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.

From the Archives

Tahiti, November 1999

Taken with Olympus C2000Z

The Leica M8

So I have been shooting with a borrowed Leica M8 for the past few days, and I have a few thoughts on the camera. The thought of a digital rangefinder has always seemd attractive to me, as the whole system tends to be smaller and more compact than a comparable SLR system. If I were to purchase a rangefinder system, the Leica M8 would certainly be at the top of my list.

I have been using the Leica M8 with the 28mm f/2.0 Summichron lens, and all I have to say is WOW. Fantastic lens, and there is something unique about these images that is hard to explain. That is, when I get the focusing correct. I need to first say that I do not have any experience with rangefinder cameras, and some of my thoughts on the M8 can be attributed to rangefinders as a whole. I took on the M8 has sort of a 'day-in-the-life' project of my family (no pictures of me, as is usually the case), so please excuse my lack of having horns, spots, tusks or stripes in my photos.

The M8 is a gorgeous piece of equipment. The quality of craftmanship is second to none. When you hold the M8 in your hands, you know that the best materials were use in its construction, and people paid attention to its being built at all stages. I have been using the optional Handgrip for the M8, which is a must-have accessory if you are going to own the M8. Without the grip the M8 tended to slip out of my hands, and didn't feel as stable. With the Handgrip in place, I felt that I could hold on a little tighter, as well as shoot with slower shutter speeds.

The majority of my photography either happens from a tripod or Land Rover in Africa, but I also shoot tons of photographs of daily life here at home. Inside the house. Ambient light. High ISO shots. 1 year old child scurrying about. 2 greyhounds. You get the picture. Absolute chaos. If you were to call me during the day, I am sure you would hear all of the chaos in the background.

This is an important point, because I might not be the perfect candidate for M8 ownership. When I think of shooting my family, I think of an f/2.0 or f/2.8 lens on a full frame Canon camera at ISO 1000 to 1600. While my experience with the Canon 5D, 1DMkII and 1DsMkII has been stellar in the higher ISO department, I wish I could say the same for the M8. The ISO range of the M8 starts at 160, and increases in 1 stop increments to 1250. So you have 160, 320, 640 and 1250. ISO 320 on the M8 is a sweet spot, becase anything over that I haven't been happy with, and anything lower might cause me to have to open up my lens, often showing my poor focusing techniques.

ISO 640 can certainly be used, but 1250 doesn't evoke that Leica quality that we often associate to the brand. So I decided to start using the Leica SF 24D flash unit. I learned that once you start using this flash, the camera system starts to get bulky. The flash sits nice and high above the camera, which is a great thing, but it also feels unbalanced to me. The M8 just feels best without a flash. The SF 24D worked great for me, but the metering system needs some getting used to for best results (just like any camera/flash system).

Leica has a wonderful battery charger, as you plug the unit directly into the wall. There are no cords to have to deal with, and Leica has created a charger with interchangable power tips, making it very easy to travel to foreign countries with different eletrical plugs. Well done. I only wish they could have figured out a way to accommodate 2 batteries instead of 1.

 

I have to admit that I have had issues with focusing on this camera, and I think that would go away with practice. Leica makes it very easy to figure out your depth of field at a given aperture, as they have this clearly marked on all of their lenses. I often like to shoot near wide open on any lens, and this is very difficult on a rangefinder camera with a subject that is close. David Alan Harvey, you are the man, as you have obviously figured out rangefinder focusing.

At the end of the day, I will not be purchasing the M8, mostly due to what I want out of a camera. If I was a hard core travel photographer in urban areas, I would likely purchase the M8. Instead, I am a wildlife and landscape photographer, and I have different tools to suit my own style and needs. I don't look forward to sending the M8 back, but I probably have another few days to get it out of my system for a while. If my needs change, I will go back and take a hard look at the M8 again.

Camera bags, and more camera bags

I think I have done it. I mean actually done it. I think I have actually managed to collect as many camera bags as my wife has pairs of shoes. I am dead serious. Even though I have sold off a few bags over the past year, I have still managed to fill an entire closet worth of nothing but camera bags. Shoulder bags. Bacpacks. Fanny packs. You name it. This is insane. I am at step number 1, and I only have 11 more to go. My name is Andy Biggs, and I am a recovering.....

 

Oops. Wrong speech.

 

The problem with the camera bag industry is that nobody makes a bag that will suit my needs. I like to think that I have needs that are common to all photographers who travel with our camera equipment.

I want a camera backpack that is sensitive to weight, built extremely well, and is FAA airline legal. That's it. Pretty simple. We are currently bombarded with changing airline regulations that tell us we cannot lock our checked luggage. Ok. So that means we carry on our camera gear personally onto the plane. But many international airlines are limiting our carryon allowances to 1, maybe 2 bags, and are often limited to 15 to 22 pounds for our main carryon bag.

Let me set a scenario here. I am an African wildlife photographer. This means I use a large lens, like a 500mm f/4 lens, and it weighs 8.5 pounds. The typical camera backpack that can hold this lens, in addition to a few cameras and some more lenses, weighs around 9 to 10 pounds. Simple math tells me that I am already over the British Airways allowance of 6 kilos (14 pounds), and am almost to the limit for KLM's restriction of 10 kilos (22 pounds). The only bag that is airline legal in size, and can accommodate my equipment is a total and utter piece of junk. This product will be unnamed in this blog, as I don't want this blog to be personal in nature.

 

I take many people to Africa each year on safari, so I see plenty of camera bags come into my Land Rovers. To give up some weight, one assumes that one has to give up on features and padding. I don't think this is the case at all. There are two ways of reducing weight on a bag: reduce features or spend your way out of it with lightweight, expensive materials. Why won't somebody make a high end, lightweight camera backpack? Why do I have to give up on either padding or features to have a lightweight bag? I don't, do I?

Image of the Day

Red Truck and Children
Canon EOS 5D, 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS, 1/250sec @ f/6.3
Luderitz, Namibia, April 2006