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Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 06:06AM 
Steven Frischling has posted a wonderful baggage limit and size chart for 65 of the world’s leading airlines. This is an excellent tool for planning your travels. A good read, for sure.
Monday, July 13, 2009 at 06:44PM I have been salivating over this camera ever since it was announced. B&H has some nice kits put together, and I am not sure which one I will choose. Here are a few options:
Olympus E-P1 'Pen' in Silver
Olympus E-P1 'Pen' in Black with 14-42mm
Olympus E-P1 'Pen' in Black with 17mm & Optical Finder
What makes this camera so exciting is its small size, it has interchangeable lenses, has a nice sensor, and shoot high definition video.
E-P1, Olympus in News, Photo Gear and Reviews Friday, June 19, 2009 at 04:43PM My friends over at X-Rite have made their ColorMunki 1.1.0 software available for download on their web site today. Some new features are excellent and some nice to have, but the most useful feature for users like yours truly is the new version allows an end user to install and run ColorMunki Photo on an unlimited number of computers, instead of just a handful. You can also change the display profile name before saving and applying a new profile, see actual ambient light levels before calibrating, optimize contrast and brightness, and many more things. To see all of the new features of version 1.1.0, head on over to the X-Rite web site here.
Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 12:03PM I have been using an AMOD gps tracker for my past few trips, and I have come to think that this is a great tool for my adventures. My goal is to provide both a gps log for inserting into my image metadata, as well as a graphical Google Earth representation of where I have been. My safari travelers seem to enjoy having these files as well.
The tracker runs off of three AAA batteries, which is less preferable to a pair of AA batteries, but I do get more than 15 hours from a set of Eneloop branded cells. I have set my device to create a log entry every 10 seconds, which seems to be enough data for me.
I left the unit on the hood of my Land Rover one afternoon, and the unit was eventually found on the ground 1km from where we were staying. The unit looks pretty bad, but still works like a charm. For $69 I will buy another one and this will be my backup.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 04:15PM
Saguaro Sunset
Saguaro National Park, Arizona. April 2009
Nikon D3x, 24-70mm, 1/4 sec @ f/14. ISO 100
I was in Arizona a few weeks ago with some friends, and this was my first landscape trip with my Nikon D3x camera. As a new Nikon user, I had some frustrating moments when I realized that I was not able to have both mirror lockup with a shutter delay. I was comfortable with how Canon implemented their mirror lockup, even though I had to dig deep into the menu structure to make it work. The Nikon way is accessed on the top of the camera (yeah!), however a timer / countdown mode requires making a choice between mirror lockup and the timer. There is no apparent way of having both. In a perfect world I would compose, click the shutter and the mirror flips up, and then a timed day of 2, 5 or 10 seconds, then the exposure happens.
One thing that has surpised me on the D3x is just how much detail there is when compared to a Canon 1DsMkIII or 5D Mk2 file. Nikon must be using a less aggressive anti aliasing filter, as the file size increase from 21 to 24 megapixels shouldn't be enough to explain the increased resolution. I am extremely pleased with these files, especially for landscape photographers.
The dynamic range is also pretty darned amazing. Yes, in landscape situations I can take multiple frames and merge them together and perform a tone mapping for more dynamic range, but HDR really isn't my cup of tea. I would rather grab a shot and move on to the next scene. I am ok with a more limited dynamic range, as I am still recovering from my Fuji Velvia days. Ok, now that I have admitted it, I only have 11 more steps to go for a full recovery!!
On the lens side of things, the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 is one heck of a good lens. My hunch is that it is better than the Canon 24-70mm, especially on the wider end of the zoom range. The D3x is a demanding camera, and good lenses support its capabilities and bad lenses make it look pretty bad. And that brings me to the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR. This is a lens that Nikon need to update ASAP. At apertures up to about f/11, you see a significant amount of vignetting around the edges. It is like Nikon never actually thought that they would have a full frame digital SLR on the market. My friend E.J. Peiker tells me that he is having excellent results from his Nikkor 70-300mm VR for landscapes. This is great news, as it is much less expensive and lighter in weight. I was prepared to purchase the 70-300mm VR for my upcoming Namibia trip in early May, however Sony will be loaning me a pair of A900 24mp digital SLR bodies with their 16-35mm, 24-70mm and 70-200mm lenses. The equipment should show up tomorrow, and it is likely that I will be taking the Sony setup to Namibia as a result. If you can recall back to November, Sony loaned out some gear for my polar bear trip, which also included a pair of A900 camera bodies.
So far I have been extremely happy with the Nikon D3x, but I tend to grab my D3 for all of my shooting around the house. Why? Primarily because of better quality files at ISO 800, 1600 and perhaps 3200. I am less interested in large prints, and I am more interested in silky smooth files at the higher ISO values. Both are excellent cameras, and the D3x is more of a specific tool for me. My goal when I am shooting in Africa is to be able to create large prints for sale, and the larger the print the better.
Monday, March 16, 2009 at 11:28AM Ok, I get questions all the time about how I manage and backup all of my data on my computer(s), so here is a quick guide to my approach.
First off, I own and use 3 different computers for my business. I have a Mac Pro desktop, a Macbook Pro and a Macbook Air. On my Mac Pro desktop I have 4 hard drives inside: 1x250gb for my OS and applications, and 3x1TB drives for my data and photographs. My Macbook Pro has a 500GB drive inside, and my Macbook Air has the 64GB SSD solid state drive. I use each of these machines for different purposes: the Mac Pro is my daily machine that is at the office, and handles all of my post processing. I use dual displays on the Mac Pro, which are the Apple 30" Cinema Display and a Dell 24" display as my side monitor. The Macbook Pro is what I use between the office and home, and on domestic business trips. And finally the Macbook Air is used for my African safari travels where weight and size can be an issue.
So how do I make sure that all of my data, like spreadsheets, pdf's and Word documents are on all 3 machines? Easy. Super easy. Enter Dropbox. Dropbox is a service where you synchronize a folder and all of its contents between machines. I have their $99 per year for 50GB worth of data plan. Theoretically MobileMe should do this service for me, but it doesn't. Their service is painfully slow and not immediate. Dropbox is super fast. Seriously. They support both Mac and PC, and you can sync data between them. I have a folder called 'dropbox' on all 3 of my machines, and all data that is inside is synced between all machines. If I go on a business trip and have access to the internet any files that I create, modify or delete is immediately synced on their server cloud. The next time I log into one of my other computers all of those changes are reflected within seconds or minutes, depending on how much data was changed. So I am covered for my files that are not part of my photo library, and the backup is offline. If a machine is stolen, I am good to go. If I have a hardware meltdown, I am also good to go. If I accidentally delete a file, I can go onto the web and recover the file(s). Very cool.
But what about all of my images? Here is my approach for my photographic assets.
I have a pair of 4-bay eSATA hard drive enclosures from Macgurus. One of the enclosures is my onsite backup set of drives, and the other is for my offsite drives. I also added an eSATA card to my Mac Pro desktop, and each of the 4 drives in each of the enclosures is an individual volume that gets mounted onto my desktop on my Mac Pro. Here is how I name my drives:
Mac Pro internal
Onsite array
Offsite array
I use the alpha, beta and charlie approach to naming at the beginning of the drive name, and all of the rest of the the text is the same. Easy to understand and easy to manage. All of the drives in the external enclosures are 1TB Seagatte Barracuda 7200 hard drives. On the software end of things I use Chronosync to perform all of the backups for me to the external drives.
The backups are incremental in nature, and once the first backup is performed each subsequent backup only takes a few minutes. My onsite hard drives are removed at the end of each day and are locked up in my large safe that is in the office. The offsite drives are brought offsite to the office every so often, or when my data significantly changes. This always happens after a major photo trip, or every week or two.
My last method of backing up is I have a 'super' offsite 1TB drive that I have at a friend's house in a different state. We both went out and purchased the exact same Western Digital 1TB firewire drive at the same time, and I have his data and he has mine. I only have my most important raw files and Photoshop .psd files on the drive. Every so often we call each other and agree to format each other's drive and refresh the data. Then we cross ship within 24 hours or so, and then we are up to speed again. Since we both have the exact same drive, we aren't concerned with which drive is his or mine. They are physically the same, and only the data is different. Since I live in a location that is prone to hurricanes, this insulates me from a major disaster. My data keeps increasing, though, and I am likely to recommend our buying another 1TB drive to accommodate the data.
In summary, I use different tools for different types of data. I also have multiple backups in different places, just in case of a major catastrophie. My images represent future revenue for me, and I think that I have a decent program in place. Why didn't I choose to do RAID? Because I value speed and simplicity over most everything else. RAID works for some people, but the added overhead isn't something that I need or want. As my data grows, I will need to increase all of my drives from 1TB to 1.5TB or larger drives. Not ideal, because this will require me to purchase something like 11 or 12 drives at the same time.
Please let me know if you have any questions or thoughts on my method of backing up and securing my data. No backup method is perfect for all users, but I have found an approach that works for me.
backup, chronosync, dropbox, undefined in News, Photo Gear and Reviews Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 12:36AM Greetings from Karatu, Tanzania! I am winding up two back-to-back safaris in Tanzania, and I am headed home tomorrow with a plethora of potentially great photographs for my portfolio. Here are some random thoughts from the past 3 weeks.
From a quality of wildlife standpoint, this is likely the best Tanzania safari I have ever been a part of, as we had wonderful leopard sightings on both of my safaris. My first safari ended in the Serengeti and my second safari started in the Serengeti, which means I had 8 nights of private bush camping in one location. These 9 days represent absolutely stunning and breathtaking photographic opportunities: leopards in trees, leopards near our vehicles, lions with 9 cubs playing about, a lion taking down a wildebeest, cheetahs out on the short grass plains, great behavior from zebras, a wildebeest giving birth to a new calf and excellent hippo interaction. These are only what comes to mind, and there are so so many other great scenes that we were able to watch and photograph. I also spent 4 nights at Ngorongoro Crater, as well as time at Lake Manyara. Lake Manyara had absolutely stunning giraffes, and we had a scene with 27 giraffes all sitting or standing out in an open clearing. Wonderful compositions!
I am more energized after this trip as a result, and cannot wait to get home to be with Leslie and the kids. I am sure that I won’t have time to process any images for a week, as being away from home for three weeks requires spending quality time with my family. I will try to quickly process some images when I have a chance, just for quick blog photos.
From an equipment standpoint, I primarily used my new Nikon D3x camera on a 200-400mm f/4 VR lens. I had the 1.7x teleconverter on it much of the time, and when I needed a little extra reach or when I wanted to fill my subject in the frame, I used my D300 with the MB-D10 portrait grip and the EN-EL4 battery. My D3 wasn’t used as much, and I am not sure why. I think I valued larger file sizes over the better higher ISO image quality of the D3. I do have some scenarios where I did use both at the same ISO and on the same lens, so I will be able to demonstrate which one looks better on different size prints. I don’t like to evaluate images on the screen, because this isn’t important to me. My only goal for my photography is the final printed image, and I primarily print in two sizes: 10x15” and 20x30”. Sometimes larger if I can get away with it.
All of my equipment was transported to Africa in a Gura Gear Kiboko camera bag. When I arrived I took out most of the dividers in the bag and then attached lenses to cameras and I was ready to shoot “out of the bag”. There were numerous other Gura Gear owners on each safari, and I heard nothing but praise about the bag’s design and use in the field. I will write up some real use stories on Gura Gear’s blog when I return home.
I also used my D700, primarily as a grab shot camera. What a great backup to a backup camera, eh? The D700 doesn’t fit my shooting style, but I would definitely keep it if I didn’t already have a D3. I would love to use the D700 as a dedicated infrared camera, but I am already carrying too many cameras as it is, and the D700 would be an expensive luxury item as a dedicated IR camera. I will be selling the D700 when I return home, because the other 3 cameras make the most sense for my style of photography. Please let me know if you are interested in picking up my D700.
I am sitting at Gibbs Farm in the Ngorongoro highlands, preparing a presentation for my safari travelers. The presentation will primarily consist of editing techniques: why images are chosen and why others are not, and then my own Adobe Photoshop Lightroom workflow on how I actually process my raw files. After the two hour session, we will finish up the day with cocktails out on the veranda with some Maasai portrait photography of two Maasai friends of mine, dressed in traditional clothing. I will have two strobes on light stands, an umbrella and some reflectors and diffusers. A great way to end our safari in a relaxed setting, for sure.
I am looking forward to returning to Tanzania in October, as well as for more safaris in 2010.
While I was away on safari, I had 2 cancellations on my July 2009 Botswana safari. Please send me an email at info@andybiggs.com if you would like these spots. I will also announce my February 2010 Tanzania safaris when I get home, but I will need to write up the travel dates and itinerary details first. If you are looking for the photographic trip of a lifetime, I highly recommend Africa!!
Friday, January 2, 2009 at 01:52PM 
The joy of a child receiving an unexpected gift (a new playset)
Nikon D3x, 85mm f/1.4, 1/250 @ f/2.8, ISO 200
I have been shooting around with the D3x for the past couple of days, and there is much for me to learn about Nikon digital SLR's, for sure. As a very broad statement, the files look very similar to those from my 1DsMk3 camera bodies (I will be selling two of them if you are interested in buying one). The noise is not objectionable until you get to ISO 3200, and even then you can still work with noise reduction tools to get it back in check.
I have not had the chance to take a meaningful landscape or nature photograph yet, and I haven't had the chance to print anything off. My goal is to always be able to produce the largest prints possible, as I often sell 20x30, 24x36 and perhaps 30x45" prints. After using the Canon 1DsMkIII, the Canon 5DMkII, the Sony A900 and now the Nikon D3x, I can tell you that there is nothing to not like about any of these cameras. We all have different requirements in a camera, and budget is usually a large part of the selection of a camera. I am in the process of selling all of my Canon gear, which is freeing up some funds for me to buy exactly what I need for my camera gear. I had accumulated some lenses and other accessories from Canon that weren't used very much, and my new system is going to be lean and mean and with purpose.
I have also tried out some Sony gear lately, and there may be some Sony gear in my bag very soon, as well.
