December 29, 2009...........................................................................HOME.................................................................."Shots You Can't Get"
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Technical Details:
Nikon D3
Nikon 200-400 f4 VR
Nikon TC-14II teleconvertor
Nikon NEF (raw) capture
ISO 640, Shutter Speed 1/2000, Aperture f5.6
Focal Length 550mm
Shutter Priority
Matrix Metering
Velbon El Carmagne carbon tripod legs
Really Right Stuff BH-40 ballhead
Wimberly Sidekick Ballhead Support Accessory
Sandisk 32GB CF card
Adobe Lightroom v2.6
Adobe Photoshop CS4
The requirements for a quality capture of fast action are fairly universal. These include a high shutter speed and smooth stable movement of the lens as you track your subject. A high capture rate (motor drive speed) is also desirable. With a large heavy lens, such as the 200-400, a critical element of this setup is the Wimberly Sidekick. It allows balancing the camera and lens so they weigh almost nothing as you move them through space. The final key is tracking your subject. In this case I lacked the expertise of a bird photographer so was unable to simply track the bird at will in flight. Instead I waited for a bird at rest, setup and waited. When the bird took off, I was ready to capture the first second of flight in a short burst, yielding just the image I had hoped. A little luck with a lot of preparation and prayer!
Nikon D3
Nikon 200-400 f4 VR
Nikon TC-14II teleconvertor
Nikon NEF (raw) capture
ISO 640, Shutter Speed 1/2000, Aperture f5.6
Focal Length 550mm
Shutter Priority
Matrix Metering
Velbon El Carmagne carbon tripod legs
Really Right Stuff BH-40 ballhead
Wimberly Sidekick Ballhead Support Accessory
Sandisk 32GB CF card
Adobe Lightroom v2.6
Adobe Photoshop CS4
The requirements for a quality capture of fast action are fairly universal. These include a high shutter speed and smooth stable movement of the lens as you track your subject. A high capture rate (motor drive speed) is also desirable. With a large heavy lens, such as the 200-400, a critical element of this setup is the Wimberly Sidekick. It allows balancing the camera and lens so they weigh almost nothing as you move them through space. The final key is tracking your subject. In this case I lacked the expertise of a bird photographer so was unable to simply track the bird at will in flight. Instead I waited for a bird at rest, setup and waited. When the bird took off, I was ready to capture the first second of flight in a short burst, yielding just the image I had hoped. A little luck with a lot of preparation and prayer!
Funny how most statements people make in conversation fade away quickly, while others not only stick but end up as influential milestones. This blog is about one such statement made about 10 years ago (groan... where is the time going).
I was living in a small town in Kentucky where I had become foto friends with a photojournalist for the local newspaper (yeah Joe, you). As often happens in a small town paths cross, even if only through people you know in common. This was during the final heydays of film and I was picking up my slides at the photo lab. I was returning to photography after a relative draught of about twenty years (a medical career got in the way) and was rusty. Shooting high school soccer was helping me break through the rust and had made me sideline acquaintances with some of the local newspaper photographers. The owner of the photo lab had seen my shots of the recent game and shared some positive comments. Then came the zinger statement that would stick.
“... but take a look at this shot of Joe’s” (photojournalist Joe Imel: www.joeimel.com). Joe’s shot was a tight dynamic telephoto image of a body horizontal on the ground sliding among vertical legs as the player went for the soccer ball. ”You’ll never get that shot because you don’t have the 300 mm f2.8 lens that Joe uses.“
”You’ll never get that shot.”
Boy did that ever stick in my mind. And of course she was right. No matter how good a photographer you are there are some shots that simply cannot be made without certain specialized equipment. In this case it was the added focal length of a 300 mm lens compared to the 200 mm common to many photo bags these days. Yes, I know that a 200 mm lens on a small digital sensor body behaves as though it was a 300 mm, but guess what? Joe’s 300 mm then behaves like a 450 mm. So he would always be getting a somewhat rarified perspective because the bottom line was... he had made a commitment and invested in a specialty lens.
I thought about this a lot over the years. Not just about a 300 f2.8 lens, but about what it meant to make a commitment to my photography and invest time and money. Time sometimes is difficult to find but is a malleable thing. If you make your mind up to do something there almost always is a way to find time to make it happen. Money? Well, that’s a tougher nut to crack. Even if you manage to save the money, there are real world hurdles and mind games between you and spending it on something as potentially volatile as camera equipment. By volatile I mean (a) the item could become obsolete before you’re ready to face it, so it’s usefulness evaporates too quickly or (b) the other kind of volatile. When your wife finds out you spent $3K on camera gear when the house needed repainting for the last 3 years. Yep, real volatility there for sure.
If you read about photography, you’ve read pieces that drive home the theme, “It’s not the camera, it’s the photographer.” And while I agree with this premise WHOLEHEARTEDLY, sometimes a critical part of what the photographer can do is because of the equipment. Another cliche comes quickly to mind, from the realm of the home handyman vs professional repairman. “A difficult job can be easy if you have the right tool.” (Of course the rest of the sentence is “... and know how to use it.”)
At some point every photographer bumps into a barrier. The image you see in your minds eye can’t be made with the hardware in your hands. At this point questions of commitment surface and we all begin the rationalization dance. How can I justify this purchase? Or better yet how can I justify this investment. For some of us, whether we’re making money from photography or simply enriching our soul by creating for ourselves, the equipment we choose really is an investment. And like any investment, there are good choices and bad choices. I won’t go into a favorite story I use when teaching about how much you should spend on important purchases. Instead I’m going to comment on one place I think it makes sense to spend money.
In a word, glass.
Glass here is used to refer to lenses, since to a great degree it’s the glass that “makes” the lens.
Photography is all about collecting light. The cornerstone of light collection is the lens on your camera. In the old days, the film in every camera was the same. What was different was the quality of glass collecting (and focusing) the light. Earlier in the digital revolution, which sensor was in your camera was critically important. This isn’t so much the case anymore, as even entry level DSLRs now have sensors of high quality. We’re coming back to the future, and finding again that the lens is re-emerging as the predominant creative variable it once was, at least IMHO. Perspective, i.e. angle of view, what the lens sees because of its focal length is a huge variable in your creative equation. But it isn’t just perspective that influences the quality of your light collection. Better lenses are typically faster (have a lower aperture and thus let in more light). More light can mean faster shutter speeds, which can create sharper pictures. More expensive lens designs also typically include glass with refractive qualities that result in better color fidelity. So when you invest in fine glass, you reap multiple benefits that can potentially improve the quality of your work. And when you invest in really fine glass, the lens will hold its value, or at least a great part of it. While I’ll use Nikon as an example here, the same holds true for fine professional grade lenses from other manufacturers. That Nikon 300 f2.8 that Joe had probably sold new at the time for $3K - $4K. Five, six, or more years later, it was still worth $2k as a used lens that may have had several owners. If you make wise choices about fine lenses, you truly do make an investment. If you’re not convinced any of this is true, yet you’re internally struggling with these questions, do yourself a favor and rent a really fine lens. There are numerous vendors on the internet who rent specialty lenses for reasonable rates (www.lensprotogo.com). Trying a $6K lens for a week as you travel can be a great experience and provide revelations. First you might decide it’s more than you need, want to carry, or can master. That rent was a really great investment! You might decide renting specialty lenses over the years for special occasions is just the ticket for your budget. That works too. But you might also decide you’re ready to take a big step and own that lens you’ve been considering.
I’m writing because I finally took that step. I rented an awesome lens a year ago for a safari trip to Kenya. The Nikon 200-400 f4 VR. I discovered firsthand that it is incredibly sharp and simply amazing at rendering the magic of color. But it still took another year for me to pull the trigger. One day recently I was reviewing the Africa images, and drooling over the quality of what I had captured. And it suddenly hit me. These shots wouldn’t have happened without that lens. Plain and simple. So I decided to make the investment. And first time out of the box, during a recent shoot in the Florida Everglades, I saw once again why I made the purchase. I’ve always admired images of majestic birds in flight. I am not a bird photographer, but can still be enthralled by the spectacle of great light on a beautiful animal, defying the limits of gravity as only they can. And like the craftsman with the right tool, this time I was ready when the opportunity presented itself. Each time this image stirs my soul with its gorgeous resolution, color palette, and narrow depth of field, I also feel the potential of amazing moments yet to be captured.
“You’ll never get that shot.” Don’t believe it. Be it the necessary skill or the requisite equipment, nothing is out of your reach if you make the commitment. Make you mind up to do it and you’ll find a way to make it happen.
Enjoy the journey.
Mark
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