The new Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 II

I have been playing around with the new Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 II, and I will be doing some testing with it over the coming days. My initial impression is that not much has changed, unless you sweat the minute details. Probably the biggest change has been the filter size, as it moved from a 'standard' 77mm to 82mm. Since I rarely use any filter on wide angle lenses, this isn't much of a consideration for me. For example, polarizers at 16 to about 28mm or 30mm has very distinct polarized areas and non polarized areas in the same scene. I am not a fan of using UV filters on my lenses, unless I am headed to Namibia to photograph in extreme sandy environments.

Another change, albeit small, is that the autofocus on/off switch on the side of the lens is now much easier to switch on and off. If you have the EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens, you will recognize the new switch, as it has grooves that grab on to your finger. A huge plus if you are shooting with gloves on.

Here is a great review that has already been published on the lens.

Is the upgrade worth it? I have no idea. But I have a hard time believing this new lens is worse than my 16-35mm series 1 that it is replacing. I will be giving it a spin on board our Galapagos motor yacht later this week, though.

PhotoShelter mentioning..

PhotoShelter recently made mention of myself and my newly renovated web site, powered by their own technologies. Here is a link to their blog entry about yours truly. Thanks, Allen and Grover.

PhotoShelter blog entry

Photo of the Day

Evacuation device, Mount Kilimanjaro, 2002

captured with Olympus 3030 digicam

Gosh, 2002 seems like a very long time ago in the world of digital imaging. Leslie, my sister Katie, and her husband Rich and I did our obligatory trek on Kilimanjaro in the summer of 2002. Leslie and I spent 6 weeks in east Africa, beginning with our Kilimanjaro climb. I grabbed this shot on the next to last day, as we were descending from the top of the mountain. It certainly drives home the reality that injuries, and even death, do happen on Kilimanjaro.

Mount Kilimanjaro is 19,340 feet, and our climb began at around 6,000 feet. We chose the Machame route, which is much more enjoyable and more scenic than the Marangu route, otherwise known as the 'Coca Cola' route. You need time to acclimatize to the elevation, and the slower and less sudden the better. So we took 7 days on the mountain, and if I were to do another attempt I would take either 8 or 9 days on a longer route. The Marangu route is an atrociously short 5 days, and less than 50% success rate of reaching the summit.

For a fantastic reading of my friend Eric Cheng's Kilimanjaro experience, head on over to this link for a good read and some great photographs from his own experience.

Arches and Canyonlands Workshop Announcement

I will be running my annual Arches and Canyonlands Workshop again this year, and the dates are set for December 4 - 8, 2007. This is the time of the year when there are no crowds, the skies are haze-free, and there is the likelihood of a dusting of snow on the ground. These factors all add up to the perfect time to host a workshop in red rock country.

We wll be basing the workshop out of Moab, Utah, and will include accommodations at my favorite inn, The Gonzo Inn. The Gonzo Inn has free wi-fi internet access, which is a great thing for those who hate to pull away from daily life.

We are planning an entire day of digital printing with my friends over at Moab by Legion Paper. After capturing dynamic landscapes for four days, we will then turn our time to digital printing.

This photographic workshop requires 5 days out of your schedule. Here is the breakdown of the days:

Day 1 ( December 4 ) - We will meet in Moab, Utah for an afternoon trip into Arches National Park.

Days 2-4 ( December 5 - 7 ) - For the next 3 days, we will photograph the landscapes of Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park and other local out of the way locations. We will also plan on photographing the two iconic locations of the area; Delicate Arch at sunset and Mesa Arch at sunrise. Our specific daily schedule will be determined by weather conditions. If we have overcast weather, we will change course and focus on the abundant petroglyphs of the area. Our goal is to take advantage of the time we have available to us, no matter what the weather situation is at the time.

Day 5 ( December 8 ) - Day of printing and workflow discussions. We will spend the entire day inside, going over my own workflow, as well as printing images of your own. *If you would like to print your own photographs, please bring your own laptop computer*. We will have a number of Epson printers available on a network, as well as Moab by Legion Paper samples for us to use. If you are interested in learning more about fine art printing, you will find this last day of the workshop to be very valuable.

The cost of this workshop is U.S. $1,495 per person. Transportation and meals are not provided. Accommodations are included in this workshop at The Gonzo Inn. The included nights are from December 4 until December 8, checking out on December 9.

Please note: We will attempt to adhere to this itinerary as much as possible. However, certain conditions (climatic, environmental, etc) may necessitate changes in the itinerary. We reserves the right to alter any itinerary at any time, if necessary. We will attempt to notify participants of changes as far in advance as possible.

The deposit will be $375 to secure your spot on this workshop, and the remainder will be due 120 days before the workshop begins. The deposit is 50% refundable, providing we have ample time to remarket and book your spot(s).

Cancellation Policy: Per person charges for cancellations (must be written cancellation) received less than 120 days prior to departure are as follows: 91 to 120 days - $300.00; 61 to 90 days - 50% of workshop fee; 60 days or less - $100% of workshop cost. Andy Biggs Photo Safaris reserves the right to cancel any group due to insufficient registration. In the even of such cancellation, those with reservations shall be notified as soon as possible and a full refund of trip payment will be given. Andy Biggs Photo Safaris is not responsible for refund or additional expenses incurred in preparation for a trip.

The Arches and Canyonlands Workshop link

What Do I Do Next?

Our groups are small, so space is limited. If this exciting workshop has your name on it; if you're excited by the thought of becoming a member of this workshop, then now is the time to register. If you have any questions before registering, send us an e-mail with any inquiries to info@andybiggs.com.

June 12 - 23, 2007 Safari - 1 spot available

I have a cancellation on my June 12 - 23, 2007 safari. Please contact me as soon as possible if you are interested. There is only 1 spot, and 1 room, which means this is a single supplement (private accommodations) availability.

Galapagos - 1 spot available

There has been a late cancellation on my April 28, 2007 Galapagos Islands trip. If you have any measurable interest in this trip, with such late notice, please contact me as soon as possible. I will be sending out an email to all people who have expressed an interest in the past, so I anticipate that this spot will not last for long.

PhotoShelter Integration

I now have my web galleries integrated with PhotoShelter's galleries, so now everything is as one. When I upload new images to my PhotoShelter archive, I can have them visible publicly on their site as well as my own. I can also create private galleries to make large files available for download. You can see my revamped web site at www.andybiggs.com. Not much has changed, other than my Galleries section.

So why did I go down this path? Previously I had a challenging selling my photographic prints, as all print sales had to come through an email that people would have to send to me. My pricing was all messed up. Now I can set different pricing schemes depending on the image. I have setup two different print pricing profiles, so I can limit specific images to having a maximum print size. I have some images that were captured in the early days of digital photography, and I am not comfortable printing them larger than about 13x19". All of my other images I can sell prints up to a whopping 40x60". I could have selected PhotoShelter to fulfill all of my print sales, but I really do enjoy printing and signing all of my own photographs. I currently print my own images up to 17x22" paper, and all larger prints I have printed on a LightJet printer.

On the stock photography side, I am also completely covered. All of my images can now be licensed directly from my web site, and I have full metadata search capabilities for potential buyers to assist in finding an image that suits their needs. I only have about 350 images online at the moment, and that will be increase as I keyword and tag all of my images from my library. I have over 30,000 images from Africa, so it might take a while to sort through and select the best images. Right now I do have to electronically approve all stock license deals, but that may also change over time.

I cannot recommend PhotoShelter highly enough. Allen and Grover have really helped me improve my business, so I can focus (haha, pun intended) on my photography. I consider myself a field shooter, and not somebody who particularly enjoys sitting in front of a computer all of the time. Now I can put my images to work while I am out capturing images.

PhotoShelter

I signed up for PhotoShelter's archiving and e-commerce enabling services a few months ago, but it took me a while to get all of my ducks in a row with regards to getting organized with my image library. I am now semi-organized, in that I have my 300+ most popular images keyworded and tagged with relevant information. And now they are online at PhotoShelter. Yippee!

So what does PhotoShelter do for me? Other than archiving my digital images, I am also able to use their technology to help market and license my images for stock photography. This is a huge plus, because I manage my own stock library, and getting images to my customers is challenging when I am in Africa for 3 weeks. PhotoShelter also allows me to sell prints of my images, which I can either fulfill myself (print, sign and ship), or I can choose to have them print and ship without my involvement. I am currently setup to print all of my own print sales, but I might choose to sell unsigned prints in small sizes in the future.

I will be integrating PhotoShelter into my own web site soon, so the look and feel will be seamless from a viewing standpoint. My PhotoShelter archive will replace the Galleries section on my web site.

Moving to PhotoShelter has been a huge relief for me. Working for myself means that I have many tasks on my plate, and many things just cannot get done by myself, and I need to outsource those things that I either do not have time to do or that I am not well suited to do. I think both of these situations apply to the technology aspect of my web galleries, print sales and image licensing.

Here is a link to my PhotoShelter archive.

The Andy Biggs PhotoShelter Archive

If you are interested in print sales or image licensing, please test out the process and let me know what you think. Hopefully I am making it easier for everyone, including myself.