Andy Frazer is a night photographer and author of the Night Photography blog by Andy Frazer, but he is also a film-maker who has produced a wonderful film about a group of night photographers, The Night of the Living Photographers. Whether you are new to night photography or already have an interest in the genre, you really should view this film – and visit Andy’s blog for much, much more on the subject.
Category Archives: Commentary
Thoughts About Long Zooms and Primes and ‘Image Quality’
A lot of photographers sweat the decisions about what long lenses to purchase. Among Canon users a common decision is whether to get a high quality telephoto prime (plus one or more teleconverters) or to get a telephoto zoom. Perhaps the most common question is whether to get a 300mm L prime (f2.8 IS or f4 IS) or the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM.
Many seem to focus on the image quality (“IQ”) issue a lot when trying to figure this out. It is true that the primes have an edge on the basis of pure resolution compared to the zooms. At 300mm the prime will “beat” the zoom at the same focal length. But, as many have figured out, it isn’t quite as simple as determining which lens is “sharpest” – other factors can affect the answer to that question, and sharpness is not the only issue.
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Flowers? In the Redwoods?
I’m a bit embarrassed that, as a long-time Californian, I had not thought to go to the redwoods to photograph flowers. However, Inge Fernau has and she is currently posting a wonderful series of photographs that make me think I need to get up there. Soon.
In the Pipeline
It has been a fairly productive spring thus far – I’ve photographed in Death Valley, Yosemite, San Francisco, and many of the more local usual locations. At this point I have daily home page photographs “in the queue” out all the way to early July! In more or less chronological order, upcoming photographic subjects will include: many more photographs from my early April visit to Death Valley; several sets of spring seasonal photographs from the central California hills including trees, grassland, and wildflowers; a large collection of color and black and white photographs from two recent trips to Yosemite in spring; and some urban and street photography done in San Francisco, including some “urban landscapes.” Whew.
I also need to catch up on some technical/equipment oriented posts, including some additional information regarding my Canon EF 100-400 f/4-5.6 L IS lens, which I have now used fairly extensively. I also want to post some other general comments about the importance of – or perhaps more accurately, the unfortunate tendency of some to obsess over – small technical differences in equipment performance.
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