New Safaris announced

I have posted my late January / February 2008 safaris online, and I fully expect to have yet another fantastic year of photographing the wildebeest calving season out on the Serengeti short grass plains. The most recent census of the wildebeest puts the population at around 3 million strong, and nearly 5,000 wildebeest are born each day during late January and February each year. The wildebeest like to give birth on the Serengeti short grass plains, as the grasses in the area are extremely rich with nutrients, which enable the wildebeest to enjoy healthy milk production for their young.

Come join me on either one of these exciting safaris, as I will be leading 2 safaris back-to-back. We will be visiting 2 locations in the Serengeti, along with the famed Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara National Park and Tarangire National Park.

I will be away from email from January 22 until February 12, so if you would like to book on any of my safaris, you can contact Thomson Safaris directly to book on a trip. Their number is (800) 235-0289. If you are interested in any non-African photography workshops, please hold off on your emails until I return from Africa.

January 14 - January 25, 2008 Tanzania Photo Safari

January 24 - February 4, 2008 Tanzania Photo Safari

Spot open for Galapagos trip

I have had one cancellation on my upcoming Galapagos trip. If you are interested in grabbing the last spot, please contact me before the trip fills back up again. The person must be a male with sharing accommodations.

Epson 3800 initial thoughts

My Epson 3800 arrived last week, and I have a few dozen prints off of the printer that look fantastic. The Epson 3800 arrived in a very small box, delivered by UPS. The box isn't much larger than most 13" wide printers, which will be great for sales for Epson. Being able to deliver via UPS/FedEx/USPS over a freight company is a major benefit for Epson, as they will definitely sell more units this way.

I set up the printer in about 15 minutes, and it took a number of minutes to charge the lines with the ink. The ink carts are 80ml, which is respectable, and after a few dozen prints I have not seen any significant decrease in ink volumes. You can hook up the 3800 via USB or ethernet, and I chose USB as to get that first print out much quicker. I will switch over to ethernet at some point in the future.

You have three choices for paper paths on the 3800: The upper paper 'tray', the rear paper path, and the front paper path. This is where my enthusiasm for the 3800 starts to waver. Coming from the Pro 4000, I am used to much better paper handling, as the Pro 4000 uses a front paper cassette that can accommodate not only a ton of sheets, but these sheets can be thick art papers. On the 3800 you are relegated to using the rear paper path, which can only be fed one sheet at a time. What a pain. Additionally, the prints from the top paper tray have had ink blotches on the edges of the print. I need to spend some time looking into the source of the problem, but it has been discussed in online forums. Some attribute these ink blotches to the lack of having a vacuum system to keep the paper flat. I just don't know, but it is frustrating.

Out of the box the 3800 makes absolutely gorgeous color and black and white prints. Yes, out of the box the 3800 makes wonderful black and white prints. The supplied profiles are the best I have ever seen from any printer, and my desire to create custom profiles for Epson papers is non existent. I primarily use Moab Entrada as my paper of choice, and I have already created custom profiles for all of the Moab Paper line. The profiles have been posted here.

The 3800 has both photo black and matte black inks installed the same time, but the print head can only use one of those inks at a time. This means that if you switch from photo black to matte black the print head needs to purge the photo black out of the print head to make room for the matte black. It has been reported that you lose about 1.5ml in the process, and the process takes less than a minute. Why not develop a print head that accommodates 9 inks and not 8? This is why I have not upgraded my Pro 4000 to the Pro 4800, as I am not interested in losing ink when I switch back and forth. The 3800 is much much better in this regard, but it still is not optimal.

Overall I feel that Epson has a printer that they will sell a ton of. I love the output, but am not impressed with the paper handling. I suspect the paper handling components came straight out of their 2400 model. I have been a huge Epson fan in the past, but I am starting to feel that they are getting lazy. Yes, the 3800 is $700 less expensive than the Pro 4800, and you have to remove features to get the cost down. Will I keep the 3800? Perhaps. Perhaps not. What is my perfect printer? I know that my perfect printer is not out there yet, but I would like to have a 24" carriage, pigment inks, excellent paper handling for roll paper and cut sheets, including a front loading cassette (you read that right, a cassette feeder on a 24" printer), gloss optimizer, and no switching of black inks.

For a 17" printer the Canon IPF5000 might be the best solution at the moment. I would expect HP to have a solution before too long. For a 24" printer I would take a hard look at the HP Z3100 series of printers.

Am I needy? You bet. At least I know what I want. I am here at the PPA Imaging USA show in San Antonio right now, so maybe I should go pitch my ideas to HP, Canon and Epson. I am sure they would make a product just for me! ha ha.

Namibia Portfolio [update]

Since I announced my Namibia portfolio last month, I have had wonderful success in finding these collections photos new homes. If you are interested in having your own, please note that I will be on safari for 3 weeks. I am fulfilling current requests for the next few days, and will have some time to print a few more before I depart.

More info on my Namibia Portfolio.

Arches and Canyonlands Workshop Photographs

I have finally found the time to process a few images from my November Arches & Canyonlands National Parks workshop. Here are just a few of the ones that I have processed.

Canon 1DsMkII, 24-105mm, 1/15 @ f/10

Hasselblad H1, Phase One P45 digital back, 80mm, 1/40 @ f/16

Hasselblad H1, Phase One P45 digital back, 35mm, 1/5 @ f/19

Hasselblad H1, Phase One P45 digital back, 35mm, 1/6sec @ f/32

Canon 1DsMkII, 24-105mm, 5sec @ f/14

El Groupo (missing Dwight, as he was usually off in the distance)

New Epson 3800

I have an Epson 3800 on its way to my door, and I thought I would jot down a few thoughts related to this purchase.

I currently have an Epson 4000 as my main printer, and I have been looking for an upgrade in print quality for a few months now. I was all enthusiastic about purchasing either a 24" or 44" wide printer, but after careful size calculations I cannot find a place for a larger printer. So 17" wide it is, at least for now. My options were to upgrade to the Epson 4800, Canon IPF5000 or the new Epson 3800.

I passed on the 4800 for a few reasons. I print on different types of papers, mixing between matte papers and semigloss/luster papers. This would require switching out the photo black and matte black cartridges often, which is both an expensive and time consuming endeavor. If you have ever primed the lines in a 4000/4800 printer, you know exactly how much time it takes to lift up and down the levers over a 20 or 30 minute period. Huge pain in my side. I would gain better out-of-the-box black and white printing, but that is about it. The minuses are more than the pluses.

 

Drive-in Theater, 2003

The Canon IPF5000 caught my eyes, but between Canon's poor documentation, software driver communication issues, and a smaller community of users, I chose to pass on this printer as well. I passed mostly because of usability issues, not print quality. I have seen wonderful output from all of the 17" or wider pigment printers on the market, and I have to say that there aren't many differences between all of the offerings.

So then there is the Epson 3800. It is crippled in a few ways from its more robust brother, the 4800, but there are some improvements in there at the same time.

Pros:

• Lightweight compared to the 4000/4800 printers. UPS or Fedex can deliver. No shipping pallette required.


• Better for out of the box black and white printing, when compared to my Epson 4000.


• Auto photo black / matte black switching


• Built in ethernet port. This is a requirement for me, as my printing stand is stored inside of a closet on the other side of my study.

Cons:

• Cannot use roll paper with the 3800. Not a big deal, because I never use roll paper to begin with.


• Build quality is not as robust as the other pro level Epson models


• 80ml cartridges are slightly more expensive per ml than the 110ml carts. More details below.

When I need to print larger prints for print shows, I will outsource the printing to somebody local that has a larger printer. I will have to work with the printer on the black and white prints, as I am very picky about the quality, and will want to be a part of the process.

I did some research on the cost per ml of competing printers, and here are some ink cost numbers.
$1.35 / ml for HP B9180 ink cartridges
$0.95 / ml for Epson R2400 ink cartridges
$0.75 / ml for Epson 3800 ink cartridges
$0.65 / ml for Epson 110 ml ink cartridges used in 4800/7800/9800
$0.58 / ml for Canon iPF5000 ink cartridges
$0.51 / ml for Epson 220 ml ink cartridges used in 4800/7800/9800

Interesting data. I am not one to count pennies on the cost per print, but I had always made the assumption that a printer like the R2400 would have been more expensive than that. Or that using 110ml cartridges would have been much more cost effective. Very interesting.

I will be posting my experiences on the Epson 3800 in the coming weeks. I am not sure I will have much to write about, as I anticipate the 3800 won't be all that different than other Epson printers I have used. I will focus on differences and surprises, rather than rehashing what it is like to print with an Epson Pro Stylus printer.

Darkroom Magazine

Darkroom Magazine has just been announced by The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), and it targeted to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom users as a how-to resource.

From their web site:

"Darkroom" is written for professional photographers who want to get the most out of Adobe's groundbreaking Photoshop Lightroom workflow application, and published 8 times a year by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). Each issue features in-depth tutorial articles, innovative digital photography techniques, and timesaving shortcuts written by the creative experts behind Photoshop User and Layers magazines.

"When you look at Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, you're looking at the future of the pro photographer's workflow, and a year or so from now if you're not using Lightroom, you're going to be left behind," said Scott Kelby, editor and publisher of Darkroom, NAPP president and the #1 top selling computer book author worldwide. "The integration between Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop CS2/CS3 creates the seamless, consistent, and efficient workflow that today's professionals need, and we launched Darkroom magazine to help these pros make the most of using these two amazing tools together."

From the Archives

Bay Bridge at Night, 2001

Nikon N80, 80-400mm VR lens, Fuji Velvia