and a flattering contact from Getty may influence them to change that feeling, but it may not. There is a lot involved in sales that may be too much for some. For others, there may be a philosophical argument, a feeling of selling out.

Getty is known to promote their archives aggressively, but will an entry into a lower end pool work out to entrée to their upper echelon? That sounds like a pipe dream.

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There's a lot of coverage; here's a few links:
photographyblog.com: "Photoshelter Warns Flickr Users"
photographyblog.com: "Getty Offers Flickr Photos as Stock Images"
Getty
I don't see Flickr here yet: am I missing something?

The World Today

Today, 2.7 million people, at a minimum, are displaced in Sudan. 300,000 are dead (this year), already. The international community wrings its hands, pulls out aid workers, and condemns the government which has been participating in the genocide. The chief military leader in the country and president, Omar al-Bashir, is charged with genocide in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Two American soldiers missing for months were found dead today.

The UN expresses its extreme warning that at the current rate of growth, the world's estimated 6.4 billion population will swell to over 12 billion by the year 2012. Given our inability to feed the people currently on the planet (note the growing panic and food riots in many countries), and the fact that at a minimum, 200 million women who would use parental planning do not have effective measures available to them, we are not leaving our many, many children a decent legacy at all.

It gets harder and harder to ignore all of this.

The two chief purposes of war are the redistribution of wealth and real-estate, and the modification of population. "Pretty much everything else is trappings."

Love that Macro Lens! (Sigma 150 / 2.8 Macro -- they finally did something right!)

JJ: "Are you happy with the Sigma macro?"

JJ, I love it! It is large and just a bit heavy, which can help to steady it, and of course, it qualifies for the "Rock Hard™" exercise program.

But it is a 150mm lens, so it's going to be heavier than shorter lengths. I have used it on D200 and D3, and it works great on both. The HSM, equivalent to Nikon's AFS, ultrasonic focusing mechanism built into the lens means it will auto-focus on D40 's and the rest, AFAIK. And when you're not auto-focusing well into the macro,and hunting back to infinity, which can happen in low light with close subjects with any dedicated macro / AF lens, then focusing is almost as fast as Nikon's best...that I have used: 70-200VR, 17-55G, and 24-70G.

Focusing is fast and accurate, and the lens is very sharp. Very, very sharp. It has very good correction for color plane focus: low CA's (chromatic aberrations); I consider this very important for regular and macro lenses. Don't listen when someone tells you you can just correct for this in software. Sure, you can, somewhat, but you will always have to try to fix this problem with your pictures because your lens didn't work well enough! Get a good lens to begin with, with minimal CA's (all lenses have some degree of inability to focus all colors on the same plane (CA) ) :)

I like the extra 'reach' or distance from the lens that the longer focal length gives you over a 105mm, 90mm, 70mm and 60mm. I have shot a lot of small scenes at shows and I can reach right in there for shots that have to be cropped out of other people's work, full frame in mine. I have also hand-held the D200 / Sigma 150 / 2.8 Macro combination at speeds as slow as 1/5 of a second with little discernible camera movement. I can't do that with my 135/2.0 Nikkor. I have trouble holding it still at 1/60 " for some reason....

I do like this lens. It has good color rendition, excellent sharpness, good auto-focus and is very hand-holdable. It's also rugged, as I've dragged it all around and had no problems. I think it does very well with portraits too, but you have to back up to get more than a head shot!

Negatives: weight, size, price. It's cheaper than a Nikon 105 / 2.8 VR, and about as good. It's the best, if not only good Sigma lens I've ever used (I've owned or used a few real dogs from Sigma!)

$599.00 from B+H

More samples from this lens


Other Macro lenses I would consider:
Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro $755.00 (full frame, no aperture ring)

Nikon AF-S Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G ED Macro $569.95 (AF-S with SWM, ED glass, 9 blade diaphragm, CRC, cool coatings: SIC + NanoCrystal) -(expensive, not in stores yet, short working distance)

Tamron AF 90mm f/2.8 SP Di Macro (1:1) $369.89 (full frame, aperture ring, screw-drive focusing)

200mm f/4D ED-IF AF Micro Telephoto Nikkor $1339.95(Adorama) (Big, heavy, expensive, sharp, slow, slow AutoFocus)

Used: 105/2.8 AIS Nikkor, 60/2.8 AF-D Nikkor should be good buys, under $400 and $250 respectively.

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D3 Journal: Building a Portable Lighting System: Triggering Cff-Camera Strobes

Choosing between available flash activation systems gets more complicated with a camera such as the D3 which lacks a 'commander' for CLS / AWL. The SU-800 does seem like the most logical choice:
- most creative strobe use is off camera;
- the SB-800 is much smaller + lighter than SB-800 so it's more ergonomic when used primarily for commanding other CLS units;
- it's cheaper than an SB-800;
- there is no built-in or popup flash on the D3 (should be!)

But, the SU-800 costs $240-260US, and that's 250/320(~78%) of the cost of an SB-800.

Radio poppers are a bit of a kludge conceptually, but self reputed to work really well. Each unit does either Tx or RX and costs ~$175-$225US (has anyone used them, recommend??) They have a large range and are designed to preserve the operation of CLS while overcoming the distance, obstruction and direction limitations inherent with this otherwise excellent system design.

Plain-jane radio triggers of any kind appear to be able to trigger with most any triggerable camera-mount flash or studio strobe unit. You can spend more for better reliability and distance of operation, or can modify (pretty simply, with the right parts and skillz) the inexpensive, generic units. These generic units cost as little as about $15.00@, while at the top end for price, and hopefully reliability, Pocket Wizards run about $200 to $300 each unit (Rx + Tx).

Back to the D3: most studio work is performed within the relatively short distance range of CLS, and so is much of outdoor work. But working in daylight, you are likely to need the additional (apparent) range of the SU-800 when it's bright sunlight, or to increase range. Still, the best of all worlds seems to be a fairly expensive path when considering range, reliability, ergonomics (weight and size), and utility: combine an SU-800 with SB-6/800's and use CLS via Radio-poppers.

I recently pulled the trigger on Cactus V2s (3Rx and 1Tx), which should now be winging their way here from Taiwan (about 6.7% of the distance light travels in 1 second.) To shoot weddings, events and clubs I'll still need a decent bracket and a flash cord.

No longer are PC cords enough: making use of bracket-mounted off camera flash requires a TTL cord, such as the SC-28 (most recent plain TTL/iTTL cord), SC-29 (same as 28, but with a focusing light) or maybe a (now discontinued) SC-17. The 28 + 29 both attach at both ends using the hot-shoe schema, while the SC-17 appears to plug into a socket(PC? 10-pin? 3-pin?). You can use radio triggers to trip the bracket-mounted unit, but I believe it requires that you use the top end models; the Cactus slaves of all stripes are reputed to fire randomly when used at less than 3 to 4 feet from each other or the transmitter.

I really like the simplicity and effectiveness of CLS / AWL. It's frequently 'stupid proof', outthinking the small mental errors of its operators and returning stunning results like 85 to 95% of the time. The fact that it works through the camera's own exposure system means it usually works as well as the camera itself, which with the D3 is quite good (nearly 'stupid proof', again.) Given all this, it might be worthwhile to spend the money and pull the trigger on a more expensive system or combination of systems and parts. It's expensive enough though to want to have enough use to let the equipment pay for itself.

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Fear and Loathing of Photographers in Public

Terrorists seek to instill fear. When that is done, their mission is accomplished. Are your local, state and national officials, and some of the populace too, afraid of you taking pictures?

Many wise generals and leaders, since long before Sun Tzu, have realized that the most effective weapons in any conflict can be psychological. Fear, lack of will and resolve, and more can be implemented through self-induction by the enemy. Terrorists do this with the smallest amount of effort: no one has to invade your shores with an army when attacking 0.0001% of the people or country will instill world-wide fear.

You have to ask yourself if you and your country are willing to go the extent it takes to win the current 'war', or is it better to try to survive in fear? Oddly, it looks like one of the most effective weapons western cultures have in this 'war' is significant reduction in use of fossil fuels. That's a funny thing, isn't it? We support our enemy by depending on their exports, we fund them and sell them weapons....

Photography may become a safe practice again when we screw our heads back on right and observe the world right in front of our noses. You will still need a model release to publish photographs with recognizable people in them for non-editorial purposes, in the US -- other countries vary, some day by day. Property that may be confused as to ownership or aegis in its trademarked or copyrighted design would need a property release. You invade privacy when you go beyond a 'normal' or normally available view -- such as using a 50mm lens on an FX or 35mm frame to take a picture from a public sidewalk of someone or something that has no expectation (explicit or implied) of privacy: such as activity in a privy. Private activity carried out in public, such as cleaning your nose with your finger does not carry any expectation of privacy, but it may represent a person in a bad light. Most editors will stay away from privacy and bad-light issues when they choose a picture to publish.

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