I’ve thought about ditching my 100-400mm lens in favor of one or more prime lenses. There’s a lot of reasons that would be good — less compromise in the construction, theoretically sharper images, and generally faster. And then I remember why I wouldn’t want to drop that lens from my bag.

Today, the Blue Angels were practicing for the St. Louis County Fair being held this weekend. And as I went home from work, they began their work, and every head on the road was turned upwards. After a quick call from Becky, I headed back in to the valley so I could get a better look from just outside the airport. And that’s when the value of this lens hit me.

With a single lens, I went from group shots nearly overhead to isolating a single airport nearly overhead. That kind of versatility just isn’t there in a prime. So, the 100-400 lives to see another day.

That’s not to say that I wouldn’t like some primes in my corral. I think they serve a marvelous purpose, especially in situations where the subject isn’t flying at several hundred miles an hour, anywhere from just meters off the deck to thousands of meters overhead. That’ll be down the road a bit. Gotta figure out how Canon’s new bodies affect me!!!!

Shot in Arizona, this week’s image was taken during a trip to the Grand Canyon in late spring of 2004. It was taken on the road from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon and features Humphreys Peak, the tallest point in Arizona. The sun was setting, lighting up the grain in the field in the foreground.

Amber Waves of Grain is available in a variety of sizes, with an unframed print matted at 11×14, and framed images at both 18×24 (single mat) and 22×28 (double-matted). Please visit my sales gallery on Yessy if you are interested in purchasing Amber Waves of Grain.

This week’s image is another of several featured images from my trip to the Digital Landscape Workshop Series in Yosemite National Park. I drove from St. Louis to Yosemite in November 2005 to study digital photography and workflow from Moose Peterson.

This image was captured on the last morning shoot of the seminar. This particular scene attracted me because of the nice diagonal line through the image, along with the contrast of the rocks beneath the clear moving water and the turbulence beyond.

Tenaya Creek is available in a variety of sizes, with an unframed print matted at 11×14, and framed images at both 18×24 (single mat) and 22×28 (double-matted). Please visit my sales gallery on Yessy if you are interested in purchasing Tenaya Creek.

When I said the upcoming 40D was attracting my attention, I was right, but I didn’t know there was a bigger shark in the waters. Enter the 1Ds Mk III. Alan Hess wrote about it overnight, and man does it sound sweet!

With this camera, Canon starts to push the envelope of the resolution (at least megapixel-wise) of the medium-format digital backs, coming in at twenty-one megapixels! And, smartly, they included UDMA access to the CF, so writes will happen at the blazing speeds the new generation of CF will support. Basically take all the good new stuff of the 1D Mk III, put a full size sensor in it, and you’ve got the 1Ds Mk III.

Camera lust has no bounds……

Thanks to a little snafu at Amazon, and some quick reporting by Alan Hess, it appears that Canon is about to release a new body for the rest of us. A quick review…

The Rebel XTi was relased earlier with a 10Mp sensor that didn’t exist in any other Canon body. In the last month or so, the 1D Mk III was released (10fps, shoot-through-the-lcd, self-cleaning sensor). Marry those two, and you get the 40D, more or less: 10Mp self-cleaning sensor, shoot-through-the-lcd, 7.5fps, and a 3″ LCD.

Needless to say, this little thing has my attention as a replacement for my 20D — although the 20D would be my backup body, and probably Beck’s primary body, relegating the 10D to emergency shooting, or for Beck if I’m out and about with the 20D and 40D. I’ve had my 20D for over 2½ years, which is a long time for me, and I wouldn’t feel real bad about upgrading after close to three years on the same body.

The body is supposed to be released in September (according to Amazon’s slip up), so I’ve got a while to ponder this. I really am still dazzled by both the 5D ($2500) and the 1D MK III ($4500), but am also dazzled by the price tag of either of those bodies. The estimate $1300 price for the 40D is much, much more palatable!

I was watching the news this morning, and heard of the second mine cave-in in Utah, and the resulting deaths and injuries from that. That is a horrible tragedy.

However, it’s not that specifically that’s got my muse abuzz this morning. In the video shown on the news, there’s what appears to be a mother and daughter, both very distressed, that just arrived at the scene. And running beside them, slightly ahead, is some jerk with a big camera rig in front of his face and another on his hip, shooting away as he runs alongside these folks, trying hard to capture their anguish. The video then broke to wherever these folks were headed. The family was all together, hugging and crying…. and lit up like the sun from all the camera lights on them. Video cameras were churning and still photographers were clicking away, all jostling for position to try to get the shot and none of them — from what I could see — seeming to feel much remorse for the additional stress they were surely inflicting on this grieving family.

Yeah, I know, Mr. Irony is close at hand: if someone hadn’t been shooting video of this, I would’ve never seen it. Trust me, I can live without hearing the wailing cries of a family who has lost a loved one in a disaster, and would’ve been just as informed about the news of the event with the exploitation of the survivors.

Folks, this is insane, disrespectful, and just downright rude — I’m not even sure I have all the right words to explain how disgusted I am with this behavior. A few days ago, Moose Peterson talked about some rude folks who were following (or actually, chasing) some bears through the woods near his home. I agree with his assessment of those folks. To me, though, this is an even higher level of rude, and I suspect there’s a special level in the fires below for folks that play the game this way, and exploit folks in this particularly public manner, merely in the name of getting a story, getting it first and making it as sensational as possible.

And that’s why I don’t shoot photojournalistically!

That’s how much Michael Vick of the Falcons is being sued for. Not by the Feds, or any other comparatively sane entity, but by a prisoner in South Carolina. From what I gather from the story I heard on the news, and the story over at Fox, the inmate in question believes Michael Vick stole his dogs, his identity (to buy dog food), his name (to sell merchandise)…. all with the purpose of buying missiles from Iran.

Huh?

Yup, this inmate claims that Vick has switched to the Dark Side of the Force and is now an Al Qaeda allegiant.

So what’s he suing for, aside from the astronomical amount of money (delivered in gold and silver to the prison, by the way)? Well Vick has to not steal his dogs, or his name. He also has to quit physically hurting his feelings and dashing his hopes.

I guess that depends on whether Vick’s at the head of the Falcons, and how they perform, eh?

(BTW, the handwritten complaint is also posted on Fox. Funny stuff, and well worth reading!)

I’m ready for winter. Today was 105° — the hottest day I can remember since moving to The Lou over twelve years ago.

While I’m not ready to directly blame today’s record temperature on global warming — there were hot temperatures long before this one — I do believe we humans are having a measurable overall impact on the Big Blue Marble, and one we’ll be paying for for a long, long time.

Now, if the weather will swing as significantly this winter, I’ll be a happy photographer!

Today’s the 5th anniversary of Dad’s passing. I don’t think there’s been a day since then that I haven’t reflected on him and his life.

Here’s to you…

This week’s image is the first of several featured images from my trip to the Digital Landscape Workshop Series in Yosemite National Park. I drove from St. Louis to Yosemite in November 2005 to study digital photography and workflow from Moose Peterson.

Each day, Moose would guide the students through a morning and an evening shoot to capture some of Yosemite’s glory. This image was captured during our first morning shoot around Yosemite Falls. Despite the low water flow in the falls, there was enough spray off the rocks to capture the morning sun and create this beautiful rainbow.

Yosemite Falls is available in a variety of sizes, with an unframed print matted at 11×14, and framed images at both 18×24 (single mat) and 22×28 (double-matted). Please visit my sales gallery on Yessy if you are interested in purchasing Yosemite Falls.