Photography Equipment:
UPDATE: Yup…still have those awesome cameras, but I’ve gotten lazy and lately I use my iPhone 95% of the time 🙂 Easy to take snapshots as we’re busy enjoying life. Still love my cameras and I need to dust them off, but I also love the technology that I can pull out of my pocket at any time.
I’ve had a couple of people ask me about the cameras that I use, so thought I’d make a page to share a little bit about our photography equipment. Understand that I am just an amateur – better really at Photoshop than I am at taking photos, technically! That said, I LOVE taking pictures – LOVE, LOVE, LOVE taking pictures. I can’t wait to get home, unload my cards and see what images I’ve collected to represent our little trips!
I have three main cameras that I carry with me – A Nikon D7100 – A Nikon D40 and a Fuji X100
Fuji X100 – A good looking, solid little camera!
My newest camera is the Fuji X100…I LOVE IT! I can’t imagine all the money I’ve spent on small point and shoot cameras over the years, (Cannon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus…) always hoping for something that would be small, easy to use and produce great shots inside, consistently. That’s what my Fuji does. It’s almost magical!!! I put it through impossible situations with lighting, and it gets it right almost every time. I’m still learning how to use it, but lately it’s my go-to camera. I use it for about 90% of my pictures! Drawback…it’s a fixed length lens, no zoom…but I don’t care, it ROCKS! Here’s Ken Rockwell’s review of the X100 if you’re interested: http://www.kenrockwell.com/fuji/x100.htm
I also own a little Nikon D40. Up until I got the Fuji, I used it as a reliable point and shoot. It does a pretty great job, too! It’s light weight and works much like my D200. Lots of times while hiking I’ll leave my D200 home and throw the D40 in our backpack. The lenses are interchangeable for the most part – an added perk!
We have a sturdy Manfrotto tripod, a neutral density filter, a circular polarizer and extra batteries that we carry also, and that’s about it!
I’m going to do another post about how to shoot moving water. It’s fun to freeze water and get that silky, flowing look!
Cheers,
Many years ago, a friend of mine (Derek von Briesen,) who is now an accomplished photographer, shooting for publications like National Geographic, sent me a friendly email with advice on shooting moving water! I promptly printed the email, stuck it in my camera bag and had my husband read it to me line by line as we headed up the gorge to try our hand at shooting waterfalls. What an exciting moment when you “figure it out” and get that water to freeze the way you want it to!
Check out his work here: http://www.pbase.com/sedonamemories
Here’s a bit of the note that he shared with me:
Proper shutter speeds will depend on the luminosity of the water (the whiteness or foaminess which is dependent on speed, amount of light, crashing against rocks, etc). The clearer the water, the longer you need to attain that smokey, silky look. Generally, the blurring begins to occur around 1/20 sec. and, as you’ve seen with my work, you can go as high as 8-20 secs (but the water better be pretty clear or you pretty distant, otherwise it will turn into a big white snowball effect.
What I do is use aperture priority, and close down the lens with high f/stops. Usually I start at f/18 and move higher from there.
First, I’ll shoot at an f/stop around what I think will work shutter speed-wise (between 1/20-1 sec) and, using the histogram and exposure warning “blinkies,” i’ll nail the proper exposure.
Once the exposure is correct, changing the aperture will modify the shutter speed but the actual exposure will stay the same, capiche?
Of course, the other deal with water is that sometimes, even at your lowest iso, there is too much light (on a sunny day for example) to get the slow shutter speed you need. Here’s where the use of neutral density and polarizing filters are essential. Neutral density filters reduce light without affecting color. Polarizing filters will both reduce light and help to control reflections in the water and off the rocks.
-Happy shooting!
Why not just shoot SHUTTER priority and use the shutter speed which is slow enough to give the desired amount of blur. The camera will then set the proper aperture. If there is too much light you can add a neutral density filter or decrease the ISO
LikeLike
Then you’ll end up shooting at the highest F stop of your lens and get the barrel effect – punishment on quality.
LikeLike
Kim, email me walker@zumapress.com I would like to chat with you about representing your stock images
LikeLike
Oh boy — you have tempted me with this new camera of yours! Congratulations — I have heard wonderful things about it and have seen some pretty amazing shots. I just upgraded to the Canon 5d Mark III but for some reason, this little camera of yours still taunts me. Maybe I’ll ask Santa this year 🙂 xoxo
LikeLike
Monica, promise….you’ll love it!!!
LikeLike
Thank you for all the time you have taken to share your experiences and knowledge with the world and especially ME! We had the pleasure of meeting you at Suttle Lake. I am off to theAirstream dealer in Spokane in 10 minutes just to look and dream. You started the dream!
LikeLike
I remember showing it to you 🙂 I hope you guys find one you like…it’s been a great experience for us!!
LikeLike
I’ve heard such good things about the x100!! We couldn’t justify that much, but coughed up for the Samsung nx300 which I love taking around when my 5DMarkII gets too heavy. 🙂 Hubby is dying for a polarizer. Maybe one of these days I’ll surprise him!
LikeLike
Hi, I am an artist, and I’m wondering if it would be possible to use the photo of hood river with the caption “scene from our kitchen window”? Its so beautiful but don’t want to use it without permission.
Thank you,
diane@webpictureframes.com
LikeLike
Absolutely! Thanks for asking 🙂
LikeLike
I really don’t care what you are using, your photos are just fabulous. The colour and texture are amazing. Maybe if I get off my butt and get ‘out there’ I may just drum up more interest to do my own shooting but until then all I can say is congratulations.
LikeLike