Tag Archives: Equipment

Equipment, Ideas, Technique

Wide Angle Lenses and Image Stabilization

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I often hear people claim that image-stabilization is only of value on normal to long focal length lenses, and is not useful on wide angle and ultra wide angle lenses.

The photograph posted earlier today was shot handheld on a full frame DSLR at 1/25 second at ISO 800 and 32mm. (32mm on full frame is equivalent to using a 20mm focal length on a 1.6x cropped sensor body.)

I had just finished a session of tripod-based landscape shooting on the summit of this dome, had packed up, and was heading down when the lone hiker crossed the ridgeline below me just as some lovely post-sunset light gently illuminated the landscape. Having no time to set up a tripod – hiker and light would have been gone by then – I dropped everything, pulled the camera with image-stabilized 24-105mm lens from the pack, made some quick seat-of-the-pants exposure calculations, and got of three quick frames before the scene was gone. Without IS I simply would not have gotten a usable version of this photograph – a photograph that has since been licensed for use in a print journal.

Even as one who often shoots from a tripod – and almost always carries one – I have found the notion that IS has no value at shorter focal lengths to be a myth not born out in actual practice.

Equipment, Technique

Lowepro Toploader AW

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I do a lot of backpacking photography, frequently going out for periods of many days or even a couple weeks and carrying camera equipment across high (occasionally trail-less) passes in the Sierra Nevada range. There is a whole range of issues to sort out when you do this sort of back-country photography including:

  • How much gear to take — what do you really need and how much weight are you willing to lug?
  • How to keep the camera and necessary accessories reasonably accessible.
  • How to sufficiently protect the camera equipment from weather and from other dangers.
  • How to integrate systems for carrying camera equipment with those used for carrying regular backpacking gear.

I’ve described my current backpacking photography setup in detail elsewhere, so here I’ll focus on one key element in my solution, a Lowepro Toploader AW bag. (Mine is a slightly older model – a “TLZ AW.” The current incarnations have a slightly different name. The last time I checked they were the “Lowepro Toploader 75 AW Camera Holster Bag” and the “Lowepro Toploader 65 AW Camera Holster Bag.”) Continue reading Lowepro Toploader AW →

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Mare Island Street, Night

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Mare Island Street, Night
Mare Island Street, Night. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. March 22, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Color photograph of a waterfront street at Mare Island Naval Shipyard with cranes and artificial light. The precise spot is near the end of a large dry dock and not too far from the Mare Island Museum. Photographed on a night photography expedition with The Nocturnes SF Bay Area night photography group.

keywords: mare island, naval shipyard, historic, vallejo, california, night, nocturnes, photo, photography, street, road, railroad, train, tracks, fence, crane, industrial, equipment, usa, urban, dry dock, pipes, smokestack, buildings, brick

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Yellow Poles

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Yellow Poles
Yellow Poles. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. March 22, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A barrier of yellow metal poles around transformer boxes under garish artificial light at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

I thought I had finished photographing on the night of this shoot with a group of photographers from The Nocturnes. As I was about to pack up, on a whim I decided to wander around the other side of the Quonset building seen in the photograph, and I found this interesting arrangement of transformer boxes and poles illuminated by some of the most stark and garish light I had seen that night.

keywords: night, photography, nocturnal, yellow, poles, transformers, concrete, slab, block, building, structure, quonset, hut, shadows, blue, light, dark, mare island, naval shipyard, historic, vallejo, california, usa, industrial, urban, equipment, electrical