Photo of the Day

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. July 2005

Canon D60 infrared body, 24-70mm, 1/200 @ f/8, ISO 100

Print prices are going up January 1

I am increasing my print prices on January 1, but only for my 10x15" print size. Currently my 10x15" prints are selling for $295 plus shipping. The prints are matted, signed and packaged in a clear bag for easy viewing. I use Rising museum board, which is regarded as the best mat board on the market today. I do cut all of my own mats, using a Speed-Mat cutting system that is mounted onto the wall in my studio. This enables me to make perfect cuts, 100% of the time.

My 2009 price for my 10x15" prints will be $395 plus shipping, but my 20x30" price of $795 will stay the same. If you place an order before January 1, you will be guaranteed the existing price of $295. And if you are interested in multiple (3 or more) prints, I will work with you for a bundle discount.

A note from the Biggs family

We at the Biggs house want to wish you and your families a very very Merry Christmas. May your 2009 be filled with exciting adventures, good light and photographs that stir the soul.

I will have a week filled with tons of family activities, so I doubt I will have the time to get any blog entries posted before Christmas.

-Andy, Leslie, Christian, Will and Jax the greyhound.

Closeout deal on special batch of Moab Entrada paper

Moab by Legion Paper has some extra paper from a special order they made for customer. It's a 350gsm version Moab Entrada Bright in 24x36" sheets that they are selling for $1/sheet in quantities of 250 or more. This is an experimental weight of Entrada that will not be made again. No returns. With the unusually heavy 350gsm weight, this sounds like an unusually sweet deal to me if you like 24x36" sheets.

Contact Yvette at 800-727-3716 to order.

Photo of the Day

Dunes, dunes and more dunes

Namib-Naukluft Park, Namibia. September 2008

Canon 1DsMkIII, 24-105mm f/4 @ 47mm, 1/640 @ f/5.6, ISO 200

Nikon equipment

Are you interested in hearing some thoughts about Nikon equipment from a Canon point of view? Well you just might get it on this blog. I recently purchased some Nikon gear to better understand my customers' needs. I was able to buy a decent kit used from one person, so now I have a Nikon outfit along with all of my Canon gear. I am not sure which system I will keep, and that includes looking at some of the Sony equipment.

So why did I make the purchase? A number of reasons come to mind. Let me list the ways:

• I need to understand how the Nikon cameras and lenses work together, primarily for the benefit of my safari customers. Reading a manual out in the field is no fun, and hopefully if there is a question about a button or function, I can help out.
• The Nikon flash system is far superior. Far superior. Have you seen the new SB900? I thought the Nikon Creative Lighting System was incredible with the SB800, but now the SB900 just makes the system so amazing.
• The 200-400mm f/4 VR lens. This is exactly what Canon needs to be manufacturing, and this lens is a wildlife photographer's dream. Sometimes it isn't enough reach, especially out on the open savannah in Tanzania, but that can be overcome in a few ways: buy a 500mm VR (expensive, and more gear), use a 1.5x crop D300 type camera or just put more megapixels on your subject with the new D3x 24.5mp camera body and crop later (if needed).
• Ergonomics. The Canon 1 series cameras right now are so much better than the last generation, but Nikon has figured out the ergonomics game. They feel good in my hand, and some buttons are just where they need to be. Some not, but overall the Nikon ergonomics is pretty hard to beat.

So am I going to switch completely? Perhaps. Perhaps not. We shall see. I need to sell off some of my Canon gear to help pay for the new Nikon equipment, for sure. I leave for a three-week safari in Tanzania next month, and I am planning on taking all Nikon equipment with me. Here is what I will take:

Nikon D300, D700, D3 camera bodies. The 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR and 200-400mm f/4 VR lenses. Oh, and a 1.7x teleconverter. Why so many cameras? Because this was how my purchase planned out. I bought the D300 from a friend just so I could try the camera out with another friend's 200-400mm. Then another friend announced that he was selling his D700. And then the huge package deal was presented to me and I bought a D3 with some amazing lenses. There are some lenses that I am not prepared to keep, such as the 105mm f/2.8 VR macro, 24mm Tilt/Shift and perhaps the amazing 28mm f/1.4, and I will be listing some of these lenses on eBay or an online forum in the coming days. On the Canon side I might sell my 400mm f/4 DO and 24-105mm f/4 L IS.

I plan on writing about my experiences with the Nikon equipment. For those that are thinking of switching from Canon to Nikon, you might be interested. For those who are already on the Nikon platform, you might hear some things of value, as well.

So Andy, what is so wrong about the Canon system? Pretty much nothing, actually. Like I said before, I would like to have more knowledge on the Nikon system for my travelers. Yes, the Canon system needs a better wide angle lens, an update to the ancient 100-400mm lens, also known as the 'Dust Sucker', and a lack of a 200-400mm f/4 zoom. But that is fairly nitpicky.

Inside Digital Photo Radio Interview now available

I was recently interviewd by Scott Sheppard over at Inside Digital Photo Radio, and we chatted about my photography, my African safaris, photographic equipment, and of course my camera backpack company Gura Gear.

You can read more about the interview, as well as listen to the interview on Inside Digital Radio's web site by clicking on the logo below. The interview was on the November 29 episode.

Update on Friday, December 12, 2008 at 09:41AM by Andy Biggs

There are 2 ways to listen to the interview:

1) Follow this link to the Inside Digital Photo web site.

2) Listen to the podcast from within iTunes. Here is the link.

Photo of the Day

Kongoni, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. September 2006

Canon 1DsMkII, 400mm f/4 DO, 1/320 @ f/11, ISO 160

Have you ever taken an image and processed it a different way about every month or so for the next year or two? Perhaps three? Well, this is one of those images that bugs me to death. I am not sure why. Sometimes it is the toning, sometimes it is the contrast, sometimes it is the crop lines. I just cannot get comfortable with any of the different versions that I have. It is a good exercise in editing, for sure.