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Commentary, Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert

Transverse Dunes, Death Valley

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Transverse Dunes, Death Valley

Transverse Dunes, Death Valley. Death Valley National Park, California. April 1, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Color photograph of transverse Death Valley Dunes at sunset.

This is another photo from the shoot I described in yesterday’s post – a quick shoot from a roadside pullout as the day came to an end. We just barely arrived here in time (having arrived in the park just hours earlier) and ended up shooting with long lenses from this roadside vantage point.

While many people focus on the taller section of these dunes a bit further west (I’ve shot them also) this section of smaller “transverse dunes” further into the valley provides some very interesting shapes, textures, and colors.

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Commentary, Equipment, Technique

Thoughts About Long Zooms and Primes and ‘Image Quality’

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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.

Beach and Bluffs, Evening
Beach and Bluffs, Evening

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Commentary, Site News

In the Pipeline

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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.

Thank you to those who have written email on a variety of subjects. I try to respond to all of them, but keep in mind that you can also a) join the site (link way down in the right sidebar) and post comments on my posts and/or b) join and participate in the discussion forum.