Category Archives: Camera

A Sad Day

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This morning I received news that a dear friend of mine lost his battle with cancer. Jim was a very good friend to me. He supported me in a variety of ways and took me on many memorable fishing trips. I have many precious and fond memories of times spent with Jim.

The sad part isn’t only that he lost his battle with cancer and left us, but I do not have any photos of those great times spent with Jim. I was extremely saddened when I heard this news this morning. I know it is selfish on my part, but I sure wish I had some photographs to keep the memories fresh. Like the time we first went fishing together and caught over 60 whiting. Or the time we went on a 2-day trip from Gloucester, Massachusetts and caught so many cod that we had to buy two more coolers. I know these might just sound like fish stories to you, but they are true. I can close my eyes and see Jim fishing beside me and then laughing as he out-fished me.

So the next time you debate leaving your camera at home, don’t do it. Take it along and use it. Some day later you’ll be glad you did. Today is a sad day for me.

Jim, thank you for the many memories that you shared with me. I will never ever forget you!

Action Shots

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One of the absolute most exciting challenges in photography is to try to capture action shots.

I like to photograph sports, which requires fast shutter speeds and a healthy number of frames per second. FPS, frames per second, refers to how many shutter releases can be snapped in one second. While this isn’t important for landscape or portrait photography, it is critical for action photography.

My Nikon D70 featured 3 frames per second. This was okay, but earlier this year when I upgraded to the Nikon D300, one of the first things I noticed was the increased FPS. The D300 sports 6 FPS and this is noticeable. For example, when I am photographing a runner caught stealing second base, I now can count on my camera freezing the baseball before it gets to the fielders glove as the base runner is sliding into second base. It is absolutely amazing to witness and hear the speed of the D300!

Baseball action shots, in my humble opinion, should feature the baseball in the photograph whenever possible. I also like to capture the flying dirt as a player is sliding into a base or a catcher putting a tag on a player who attempts a squeeze play.

Action shots require patience and persistence. The challenge this style of photography presents is worth it and I will keep putting myself in places where I can capture the exciting action!

Be Camera Ready

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The Boy Scouts have a great motto: “Be prepared.”

I need to heed this great advice more often. Here is the scenario: I am in a town or driving along a country road and spot something that is photogenic. My camera is tucked away in the camera back or, worse, sitting at home. This example of ill-preparedness happens much too frequently. We have to be ready at a moment’s notice to capture the action or moment. We cannot waste our time digging through camera bags or kicking ourselves for leaving the camera back home.

I know it is not New Year’s Day, but can we make a resolution or promise to be better prepared and start practicing ways to be camera ready? I am seriously going to try this. What about you?

Favorite Camera

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Do you have a favorite camera? Presumably a camera that fit great in your hands and was a pure joy to operate. In fact, it was a camera that felt so comfortable and worked so well that you hated to part company with it. Have you ever had such a camera?

Breaking in a new camera is like breaking in a new pair of Shoe Hero running shoes. The old ones feel oh so good and the idea of breaking in those new stiff sneakers just sounds like a laborious endeavor. But don’t give up. This new camera you hold in yoru hands just might become you most favorite camera ever!

Learning where all the controls are located might take some time, but the effort pays off in the field when you can change those controls quickly without even looking.

Back in my rock climbing days, I heard an old adage that I will never forget. It goes something like this: “You will know how to tie a knot only when you can tie it in the dark and in a cold shower!” This might sound like extremism, but you get the point.

How well do you know your camera? Do you fumble around while looking for a control button? Or do you know exactly where the proper control is located without even thinking about it?

Learn to know your camera inside and out and it just might become your favorite camera!

Read Your Camera Manual

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Admittedly, I am not one to read instructions. I guess I am a typical male, but reading directions seems like a waste of time when I can figure it out on my own. Besides, reading directions is for sissies and only needed as a last resort, right?

Well, all good things come to an end eventually. When I got my Nikon D70, I quickly realized that reading the user’s manual would be incredibly beneficial. There are just so many features available that I knew it would be easier to learn about and use this camera by first reading the manual.

This wasn’t easy for an anti-instruction-reading man like me, but I swallowed my pride and slowly read one page after the other. I quickly learned about all the features of this incredible camera and how to use them. Amazing!

A little over a month ago I purchased a new Nikon D300. To my amazement, the accompanying manual is over twice as thick as my D70 manual!

I have to sign off for now. I have some reading to do. Yep, another instrution manual! (I just hope this isn’t habit-forming!)

My New Camera

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I just received delivery of a brand new Nikon D300 this afternoon from our friendly UPS delivery man. I carefully opened the box and slowly took the camera out. I knew, and often live by, the old adage that a real man never reads directions. But this time that old adage went right out the window. The User’s Manual for my new D300 is exactly 421 pages long and I plan on reading many of those pages.

Of course, I could not wait too long to actually use my new camera, so I loaded a battery and inserted an empty flash card and went outside. It was 26 degrees Farenheit but that didn’t stop me from traipsing around the yard with my new camera! It didn’t take long for this camera to feel like an old friend in my cold hands. I just love the way Nikon places their controls on their cameras!

None of these first photos taken by my new D300 are going to win any prizes or even show up in my galleries, but almost immediately I could see why this camera has received such rave reviews. Compared to my old D70 the D300 has many more switches and controls to keep many options within easy reach, allowing the photographer to make many necessary changes on the fly without having to navigate through menus. It also boasts an impressive 6 frames per second, which should be very useful when I am shooting sports events.

I’ve only had the D300 for about 8 hours now, but it has quickly become my favorite camera that I’ve ever owned. Stay tuned to this blog to hear more about my impressions on the D300. I will also be posting photos from this camera, too. It truly is a sweet piece of photographic equipment!

Elk Photos

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Yesterday our family spent Columbus Day at our camp on Winslow Hill in Elk County. This is a favorite spot for us and we were hoping to see some elk in the early morning and at dusk. We were rewarded by seeing 4 bulls in the morning just after 7am. The fog was just beginning to lift, which provided an eerie backdrop as we watched and photographed the bulls. A few were still bugling, indicating that the rut for this season is not quite over yet. One bull was eating berries off a tree just on the other side of a fence along the road. We were photographing him as he walked down the fencerow to an opening and then he came out on the other side of the fence to eat more berries from the other side of the tree. We concluded that elk are smart!

We spent the middle of the day doing some chores around the camp, which consisted of cutting some weeds down, clearing some brush, and cutting some tree limbs off. Then by 4pm we were out looking for elk again. We didn’t see any in a favorite field we like to frequent and for a while I thought we might get skunked because it was so hot. But then as the heat began to dissipate, the elk slowly began to appear. We photographed 3 more bulls until well after sunset. We were also able to capture some beautiful photographs of the sunset. You can see the photos here.