Landscape, Nature And Travel Photography

For those of us that live in dryer climates humidity can be a mysterious factor to account for when traveling. Significant moisture in the air around us can impact equipment in a variety of ways in some instances quite drastically. Not all cameras have the same level of weather protection. Many professional bodies are weather/water resistant, but not water proof thanks to the presence of rubber gaskets. Most cameras lack this type of protection increasing the risk of catastrophic equipment failure if exposed to too much moisture. With that in mind the following 10 tips should be considered when using a digital SLR in high humidity environments.

1. Use Desiccant Packets
Desiccant packets are often found in new product shipments to absorb moisture. As I can, I save these packets to reuse in my camera bag when traveling. If you’re not the saving type it is possible to order new desiccant packets online. While its impossible for these packets to absorb all the moisture in a camera bag that you’re in and out of often, they can make a difference on segments of trips where a camera bag is not opened or opened infrequently.

2. Minimize Lens Changes
In an ideal world having one lens per camera body would the best solution for high humidity environments. In this situation you’d have one lens on your camera body the entire length of your trip so that humid air never enters your camera. Few people outside of the professional circle have this luxury, so it is important to minimze the number of times you change lenses when in the field.

3. Keep Moisture Out of the Camera Body
If keeping one lens on your camera is not possible think about keeping a teleconverter / tele-extender on your camera body at all times ensuring that no moisture enters your body when changing lenses. Teleconverters / tele-extenders are often used with longer focal length lenses and seldom with other shorter focal length lenses. If you’re shooting wide this tactic may not be very practical.

4. Change Lenses At Night
If Tip #2 or #3 is not a possibility reduce the introduction of moisture into your camera body by changing lenses when atmospheric moisture is at its lowest point. This happens when the temperature is coolest often late at night or early in the morning.

5. Avoid Fogged Lenses
Keep your camera gear at the same temperature as the ambient temperature of your shooting environment to avoid fogging. Fog can appear on the front of your lens and in less than ideal cases on the rear element of your lens if your gear is cold and brought into a warm and moist environment. If keeping your gear with you is a necessity (such as being brought into an air conditioned hotel room as opposed to being left in a car) wait for your camera gear to warm up before use.

6. Regularly Wipe Down Your Equipment
The most common ways moisture accumulates on ones gear is from high atmospheric humidity, rain or your own breath as you use your camera. Regularly wipe down your gear in order to minimize long standing moisture on your camera that might seep into unsealed openings of your camera body. Keeping on hand and using a super absorbent camp hand towel can help a great deal.

7. Keep Sensitive Equipment in Ziploc Bags
While not perfect, keeping sensitive equipment in Ziploc bags can also reduce the negative effects of high humidity. Ziploc bags do wear out if opened and closed often, so this tactic might be best for equipment that is used less frequently. Combining the use of desiccant packets and Ziploc bags could be a great hybrid approach.

8. Carry Multiple Lens Cloth
Even with the best of planning fogged lenses happen. If you’re in the field for an extended time lens clothes quickly become damp. For this reason its a great idea to have multiple lens clothes on hand, using one while the other dries out in the sun

9. Don’t Let Your dSLR Slip From Your Grip
Use a wrist or neck strap to keep slick cameras from working loose of your grip. In hot and humid environments the human body will release a great deal of moisture in the form of sweat. With sweaty hands it will be very easy to accidentily drop a lens, camera body or camera body with a lens on it.

10. Dry Your Hands
Dry your hands before changing batteries and CF cards. This will minimize introduction of moisture, inside the camera, that might later condense upon returning home. Keep in mind this will be particularly true the sweatier you are.

Bonus Tip
Toward the end of your trip utilize a hotel room air conditioners to dehumidify your gear. No need to place your gear too close. Having your equipment out and your camera bag open can be enough to help pull away a build up of moisture.

Do you use your digital SLR in high humidity? Have additional tips? Be sure to add them in the comments and thanks for reading.

I’m back after spending a couple of weeks in Costa Rica. While Costa Rica is a small country, there is tons to see there thanks to their incredibly rich biodiversity. The statistic I read is that Costa Rica has 0.1% of the total land found on Earth, but is home to 5% of all species known worldwide. That’s quite an amazing statistic when you think about it.

While this rainbow photo doesn’t reflect Costa Rica’s diverse wildlife, I’m working on some of the several thousand photos taken during my time away as well as a few audio recordings. Stay tuned…

Technorati Tags: rainbow, Costa Rica, Central America

Hitting the Road

This week has been super hectic as I ramp up to hit the road.  While its cliché to say “I could make use of more time”, it is true. I think I could keep myself busy non-stop with 48 hour days. That being said I’ve found that my push to make the most of my time has resulted in an unexpected side effect… or for the mathematically inclined axiom.

The more you squeeze into your day the faster time passes.

So while I’ll be squeezing in a good deal of time for photography in the coming weeks I’ll also be looking for equal opportunity to stop and enjoy my surroundings. In this instance those surroundings will be in Central America.

Be back soon, but not too soon.

Technorati Tags: photography, road, travel, stock photo

These days its hard not to hear about doom and gloom news with the economy and for many photographers part of the “fix” they get with photography is picking up gear. While it may not make sense to pick a couple thousand dollars in gear in this economic climate there are things you can buy for under $30 that will certainly help you when in the field or studio. Here are 5 products that fit the bill and will keep you swimming in biodegradable foam peanuts.

invisibleSHIELD Camera LCD Screen Protector
For the sake of truth in advertising if you have a cell phone, digital camera or even a laptop I would recommend the invisibleSHIELD product for it. I’ve had a screen protector on my camera LCD screen from the first day I got it and it was the best thing I ever did. It cost me $12. When compared to other screen protectors my friends have purchased, mine is the only one that hasn’t been messed up by some weird age related effect. My screen isn’t dimmed by it, there’s no fogging and its virtually indestructible keeping my screen from getting chipped or scratched. I liked their product enough I forked out $55 for their MacBook Pro 17″ product. Definitely money well spent.

Lens Cloth
A good microfiber lens cloth is so cheap its worth getting two. Keep one in your camera bag and one in your jacket or wallet. This should be your first line of defense to keep dust specs from polluting your digital photos. Clean the front and rear element of your lenses to be sure that you’re not picking up clearly defined dust specs when shooting at f/22 or beyond.

Giottos Rocket Air Blower
The large version is under $20 at B&H, Amazon.com, etc. and its the fastest and least invasive way to rid your sensor of dust particles. I’ve owned one since 2004 and it’s never let me down. I should also add its my dogs favorite camera accessory. No matter where my dog is when I’m using it he runs over thinking its a toy. Dog owners beware.

Bubble Level
If you’re looking for a quick way to determine if your camera is level this is the way to do it. A hot shoe two axis or three axis bubble level is easy cheap and effective. It’s not uncommon to find these on sale so keep your eye open.

Multi-blade Screwdriver
This is the latest addition to my camera bag. I recently noticed that one of my lenses was working loose from the camera mount ring near the rear element. I was lucky that I didn’t break or lose my lens. Using a key or fingernail is no way to tune up camera equipment. In short order I got one of these multi-blade screwdrivers and now use it on my lenses and tripod.

Have any other must have accessories that you can pick up for under $30? If so share’m here.

An interesting encounter on Twitter got me thinking about the subject of permanence in relation to digital photography. Humorously @pogue (aka David Pogue) was noting the grammatical error in Outdoor Photographer referencing the “sense of permanency” of digital photography in books.  David Pogue, a New  York Times technology writer and Internet celebrity, while making light of this grammatical faux pas got me thinking perhaps the writer made a Freudian or even blatant slip revealing the underlying opinion that digital photography lacks permanence.

Numerous articles, including more than one on my blog, have discussed the critical need to back up digital photos as hard drive failure and natural disasters are inevitable. The question remains, is digital photography any less of a permanent medium than film photography?

Any artistic medium is subject to disaster, small and large, and the elements. Often we delude ourselves thinking that what we create will last forever. We’re inundated with marketing for archival material (ex. 100 year ink or paper, film, gold DVDs, etc.) but this in itself is an illusion when you think beyond the context of a single lifetime. I suppose for many of us a single lifetime is more than enough to ponder. Anything more would be presumptuous. For more on this in relation to prints I recommend listening to Brooks Jensen’s take in relation to Archival Madness. None the less many creatives do think in this way. For the few lucky enough to be considered influencers and masters, thinking this far ahead will pay off.

For the rest of us how realistic is the expectation that our digital photos taken today will be useable in 10, 20, 30 or 50 years? While digital photography provides great upside in immediate access, dynamic range, clarity, etc. here and now its longevity is questionable. CD’s and DVDs erode or get lost, hard drives fail, file formats change, backup formats change, computer operating systems change… everything changes with digital technology. The strength of film and why it feels safer to some is that over decades the formats varied very little and definitely less than digital has in its very short lifetime.

If you’re thinking that your work holds permanence think again. It might be best to reset your expectations knowing that you’re bound to experience a failure and loss of your work whether in digital or printed form. It’s just a matter of time. Or is it?

And just for David… be sure to you choose a smart approach to ensure the permanency of your digital photography. The same goes for you film photography dinosaurs.

Technorati Tags: Photography, permanence, digital photography, film photography, back-up strategy

The 26th episode of EXIF and Beyond has been released (duration 12 min. 27 sec.).

Nature, landscape and travel photographer extraordinaire Art Wolfe returns to EXIF and Beyond to discuss photo tips, workshops and his recent projects. Art’s photo tips are sure to enrich your photography regardless of your skill level touching on positive and negative space in composition, abstract expression and elements of design.

Art’s work can be found in several places online including;

• Art Wolfe’s Photography web site
• Art Wolfe Blog

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Get a 5% Discount at Borrowlenses.com

If you’re interested in trying out Borrowlenses.com, the sponsor of this podcast episode, they’ve extended a special introductory offer to my blog & podcast readers. When placing your order enter the discount code “JJJ5” sans quotation marks to obtain a 5% discount on your first rental.

Farallon Islands, California as seen from the Marin Headlands

To most this will seem to be a rather ordinary photo, but for those familiar with the Farallon Islands you’ll find this photo amazing… and no this wasn’t the result of Photoshop wizardry. The Farallones are 27 miles off the coast of San Francisco and normally cannot be seen as they’re often concealed behind a shroud of fog. In addition when you do see them they’re specks on the horizon.

Back in January I drove to the top of Mount Tamalpais for sunrise and in between taking photos of waking wildlife and a golden cityscape I noticed how clearly the Farallon Islands could be seen. This was a really rare super clear day. On this day I was using a 600mm lens and the Telephoto Effect makes the islands appear as though they’re just a short boat ride off the coast.  Even more amazing is that there is a tanker on the horizon that is likely twice as far from the Farallones as they are from San Francisco. This had to easily be a day with 50+ miles of visibility. The next time you’re in San Francisco be sure to see if you can make out these islands on the horizon. If you’re luck you’ll be able to and if you have a stomach of iron you can take a boat ride out to them for a nature tour.

Technorati Tags: Farallon Islands, Farallones, California, landscape, seascape, photography, stock photo

The winner of the BorrowLenses.com Lens Rental Giveaway is…

Miles Bintz who was comment #58. 

Selections were made randomly thanks to the use of the random number generator at Random.org. Extra comments or entries were excluded from the random selection.

5% Discount
If you didn’t win don’t forget to claim your 5% discount at Borrowlenses.com with the JMG-Galleries Blog discount code “JJJ5” sans quotation marks.

Additional Specials & Announcements
If you’re on Twitter be sure to follow Borrowlenses as they often announce specials and other discount codes.

Add a Comment to Show Your Support
Thanks to everyone that took part by entering the contest. I’ll be working with Borrowlenses.com in the future in the hopes of bringing you more of these giveaways. If you’d like to see more of these types of giveaways on the JMG-Galleries.com Blog be sure to add a comment here. The more interest the more likely I can repeat such a giveaway. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Technorati Tags: photography, borrowlenses.com, borrowlenses, equipment, rental